Trip of a Lifetime

Sable Island pond, photo Peter Beazley, 2003

A dream came true for me when I had a day-trip to Sable Island to celebrate my 60th birthday, with fellow adventurers: husband Richard, son Peter, and four friends. This trip to the crescent-shaped island of sand off the coast of my beloved Nova Scotia happened on as perfect a sunny day as is possible (15 August 2003) after four morning flight cancellations due to foggy weather. I felt very privileged to be granted permission to visit one of the few restricted places in Canada. I also felt very privileged that Zoe Lucas, one of Sable Island’s biggest fans, offered to be our personal guide for the day. What a unique, interesting and incredible island to visit. It’s so peaceful, so natural, and so wild; it’s like ‘another world.’ Of course, there are the much-heard-about and protected Sable Island horses, but oh, there’s much more: seals, birds, vegetation, endless beaches and dunes, fresh water ponds, and the Sable Island Station, and the beach airstrip. Also, the views of this wind-swept island from the Britten-Norman Islander plane were magnificent, even magical. Now I have another dream: another trip to Sable Island some day!

The photo of the pond is one of my favorite images from the trip to Sable Island because it looks like a painting. It's also a unique image showing the changing size of the freshwater ponds on Sable; they dry up somewhat in August. The pond water is brackish, or slightly salty, from the ocean over-wash through a breach in the south beach dunes. The colors were fabulous! The beautiful black pattern in the sand at the top of the photo is heavy mineral sand, i.e., containing fine grains of magnetite and garnet. The peach and green colors in the pond water are algae.

Grace Beazley, September 2009