Our Vacation to the East Coast: Cannons Muskets and Funny French Food

(Installment #6 - Friday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After leaving Broad Cove (AKA noisy and crowded Cove) we headed off in search of the recreated town of Louisbourg. Last time we were in Nova Scotia the historical site of Louisbourg was closed so this time we made specific plans to be there in plenty of time to see the site.

Louisbourg is a recreation of the French fortified town which thrived on Cape Breton or Isle Royale as they called it from 1713 to 1758 The French came to Louisbourg , after forfeiting Acadia and Newfoundland to the British by the terms of the Treaty of Utrecht, leaving them with only Isle Royale (Cape Breton) and Isle Saint-Jean (Prince Edward Island). The history of the town was violent as they had barely finished building it before the first siege in 1745. Eventually it was to fall in a siege in 1758 at which time the British laid total waste to the town leaving only the foundations to prevent reoccupation.

In 1961 the Government of Canada at a cost of $25 million dollar rebuilt approximately one-quarter of the original town and fortifications recreated as they were during the 1740s, immediately preceding Louisbourg's first siege.

You enter the site via the visitor centre and a transit style bus takes you the few Kilometres to the town. The size and scope of the project is amazing. It is, by all accounts, a small town with streets and walls and many buildings all functioning with a staff of actors dressed in period costumes. Michelle and I enjoyed it immensely being both history majors (Hers an MA and me a BA in history). We walked in and around all the buildings we were greeted by several actors that all stuck to their roles well. We met soldiers and merchants and cooks. We watched as they fired muskets and cannons heard the sounds of drums as they marched down the broad streets of the town. We even ate an authentic 1745 meal in a low class establishment. We where given only the utensils you would have in 1745, which amounted to a simple metal plate a chipped ceramic cup and a heavy metal spoon. Eating an open-face sandwich and vegetables with only a spoon proved challenging. I cut through the very heavy bread with some difficulty cleaving the thing into two pieces then gave up and used my hands (I am told this was the norm)

The day was warm but cloudy and some what foggy but it only added to the ambiance of the place. The firing of the cannons left an interesting but slightly acrid smell in the air. Mixed with the smell of wood smoke that was endemic to the place, it left a lasting impression on our memories of the place. Every time I smell a slightly sulfury smell now I think of Louisbourg.

We stayed as long as we could watching the actors go about their business and following wandering sheep and goats in the street. The enclosures held goats, sheep, pigs but there seemed to be many that preferred the narrows streets to the pens.

As we left the town on one of the last busses we watched the final cannon firing for the day accompanied by drums yelling and marching all in all it was a thoroughly enjoyable day.

Our Vacation to the East Coast:: No Seagulls or Good Food in Neils Harbour

(Installment #5 - Thurssday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After leaving Meat Cove we headed back to the Cabot trail stopping at a very interesting Catholic Church called Saint Margarets in the village of Saint Margarets. What was interesting was that the church was open 24/7 and there were two young girls hired to watch the building. It is nice that the Catholic Church gives its members this place to pray any time they want to. It is however unfortunate that if the doors to the church were left open here in Ottawa 24/7 someone would abuse it. Across from the church was a large cemetery that had the words Pray for us written with stone on a hill side facing the road. I have never understood the idea of praying for the dead but I guess that is why I am not Catholic.

We headed westward and as we were tired of highway like roads (the trail is a well paved highway) we pulled off onto a more rural rout towards Neils Harbour. As we entered town we noticed why the trail bypasses the town, as there is a large smelly fish plant just near the shore. Why the town is lovely the smell is not. We stopped by a road side craft store as Michelle saw another Bald Eagle on the rocks in the harbour. When we went into the store the shop girl mentioned she had seen the eagle swoop down and eat a seagull that morning. She also mentioned to Michelle that when the eagle is in the harbour there are usually no seagulls around. As it was getting later in the day we decided to eat at the Chowder house just off the end of the harbour. Unfortunately the food was mostly fried and I suspect McCain frozen fish from the packing plant, as both Michelle and I found it too greasy and we did not feel all that well afterwards.

As we headed down the coast we noticed it was getting dark and thought we had better find a place to camp for the night it was a short driving day as we stayed most of the day in Meat Cove.

