By PEI standards (I wish to stress that this is an important qualifier here), the east side of the island was quiet, laid back, and less touristy. It was also geologically different – again, by PEI standards – hillier, more trees, fewer huge flat farms. According to locals (and backed up by the Potato Museum), we learned that the soil on the west side of the island is perfect for large-scale agriculture, while on the east side… not so much. There are farms, to be sure, however the east is also home to some forestry and a few sawmills. As on the west side, there are lovely red beaches and cliffs along the shore, and lots of lighthouses, along with the agriculture and fish processing.
We did quite a bit of research on things we like to do, see, and explore. We found relatively few options on the east side of PEI, so we just aimed for the end of the road and a campground that had been recommended to us (details below), and checked out what there was to see along the way.
There’s a super pointy cape on the east side, so there had to be a lighthouse, right? At a hairpin turn in the main paved road, there was a sign for the East Point Lightstation. Of course we took it! There was a small visitor center and a large-ish lighthouse with dozens of red chairs to sit and relax looking out at the million dollar view – the waters where the Northumberland Strait meets the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.
Our friends Sandy and Peter scored big again with their recommendation to stay at Red Point Provincial Park. A TWO million dollar view, right from our campsite! After more than a week of music and bouncing around on the west side, we were ready for a few relaxing days to chill and clean up a bit. This was the perfect spot!
We had plans to meet up with some friends from VT later in the week who were bicycling across PEI. They mentioned that the end of their trip would be the terminus of the Confederation Rail Trail at the former Elmira Train Station, now the Elmira Railway Museum. Ha! That was just a few kilometers from Red Point, so we stopped by on our way out to have a look. The relatively brief history of the railway in PEI is interesting. Getting the railway provided the impetus for PEI to join the Confederation of Canada and become a Province. The railway lasted just 101 years, from 1871 to 1972. It included passenger service for the first 85 years, then freight only, running from one end of PEI to the other as well as a few spurs north or south to the sea, and connecting to the rest of Canada’s rail system by railcar-carrying icebreaker ferries that ran between Port Traverse PEI and the mainland.
Bluefin tuna fishing is something PEI is famous for, and North Lake is the tuna capital of PEI. We did drive through this tiny town and learned that the tuna was caught, immediately processed, and shipped out to buyers all over the world – not much stays around. We did see multiple tuna processing plants, though apparently it’s tough for local PEI restaurants to get fresh PEI tuna…
More research and we found a place that advertised local tuna in Souris (pronounced soo-Reez by the locals). We had planned to visit this eastern town anyway just because of the name. (For those who don’t speak French, the word souris can mean a mouse or a smile. We imagined a town of people who were always smiling, which seemed quite pleasant.) We arrived to learn that the names comes from a disastrously destructive mouse invasion and infestation in the 1700’s. Whoa! Further research indicated that most likely nobody really knows the source of the name because there are at least 2 other theories, although none have anything to do with a townful of smiling people. Sigh.
We did find the Poke Shack in Souris, a take-out place advertising local tuna. I asked the server, who confirmed that the tuna came from North Lake, and I ordered our tuna poke bowls. We ate in the RV while watching a lightning storm cross the bay in front of us. It was the best meal I’d had in PEI! The server, by the way, born and raised in Souris, was very pleasant and smiled often.
It was time to head back toward south coast and meet up with our friends…
For anyone interested, more East Point, Red Point, Elmira Train Station and Souris pix…
