♪ brisk mandolin ♪ add bass [Brandy Yanchyk] I'm a journalist and I am traveling across my home country Canada.

On this journey I'll be visiting some iconic Canadian experiences.

My next adventure takes me on a ship exploring Eastern Canada.

♪ ♪ guitar To visit some of Eastern Canada's remote locations I've joined an expedition vessel, which will take me there.

Accessing these places by water adds to the adventure.

I'm traveling with One Ocean Expeditions through the Atlantic Ocean in a Finnish ship that holds ninety-two passenges and sixty-five crew.

I'll be traveling to Sable Island National Park Reserve, the Magdalen Islands, Bonaventure Island, Gros Morne National Park and Cape Breton Island.

In order to reach the remote destinations from the ship we use zodiac boats that take us to shore.

What a thrill to be here at Sable Island National Park Reserve.

There's only a handful of people who live on this isolated island and there's wild horses roaming around that have been here from the 1700's.

There's one right behind me!

[Sarah] It's cleared up quite a bit.

So I think we should make a run for Bald Dune.

It is a bit of a hike up there.

But it's worth it for the view.

So you'll get to see both sides of the island.

Meeting Sarah Medill is one of the highlights today.

She has her PhD on the feral horses that live on Sable Island.

Tell me what's so special about this place?

As you could see it's kind of a really unique environment.

It's a sand island forty-two kilometres long and it's entirely made up of sand, there's like - no bedrock anywhere near the surface.

The wild horses here of course are iconic but also the history with the shipwrecks and the history of lifesaving stations on the island.

[Brandy] So why are there horses here in the first place?

Well they were introduced probably in the 1750's.

They were attempting to colonize the island and they brought all sorts of livestock: they brought pigs and sheep and horses and cattle.

They eventually came back for some of the other livestock but they've managed to leave the horses behind and they've thrived here since.

What are they eating?

A lot of marram grass is probably their main vegetation that they're eating out here as well some of the other Beach Pea and Sandwort and things like that, on the island.

[Brandy] Is it challenging to get close to these wild horses?

It's not challenging to get close.

We do have a minimum distance we keep people from because we don't do any veterinary care for the horses here.

So we don't want to be introducing any pathogens to the population.

And we also don't want to create habituation issues.

So we do ask people to stay twenty metres away, saying that even at twenty metres the horses will pretty much ignore even a group of people like this.

♪ harmonic guitar plucks (camera clicking) Looking around here.

This is totally extraordinary.

I've never seen anything like this in Canada.

I am surrounded by all these dunes and the sand is just so different than any other place.

It's wonderful.

Now the next step is getting over that big dune.

♪ guitar continues Amazing.

What surprises me is that some of the sand dunes are more than thirty meters high.

I catch up with Sarah to learn more about the horses in the distance.

[Brandy] How is the population doing?

[Sarah] Right now the population's around 450 to 500.

Wow.

And, it's certainly some of the higher numbers that have been recorded for the population over the last hundred and two hundred years.

[Brandy] Why do you think they're doing so well Sarah?

[Sarah] There's a couple of theories - one is actually potentially linked to the increase in the Grey Seal population.

With increasing the seal numbers on the island you're increasing the nutrients coming onto the island and potentially that's why the horse population is also thriving quite well.

[Brandy] So what is this Sarah?

[Sarah] This is a Grey Seal skull.

So the females come up in December, January, to give birth and to reproduce so possibly this one just didn't make it back.

[Brandy] Amazing.

And how old would this have been?

It does definitely look like an adult size for either a female or a male.

Just like that.

And where's the...?

So the teeth are here... Yup.

This should be the head.

I know we're in a national park - we're not allowed to take anything so I got to put it back exactly where it was.

Well, yes, put it back with the rest of the carcass there.

All this stuff here.

Yep.

This island made entirely of sand is full of surprises.

In front of me, I find a beautiful pond.

[Brandy] Tell me about this little pond that we see around us?

Sure, This is one of the permanent ponds that are here year 'round.

Some of the other ones on the island dry up in the summer.

But this one sticks around.

And it's got especially this time of year some really beautiful flowers around it so it's got the Blue Flag Iris and it's got the Yellow Pond Lilies and there's almost always horses around here as well.

[Brandy] I really enjoyed my time at the Sable Island National Park Reserve.

It was fascinating to learn about the wild horses, plants and seals that called this unique place home.