We stopped for the night at a campsite just inside the park at Broad Cove, a wooded campground near ocean, north of Ingonish near east entrance of park. There was really not much to see at the campsite. Broad Cove is just that a large open cove with a sand and rock beach. The campsite was too tightly packed in and the residents were noisy. It reminded me of Place Rouge in Quebec (also crowded and noisy). We walked down and sat on the beach for a while watching the lighthouses flickering in the distance and counting the millions of stars visible in the night sky, until we both started to feel unwell because of the greasy food we ate in Neils Harbour, and then called it a night.

Our Vacation to the East Coast: Whales, Wild Horses, Ocean swimming and Coastguard boats.

(Installment #4 - Thurssday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

After we left the moose to her own devices (eating leaves and snorting) we jumped back in the car to avoid the rain, and headed off down the trail again. Our next stop was meat Cove the Northern most point on Cape Breton Island and the most remote community in all of Nova Scotia. The Cove was named thus, because apparently in the past passing mariners could smell rotting meat from moose slaughtered in the cove. As we headed into the cove the road became narrower and more rugged. Finally the road became little more than a dirt track. Just as we entered the cove the road turned to the right to follow the coastline and gave way to some amazing views. The campsite was on a rocky cliff that sloped down to the sea. The hiking guide book we have described this as, resembling the end of the world. which was a fair description as there are two sets of sheer rock face that plunge into the sea. Nestled between the cliffs is a pebble beach created by a slow trickling stream, that brings pebbles and sand down between the rocks. We pulled into the very basic campground, and the young guy in charge of renting campsites told us to go pick a site and come up and pay. There were two very interesting sites one was on the grass by the edge of the cliff and one was out on a spit of land surrounded by cliff edges. As the site was perched on top of this sea stack of sorts with a rocky causeway leading to it we decided not to camp there. Mainly because going to the washroom at night might be dangerous. The site we chose however had an equally amazing view. The entire cove was visible from the tent. After an unsuccessful attempt to light a fire we called it a night. The wood I chose was wet I didn’t have any kerosine (for my infamous woof lighting method) and my cub scout leader pride wouldn’t let me give up trying and join the neighbours at their fire, something I think Michelle won’t forgive me for. The next morning I woke up early and headed out to the empty campsite on the point. I guess no one else thought it safe enough to camp on either. There were two young girls standing there pointing out to sea. As I followed their line of sight I noticed two large moving humps in the water, there were two whales not more than 20 metres off the point and clearly visible.. I hurried back to the tent to wake Michelle unfortunately by the time we got back the whales were farther down the shoreline, but we did see the occasional tail flip out of the water. We decided to head out for a hike along the cliff tops toward the point where the whales had swam off to, we looked at Meat Cove mountain and decided as the trails were not very well marked we would do them another day when we had a better map. The cliff trail headed off into the woods just north of the campground the first bit of the trail was well beaten but gradually the brush started to overgrow the trail. Part way up the trail we came across an abandoned log cabin in an overgrown meadow. The hill in the woods got steep as we headed toward the cliff top. Just as the land levelled out the trees made way for open pastures. In the woods we saw horse tracks apparently there is a wild horse in the area. The path followed a saddle like hill that formed an outcropping into the ocean. The trail began to head downward steeply toward the water passing a burned out patch of trees and finishing at the cliff face. We sat on the cliff for about half an hour or more watching cormorants on the rocks below. Boats would pass in an out of the harbour around this point. We met a couple from Ottawa on the trail, a military man that worked at NDHQ and his wife and two kids. We headed back along the trail with the woman and her daughter while the husband headed to the end of the point with the son. We got a bit turned around in the woods as we followed the woman, but finally made it back to the main trail past the cabin and back to camp. The husband however was a bit better navigator and had made it back before us. I think he was less than impressed with his wife but given the trail was not well marked it was hard to blame anyone.

We got back to the camp at noon and decided to have lunch as we where eating lunch at the small camp seafood hut we saw a coastguard boat pull into the cove. The locals seemed to show great interest in the reason it would be here. I guess it is not a common occurrence. The speculation was that they had been called because the sea-kayakers that had come to the cove last night and camped on the beach were having problems. However it seemed the Coastguard boat was simply following a drifting old lobster trap that had been left out beyond the end of the season. Apparently they are strict on fishing season rules since the death of the cod fisheries. The woman that served us also mentioned that the wild horse ( which may have once belonged to a meat Cove resident) had frightened a few hikers on the trail this morning, unfortunately we only saw hoof prints. We watched as the coastguard hauled the old trap out of the water, and then we went for a very brief swim in a very cold ocean. For some reason I was not in a brave mood and decided to forgo the idea of swimming and just dunked myself into the fidget water, that was enough for me. Michelle loved the water and floated in the waves with her toes out of the water. It is interesting how you float higher in salt water that fresh water.

