Cape Breton Island--Cabot Trail

We have scoured most of Cape Breton Island. Yesterday it was the Cabot Trail which follows a path around the shoreline of the island.. And while most of the villages are of Scot/Irish descent there are several that are all French/Acadian. Don’t know the full story but apparently there were 14 families deported from France in 1755 (don’t know the reason) and everyone in these villages is a descendent from those 14 families. And when I asked the guy at the fuel stop about the Quebec French relations he made it quite clear the Quebec people don’t even speak “real” French…I changed the subject to winter weather questions pretty quickly. The terrain goes from mountains to rolling hills and the seashore vistas are spectacular.

To Sydney

Today we traveled the Marconi Trail from Baddeck (Bahdeck) thru Sydney to Louisbourg and back….about 6 hours. Factoids...Alexander Graham Bell's home is in Baddeck and also the birthplace of Canadian Aviation- The Silver Dart-. So many quaint seaport villages (more boats than houses) of 2-300 people with a preponderance named after a Saint and least one catholic church in every one. Rome must really love the revenue stream from this area:) It is truly a beautiful area.

Hello Nova Scotia

Entered Nova Scotia first thing this morning but yet again decided to take a “scenic route”. Two and half hours of dairy farms and potholes later we finally gave up and headed back to the highway. I think scenic drives in the Maritimes are really intended for farm machinery, compact cars and bicyclists. You get the idea that maybe these roads aren’t meant for 5th wheels when you see a herd of cows all stop grazing to look up and watch you go by. Anyway our original plan of going to the city of Halifax and start from there to explorie southwest NS has been abandoned. Several people we have met along the way said the island of Cape Breton in the Northeast is a must so here we go. We have stopped at a campground just outside Baddeck, NS and will be here for at least 3 nights.

A little more NewBrunswick

Stopped at Hopewell Rocks New Brunswick and the site where the Bay of Fundy high tide is 48 feet above low tide. Makes for some interesting boating challenges and of course a great tourist “atraption”. We fell for it and had to stop to pay admission to take pictures. Happened to arrive at dead low tide so we got to walk on the “ocean floor”. Stopped for the night at a Provincial Campground on the shore of Northumberland Strait. This place is being run by some of the toughest mosquitoes we have ever seen. This gang makes Florida and Alaska mosquitoes look like amateurs. I actually think they have meetings back in the woods and come out with a coordinated attack plan. Bad news when you see them licking the lid on the Deep Woods Off bottle.

St Andrew's NB--serious tides

Low Tide!!!

On to New Brunswick

We left the Maine seacoast behind and headed northeast to the town of Calais and the Canadian border. I had no idea that Maine was this sparsely populated. Twenty miles from the coast the number houses and villages drop off drastically. The roads reminded us of stretches of the Alaskan highway but with way better pavement. A few farms along Highway 9 but nothing else for the 75 mile run to the border. Have arrived at the New River Provincial Park about 20 kilometers (yes kilometers we are in Canada EH) from St Johns and will explore here today and tomorrow. This campground actually smells like a Christmas tree…we’re surrounded by blue spruce

Bar Harbor (just pictures)