If maps could talk

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Geo: 45.5918, -62.6434

The plan for today was to visit the eastern part of Cape Breton, so off we went at 8:15 AM and 66 degrees. We put Sydney, which is located on the northeast side of the island, into the GPS and at some point she said we would be on Route 4, which was exactly the route we wanted to follow because it hugs the coastline. But after we crossed the bridge onto the island, she pulled a switch on us and sent us up inland highway 2. Because the road signs leave something to be desired, we didn't realize it until it was too late to turn back. So goes the best laid plans…they never seem to happen the way you want them to. So we modified our plan and decided that we would make the return drive on route 4 instead. Good. Moving on.

The road took us up through forests and sparsely populated areas on the west side of the island. We began to recognize places we had seen yesterday and that was the tip-off. But further on up the road we found ourselves on the west side of a very long waterway. It turned out to be one of several crooked fingers that originate in Bras d'Or Lake (lake of the golden arm) and reach out to the Atlantic Ocean at several points around Cape Breton.

At one point, we decided to take a turn and follow the signs to "the ferry". We were curious. It took us to St. Ann's where there was a small ferry boat…very small…that was serving, essentially, as a bridge to cross cars over one of the crooked fingers. This boat had a ramp on both sides and it moved from one side to the other in a very short amount of time, saving cars a very long ride around on the roadways. Check out the photos.

Doubling back to the main road, we climbed a small mountain (I would not call it a mountain, but they do) and we had a panoramic view of another finger and the bridge that spans it. We didn't know at the time that we would be crossing that very bridge to get to Sydney.

After a while we ended up in North Sydney, which has a major ferry port. The boats look like small cruise chips with ramp access on the front for loading cars and they run from North Sydney to Newfoundland which is a 5-7 hour trip. This town is old and looks very much like an old fishing village with dated clapboard houses of various colors, all along the street that borders the water.

We continued down the road in search of Sydney. The GPS was totally lost and so were we. Now, if you don't have a GPS, and Mapquest is not working either, and you are relying on roadmaps (provided by Nova Scotia), then the road signs have to be good. They weren't so good. Sigh. We wasted a lot of dime “discussing” which way was the right way to go. You know how that can go. At some point, we found route 4 and we knew than that we were on the road back south to New Glasgow. Remember, this was the route we had planned to drive on to get TO Sydney.

So Steve says to me that I should make reference to the 2 Sydney's that we visited this year…Sydney, Nova Scotia and Sydney, Australia. So here goes. There is absolutely NO comparison to be made. Sydney, Australia is a large city with many high rises and the most incredible and impressive harbor anywhere. Sydney, NS is, well, I have been struggling to give it character but I am coming up short. That is not a bad thing. I just can't decide what it was that I saw. It did not appear to be a business district. It did not look to be an industrial center. And it did not seem like it was a tourist attraction. I am not sure what is left. A mining town? Well, I decided to check out Wiki and discovered that it used to be a center for the production of steel but that went by the wayside in the 70's. So now they depend on call centers and tourism for their employment.

We drove for another three hours and ended back at our hotel at 4:30 PM. Tomorrow we will be headed up to Prince Edward Island for two days. I think we need a better plan for finding our way around.

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Photos

Ferry at St Ann from atop the hill
Note it is a small straight that the ferry has to cross.

Comments

[sheflysx]

If you look closely, you can see the little ferry boat.