Cabot and CeilidhTrail

The Cabot Trail was beautiful. We arrived in North Sydney after taking the 15 hour ferry from Newfoundland on Sunday.

Our first stop was the Alexander Graham Bell Museum in Baddeck. The museum was just OK (not great) and we learned a lot about the inventions of Bell. There was a kite display and one of the kites was made of a paper bag from Coffeyville, Kansas (Dean has relatives there). The town of Baddeck is lovely. It must be the B&B capitol of Nova Scotia. There were many beautiful old homes restored into lodging.

Our first stop was at Indian Brook (not much of a town) where we stayed at an abandoned RV park located on the coast line, very quiet and scenic. The next day we did the first big hill (we drove separate) and then stayed at Neil’s Harbor. We boondocked at the Chowder House with a great view of the rugged coastline. The view was a little obstructed because of the wind and rain. We ate lunch and dinner at the Chowder House: good food and cheap prices!

Chowder House and our rig in parking lot.

The next day was another big hill in the northern part of Cape Breton Highlands National Park and then we stayed at Pleasant Bay. During the day we toured the Whale Interpretive center which was very interesting. We parked by the marina and watched the whale watching boats come in and out. Since we have a marine radio now, we listened to see if they were spotting any whales. When we heard that there were about 3 pods around I got my warm clothes together and went to the marina. I took a zodiac ride which was a great way to see whales. We followed a pod for about an hour. I wish my pictures were better because the whales were right next to the boat.

Parking spot at Pleasant Harbor
Marina with four whale watching enterprises at Pleasant Bay

My whale pictures




The zodiac I went out on and the passengers coming ashore.

Views of Cabot Trail

Day three on the Cabot trail and we went over another big hill – MacKensie Mt. I drove separate the entire 3 days that we did the trail and we are glad because our transmission would not have taken these grades. We stopped in at Cheticamp and I went to the Hooked Rug Musuem. Cheticamp is the Hooked Rug Capitol of the World. After Cheticamp we came across Joe's Scarecrow farm. We drove on to find a boondocking spot but three of the Days End spots were no longer available. We left the Cabot Trail and arrived in Mabou. We got permission to stay in the city parking lot so we could go to the Red Shoe Pub for music and dinner. The music was good but the dinner was not very good and pricey. Tonight we are at Judique at the Celtic Music Interpretive Center. We listened to a fiddler at lunch and we are going to the evening performance. Tomorrow leave Cape Breton Island and return to the mainland of Nova Scotia.