♪ violin and strummed guitar One of our stops here is the Magdalen Islands and this is in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it's part of the province of Quebec so most of the people here speak French.

Only 12,000 people live here and every year 74,000 visitors come to explore these beautiful islands.

One of the most striking things about the Magdalen islands is the red dirt.

The redness of the soil is due to the high iron-oxide content.

I explore the cliffs, which are red sandstone.

It's fascinating to see how the wind and ocean have helped shape the landscape.

I've also heard that the islands' proximity to the ocean makes for some tasty cheese.

[Edith] You know we have salty air on the islands and it goes on the hay and the cows eat the hay they eat wildflowers.

It does give a really distinct taste toward cheese.

[Brandy] I decided to visit a local artisan cheese maker's shop on the island of Havre-aux-Maisons and sample their products.

Let's talk about the different cheeses you have.

Sure.

So we'll go from the mildest to the strongest and we have four of them.

So the first one is the Art Senau.

It's a cheddar, so it's very mild.

So we call it Art Senau because of the name of the first owners of the cheese factory.

They were Arsenault and we play a little bit with words.

So we spell the art of making cheese.

[Brandy] Yeah.

You changed the spelling of their name.

Edith] Exactly.

Can I taste it?

Sure.

Go ahead.

Mm... it's very mild.

It's almost like butter.

Mm-hmmm... OK. Tell me about the next one.

Sure.

Next one is the Pied-De-Vent.

Pied-De-Vent here is our most well known.

It went to the finals of the best cheese in Canada last year.

[Brandy] And what does Pied-De-Vent mean?

Pied-De-Vent is an expression we have here on the islands - it could be translated as "wind feet" and what we call 'wind feet' is when the sun bursts through the clouds giving rays of sunlight on the horizon and we say that Pied-De-Vent, like when we see those, we say they announce wind.

Beautiful.

Mm... it's stronger.

Yup!

It's a lot stronger though, very creamy.

Mm hmm, I think I need a baguette to eat it with, though.

Yeah, then we have La Tomme des Demoiselles.

This one is a little bit stronger.

So it's been aged from six to eight months.

And you see you have two.

So you have the regular one that has been washed and brushed, salt and water and the second one is special one we make here.

We wash it and brush it with beer from the islands.

The first one almost tastes like a Parmesan cheese, a young Parmesan but still very tasty, very sharp.

Mm... it's my favorite so far.

Okay, and then this one has the beer.

Exactly, with a beer and you see it's green, because it's been sprinkled with fine herbs and hops.

Really changes the taste.

[Brandy] And the last one here.

[Edith] The last one is the Jeune- Coeur and you see very, very creamy, really tastes like milk, almost like cream.

Okay.

And Jeune- Coeur stands for the seals because we have the Harp Seals and at some point in their life, while they're still young we call them Jeune- Coeur because they have kind of shape of heart on their back.

This is delicious.

This was very smooth.

Very smooth.

Very light.

Yep totally.

I love them all.

And as I said I could just have a bunch of baguettes and eat them and I would love that.

With wine.

Oh now we're talking!

Wow.

Maybe I should come back here and hang out with you in the evening.

Oh, sure.

(laughing) Well that was fun!

I know why the Quebecois are famous for their cheese now.

♪ rhythmic electric bass Today we are visiting Bonaventure Island, which is at the tip of the Gaspé Peninsula in Quebec.

And this place is known to attract 300 different species of birds.

Some live here year round, others visit and migrate to the island.

♪ Surrounding us are Northern Gannets here on Bonaventure Island.

Geoff Carpentier is an ornithologist.

Why are all these gannets here?

This is one of only six colonies of gannets in North America.

This is the largest one.

There is about 100,000 pairs of gannets here and it's a breeding colony so all of the birds that are here are paired up, there's a male and a female and they have one chick.

That's all they have each year so it's very important that both of the parents take care of it.

So the parents will spend time between staying here watching the chick, making sure the predators don't get them but more importantly going out into the ocean every day as much as 100 kilometers trying to bring food back for these little gannets that are here.

These guys here will stay in the nest for about thirteen weeks and at that point the baby gannets will actually weigh almost half as much more than the adults.

The way that they leave the nest is they basically go to the edge of the cliff.

They jump off and hope they hit the water and then they can't fly because they're too heavy.

So they have to actually go for a few days without food.

They lose their weight and they learn to use their wings and eventually take off and then they'll fly like the adults do.

