Province # 3

It was 5 o'clock when I crossed the Canso Causeway from Cape Breton Island back to the mainland portion of Nova Scotia. It was time to start the journey towards home.

I jumped onto route 104 heading west. It was a two lane road with sometimes passing lanes, with speed limits ranging from 80 to 100 kph. And then, it changed to a divided highway. The miles flowed by. I ended today's drive in Moncton, New Brunwick.

I keep thinking about stopping in one more wandering spot on the way home. The two places that have been swirling around in my mind are Hopewell Rocks and Acadia National Park. That doesn't surprise you, does it?

Problem is, if I stop somewhere to play tomorrow that puts me on the road on Saturday, driving through what's likely to be heavy rain. Only tomorrow will tell...

Lookoffs and conversations

We drove, we stopped at lookoffs, we talked, we walked.

The sky was covered with layers of clouds early, and there were some sprinkles too. Later... the sun appeared, darting behind white and gray against a pure blue background. We still had (at least) one mountain to climb, with lots of lookoffs to embrace the scenery. And everyplace we stopped Denise spent some time chatting with other people - about the beauty around us, about photography, about the possible coming hurricane, about our wanderings in Cape Breton Highlands. It was a talking and looking kind of day.

We walked a boardwalk through a bog, and then we moved on to the Skyline trail. We started down the trail, walking through a lane of trees. We walked, we walked a little further, it started sprinkling, and then we turned around. The end of the trail was purported to be a headland overlooking the Gulf coast. I bet it was beautiful... but you know about Denise, don't you? She really likes to be able to see things (other than lines of trees) during her walks and rides. I suspect that if it had been a warmer, sunnier day that we might have continued walking. I think that we're going to be coming back here another time, so we can finish Skyline then (whenever then is).



Back at the car, we continued down the Cabot Trail, stopping at more lookoffs. We stood for a while and watched the waves crashing against the shore, cliffs. The water was wild today, and the wind? It was another day of high winds. Denise had less of a problem today - she wasn't blown around quite as much as yesterday.



Oh! we stopped to visit Joe's scarecrows too. That was fun.



--- Rover

Breakfast with Anna

If you don't like breakfast and conversations you might not want to stay at Highland Breeze. But if you do? What an awesome breakfast!

We sat down at a table filled with options for a start at breakfast. Yes, I did say start! There were a couple of choices of cereal, wild blueberries, yogurt, and coffee. Anna was very busy; when I walked into the kitchen she was busy stirring something wonderful. We had home-baked English muffins, cinnamon rolls, and potato pancakes. Eggs were on the menu too, but all of us opted out. We were already stuffed!

Conversation was flowing along with the food. I left the B&B a bit later than I'd planned. No matter - it was a thoroughly enjoyable start to the day.

Not again!

Did you know that there is another hurricane starting to swirl in the Atlantic? I didn't want to tell Denise, but it turns out that she already knows. She was chatting with Anna in the living room and the television was tuned to the weather channel.

We're still going to be playing in Cape Breton tomorrow, but we don't have a definite end point for the day. I suppose we could make it home on Friday if we make it a really long driving day. I think it's more likely we'll be back on Saturday.

Driving in a nasty storm doesn't sound too smart, does it? I suppose if we're still traveling when the storm hits that we may end up finding a place to wait it out. It's a good thing that Denise bookmarked the Canadian Hurricane Current Conditions page so we can keep an eye on the storm track.

--- Rover

Scary strong winds

Ah, another good breakfast to start the day... fresh fruit, yogurt, and banana nut muffins, followed by French toast. Very nice.

It was a driving day, a walking day, and a fighting the wind day. I started by repeating a few kilometers of road backwards, looping from Sydney past North Sydney, then heading towards the Cabot Trail. I skipped a bit of driving by taking the Englishtown cable ferry to cross St. Ann's Harbour.



I joined the Cabot Trail, entered Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and started climbing mountains. The first big one was Smokey. I looked ahead to see the road hanging on the side of the mountain, high above, a tiny ribbon. It was a rather slow climb since I was one of several cars following three large trucks up that winding and steep hill. My speed? It ranged from 10 to 20 miles an hour. The view from the top was fabulous.



