This lake is near the town of Norway.

Maine is the only place so far which names villages and towns after countries. Very close together are Norway, Sweden, Poland and Mexico. The also have a penchant for foreign capitals, so there are Paris, Vienna, Moscow and Belgrade in the same region as well as some I have forgotten.

Mid Coast Maine and inland from the coast is rolling countryside with a lot of farms. Although there are still many trees, the landscape is much more open than in New Hampshire.

The whole coast of Maine is extremely indented – think of many bunches of bananas, or many hands with fingers outspread. Off shore there are lots of islands, some a considerable distance away.

For my first week in Maine I stayed in North Monmouth about an hour’s drive from the coast. There was nowhere on the coast within my budget. It is a small settlement with a large mill.

It looks better from the road! It is still a business, ‘Tex Tech’ which employs quite a lot of people, and originally no doubt many more.

This is looking 180° the other way across the mill pond. I stayed in the house just visible in the centre of the photo with a church spire beyond. Like most communities in New England, North Monmouth is straggly, and has a fire station and two churches. It also has a very small Post Office. However there is no sign whatsoever of any buildings that might have been shops, and surely it must have had some originally. The people I stayed with regarded a drive of 9 minutes to the nearest shop as ‘close by’. There was a petrol station with a small shop about 4 minutes drive away.

This is Shunka (which means ‘dog’ in a local Native American language). About 11 pm on my last night there, a skunk got into the fenced compound round the house and Shunka went for it. She was sprayed all over her head and everywhere stank. The spray is very oily and hard to remove.

I drove to the coast twice. The first time I went to Boothbay Harbour, very much a resort, and with many second homes for people from Portland (Maine) and also Boston.

As usual all the shoreline is private property, so the best views are from the 300 yd long footbridge which spans one end of the bay.

There are boat tours round the bay and whale watching, and serious deep water anglers can hire a boat and crew to go deep sea fishing.

One very small area has been reserved for local fishermen, and this is where the deep water fish will be landed. There is a big shed with a direct sales shop just to the right of this picture. Notices indicated that there was a real fight to retain this small quay, as it is much more valuable as building land. Apart from Portland, the other main ports that still land substantial catches are nearly all on a few of Maine’s many islands or are in the far north near the Canadian border. Nearly all the small ports on the coast have been bought out for second homes and posh hotels.

Boothbay Harbour is very upmarket; this is the Opera House. Lobster rolls were $33 dollars and upwards each, for what is only really a bread finger roll filled with lobster.

They get day trippers on coaches, and there are cheap gift shops, but most shops were expensive and cater to second home owners who want to fit out their properties or buy clothes. There is a wonderful hardware shop that has been in the same family for 3 generations, that also caters to the few remaining farmers in the area.

Next time I went a little further north to Pemaquod Point.

This lighthouse was in a minute State Park (entry $3) which measured about 250 yds by 50 yds, and most of that was car park. Either side was private and apart from the park there was only a small length of loop road behind some houses that gave the public any view of the coast.

The lighthouse included an excellent small volunteer run museum, mainly devoted to fishing. Nowadays the locals with small boats only catch lobsters, as all the fish in coastal waters have been fished out. They still call themselves fishermen though.

Every lighthouse seems to have a bell. Note the island on the horizon.

This detail from a map in the museum shows a rare example of a UK place name sitting on a correctly named river (though it is in Canada)!

This record of the price of lobster explains the high price of lobster rolls. The current price seems to be about $8.50, but it has been as high as $13 earlier in the year. There is very high demand, and weather has affected the catch. Also possibly they have overfished this century.

Also in the museum, this list indicates that lobsters grow slowly and can live to a very great age. If so, overfishing will take a long time to recover from. I was told that there are strict regulations nowadays and it is almost impossible for anyone not born into the business to get a licence. They have to serve an apprenticeship and to have spent a long period learning. Fishermen’s sons go out with their fathers from childhood, so have a head start. And it does seem to be still men only, though I am sure women could do the job.

This was the only other interesting building at the Point. The name plate says ‘Carriage House’. Seems disused now.

Looking towards the lighthouse from along the road that had some views. The whole coast is very rocky.

I then explored some of the ins and outs of the Bristol peninsula to the north of Pemaquod. I found a place to park here as the building on the right belongs to a fisherman’s co-operative and includes a very small shop and café where I had a very basic lobster roll for $24.99. It was absolutely stuffed with excellent quality lobster, which was as fresh as possible. Very nice, but I can get two main meals for that money, so am unlikely to invest in another one.

This was the view in the other direction. I was wondering how the boats got to the water in the first photo when the bridge opened.

There is a very narrow channel between the mainland and Rutherford Island. Had the bridge not opened, I would probably have crossed the bridge without realising I had gone onto an island.

Virtually all the coastline of Rutherford Island is privately owned and so inaccessible. I found a short trail leading to a coastal view. There was a miniature car park just off a side track that took exactly one car, and was too small for a pick-up. From the back of it was a winding trail less than half a mile long through some woods that reached a viewpoint. The trail was courtesy of the landowner and was well marked.

Whilst sitting on the bench I counted 11 lobster pot floats. They are so small that it took a while to get my eye in to spot them.

This last photo is for you to guess the purpose of the machine. I will explain in my next post. It was often in the kitchen of the AirBnB spinning and burbling away.