So why are we able to get so close to them, they don't seem to be bothered at all?

[Geoff] It's actually not about them not minding it... it's about the park carefully establishing distances where we can approach the birds without having any influence on them.

They're accustomed, or habituated to people coming here.

We stay behind the ropes and then we really don't disturb them so they can go on about their business.

They know we're here, they're not unaware but they're not threatened by us so we live very much in harmony with them in a situation like this.

And what happens to them throughout the year, do they stay here or do they go away?

[Geoff] They will stay here for about another thirteen weeks and then they go out to sea and they will wander down the Atlantic coast sometimes well into the Caribbean but most of them will leave this area starting around mid to late September.

And I can definitely hear them.

They have a specific sound.

They do.

Yes, it's very unique and the noises we hear are a combination of the parents calling to the young or the parents calling to each other and trying to re-establish pair bonds and just give reassurance that all is well and coming back "I've got some food".

[Brandy] And how exciting is it for you to come here and see this many birds all together doing their thing?

I think it's exciting for everybody whether you're a bird watcher or just anybody that's ever even thought about a bird coming here, it's just it's... sight, it's sound and it's smell and it's just an amazing, amazing place to be for everybody.

Well thanks for sharing your knowledge with us.

Thank you.

Wow.

The Gaspé region is just so beautiful.

Seeing the birds, the flowers, and the rock formations just elevates your senses.

♪ Our stop here in Gros Morne National Park takes us to western Newfoundland and the small towns and the local people are a big attraction for visitors like me.

♪ I'm so excited to be here in Birchy Head.

I'm with Myrna and Ina and they're going to teach me a traditional recipe here in rural Newfoundland.

What is it?

We're going to make molasses raisin bread.

Mmm-mmmm.

[Myrna] Traditionally molasses was more available than sugar and would keep.

And also raisins for something that people could acquire that was a fruit because fruit was very difficult to get, so dried fruits like apricots and raisins were something that could be used.

Okay let's mix this together.

[Ina] We have 9 1/2 cups of flour.

[Brandy] OK. Add to the bowl.

[Brandy] Our yeast, this is to make that bread rise.

Brown sugar, everybody needs a pinch of salt.

Allspice.

Mm... does that make it spicy?

Yes.

Love cinnamon.

What a mixture.

All right.

[Ina] And molasses.

And we take that to the mixer.

Wow, look at this mixer!

And you clip it down so you don't lose the bowl.

Perfect.

Okay.

(metallic clanging) Put our beater on.

Pull up our pole.

And then you could switch it on.

All right.

Ready?

[Ina Goosney] Yes.

Exciting!

[Ina] And gradually add your water.

(mechanical grinding) Just gradually adding it, am I looking for something specific?

[Ina] Yeah, because sometimes you might need a little more, maybe sometimes a little less of the water.

How we doing?

So we'll go from there now.

Mix it a little bit.

[Brandy] More water?

[Ina] Might need a little more.

[Ina] A nice soft dough.

[Brandy] Switch it off?

Let's do it.

So what do I do?

You just get your hand in there and pull it up like this.

Just like that.

Yes.

Okay.

And what's the point of this?

It just pulls it together and the kneading is supposed to make it rise a little better.

[Ina] You're doin' a good job!

[Brandy] And now we have to let this rise here for...?

[Ina] An hour, an hour and a half.

[Brandy] OK. [Myrna] Then we have one that we've already allowed to rise.

OK.

So it's about double in its size.

Whooooo!

There we are... now - This is going to feel spongy and wonderful.

Wow, it looks really interesting, bubbly.

I feel like there's an air pocket in there.

There's air bubbles in there.

OK. Am I allowed to touch it?

You have to touch it.

OK. What do I have to do?

All right.

So... pull it together.

[Brandy] OK. [Myrna] Take some of the air out.

[Brandy] Woo, that is weird.

It's like collapsing.

Oh.

[Brandy] Neato!

Can I keep doing this or is it gonna damage it?

You can keep doing it a little bit.

It's not gonna damage it.

Okay we are going to grease up your pan a little bit.

Just add a little grease.

[Brandy] Greasy, greasy!

[Ina] Pull it up from your pan so you can cut it easier.

Don't be afraid of it.

[Brandy] I am kind of afraid.

I don't really cook very often.

I don't know if you can tell from my horrible skills... but!

I'm learning!