Ah, time to walk. I headed out Middle Head, a wonderful walk out a very narrow point of land. It was on that walk when I discovered that the prediction of 50 kph winds was real. The further I walked, the stronger the wind became, It was pretty much an out-and-back walk, with a very small loop at the very end. As I started around that loop I started to feel like I was going to get blown over. Instead of completing that small circle I reversed direction.

I'm traveling with both a monopod and a tripod, and it is the monopod that has been accompanying me on my hikes. Yup, that's what I had with me on Middle Head. It helped, but the tripod would have been a better choice. Yes, I did switch to the more stable 3-legged support a little later in the day. By that time the wind was so strong that while I used the tripod I felt like I had to keep a firm hand on the camera and tripod so they wouldn't blow away.

Hey, it's Rover. I really wanted to bounce down the Middle Head trail with Denise, but I rode in the camera pack all day. I figured out to sneak the zipper open enough so I could see all of the beauty around us. I really think I would have been blown into the ocean if I tried to walk. Denise was having trouble staying standing at some points during the day, and she weighs more than I do!

After Middle Head I drove and stopped, drove and stopped. The wind seemed to get stronger and stronger. I couldn't let it stop me from playing with my camera though.



My last stop before finding my home for the night was Dingwall. And then, I climbed over one more mountain before rolling into the Highland Breeze B&B.

---

Interesting.

Anna - my B&B hostess - provides food twice. There's the normal breakfast, and there is also dessert and conversation in the evening. She made a very tasty cake, served topped with ice cream, a nice treat.

It was an evening of interesting exchanges between Anna, the other guests here, and three more people staying at a B&B down the road because Hghland Breeze was already full when they called for reservations. Anna invited them to stop by, and they did.

Big water

So much water...

Today I was looking at our maps, and I thought I'd list the (big) water we've seen on this trip. We rode over two waters, and we wandered next to others. So, let's build the list.

We started by floating across the Gulf of Maine. We walked next to the Bay of Fundy, then we crossed the Strait of Canso, the narrow channel between mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island, between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. We drove by Bras D'Or Lake on our way to North Sydney. Then we crossed Cabot Strait on our way to Newfoundland, then bounced next to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Yesterday we were at the Atlantic Ocean, and today we followed the edge of Cape Breton Island from the Atlantic Ocean back to the Gulf of St Lawrence.

That's a lot of big water, isn't it?

--- Rover

A light wandering day

I think Denise is still a little tired so I told her that I would take over the word play for the day. The day started with an excellent breakfast, fresh fruit topped with yogurt and fresh bran muffins followed by poached eggs. Oh! And good morning conversation too.

Our first bounce of the day was to the Sydney waterfront. Did you know that there is a big fiddle sitting in front of one of the buildings there? It's really, really big, isn't it?



We headed back to the B&B, and Denise spent some time chatting with Gordon and Bev (our hosts) about where we should wander for the rest of the day.

Our first stop was Mira Gut. Don't you think that's a strange name? We headed a bit north from there, back towards Sydney, and then Denise decided to follow a dirt road onto a little island and out to Waddens Cove. That was such an empty road, and yet... there were a number of houses at the very end of the road. It seemed like such an incredibly isolated place to live.

Next stop Louisbourg. I think most people head there to visit the Fortress of Louisbourg National Historic Site but today didn't feel like a history kind of day. Instead, we started at Louisbourg Light. The rocky coastline reminded us of Maine, of Acadia National Park. The ocean was even making the same big crashing noise as it does at Thunder Hole in Acadia. Oh! And we could hear the sound of rounded rocks rolling together. We bounced down a trail in that area, and of course Denise was playing with her camera.



After a bit we decided to move on to a different spot. This time we headed to Kennington Cove, a beautiful beach accessed via another dirt road.



We were so lucky that Denise asked Gordon & Bev for their suggestions - we never would have seen Kennington Cove on our own.

It was a good wandering day.

--- Rover