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!
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