Cape Breton

Lighthouse at Baddeck

Well, Saturday we woke up to gusty winds and rain, so stayed around the campsite all morning, reading and relaxing.  I was reading the blog of Arliss and Jerry, whom we met in Montreal and she sounded like they were in the same campsite, so I commented and to make a long story short, we got together for coffee in the morning, and then dinner that night.  It was great to have a longer visit with them and compare notes.  They are a day or two ahead of us, so have moved on to Halifax.  We'll have to keep tabs on them so we can try to get together again.  It was great.

 

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Then Chris and I went to the local hall for a Ceilidh (Kallee).  A young woman on the fiddle and a fellow on the guitar.  Again, lively Celtic music for a couple of hours. Her feet were stomping non stop to the music, I don't know how she kept it up for 2 hours.   Can't help but stomp your feet and clap your hands.  Very entertaining. 







Sunday morning, up early on the road by 8:30, to drive around the Cabot Trail, which is a road that drives around the Cape Breton island including the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  Very scenic route.  It was cloudy the beginning of the day, so the pictures are not as clear as they could be, but the day got progressively better.  We were on the road until almost 8 pm.  Lots to see and do, we just scratched the surface.  The St. Lawrence side of Cape Breton is the wild side, rugged coastline and crashing waves.  The Atlantic side a little calmer, with more gentle slopes, very much like the Gulf Islands, except the rocks are red.  The forest on all the hillsides are very green now, but mostly deciduous trees, so we may have to come back and see this fabulous place in the autumn.  (Not this year, and probably not by RV) Lots of maple trees, oak, birch, elm, and evergreens as well, but apparently a lot of them are Larch, which lose their needles in the autumn. 

 

So, that was a full day. 

 

 Today we didn't get started until 9 or so.  We drove to Louisbourg, another Nat'l Historical site.  Louisbourg was a Fortress in 1713 to 1760's.  It was built by the French, taken by the English, then given back to the French, then taken over by the English, and then abandoned.  This is the biggest reconstruction of a Fortress in all of North America.  They have restored about 20 to 25 percent of the original town.  It was a town of about 4000 military and civilians.  They had people dressed in period costume and doing the jobs they would have then.  Quite an interesting day. 

 

 

So we got back to Baddeck in time to catch the last sailing and the Amoeba, a 67 ft. schooner that does sailings around the harbour of Baddeck.  Very nice boat, and we have watched it go in and out for a couple of days now, so had to go.  It was a lovely evening.  Captain John also has some fish on board, because he feeds the Bald Eagles, so they fly in quite close to get their dinner.  John is very entertaining as well.  We never did get a picture of her sailing by, but have pictures of her from onboard.

You can see the shadow of her sails.

 

 

Captain John

 

Just got the fish.

 

And the sun goes down on another day.