Saturday 17 July 2010

Arising early to beat the heat, we set off for a cycle as we have not been able to use the bikes for a while. We cycled through a National Park along Brackley Beach following sea inlets and sand dunes before going down a grass track that ended on a deserted beach scattered with the most amazing assortment of driftwood.
After the cycle, we went for a wander along the beach, but being high tide and having to dodge many washed up red jellyfish made it quite tough going.
We spent the rest of the day at the cottage, reading on the deck, swimming and just taking time out from being tourists. This really feels like a beachside summer holiday and it is a treat to switch hotel rooms and meals out for a cottage and home cooking.

It was time to do some star gazing this evening, so we attended a really interesting lecture on stars and galaxies with stunningly beautiful space photographs from the Hubble telescope. We then headed off to the beach in the dark to observe the night skies through a telescope. We saw the craters on the moon; Venus; Saturn’s rings and 2 moons; an open star cluster; a closed star group and another galaxy. It was fascinating and we become so inconsequential in the vastness of space where distances are measured in light years.

Driving home we saw some of the nocturnal wildlife including a raccoon and a couple of cute little red foxes.

Friday 16 July 2010

Leaving Cape Breton Island today was hard and we definitely want to come back here some time and spend a couple of weeks on the island. However, we have done a lot of driving as each day’s activity was at least a 3 hour round trip to get to and we are looking forward to our next destination which will be less about sightseeing and more about beach walks, cycling and relaxing in our cottage.

So leaving Cape Breton and driving to Caribou, we caught the one hour ferry across to Prince Edward Island (PEI) and entered our 5th Canadian province. We have covered Ontario, Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia and now entering PEI, a 280km long island which is a province on its own. This area is different to everything else that we have seen and does not have as many of the trees and lakes as the other provinces. It is a large farming area and main exports include mussels and potatoes, so Liam should feel right at home here!

Our cottage has a lovely deck and gas braai and doubles as a petting zoo housing sheep, pigs, cows, a miniature horse, a pet raccoon and even a couple of lamas! The temperature has increased to a humid 28 degrees and we spent the afternoon relaxing, swimming and playing frisby. We are both sporting a serious suntan and good fitness levels

Thursday 15 July 2010

Another creature that we have been hunting on our trip, apart from the moose, beaver and bald eagle is a puffin! This quest started back in Ireland and during our trip around the Ring of Kerry I hunted mercilessly to see one. I had no idea that they populate the Canadian coasts as well.

Anyway, we set off on a Bird Island Boat Tour this morning, with promises of puffin sightings. After a 45 minute cruise out to the 2 small bird islands, we were rewarded with sightings of northern gannets, 2 species of cormorant, various gulls, razorbills, more bald eagles and yes PUFFINS ! I had no idea they were so small and the presence of the bald eagles makes them very nervous so they were impossible to photograph without a telephoto lens, but we enjoyed seeing many of them swimming and nesting. There was also an abundance of grey fur seals, who popped their heads out of the choppy water to look at us quizzically. We really enjoyed the trip despite the choppy rough sea around the island and we got an off shore view of parts of the Cabot Trail we had driven on Tuesday.

Back at the log cabin we enjoyed the first sunny evening since our arrival. The sun only sets after 9pm in summer, but it has rained every evening since we got here. We had the proverbial braai and relaxed on the deck whilst the squirrels and chipmunks entertained us. It is amazing how brazen they become when there is food around. They were taking bread off the floor right next to us, running over our feet a couple of times, dragging off pieces of bread 3 times their size and when we stopped feeding them, one even came running onto the deck, looked up at me and chattered loudly as he demanded more tidbits!

I was enjoying relaxing on the deck too much to move, but Liam went off to explore the Alexandar Graham Bell Museum. During his adult life, he settled in Baddeck on Cape Breton Island and this is where he spent the rest of his life. Not only did he invent the telephone, but he invented many other things including the first powered flight in Canada; a boat he built held the world speed record for a while and he was a founder member of the National Geographic Society. He also worked with and educated many deaf people including Helen Keller.

Wednesday 14 July 2010

We reached our furthest east point of the trip today, by driving to Louisburg, a 1747 fortress built by the French and seized by the British twice. Fifty buildings have been rebuilt on the original foundations and archeological excavations continue on site. The staff was dressed in period costumes and was very real in the roles they played. Getting in the gate was the hardest task as the soldiers guarding the gate put you through paces with 20 questions as they would have any visitors of the
1700’s trying to gain access to the fort!

