Siren Song

Remote and unspoiled, Big Tancook Island is a balm for the soul 

- Clive Branson

It was the way she said it: “Ah, Reef House,” as though it was a distant but loved relative. A little grin creased the woman’s face when my friend Janet mentioned that a jeep was part of the contractual agreement with the cottage rental. “Oh, aye,” the woman responded, followed by a chorus of amused murmurings and furtive glances from nearby passengers on the ferry. The woman’s smile seemed to close the subject.

The William G. Ernst sliced across the six miles of water from Chester to Big Tancook Island, N.S. The pleasant hourlong journey is performed four times a day—six on Fridays—for a mere $5 round trip. Big Tancook is shaped like a fish hook and named after the Mi’kmaq word for “facing the open sea.” Although the island is only three miles long and 1.5 miles at the widest point, it is the largest piece of real estate huddled among the 350 islands in Mahone Bay, part of Nova Scotia’s Lunenburg Region. For Janet and me, this was a brief escape from the clinging tentacles of urban strain.

When we reached Big Tancook, the promised jeep was present at the dock with the key already in the ignition. Vehicles here had a similar discarded appearance: they were devoid of license plates, and had eroded side panels and engines that sounded like someone coughing up phlegm. Each time I steered the jeep, it groaned, creaked and sputtered forward. It wobbled along like a drunken sailor. We were told to be wary of the brakes, the transmission and the battery, then instructed to follow the telephone poles to the end of the island till they reached our cottage.

We drove along the dirt road until it came to a sudden end. That was disturbing because we had hardly left the dock. The road devolved into tire tracks that led into an inhospitable bush. The jeep was tossed mercilessly into the deep grooves.