And one day I may be as good as you.

OK.

It's a serious business.

Well that looks really good.

That's good.

Okay.

I heard "good", Not "really good" but... (laughs) Okay.

[Brandy] I think I'm doing a good job guys.

What do you think?

[Ina and Myrna] You are doing a great job.

[Brandy] I need a little bit of positive reinforcement here.

[Ina] Yes, you are doing fantastic.

(laughter) Now put it in here?

Tuck it right in there.

Tuck it right in here.

Okay.

So we got three.

We have three.

One, two, three.

Wow!

look at that.

Looking beautiful.

One extra raisin.

Put it right here.

That looks amazing.

That's good.

That's fantastic.

Thank you ladies!

Feel really proud of this.

You should be proud of that.

That's wonderful.

So this will take another hour, maybe a little more to rise again in the pan.

So you want it to double in size so when it's almost starting to spill out of the pans then we know it's ready to go in the oven.

OK?

So an hour, an hour and a half.

Hmmm.

I'm gonna be really hungry by the time the bread comes.

Yes.

So that is why we'd like to make Toutons.

What's that?

So when there's a little bit of leftover dough we get impatient waiting for our bread.

So we had to take some of that dough and we have to fry it in the iron frying pan.

Wow.

We're going to make Toutons and they are gonna be delicious.

[Myrna] We're going to use pork fat.

So these are going to be fried out to make scrunchins.

You are just going to play around with it a little bit.

Excellent.

You can look and see what it looks like on the other side.

Ah, look at that!

OK, Brandy so now we're going to give these a try.

Mm... [Myrna] We like to have them with some butter and a little extra molasses is always a good thing.

So we're just going to drizzle this over top.

Just like that.

Can't wait!

Mm...

I love the molasses.

I love the butter.

I love the bacon fat!

Everything about this is delicious.

Yes.

[Brandy] Now I can't wait to taste that bread.

Hmmm...

So good.

Looks beautiful.

(Myrna) The middle slice is the favorite.

It's the tastiest.

[Brandy] Mmmmm!

I want to taste some.

Is it too hot or can we go for it now?

[Myrna] No, the warmer with butter is the best.

Let's do it.

You just go for it.

[Brandy] OK.

I'm gonna cut it right in the middle.

[Myrna] This is yours, so you do it.

You can sort of saw it a little bit.

Yep!

Ooohh... Beautiful.

Oh yeah...

The heat rising.

Absolutely.

Now look at that.

Oooooh... smells so good!

Put it right on here?

Absolutely - it'll melt right into there.

Oh, ho, ho, ho... yum yum yum yum!

And just tear it apart and eat it!

Alright, ready?

Mm... Is that not good?

That's so good!

It's crunchy... and soft and doughy.

[Myrna] Mm-hmm.

Dunchie.

"Dunchie"?

Dunchie.

There's a Newfoundland word for you.

Dunchie is this real doughy bit.

[Brandy] Mm-hmmm... [Myrna] It's doughy.

Well thank you so much for taking the time to teach me this wonderful craft.

And maybe when I get home I will try to do this in my kitchen.

You should try it.

And I'll be thinking of you.

Call us... (Brandy: I will!)

if you need some assistance.

(laughter) My expedition cruise ended on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.

I decided to spend the day learning about the island's past.

If you like history then the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site is definitely is a place you'll want to come and visit.

This used to be one of the busiest seaports in North America in the eighteenth century.

It was built by the French in 1713.

I'm with Sandy Anthony and she works for Parks Canada.

Why is this place so special?

This place is special because in the 18th century it was a French fortified town as part of New France.

And in Canada, you had New France and then down in the States you had New England and those two entities were always at war with each other trying to decide who was going to control North America.

So Louisbourg was a significant battleground between the English and the French in its day.

But today you know when we're standing here we see these incredible buildings.

They're not originals, right?

[Sandy] No, but they are on their original foundations.

Louisbourg was destroyed by the British starting in 1760 and then the British left in 1768.

And after that the town just kind of crumbled whatever was left of it.

And so in 1961 there was a decision to reconstruct the fortress to put out-of-work miners back to work and to create a tourism attraction.

[Brandy] And what's your favorite thing about it here Sandy?

I love history and my favorite thing about here is the same thing it was when I first saw this place when I was thirteen, is that there are people in costume living here.

It's not just a static museum where you just look and watch, you can interact with people.