After taking the orientation tour, we set about exploring on our own seeing the soldiers quarters; the town complete with local hotel and brewery; a woman making lace, a display of the native Micmaq people’s history, amongst other buildings. We also witnessed several activities such as drummers and pipers marching, muskets and cannons being fired and a village thief receive his public punishment! It was a great outing and this lovely day was finished off in true style with a lovely braai on the patio of our log cabin.

Tuesday 13 July 2010

Waiting for the mist to clear, we set off on the famous Cabot Trail named after Giovanni Caboto who first landed in North America in 1497. Apparently he is attributed with being the first to land here as Christopher Columbus discovered the Americas, but only landed somewhere in the Caribbean. This 268km scenic drive goes covers the part of the west and northern peninsula of Cape Breton Island and includes the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Following the map, we soon discovered a cd available at any store on the route that gives an audio tour of the whole trail. We purchased one and listened to it on our drive. It was fantastic giving us information about each town and area we travelled through and included main tourist attractions, history, flora and fauna, geology, folk tales, music and culture and much more.

We drove through the scenic Margaree river valley and detoured to Whale Cove where we were blessed to see a beautiful Bald Eagle on top of the cliffs overlooking the sea. Here we stopped to enjoy a walk on the beach while one of the locals was teaching some guests some type of tai chi class.

Thursday 13 July Continued

We drove through the scenic Margaree river valley and detoured to Whale Cove where we were blessed to see a beautiful Bald Eagle on top of the cliffs overlooking the sea. Here we stopped to enjoy a walk on the beach while one of the locals was teaching some guests some type of tai chi class.

Continuing along the coastline, it was impossible to take in so much beauty in one trip. There were mountains, cliffs, coves, sandy beaches, forests and peninsulas jutting out into the sea creating a myriad of inlets. Driving through the Acadien region where the French settled, we arrived at Cheticamp and the entrance to the National Park. Crossing a river bridge we were rewarded with a sight to behold – our most wanted – MOOSE. We stopped to watch the mother and calf as they walked along the river bed. However, a crowd soon gathered and she moved off into the thick forest.

Tuesday 13 July 2010 Continued

Passing many lookout points we took many photographs and then stopped to walk along a boardwalk over a bog with its many frogs and insect eating plants. It was a very interesting ecological area. We continued, driving through places like Pleasant Bay and Sugar Loaf Mountain and arrived at the Cabot’s Landing National Park with it’s 4 mile long beach around the Aspy Bay.

Leaving the beaten track we discovered a quaint little fishing village called White Point where the residents work 2 months of the year as lobster fisherman and then spend the rest of the year relaxing or looking for other odd jobs. I counted 11 boats in the harbor which is about the total number of households in this tiny out of the way place.

Passing through Ingonish and the beautiful St Anne’s Bay we were happy to be heading home after our ten hour journey. We rewarded ourselves with a wonderful fish barbeque courtesy of the halibut given to us by the Jim and Teresita.

Monday 12 July 2010

Today left us house bound with the pouring rain, so we got cozy in our cottage and spent time reading, doing puzzles and catching up on journals and blogs. We had a nice braai this evening and are hoping that the weather improves tomorrow so that we can explore this beautiful Island.

Sunday 11 July 2010

We drove an hour to the only LDS church in Cape Breton Island in North Sydney and enjoyed the service with a total of 9 members of the congregation – that’s including us! However, the people were so friendly that we were invited home for lunch with Jim and Teresita Demeyere. We really enjoyed our afternoon with them and made some good friends. We are planning to link up with them in October in Salt Lake City for general conference. Jim owns his own construction company amongst others so we speak the same language. They were so hospitable and we were sent home with homemade sausages, moose steaks and freshly caught halibut. We now have enough food for 6 weeks!

The Island looks really beautiful – like the Scottish Highlands by the sea, although a lot of the view is blocked by the abominable weather! At times the pouring rain and mist reduced visibility to less than 20m. The Island is split into 3 peninsulas by a large inland salt lake that joins the sea and sea inlets that separates almost all of the East side of the Island. The Scots populated the Island in the 1700’s felling the oppression and poverty in Scotland and many of the road signs are written in English and Gaelic. It has a very rural feel about it and most parts of the Island are quite remote, sparsely populated with small villages and towns.

Saturday 10 July 2010

The festivities were in full swing today, starting with a street parade that included many Scottish bagpipe bands marching through the street, followed by drummers. The Canadian Mounted Police also participated in the parade and other floats and vehicles included the mayor, town dignitaries, the fire dept, local charities, vintage cars, clowns, a man riding a penny farthing, farming tractors and the hill billies! It was a fun street parade.

