We’d heard great things about Five Islands, so spent two or three days there. Five Islands is a narrow harbor protected by a five small islands, which is good since this far down river both ocean swell and wind driven waves could be a factor. The local yacht club offers a few free mooring balls for visiting boats, and we availed ourselves of one of them. This is a working harbor, so the sounds and smells of a working fishing village are abundant. As walkers, one of our primary drivers when looking for places to walk, and the Five Islands area had decent walking.
- There is a nice little farm market (Five Islands Farm) at the top of the hill leaving town where we went each day for fresh provisions. The walk up Five Islands Road is tolerable but sometimes busy with traffic.
- An alternative is Schoolhouse Road, which is a small road off to the north that loops back west and south to join Five Islands Road. The road surrounds an area with several short hiking trails in the woods which were quite pleasant and not very buggy when we were there.
- There’s also a nice little stroll of about a mile down Ledgemere Rd which has very little traffic and a couple nice opportunities to take paths down to the rocky shore. There was even one sandy beach to walk to.
- As a bonus for the culinarily inclined, there’s some outstanding eats right at the pier if you want to sample the local fare from the fishing village. It’s worth noting that the automobile traffic to the village was significant, and the place apparently carries quite a reputation for food. Even on weekdays it was packed, with cars tourists and their cars crammed cheek to jowl looking to sample the seafood.
