Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Planning a trip to a new area can be challenging but I had a lot of help! Canadian friends I had met in Florida gave me advice on all the places we needed to see during our Nova Scotia trip. Actually, it was almost a bit overwhelming. But I printed off a map of Nova Scotia and started writing things down with arrows to the places. Everyone said, “You must go to Cape Breton and drive on the Cabot Trail!” I was already growing attached to the Halifax area, but we made our way to the island of Cape Breton. It was mid afternoon by the time we got set up on our own little island, Cheticamp Island. We decided there was time to visit the rug hooking hot spots in the area. Les Trois Pignons was only a few miles away.

The wonderful museum displayed hooked art done in the traditional Cheticamp method, done with yarn and hooked lowly in every hole of burlap. The pieces were gorgeous and I was especially impressed by ones created by Elizabeth LeFort. Here I am by a portrait she hooked of Jackie Kennedy.

We were thoroughly enjoying viewing her incredibly detailed art and then we walked into a room with huge pieces depicting the life of Jesus. Just amazing!

Then it was off to do some geocaching very near our campsite. Look how happy my man is when he finds the cache.

And look at this gorgeous scenery!

We were scheduled to go whale watching at Pleasant Bay the next day. On our way I saw this sign, so we had to stop.

Annette was a real joy to meet and she demonstrated hooking in the Cheticamp style and showed how she does sculpting. You could tell she loves rug hooking even after doing it for years and years.

Her hook looked well used.

Lola’s shop was filled with tempting hooked art.

I had to drag myself away from all the rug hooking lovelies and off to whale watching. We had been told by neighbors in the RV park that they had seen no whales at all that day when they went to Pleasant Bay with Captain Mark’s Whale Watching. And that is where I had made our prepaid reservation. So, I told myself not to get my hopes up; we probably wouldn’t see anything. After we got going on the boat, I set about to just enjoy the ride. The ocean was calm, the water a beautiful color, the sun was shining and I was sitting next to a handsome man. What more could I want?!

Whales! That’s what I wanted. And that’s what we got!

Several pods of pilot whales approached. The guide explained that the lighter gray ones with stripes were babies that were less than a month old.

Some of them seemed to perform for us by getting on their backs and splashing their flippers.

Look how close they came between our boat and a zodiac boat. It was explained to us that pilot whales are very curious and will often come to see the people. All in all, we saw four pods of whales, several seals and bald eagles.

The cruise ended at supper time so we ate at the Rusty Anchor.

We then had to drive back to our camper in Cheticamp. We got some groceries and this scene greeted me as I left the store.

The next day we were determined to drive half of the Cabot Trail and do some hiking. When planning this part of the trip we had asked which direction we should drive the trail. Some told us to drive it clockwise so we would be on the inside and not right on the edge as we went around the mountains. In fact, one person told me if we did it the other direction that I should sit behind Matt in the back seat so I wouldn’t feel like I was going to go over the cliffs. I had thought we would stay in Cheticamp for nine nights and do all our Cape Breton explorations from that spot, but they only had a spot for us for three nights. So, plans changed and the Cabot Trail had to be explored in portions. We hiked part of the Skyline hiking trail and stopped for lunch at this spot.

Then we walked on the steps and boardwalk right on the edge of the mountain. I loved it!

Just breathtaking scenery.

But it was time to hike back. We found part of a moose rack along the trail. And we saw a moose trying to stay cool in the shade of the forest.

We continued to drive until we were at Cape North. We decided to continue towards the water and a geocache. We found an adorable little town and wharf with a beach. Just the perfect spot to eat the food I had packed. So, we had a delicious humdinger dinner at Dingwall.

The next day it was time to pack up and leave our little island at Cheticamp. I had found a campground in North Sydney that had openings for four nights and it was the perfect spot for exploring the rest of Cape Breton.

We hiked to the overlook at Freshwater Lake. Such beauty.

