Marlborough Woods

This blog is dedicated to my wife's 2nd sister and her husband who love trekking the most, and also to my parents who of late have found youth in their post-retirement days with the countless of adventures and morning walks.

Not long ago, prior to the torturing days of exams and assignments we're experiencing of late, we roamed the tiny Halifax peninsular at its Western arm side. We came across Marlborough Woods Park,



which is a street of untouch natural wooded forest found in the South End of Halifax that stretches in between railroad and the coast facing Halifax's Western Arm.

It was a bit of a experience. Walking just 2 of us in a quite surrounding which was pretty shaded and I could say spooky if not the least.





But conquering our fears, we stride on and was captivated by the beauty of the natural surrounding albeit the railroad that's always just a glance away.



Well, we did come across a pylon along the way and can't help but to capture it with a backdrop of a fighter jet's trail.



The trail took about 10 minutes walk give or take a minute or so. And we ended up at Atlantic School of Theology.



Which had some pretty old unique structures for its buildings.

Places Of Interest

One thing we share in common is that we love to go discover new places. Of course there's always a question of $$. In almost anything one does, there will be involvement of $$. Consider that is part of investment. Even if there's no $$ involve, then there is time. But time is what we have to offer so, I'm putting up this article to sort of track down the places we want to go before we return home from our 4-6 years life here in Canada.

I'm separating it into 4 main sections - International, National, Regional & Provincial, and Local.
What's the difference between these. Well, international is a given. But for national, are places of interest that goes beyond normal driving (bus or car) distances. Any attempt by driving would result in using up 1 day or more on the road. Our recent Toronto & Niagara trip can be classified as National. Regional & Provincial are places where we can travel to using buses or renting a car. Probably be a weekend or a day trip. Finally local trips are somewhere a fair bit closer. Its places we could walk to or take the local transit buses (albeit changes a bus or 2). PPP (Point Pleasant Park) such a place.

We love parks. In fact, our favourite past time is do some hiking along some natural trails. Luckily we're not too far away from one - PPP. But there's more than one park in Canada. Canada is full of parks and most of them are very natural and offer lots of picturesque scenery. Here's the list of places we'd like to go. Serves as a marker and a reminder that we need to (if not all) at least accomplish going to 75% of these places.

International

1. United Kingdom
2. Iceland
3. Greenland
4. France
5. USA
6. Italy
7. UAE
8. Turkey
9. China (Tibet)
   

National

1. Toronto, Ontario
   
2. Niagara, Ontario
3. Montreal, Quebec
   
4. Victoria, British Columbia
   
5. St Johns, Newfoundland
6. Quebec City, Quebec
7. Calgary, Alberta
8. St. Pierre (Believe it or not, this place is actually part of France but its in Canada just south of Newfoundland)
   

Regional & Provincial

1. The red soil beaches of Prince Edward Island
2. Fundy National Park, New Brunswick
3. Cape Chicnegto Provincial Park, NS
4. Bay of Fundy, NS
5. Peggy's Cove, NS
6. Cape Breton, NS
7. Cabot's Trail, NS
8. Yarmouth, NS
9. Annapolis Valley, NS
10. Wolfville, NS

Local

1. Shubies Park
2. Mc Nab's Island
3. Long Lake Provincial Park
4. Horseshoe Island Park
5. Flynn Park
6. Pinehaven Park
7. Sir Sandford Fleming Park
8. Marborough Woods Park
   

Some Photos Recently Taken @ PPP

Went to PPP last week and didn't upload some of the photos we've taken. This time was a view of PPP at a cliff side and some other shots not seen.









Very common in PPP, monuments and historical stones (which mostly have to do the army in one way or another as PPP was formerly an army outpost)




The cannons that were strategically place on the cliffs and being strategically covered by the trees.


The shots were took of these sites were of the tour site no. 8. Every different points of interest in PPP have different tour site numbers.


Another gondola for shade during rare sunny days.




Last but not least if you notice in this shot a squirrel defending her tree...

A Weekend At Point Pleasant Park

Although it is called Point Pleasant Park, I sometimes call it Pleasant Point Park. Anyhow promised earlier, here are some of the photos we took when we were at PPP last weekend. This was our fourth time there. Our first was about the last month when we just arrived to Halifax.

