(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......
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