Cape Breton Highlands

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Sunday, September 14, 2008

We packed up and left Martin’s River fairly early on our way to Baddeck on Cape Breton Island.

Our first stop was in the Halifax area to see the Northwest Arm of the Halifax harbor. According to legend, that is where our great, great, great, great grandfather, Heinrich Strum, was ice fishing when a blizzard blew in and he froze to death in January of 1783.

We made a short stop at the Aviation Museum near the airport. In Antigonish, we visited St. Ninian Cathedral. The regular service had already ended, but a special baptism for 5 infants was taking place. We went in and stayed for a part of the service. The paintings on the ceiling were luminescent pictures of Christ.

We crossed the Canso Causeway onto Cape Breton Island and stopped at the Candy Shop - we lots of specialty candies and a decadent cup of hot chocolate with whipped cream and chocolate shavings - extremely rich. We had our picnic lunch in their gazebo and watched the traffic on the causeway.

We stopped early at the Baddeck Inn, on a high hill with breathtaking views of the Bras d’ Or - a large inland sea. After a short nap, I took a walk in the woods above the motel. Many of the wild flowers blooming along the overgrown road were the same as the ones in the mountains of NC. The reason we stayed in Baddeck was to partake of the bountiful dinner at the Baddeck Lobster Suppers Restaurant. The food lived up to its billing - a lobster with all you can eat chowder, mussels, bread, salad & dessert. Of course, one course of all of that was all we could eat.

After dinner we took a short drive through town and back around to the main road. Along the way we saw a lighthouse on an island. We really did not see many lighthouses when we were on the South Shore, which is the Lighthouse Trail.


Monday, September 15

We started a cloudy, windy, warm day with a pleasant continental breakfast with two couples from British Columbia at the Baddeck Inn. The Inn overlooks Bras d’Or with a far reaching view of the water and farms. We drove into town and took pictures of the lighthouse on the island across from the harbor.

In St. Ann’s, we made a stop at the Gaelic College. Mother visited the gift shop while I toured the Great Hall of the Clans and learned about Norman McLeod’s colony and further journey to New Zealand. At one of the picnic areas along the inland sea, I took a short walk in the woods and saw that the wildflowers are very much the same as in the WNC mountains.

Today was a day for visiting gift and craft shops. We stopped at the Shape Shift pottery, Iron Arts & Photography and the Sea Shanty Quilt & gift shop - lots of opportunity to admire the handiwork of others.

Along the causeway to the Sea Shanty & Englishtown Ferry, I saw two bald eagles perched in a dead tree. Before we reached the ferry, an eagle came down into the water fishing for its dinner. The Englishtown Ferry goes across the short channel that allows the Atlantic Ocean to enter the Bras d’Or. It only took a couple of minutes to cover the short distance.

We drove back down through Beddeck again and continued to the First Nation area of Wagmatcook, a Mikmac Indian community. I had learned about the Scots immigration to Cape Breton. Here we learned about the lives of the natives of Cape Breton.

Next we headed across the island to the west coast and Cheticamp, an Acadian fishing village. We drove through the Margaree Valley and along the river into Margaree Harbor. Crossing the longest wooden bridge in Nova Scotia, we headed north to Cheticamp. Along the side of the road was a huge display of scarecrows - Joe’s Scarecrow Village, with more than 100 of them. Joe planted a garden there and the neighbors said since he did not live there the rabbits and deer would eat all his vegetables. He put up three 6 foot scarecrows and the next day he had two tour buses to stop. Finally he got rid of the vegetables and just planted scarecrows for the tourist to admire.

We are staying at L’Auberge Doucet Inn up on a hill overlooking the channel between the island and the mainland. We had dinner at the All Aboard Restaurant where they had a 2 for 1 lobster dinner.


Tuesday, September 16, 2008

A full breakfast comes with our room at the inn, so we had a good cooked breakfast to start the day. Then we headed through town for the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Along the way we stopped to take a picture of the church in the center of Cheticamp. Mother had said that I had not let her take any church pictures, so she wanted a picture of every church we passed today. We also stopped at the bakery to get some pastries to go with our picnic lunch.

We stopped a numerous pull offs and viewpoints in the park. One of the first was at a beach where rocks sculptures were piled and off shore was a rock called Pillar Rock with waves crashing against it. We crossed over French Mountain, MacKenzie Mountain and North Mountain. At Lone Sheiling, I walked the short trail through the woods to a stone hut, representing Scots herdsman’s shelter. Several park workers were patching the thatch roof. The woods were a lot like home, but with sugar maples instead of so many oaks.

We drove down the gravel and mud puddle riddled road to Beulach Ban Falls. The falls come down over the face of a high cliff. With the leaves still on the trees, it was impossible to see the very top of the falls without climbing down into the stream.

After stopping a couple of gift and fine craft shops, we ate our lunch at the Sunrise Overlook which has a very long view of the valley to Bay St. Lawrence. At Cape North, we stopped at the interesting and informative museum about life in the Northern Highlands of Cape Breton. We drove down the harbor in Bay St. Lawrence where the sea gulls were perched on all the roof tops waiting for the fishing ships to return with their hauls. Next we drove over to Capstick, which is also at the very north part of the island.

We took the alternative scenic route down to Neil’s Harbor where frothy waves were crashing upon the rocks. Upon the advice of Joe Friddle, we ate supper at the Chowder House here. The seafood chowder was thick with fish, lobster & potatoes. After dinner, we drove back over the three mountains to our inn in Cheticamp.

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