They do demonstrations.

It just, you feel like you're stepping back to the 18th century into a living town.

And it's just very evocative.

[Brandy] Well, I've never shot a musket before, and I'm here with Scott Sharplin, also known as "Prêt à Boire" in his 18th century character.

Tell me what the musket is and why you're going to teach me how to shoot it?

This is a 17th- uh, 1734 Grenadier muzzle-loaded flintlock smoothbore musket.

Can you say it five times fast?

No, one more time?

(laughter) All you need to do, to know how to fire it is that you put some black powder into this pan and then you put some more black powder into the muzzle.

We'd put a ball in there in the 18th century but we'll, uh we'll skip the lead ball today.

We'll just use black powder.

It's all loaded up now.

I'll use my ramrod to pack it down nice and tight.

So that goes in like that.

When you're ready to fire you pull the hammer back like this.

This is the hammer; right now I'm walking around "half cocked", which means I can't pull the trigger.

But once the cock goes back and then you pull the trigger this is going to spring forward * like that.

Now that is your flint.

And that is your steel.

What happens when flint hits steel?

Spark.

Exactly.

So - springs forward, hits the metal.

The spark hopefully goes into the pan and then the charge hopefully goes through that tiny little hole and ignites the main charge.

And that will drive the ball out of the musket.

If we had one, and into an Englishman.

OK. And why would you want to shoot an Englishman?

Well we are French here, of course.

It's my duty to protect the fortress.

We have to protect the cod industry at all costs.

"In cod we trust."

OK. And all you need to do is put one hand there.

And one hand under there and lift the butt of the musket up to your shoulder.

Can you do that?

Like here?

Up to your shoulder, up against it.

There you go.

Like this?

Not on your shoulder, right against.

Like here.

Perfect.

All right.

Now let's aim maybe up towards the second story there.

There's a soldier that lives up there that I don't like very much.

Okay.

I'm gonna step away and I want to see if you can hold it up for a few seconds.

It's got a little weight to it.

Woah, so this is really heavy.

Keep your legs wide.

Very good.

Oh my Gosh.

Very good.

How do you run with this and do things with this?

This is heavy.

I can show you in a second.

Okay.

This is pretty good.

Now, I said before that sometimes things don't work exactly as we hope.

So if you pull the trigger and nothing happens there's a misfire.

OK. And I'll say "freeze".

I'll step in.

I'll take it back from you.

But if all goes well, it'll go bang right away and then you can lower it down, so rock it down like that.

OK. Rock it down and then I'll take it back from you.

Want to practice that?

Rocking it up to your shoulder, taking aim.

Rocking it down.

That's good.

One more time.

Let's rock it up, rock it down.

You are getting into it now.

(laughs) The reason we don't want to bring it too close to our face is because sometimes you get what's called a hang fire - you pull the trigger and maybe this doesn't go off right away.

Maybe it takes a second or two pull the trigger, goes click and you “What's going on ”?

Oh no!

Yeah, that's a bad idea.

That's a very bad idea.

You see some soldiers around here with some patches, you know maybe some bandages.

That's probably what happened to them.

So we try and take it easy, nice and slow, down like that.

Okay.

Then I'll take it back from you.

Yeah?

Sounds great.

Think you can do it?

I'm hoping.

All right.

Pull the hammer back.

This one?

Yep.

One or two fingers.

Click.

That's good.

Yes.

One.

Two.

Three!

(blast) Whoa!!!!

Perfect!

Bring it on down.

That was awesome.

Very nice.

Can we do another one?

Very nice.

Are we allowed?

You'll have to sign up if you want to fire again.

The contract for the military is six years.

What?!

Yes.

Six years I'm afraid.

But you get fed pretty well - one six-pound loaf of bread every four days or so.

It's not so bad.

I think I'll stick with this.

Stick with the one?

Fair enough.

Thank you so much!

My pleasure.

It was wonderful.

Of course, any time.

Thank you!

When you come here to the fortress it certainly does feel like you were transported back in time.

My final task is an exciting one.

I'm training to fire a real cannon.

It's identical to those that defended 18th century Louisbourg.

"A - droit"!

Learning to march with the other soldiers is a bit intimidating.

The next step is lighting the fuse.

(Loud boom) What a blast that was!

(applause) My time here in Eastern Canada has been fascinating.

I feel like I'd like to return in the future and explore so much more by boat and by car.

♪ ♪