You Can Go Mud Sliding This Summer With Secret Nova Scotia
Businesses across Nova Scotia are crossing their fingers, hoping that Covid-19 won’t prevent a tourism season from happening this summer. The province relies heavily on travelers economically and many businesses suffered last year because of the pandemic.
Nova Scotia is a hot tourist destination because of the variety of experiences it has to offer. But one businesswoman wants to show people a part of the province that is often overlooked. Alicia Simms is the owner of Secret Nova Scotia– a tour company that shows off the sights, food, drink, and flavour of the Truro and North Shore area. With Truro being so close to Halifax, it can be overshadowed by the bigger city.
“When I moved to Truro, I loved the community so much,” said Simms. “Of course, every single person would say, ‘why Truro?’ But Truro is an amazing community. Once I moved here, I was bowled over by how amazing and vibrant the business community was, and how inclusive people were.”
“A lot of Nova Scotia tourism is really focused on HRM and the South Shore, and then Cape Breton. But there’s really little focus in-between.”
Simms is a busy entrepreneur in Truro. On top of running Secret Nova Scotia, she is a full-time tattoo artist and runs the website Truro Buzz – a place that highlights the activities in town.
Secret Nova Scotia offers four tours which range between four to seven hours each: ‘Revealing the Tastes of Tatamagouche,’ Revealing the Brule Shore Sea-nic Boat Tour,’ Tasty Treasure Hunting on The Fundy Shore, and The Mystery of Maitland Mud sliding.’
Each outing comes with an energetic local guide and all the food and drink comes from other local businesses. There are locally made ice cream, spirits, craft beer, chocolate, health snacks and more. One business even created a burger specifically for the tour. Collaborating with other local businesses was one of the highlights for Simms in setting up Secret Nova Scotia.
“This company, and its sister company, Truro Buzz exists, because the communities here in Nova Scotia and the businesses are so unbelievably collaborative,” said Simms.
For adventure seekers, the mud sliding tour in Maitland may be a highlight of any trip to Nova Scotia. Mud sliding is just how it sounds; you slide down a muddy hill, and even the adults get in on the fun.
“It’s the closest to childlike wonder you’ll ever experience in your whole life. You would not believe the fathers…it’s hilarious to see the fathers let loose and just go cannonballing down that hill,” laughed Simms.
‘We got a lot of, mostly locals, who did it last year. And people said: ‘I’ve lived here my whole life, and I always wanted to do it and never done it.”
After mud sliding, everyone will be treated to ice cream from one of the oldest general stores in Canada: Frieze and Roy’s located in Maitland.
Those that decide to go on the Sea-nic boat tour will receive a truly genuine Nova Scotia experience. The tour is guide is a lobster fisherman who converts his vessel into a tour boat in the offseason. Tourists will ravel in the boat along the Northumberland Strait coastline. Near the end of the tour, the guests will be taken to a secluded bay where they can swim in the ocean water, while a barbeque is started onboard.
Throughout all four tours, there are opportunities to experience this part of Nova Scotia, rather than simply sightseeing.
This is the second year that Simms will be operating the tour business. But last year it had a different name: Out of Bounds, which was the name that had already existed when Simms purchased the business. After last season, however, she felt the business could use a little bit of rebranding.
“Out of bounds; it applied to so many things. We couldn’t get the domain we wanted. If you googled ‘out of bounds’, and nothing else, you got so, so, many things. So we decided it would be good to start fresh.”
“The name didn’t really have the brand power we thought it did when we bought it and we were running into a lot of problems with other things named called Out of Bounds. So, we decided to make it our own and I’m glad we did.”
Simms had the tough luck of buying the business in January of 2020, just a couple of months before the Covid-19 Pandemic closed travel worldwide. When Simms was able to have a short season starting in July, she had to make the tours self-guided for public health measures.
“I had gone through the process of interviewing and hiring,” recalled Simms. “Literally the first day that this person started, it was the day I had to lay him off. It was the Monday after the press release from Nova Scotia saying we were going into a state of emergency and lockdown.”
This year, however, Simms plans to have the tours fully guided. Assuming the pandemic situation is manageable, Secret Nova Scotia will offer tours starting on the May 24 weekend.