That day held lots of geocaches and hikes. One took us to Mary Ann Falls where we stuck our feet in the water. It was a steamy hot day and we wished we had our swimsuits so we could join the others that were taking a dip right below the falls.

We drove the rest of the Cabot Trail to Cape North again, going the opposite way than we had before. Every turn had beautiful views. It was hard to take it all in!

The next day we headed to Louisbourg. There was the oldest lighthouse in Canada. I was sad that when we got there it was foggy, but I snapped a shot anyway. Good thing I did! Soon we couldn’t see it at all.

And I almost lost Matt.

We thought since it was foggy maybe we wouldn’t go to the Fortress of Louisbourg, but when we drove away from the lighthouse, the sun came back out.

The fortress was impressive and lots of fun, especially since there was a geocache to find. Matt had to wait for the guard to leave his post to be able to get the one in the guard house.

We were near a place we had sung about in chorus in Florida. The Sun N Fun chorus director had us sing “A Song for Mira”. We saw the beautiful Mira River, but wondered where Marion Bridge was. We finally found it!

Actually, I guess that was the sign for the little town and there is really a bigger bridge that we didn’t find. But we had to keep going and look for the Marconi historical site. When my dad, who had started a radio station, heard that we were going to Nova Scotia he said I should look it up. It was very interesting.

Marconi, a pioneer in using radio waves to send communications, set up four towers with lots of lines, right on the spot where we were standing.

The base is still barely visible of a couple of them.

He chose this spot in Glace Bay for his momentous experiment. He was the first to communicate over air waves all the way to England.

We had a lovely supper in downtown Sydney. The seafood in Nova Scotia is just delicious!

I kept hearing that fiddle music is an important part of the culture in Cape Breton. So far, we had been too busy to pursue hearing any, but we did see this giant fiddle.

We were in our last day in Cape Breton. I had actually seen almost everything on my list! And we were tired of driving. So, we decided to see if there were any geocaches nearby. I looked at the geocaching app on my phone and saw one that wasn’t too far away. I actually struggled with myself about telling Matt about it. It sounded like one he would absolutely love, so of course I wanted to tell him. But the geocache owner went out of his way to say how difficult the terrain was to get to it and not only that but it took you to a cave. That all sounded a bit too much for me, but after all the times my sweet husband took me to rug hooking shops and museums, I figured I’d better tell him about it.

He was excited to hike half a mile through the woods with no path to the cache. In fact, not only was there no path, but it was thick woods with sink holes all over. This shows what our strenuous hike went through.

At times I thought I just wouldn’t make it around all those deep sinkholes, but I did and we found the cave.

And we found the geocache within the cave.

I was exhausted, but we still had to go through that karst terrain to get back to the truck. Somehow it went a bit easier and I was very proud of myself. Matt said it was the best geocache ever.

Part of us just wanted to collapse in the camper, but it was our last evening in Cape Breton and I wanted to hear the traditional music. After cleaning up, we headed to Baddeck. There, for the past twenty years, Nancy has been organizing Ceilidhs.

The tour guidebook said you could call ahead for tickets, but I just got an answering machine. I said we needed two tickets for Janine, but there was no way to pay for them, so I told Matt we might get there and not have a seat. We arrived at St Michael’s Parish Hall and people were gathering.

Well, Nancy had gotten our message and put our names on front row seats. Just perfect. And the music was so much better than I anticipated. It is hard to explain it. Different than anything I had heard before. Complicated, interesting and fun! For one of the songs, they asked for four couples to come and square dance. Yep, Matt and I got our geocaching weary bones off our chairs and danced to Cape Breton music!

Our time in Cape Breton was over. I was sad as we drove over the causeway to the mainland of Nova Scotia. We left with so much more to explore.

They say that once you have been to Cape Breton, “your heart will never leave.” I know what they mean. A piece of me will always be there and maybe some day I can go back to search for it. I sure hope so!