After we went for a swim we decided to head off back to the Cabot trail but that is another installment......

Our Vacation to the East Coast : Oat Cakes, The Green Party, and a Moose

(Installment #3 - Wednesday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

Not far down the Cabot Trail we found a campground. I believe it was called Macleod’s or something like that. While it was mainly a trailer park like all the campgrounds on the trail it had an excellent ocean view. The problem was that the ground was not level enough to have a good night sleep the tent sites were on a steep hillside. In the morning I let Michelle sleep in a bit as because the hill made sleep so unpleasant I’m sure neither she nor I got a good night sleep. I wondered down to the washroom and on my way back I ran into a guy selling traditional Scottish breakfast food out of the back of a PT Cruiser. He had oat cakes, tea, coffee, scones and a number of other things. As I was low on cash, I bought coffee tea and an oat cake to share with Michelle. After Michelle woke and sleepily munched the oat cake (which was really good) we went back down to the PT Cruiser Guy and bough another for the road. As we were buying the oat cake the sister of the guy that runs it, was talking (basically campaigning) to a bunch that had gathered at the Cruiser. This was Elizabeth May, from Ottawa, one of the candidates in the race for the leadership of the Green Party. She seems to have some good political opinions unfortunately I tend to think the green party has a few too many idealistic dreamers in it but I could be convinced to vote for them if they found some way to strengthen their party.

After a short yack on politics we headed off down the trail once again. As the trail passes Pleasant bay it cuts inland and passes a really interesting highland Bog. Michelle and I stopped and even though her cold/flu was still being a pain, we decided to hike the bog trail, which was mostly a boardwalk but very pleasant. As we were entering the trail, we saw a moose on the far edge of the bog just by the trees that hid the bog from the highway. There was a growing crowd of motorists that had pulled over to watch her through the trees. I think the moose (a cow - female moose are called cows) was getting a bit annoyed because she was gradually making her way away from the highway. We walked the rest of the bog trail and noticed a number of very interesting bog plants some that were even carnivorous bug eaters. The signs on the trail warned us to look out for moose especially around the late afternoon (which was when we arrived). As we came back to the beginning of the loop we found the moose had moved even closer to the trail we stood and watched her from no more than 20 feet away. I took a lot of really good photos (that I will blog after I scan them).

The crowd on the trail was getting larger as people from the highway pulled over and hiked up the trail to see her. Then this obnoxious fat preteen brat decided to yell and push his way off the trail to get closer and spooked her, and she headed toward the highway ditch. Luckily there was no traffic as she scooted across the road, and disappeared.

Our next stop was to be Meat Cove but that will be another installment.......

Our Vacation to the East Coast : Moose and eagles on the trail

(Installment #2 - Tuesday)
Photos and many edits to follow.

We drove from Cavendish beach across the Island leaving the land of Anne of Green Gables and Lucy Maud Montgomery behind. Although it is a pretty place the tourist stuff is taking over, I never want to see another red headed doll again. As we passed Charlottetown we saw signs for a lighthouse at Prim point, driving down some seriously rough roads within twenty minutes we were at Prim point. The light house was the last brick lighthouse on the island. However the brick while visable inside the lighthouse was covered with asbestus siding. Michelle sat and watched the ocean as I climbed my way to the top. The stairs were very steep and there were no hand rails but the veiw from the tiop was awesome. I took a picture of the veiw and kept the glass of the light in the picture to show where it was taken from the photo turned out incredable. As we made our way over to the ferry I thought about the project concept I had considered some time ago, to investigate the reconstruction of the Nellie J Banks. A project I am seriously thinking of dumping due to the constraints and the risks involved. The banks being one of the most famous rum runners to sail the shores of Nova Scotia and PEI. However with it still on my mind, and as we had an extra hour till the ferry crossed to Nova Scotia I mentioned that it may be interesting to head up to Murray Harbour to Michelle. Michelle said that if we didn’t I might regret having been so close and not going, and so we made a detour to Murray Harbour the last resting place of the Nellie J Banks. In Murray Harbour I realised that there was not enough people to really support such a project as the whole town consisted of 500 souls. We stopped at Ellie’s a gift shop, and I phoned Sue Burns the owner of the property were the Banks was burned, and she said come right over. Sue was very surprised to see us but with the usual Maritime friendliness she showed us down to the spot on her property where the banks was burned. Sue told us her neighbour a 95 year old woman was the widow of the man that lit the Banks on fire in 1953. Unfortunately the woman was not available when Sue called. Sue said if she had known we were coming we could have camped in her yard. When we walked down to the beach I picked up a peace of metal strapping that Sue believes came off the Banks and Sue told me to keep it. As for the project I am not sure that it will go much farther unless I can find an enthusiastic Murray Harbour person to take it on.

