Awoke to another blistery Maine day. Cool (cold) ocean breeze singing in the trees. Been listening to Canadian Public Radio the last few days. Quite good. Right now Swahili music is a welcome addition to the morning. Today is the first day I’ve just relaxed at the campsite. Time to regroup, clean up and plan the next move. First day I’ve slept past 5 am in awhile. Nice to sleep in to nine. On the 9th I motored up the coast to Lubec and have spent the last 4 days exploring the area. Much to see here. Inland there are Artic Bogs, great old growth trees, as much water as land and blueberry fields strewn with boulders. Interesting to see migrant workers picken blueberries. The coast line is rough with massive cliffs and more old growth trees. Each day the fog blankets the land and sea scapes until well after noon and it adds a magical quality to the place. The tide rises over 20 feet and the coast line changes as you watch. Two days ago I crossed over a thin strip of land to shoot two boulders and 20 minutes later when I turned around to cross back the thin strip had disappeared under 5 inches of water. Lesson learned. In a strange way Maine reminds me of New Mexico around each turn in the road is a different landscape and it is constantly changing from deep old growth forests to open ocean vistas. Yesterday we roamed down a dirt road and found Scottish Highland Cows (see photo below) in amongst the boulders and bogs on a hillside just feet away from the ocean. It feels like the end of america and it is. Very rural and quite poor with very little commerce. Blueberries and Lobsters are about it. No big stores and not even very many Mom and Pop places left open.
The campground reflects the area. Very simple with what you need but no fancy dancey stuff. Just the basics, no frills. Feels right. Some of the rv parks make you feel your not really where you are. You can go from your big motor homes with tv and huge satellite dishes to the air-conditioned bathrooms/showers and then to the heated pool and hot tub. Local culture, hell we can see that on our tv. Strange to be in Maine and walk by an rv to hear a program on Maine on the discovery channel. Now they go home and say yep we were just in Maine…….At South Bay you feel you’re in Maine. It’s about 80 acres with lots of ocean front and very few people. Good for me, bad for Jack Willson, the owner. Jacks’ busy rebuilding a lobster boat for his son and doesn’t seem to dwell much on the fact that this has been the slowest summer he’s had. See his photo soon in the gallery.
Jack worken on his boat