When the one hour parade had gone past us, we cycled along the road after it. Getting close to the end of the parade, some people thought we were part of the parade and clapped or cheered and a couple took pictures of us – it must have been Liam’s bright yellow South African T shirt with “Eish!” brazen across his chest that attracted the attention!

Arriving at the field, the day held many activities and we watched the girls aged 4 to 16 years competing in highland dancing, solo pipers and drummers being judged, Piper bands performing in competitions and teams undertaking tug of wars and the international strong men competing in the Highland Games that we had seen yesterday.

They throw heavier stones and hammers than the juniors and the caber tossing involves a wood pole that is 22ft long and weighs over 70kg. Just lifting and balancing the thing is a feat in itself, nevermind running down the field balancing it vertically before trying to toss it over! These athletes are top class and the one guy competing came 3rd in the world championships for strong men and the Olympic equivalent of these sports like shot put and the hammer. He is a school principal by profession. Another one of the competitors who holds a couple of Canadian records in a marine biologist by profession. I marveled at the strength and skill of these men.
We dragged ourselves away from the proceedings at about 3pm as we still have to drive 3 hours to our next destination – Baddeck on Cape Breton Island. Just after we arrived at our log cabin, it started raining and poured for the next 48 hours non stop!

Friday 9 July 2010

Another hot sunny day dawned at 31 degrees accompanied by a fairly strong wind, but we set off to explore the town by bike and see how far the field where the Highland Games are taking place is from the hotel. Anticipating heavy traffic later in the day and tomorrow, we did not really want to have to drive to Columbus Field for the events. The cycle took us through this quaint town and we saw many preparations underway as the town prepared for the crowds of visitors that the games would attract. Beautiful baskets of colourful flowers were being hung along the bridge and sidewalk. We passed a beautiful university campus and then cycled along the sea inlet past beautiful sea grasses and expanses of water.

Curtain raiser events were held in the afternoon, so we headed off to the games on our bikes which became our transport for our entire time in Antigonish. We watched 13 to 18 year old boys competing in traditional events like tossing the stone (weighing 7kg); throwing the hammer (weighing 13kg) and tossing the caber (a 19ft pole weighing about 40kg). I could not believe how strong and tall some of these young boys were. They are all provincial athletes competing in the Canadian Championships and there was a 13 year old competing who is 6.1 ft tall! I have never seen any of these sports before, so it was fascinating and confirmed my beliefs that the Scots are mad!

These events were followed by the Farmers Walk. International strong men run 100ft race carrying two weights totaling 180kg. The fastest time was 10.22 seconds. I was amazed at their strength. Liam and I could not even lift one of these weights, nevermind carry it anywhere!

Thursday 8 July 2010

Starting the day with a long swim at the local sports centre, we set off for Antigonish, a small town at the point of the Nova Scotia peninsula that is hosting its 147th annual Highland Games. I had also been hoping to catch one of the Highland Games I had read about on our trip.

Arriving in Antigonish, not much was happening and it was humid and 33 degrees C, so we plonked ourselves in the air conditioned hotel room and Liam did the laundry while I had a tv detective program marathon.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

This morning was by far the worst part of the holiday and dropping Christine off at the airport to start her 32 hour journey home, left me sobbing for the next 3 days with such pain in my heart. She left such a big gap in our family with her departure. The poor kid has a long journey flying Halifax to Toronto to Amsterdam to Johannesburg. However, she negotiates flight connections well, so I was not worried about her making the trip. I did get a call at 2am on Thursday morning as her wallet had been stolen in Toronto airport, but she managed without it and at least her passport was still in her possession. She was really brave about the whole thing!

Having not yet seen downtown Halifax as we have been staying across the harbor in Dartmouth, we set out for the harbor bridge and a drive through downtown before going to the park for a walk along the beach. It is a pretty city which looks like the combination of a fishing village and city, with a large hill in the middle of it on which sits a citadel. This is the second largest natural harbor in the world and we walked along the harbor edge and the stone beaches getting our first look over the North Atlantic Ocean.

The evening’s activity was a good distraction from my heavy heart as we entered a massive ice hockey arena to watch the Nova Scotia International Tattoo. I have been looking out for a Tattoo our whole trip, hoping to see one somewhere. I saw the Edinburgh Military Tattoo when I was 9 years old and have never seen one again. It really was fantastic and for 3 hours we were treated to marching bands, piper bands, military bands, Acadian and Scottish dancers; jugglers; acrobats; the Paris Fire Department gymnastics display team; the Netherlands bicycle and unicycle team, the German Flying Grandpas trampoline team; military obstacle course races; navy fire drill teams; opera and pop singers and a massive choir including a children’s choir. There were 1200 participants and it was a phenomenal show which soon became one of the highlights of the trip.