Having only about 20 minutes to make it to the ferry we bid farewell to Sue and headed off to the ferry. We made it just in time, and were not the last in line. The trip across was great Michelle spotted herons in the harbour so I took several photos of the herons feasting on shell fish on the shore and some of the lighthouses that flank the entrance into the port. Arriving in Nova Scotia Michelle and I decided that as the last time we were there we went up the south and east shore first and did not have enough time for the North west shore, we would start by going up that shore.

The drive to the Canso Causeway seemed long as there was little scenery to see but it was good to see the moose fences once again as last time we were up that way we saw several moose running along the fence line so we kept our eye on the fence but saw no moose, unfortunately. We made our way to the causeway and like last time as we headed over Michelle saw another Bald Eagle. I think this is nature's way of trying to entice us to move to the east coast. However money still holds us back as there is little or no work for us out there at the moment. After we crossed the causeway we took the Ceilidh route along the shore through Inverness and Margoree harbour. We entereed the Cape Breton highlands park at Cheticamp. The area around Cheticamp is mostly Acadian so we stopped at a craft shop and watched Acadian needle work being done. Unfortunately the tourist trade has raised the cost of needle work to a point where it cost thirty dollars for a 6 inch square of it, so we passed on that souvenir. We stopped at the info centre as we entered the park and got some info briefly and then were back on the road. Michelle was concerned, and rightly so, that we were spending way too much time driving and not enough hiking, so we drove only as far as Cheticamp and parked to go on our first sizable hike of the vacation. We stopped below Grand Falaise a steep rock face and took a few pictures then moved the car to the parking area across the road to take Le Chemin du Buttereau trail. As the full trail would take us back to Cheticamp we decided to do the loop trail (I forgot the name) that takes us around the hill and cliffs overlooking the ocean. As we went down the trail we came to a point were the trail ended as the ground had eroded away and fell into the ocean. As we came up to the cliff, a bald eagle flew across the end of the trail, following the shore looking for food. We turned back to follow the trail around the drop off and headed along the cliff face where there were some amazing views of the ocean and the sand bar that used to be the road to Cheticamp.. The trail itself was a settlers cart track to Cheticamp so we found several sites of ruined homes. As we came past a very pretty meadow we met a few hikers going the other way and they told us that by the ruins of the le Blanc house there was a moose cow and calf, so we hurried on and looked through the trees to see the calf grazing on meadow flowers. We hiked back around the loop to the look out again, meeting a few more hikers and telling them to watch for the moose. We met the first group of hikers again as we came back around the loop to look at the cliff where we saw the eagle again and they told us that when they first saw the moose they were actually walking on the trail ahead of them. We followed the trail back to the car and headed up shore to see how far we would get before it got too late to camp.

But that will be another installment.....

Our Vacation to the East Coast

(Installment #1 - Saturday Sunday Monday)
Photos and many edits to follow.



The first few days of our vacation where spent on the road and in hotels, rather than camping as we had planned. Our first night after a feverish pace of travel, landed us in the mid size town of Riviere du Loup (pronounced Rivee-Air duh Loo) roughly translated as wolf river.

