In search of Green Gables (and lobster and potatoes)

I felt more of a sense of anticipation crossing the Confederation Bridge than I've felt on most of our adventures so far.

It wasn't because the Confederation Bridge is 13 kilometres long, making it the longest in the world to cross ice-covered waters.

And it wasn't because the destination, Prince Edward Island, boasted some particular wonder of the world I just had to cross half the world to see.

It was because P.E.I. (as the locals call it) provided the backdrop for much of my childhood dreaming and drifting, being the home province of my much-loved childhood heroine, Anne of Green Gables.

Sitting out and away from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick in the north-eastern part of Canada, I knew as a child that it was about as far away from Australia as you could get.

Yet I still hoped that one day I'd get to see the idyllic landscape that had inspired L.M. Montgomery to conjure this little character and her home village of Avonlea into being.

How awful then to arrive at the Gateway Information Centre and find red-headed plaits on everything from cheese to chocolates to travel brochures and beyond that, to find out that there are TWO musicals based on Anne's life currently playing on the Island.

Concerned that heading straight to the much-touristed centre of the Island might realise my greatest fears of Anne-over-commercialisation we instead took off for the less-visited western reaches.

The North Cape, otherwise known as the Canadian Oyster Coast, offered up a drive devoid of tourist trappings and was just what my soul was seeking.

The town of Summerside, while it had a pleasant-enough waterfront boardwalk that we scooted/biked along, didn't entice us to stay for long.

So onwards we pushed, stopping in to see if the Canadian Potato Museum might have something to entertain the kids.

We decided it wouldn't be their cup of tea, but they enjoyed the town playground and playing teacher in the restored schoolhouse while we picked up a bit of trivia...

Per capita, PEI produces more potatoes than anywhere else in the world.

And so began our gastronomic journey of PEI, because a lot of farms had roadside vegetable stands operating on an honour system and most little harbours we came across had a seafood retailer.

Suffice to say that on most of our six nights on the island, we ate a whole lobster for starters, sometimes with some smoked mackerel or salmon, then some freshly-caught fish with mashed PEI new potatoes (irish cobblers to be precise). Oh, and homemade pies and slices for dessert. Oh, and PEI preserves on our breakfast toast. Oh, but I'm getting ahead of myself.

So we came upon the Cedar Dunes Provincial Park beside which the West Point Lighthouse shines bright.

We scored an absolute beachfront site in front of which the kids played that afternoon and most of the next morning in water that was not freezing but which I wasn't even remotely tempted to dip into myself.

Up the western flank of this cape was where the drive became really beautiful instead of just quite nice.

The red-stained cliffs the Island is renowned for came into view about the time we saw the first of two huge windfarms.

Up at the tip of North Cape sits North America's longest natural rock reef (stretching out a couple of kilometres into the ocean) and on this gathers a colony of seals.

We could see the seals, although the distance meant that at first we thought it was a big flock of birds gathered out there.

After nighting at Bideford Provincial Park we drove east towards PEI's northern centre, known as the Green Gables Shore, and came across the kind of idyllic agricultural territory I'd always imagined.

We hadn't travelled very far when we found our next campsite at Cabot Beach Provincial Park.

It was close to the fresh fish dealer at Malpeque Bay (dinner -- tick!) and a playground (fun -- tick!) and a picturesque swimming beach (idyllic -- tick!)

The wind was pushing in strongly from the North so instead of swimming on Cabot Beach itself we walked its length, rounded the point and let the kids paddle in Darnley Basin, watching the little plovers picking for their dinner in the wet sand while the bigger seagulls fought over meatier fare on the exposed sand banks.

The next morning's drive through Darnley, Sea View, Park Corner, French River, Springbrook and New London offered up all things quintessentially PEI - rolling farmland, wildflowers, blue lakes and inlets and rivers aplenty.

Cavendish was where Lucy Maud Montgomery's childhood home stood.  It was also the home of her grandparents' cousins, whom she lived close to and would visit all the time.

This home provided the inspiration for Green Gables.

Anne's "haunted wood" was based on the spruce grove connecting the two properties and "lover's lane" was based on an old cow path rambling beside a brook stretching out from a different angle of the house.

Having closed my eyes to the rampantly commercial amusement parks and Anne-ified hotels coming in to town, I headed straight to Green Gables Heritage Place, which is run by the Canadian National Parks Service and which protects this "Green Gables" house.

If Anne was a religion, Green Gables would be its Mecca and I found myself waiting until a tour group had moved through before entering so as to have my own little spiritual moment alone in the house. (I'd already left Nath and the kids out in the van).

It seems so silly at 38 to still be so emotionally linked to a beloved childhood character but I can't explain it although I sense I'm not alone.

It's now more than 100 years since the first book was published and I spotted about four different generations of people visiting the site, all of whom might have feasibly grown up loving Anne.

Taking the strolls down Lover's Lane and the Haunted Wood, I tried to get a sense of the intense connection the author must have had with the island.

I felt the need to re-read the books and immediately started finding the descriptions so apt - the red of the roads, sandstone cliffs and plowed fields, the wildflowers all abloom, the lakes and their truly shining waters.

Forgive me if I sound a bit flowery but the Anne-lovers out there will understand(!)

Having had my 'fill' I allowed us to move on to the Cavendish section of the PEI National Park and we took a stroll along the boardwalk behind the moving dunes that front the ocean here.

The boardwalk stretched across the Lake of Shining Waters and then another stretched over the dunes to the beach at which the kids played in crystal-clear water.

We moved onwards, stopping in at North Rustico Harbour for our nightly fare and to admire the continuing beauty, and then on to the Brackley-Dalvay section of the National Park to camp for the night.

In the morning I jogged a 6.5km stretch from our site back towards Brackley with views to some exquisite salt marshes, dunes and perhaps PEI's most photographed lighthouse at Covehead.

On the 2km Reeds and Rushes walk we did together, the boys enjoyed seeing the whirligig beetles darting about and twisting and turning on the water's surface (reminded me of them actually).

Luckily they were in a racing mood and the mozzies couldn't catch them in their manic state.

As we drove up to the Greenwich section of the National Park, entering the Points East Coastal Drive, the scenery dropped away markedly, however the Park was worth the effort.

The 4.8km Greenwich Dunes walk was a real stunner, especially the lengthy floating boardwalk over a pond thick with bullrushes and birdlife.

Indy rode his bike over the section of the trail bikes are allowed, leaving it in the racks prior to entering the forest.

The end-point is a massive parabolic dune, one particularly striking feature in a landscape full of them.

Later we found a site at Panmure Island Provincial Campground for the night.

The next morning's drive back towards and through Charlottetown confirmed that the stand-outs of the island are the villages of the Green Gables Drive and the three sections of the PEI National Park, although I would hasten to add the western flank of the West Cape Drive for its completely untouristed ruggedness.

After almost a week on PEI, I didn't want to leave. It almost felt like having to say goodbye to a friend.

At least I have a few Anne books to keep me enraptured on the road.