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.....