We arrived rather late about nine o’clock in the evening and as Michelle was very sick, her cold/flu having got very bad during the travel, we decided to search for an hotel. We stopped at a riverside motel that wanted almost eighty dollars for a room. It smelled bad and had an extremely rude owner who smelled like stale liquor, so we moved on. In Riviere du Loup we stopped at three different hotels, all were booked solid and we were told that there were no rooms available anywhere in town. At the last stop Michelle was feeling so miserable and tired, that she stayed in the car, as I fought with my very limited french to find out if the motel had a room, which of course it didn’t. However the owner did know a place down the road in a small suburb, if you can call it that, of Riviere du Loup. Michelle braved the rain to come take directions and we drove through the rain for a few minutes to a B&B motel called Hotel De La Plage (I think) It was an incredible place, very old and had a bathroom down the hall, but was creaking literally with charm. When we pulled in we hadn’t eaten so the owner had a meal made up for us less than 30 dollars. As I recall it was seafood pasta and Ham in maple sauce. We made our way up the creaking stairs and collapsed into a rather oversoft and small bed, but comfortable nonetheless.

In the morning Michelle was still feeling bad but it was evident that her cold was not as intense as the night before. We had breakfast looking out over the water, as the hotel was as it claimed, right on the beach. The food was great we helped ourselves to the buffet and ordered fruit wrapped in a crepe to go with it. We looked out at the water and thought about a hike on the beach, but had to get moving as we wanted to hit the Maritimes relatively quickly. As the rain was bad and we did not get off as quick as we hoped, we made our way to Moncton by evening and again we hunted for a hotel as Michelle’s flu/cold was being nasty. She cried on my shoulder wondering when this stupid cold/flu would pass. But we found a Comfort Inn easily as the weekend had passed. But when we were watching the TV we noticed that the weather was to be bad for two more days but the weather on Prince Edward Island (PEI) looked good so we headed for the island by way of the Confederation bridge. The clouds and rain remained, but got thinner. As Michelle was feeling better and did not want to spend her entire vacation in the car or a hotel, we stopped for a short hike in Kensington PEI along the Confederation trail which follows an old railway bed. There were also couple of museums in Kensington, a very cute little veterans museum and a rail museum which we walked through. By the time we reached Malpeque bay , the weather had improved we stopped for lunch at a great lobster hut on the harbour and had some delicious mussels. We hiked at Cabot Beach park where the cubs had the national jamboree last year. We saw some great views of the harbour and walked the dunes. The boats pass into the harbour there through a narrow channel and that made for great photos. We also collected a number of shells from the beach and Michelle warned me about what had happened last time as the shell’s owners had rotted in the car leaving the car with a bad odour for weeks so we checked out our shells with care to avoid bringing the remains of shellfish back with us. In amongst the dunes we found a dump were the locals had obviously illegally dumped mussel shells It seems not everyone walks the full length of the beach or turns back before they reach the shell dumping area. The camp area at Cabot Beach was full so we drove on to Cavendish beach and camped right on the grassy knoll before the beach. The surf was loud at night but the view was amazing. The evening we arrived we met a couple from Orleans as we walked on the beach flying our pocket kite. Our neighbours were students just graduated from high school in Germany who were hitch hiking from Montreal to the Maritimes and back. Although the wind was high and the salt spray coated the tent at night there were no leaks, our pre-trip water proofing seemed to have worked Michelle hinted at staying in cavendish beach, but being the not so good listener I am at times I missed the hint, I was also suffering from a lack of quality sleep and tended to be some what cranky to Michelle’s annoyance. It took me some time to live down my bad humour. However it passed and we did stop and do some shopping in Cavendish and then stayed for a while and Sandspit amusement park. Michelle loves Ferris wheels she finds them very romantic so that was our first stop. The wheel stopped a couple times at the top and the view from the top was breathtaking of the beach and dunes and ocean. PEI has this amazing contrast of grass green red mud and ocean Blue with highlights of white in the surf. If there was work there it would be an amazing place to live. We also went on the bumper boats which helped to cool us down as the sun was now shining regularly and leaving burn traces across Michelle’s shoulders. After that Michelle wanted to go on the roller coaster, which is not my favourite thing to do as I am a consummate coward about the things as I am sure the car is going to leave the track at any minute I haven’t got the trust in engineering that Michelle has I guess that is because her dad is an engineer.

Expanding My Musical Library
My 20 Top
Modern Artists with Folk Influences
Acoustic Sonority
(Resembling Great Big Sea)