Exploration is part of the very essence of being human. In Walkabout, host Andrew Younger travels across mountains, through forests, and along seashores exploring areas now accessible by hiking trails. Profiling the unique natural beauty to be found along each one of them and diving into the history of the areas the trails cross. Exploration is part of the very essence of being human. In Walkabout, host Andrew Younger travels across mountains, through forests, and along seashores exploring areas now accessible by hiking trails. Profiling the unique natural beauty to be found along each one of them and diving into the history of the areas the trails cross.
Produced with the support of:
Whalesong Studios
Andrew Younger
Andrew Younger
Both Cape Breton’s Gull Cove and Open Hearth Park have a history buried beneath the land now covered by trails. One a former steel mill, and the other a former village that almost became the site of a steel mill.
The Jitney rail cars that rolled into Pictou weren’t exactly known for comfort, but they were convenient. That rail service came long after the arrival of the Ship Hector bringing immigrants to Nova Scotia. And on a nearby beach, a mysterious carving.
Castle Frederick could be the story of one of history’s famous cartographers. But dig deeper and it’s the story of a woman who persevered. At the Irishman’s Road Recreation Site, you find another story of powerful woman, one who made her name in business.
West Pubnico is home to a popular trail system that sits at the end of a busy harbour, a place that’s kept watch for centuries on the stories of this place. Not far down the coast, an old rail line looks out over the site of one of the world’s best documented alien visitations.
Overlooking Halifax’s Kearney Lake the Charlie’s Lake trail winds through pristine forest in the Birch Cove Blue Mountain Wilderness. A passion project of local citizens. On the Hammond’s Plains Road one man’s passion has resulted in a diner, and a trail network. Vernon’s trails.
A rail trail through the town of Bridgewater offers an opportunity to explore the town’s history, while further south a garden centre offers a unique walking destination, one where the whimsy of one man’s imagination shows itself through concrete sculpture.
It’s Walkabout’s annual waterfall episode. This season the crew heads to Balmoral Mills, Waugh River Falls, and the ever popular Drysdale Falls. All beautiful waterfalls with interesting histories.
It’s not your usual hiking destination, but the Halifax and Dartmouth waterfront boardwalks should be on every urban hiker’s bucket list. Even for those who live in the city it’s a destination that always offers something new.
New Ross is rich in history. From the earliest English settlers, to Christmas Tree farms that go back generations. The trails here offer a glimpse of that history, but deeper than that one trail keeps alive the story of a young girl named Ruby and how her struggle reached the world.
Both New Glasgow’s Samson trail and the Six Mile Brook trail between Scotsburn and Salt Springs are popular with hikers. But each is also full of amazing stories from plane crashes to steam engines and early eccentric book publishers that make these destinations even more interesting.
The former Upper Clements Theme Park is long gone, but where the wildlife park once sat across the highway from the roller coaster is now a new and popular trail system. In Kentville, a trail running through a deep ravine filled with towering Hemlocks is a welcome respite on a hot day.
Whether it's from human pressure or the Woolly Adelgid, forests can at times be under threat. In New Germany two hiking destinations are being protected. Asitulisk has come under ownership of the Mi’kmaw, while at River Ridge, a battle is being waged against an insect on a new trail network that has reclaimed an old quarry.
It’s Nova Scotia’s second largest island after Sable Island. Cape Breton’s Scaterie island became famous in recent years for the wreck of the MV Miner, but its history goes back much further as a former permanent settlement, and host to two light stations.