Both were absolute perfection! The fish generously battered and deep fried perfectly; the chowder rich and creamy with huge chunks of scallops, haddock, and shrimp.
Tiny flavor-bursting wild blueberries, picked-ripe “real” strawberries, genuine maple syrup, smoked whitefish and salmon, plus lobster are other delightful treats of the area.
Sept 5. The Cabot trail is a path that circles Cape Breton’ through small Scottish and Acadian communities, along most of there long coast and through the Margaree Valley across the bottom. The highlands of the National Park portion truly are “the highlands” — an especially remote, rugged coastline, spruce forests on mountains tall enough to have some rocky treeless tundra at the top. The valleys hold hardwood maples which will be stunning in fall color with all the dazzling red color. Atlantic salmon are prized catches in the smaller, tumbling streams, the Margaree being the best-known one.
We were too late in the season for a Puffin boat tour, which we both would have enjoyed. The whale tours offered were not as enticing (nor was the coming hurricane weather.) We actually arrived in “shoulder season,” between all the summer activities and the fall color. I feel the weather has been quite good; Mike remembers mostly cloudy days (I think he’s forgotten the often high cloud/pale sun days of the Midwest!)
Temperatures have been in the 50’s at night and 70’s in the day. We did have one truly rainy day — the one we spent going to museums. There have been no crowds, and generally parking with the rig has not been a problem. It has been pretty stress free — for us!
The drive, with views of the coastline was worth many pictures. The farms and houses, mentioned above, add to the enjoyment of the scenes. Oddly enough the water off the Northumberland coast has warmish water, delightful for swimming. (Being from Colorado, I am convinced all water north of the tropics, — in a river, a lake, or coming from the sky — must be COLD!)
This same water of the ocean freezes solid in the winter, isolating communities. Before the road of the Cabot Trail was carved around the island, the far-flung towns of the outlying areas were totally isolated in the winter, except for snowshoes and sleighs. No wonder they were so self-sufficient within their individual communities. Cheticamp is one of the true French Acadian culture towns that was so remote before good roads that their culture is still pretty much untainted.
The story is told of the forest fire that burned for 12 days in 1947 stranding the occupants of one town, and nearly running them in to the sea. A neighboring town’s fishing fleet came in the night and evacuated the villagers.
Theoretically, a lot of wildlife abounds in these mountains, but we saw almost none. Mike was disappointed that even the local birds had already migrated and others already passed through for the season. No moose or bear, but a deer and her young, a coyote, a red fox and many Canadian Geese were about the total.
In the park itself, is a 1000 acre bequest of virgin hardwood forest, the last on the eastern seaboard. Within are sugar and red maples, beech, oak and birch. A small stone crofters hut replica sits, with one open side. Often the sheep were brought in with them to get out of the weather. Other times this side filled with chunks of peat, to close off the wall and allow the fire to warm the hut.
After leaving there, we hit incredible dense fog for a time, until we drove to a lower elevation to get out of it. At Cape North we stopped at a small museum depicting the rugged lives of these people in the last century and a half. Then on down the road, enjoying the coastline and homes. Mike said he can’t imagine this whole area in fall color!
At the end (or start) of the Cabot Trail, we stopped in the delightful town of Braddeck which was the summer residence of Scotsman, Alexander Graham Bell and his wife Mabel. He was a teacher of the deaf and inventor who loved nothing so much as finding the answer to a question, then moving on to something new.
He invented the telephone, and had many adventures with powered-flight. The first real success was in 1909 with a colleague in the air with the “Silver Dart” for 40 minutes around the bay of ice. The Bell museum was quite interesting with a lovingly recreated Dart in the museum, along with a cigar-shaped hydrofoil that sped across the bay at 70 mph, a speed record that stood for 10 years.
We would like to have spent more time in the town, but we checked, and Hurricane Dorian was bearing down on Nova Scotia towards Halifax, in particular — right where we planned to head. We walked down to the harbor and Mike spoke with a man pulling his boat from the water, with another waiting to do the same. The first man explained that the sailboats we saw headed out, were going to a small cove which was filling up fast with boats to wait out the storm. He said, “By tomorrow morning this time, there won’t be a boat in the harbor!”
The locals were taking the storm warnings seriously. Yet we had seen no RV’s headed out of Nova Scotia. We kept thinking of the RVers that we knew were on the very tip of Cape Breton’, and others all over the Cape. No one was moving! But, three to four days before planned, we left.
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| Simply more churches |
September 9. We are in Bangor, Me. We left Nova Scotia with the sun shining and made our way down to St. John on the New Brunswick coast. We wanted to see the St. John River at the spot where there is a tidal bore when the tide comes in. A sign welcomes you to “The Reversing River.” We were between tide changes so no tidal bore, but the water itself was fascinating. Not since the Grand Canyon, have we see whirlpools and boiling water like this.
The day was rainy but the next day was predicted to be sunny. Mike wanted to see Acadia Natl Park, so we headed that way. Buffeting winds sent us into a truck stop in Bangor, Me at Saturday noon. Monday noon, we’re still here!!
The thing Mike and I have always feared happening, happened. A slide won’t go in. Mike tried everything, to no avail. So here we sat until Monday morning. Call to RV repairman. News not good — probably gear box for slide. A man will come by to maybe help push the slide in manually. Then we can travel, but with little food or the refrigerator. Gear box several hundred dollars and 8-10 days for factory to make!
While here, we have been mildly entertained by the power line bucket trucks coming and going. They are all from New Brunswick and have been to Florida and the Carolina’s to help restore power. Now they are headed for Nova Scotia to help there, as Dorian pretty well knocked out power to the Maritime Islands.
The number of trucks was amazing. The first night 12 trucks, all with two men each, rolled in to the truck stop, parked, ate and left. Sunday, a group would come in, eat, then hit the road back north again. We counted groups of 9 trucks, 7 trucks, and then 18 trucks on Monday morning. Amazing to think of the miles these men put in traveling, to help. I can’t help wonder who is footing the bill. . .
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