We made 2 trips over the weekend. One was on Saturday night when we left for the place at 8.30 pm. While on the second day we went during the afternoon.

On the way to PPP,



Picture of SMU (Saint Mary's University) residential building

















Houses along the way to PPP (Tower Rd)
















The railway track along the way,


PPP itself in the evening










On the second day, we decided to walk through SMU campus, so we had some shots of it to show. We also took shots of Purcell Landing which was the place that we had our lunch and also read some notes. The weather was perfect too. Did you know that this is actually the LAST week of Spring? Starting next week it is already summer, so expect highs of 20 and lows of 15teen from now on.




SMU's field





















The library

















And here's Purcell Landing @ PPP















Over on the other side is Spryfield area, very close by to where the last bush fire happened.











The bench we occupied that's covered with our stuffs...

















Purcell Landing (south side view)
























Dogs taking a dip...


















And the crow saying good bye....




















On the way back, we also went to another part of PPP and took some good shots there...



Nice rock formation


And the trail we took to get there.

Video of Shoreline At Point Pleasant Park

Staying in the south end of Halifax has its privileges. One of which is the fact that we're so darn close to PPP (short for Point Pleasant Park).

This weekend itself we've made 2 trips to PPP. One on Sat evening and the other on Sunday noon. Here's some video that we've uploaded to youtube that was taken at the shoreline off the coast of PPP's Sailor's Memorial Way.

This one's taken while we were approaching it. You can here us talking. We were watching out for dog poo because there's alot of ppl that come to PPP with their dogs.


And here's another one which has a shot at a tall ship passing by.

Making It A Point To Pleasantly Visit Pleasant Point

Finally! The weekend is here and we made it a point to take a pleasant stroll 

down Halifax to visit Pleasant Point Park.

We're lucky! Why?

From 0 (where we live) to x (Pleasant Point Park) is only slightly more than a 1/2 KM walk which is roughly about a 15 minutes for a slow stroll.

But it was worth it. As we finally arrived at the gates of the Park. It was a great feeling reaching there finally.

Pleasant Point Park is large, partially forested municipal park at the southern tip of Halifax peninsula. It once hosted several artillery batteries, and a well-preserved eighteenth century Martello tower can be found there. The park is a popular recreational spot for Haligonians, as it hosts forest walks and affords views across the harbour and out toward the Atlantic (source: wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Pleasant_Park)

We had an enjoyable walk as it was a beautiful park and the day was great - no rain, no mist, and no fog. Cooling weather at 14 degrees.

There was at one  point when we noticed the trees were mostly dead (see above). That's because of the hurricane that hit Halifax a few years back. If I am not mistaken it was Hurrican Juan which right after that, Hurrican Katrina hit Florida that particular year.

 

We of course, visited the historical monuments like the Prince of Wales tower.

And met some seals. Wooden ones though.

Mr Squirrel was exceptionally busy with his nuts and so didn't have much time to entertain us.

The sky was great. Blue as blue can be and there was a moment, we manage to capture a jet above the beyond the barren trees of Pleasant Point.

Finally after much walking, we finally hit the beach. This is it! The very tip of Halifax peninsular. Right where we stood. But you can't compare that to Malaysia which is the very tip of the southern most of Asia continent.

The water was clear although it wasn't a sandy beach but a rocky one instead. Makes you think, hmmm how could a Port city still maintain their sea to have clear waters up to now? Now compare that to Port Klang.

We continued our journey and stumbled upon a few more monuments which were to commemorate Canadian soldiers. Here's some of the shots. 

Heading back home, we walked pass the port itself. 

And saw some seagulls sun bathing, pearched on top of a rock of the coast. 

We did see a sandy beach but its not excatly where you want to dip your body in as the view is the port and that most of the park's visitors who bring along their pet dogs could have release them over there and the rest is history...

Well that's it for our adventure with Pleasant Point Park. The park is huge and we've yet to cover the whole park. It'll probably take us a few more visits before we finish covering it.

For tonight though, we're planning to visit the Waterfront. I hear we could get lobsters there. Hmm...