Gaff Point

With glorious weather, a high tide and Alan a fellow Scotsman, I had my first hike at Gaff Point. The point is situated at the southwestern end of 3km crescent shaped Hirtles Beach which is located just outside Lunenburg.

The Gaff Point trail is a 7km loop with awesome seascape views, fantastic scenery with a mixture of beach, estuary, forest, heather and rugged coastline with steep cliffs.

Off the main trail are two coves, Sand Cove and Grabble Cove. Sand Cove with its secret beach is a neat sandy area tucked away between some very steep cliffs and multi-coloured rocks and is accessible by way of scaling down a bank with the aid of a rope tied to a tree. Today we did not set about the rope trick, which is obviously something you attempt at your own risk.

The trail was not too difficult, the only challenge was walking on what was today a predominately the cobblestone beach. Normally Hirtles Beach has broad areas of sand with the stones all pushed up high onto the beach perimeter. It seems though during winter the sea storms washes away the sand exposing more rocks and pebbles, during spring and summer the beach recovers and the sand areas return.

 



Hirtles Beach at high tide and cobblestones with Gaff Point in the distance





Looking back on Hirtles Beach

Heather along the  cliff tops

West Ironbound Island



 

Sand Cove and the Secret Beach