We arrived at the ferry parking lot the afternoon of August 28th. The ferry was due to leave at midnight which meant a long day of waiting. Jim washed the pickup and I got our overnight bags ready. Once the vehicles are parked on the ferry's you cannot go back to them. What you take to the upper deck is what you'll have, and since I didn't want to carry my camera or any more items than I really needed we packed very light. Knowing it would be a long night we tried to take a nap but couldn't sleep. We did get a marble game going with our friends that evening which helped pass the time.
Finally the ferry arrived and we loaded on it..... Went upstairs and found our assigned bunks, set in the lounge area for a while and went to bed. It was a very small room with no port window and four bunks, two on each side of the room. Needless to say it was a miserable night and no one slept very much.
We had breakfast on the ship and docked around 2:00 in the afternoon of the 29th.... I was more than happy to see my camper again. We stayed at the same campground we had stayed at in Sidney Nova Scotia when we had left for Newfound so it was easy to find and didn't have any trouble getting there.
We went to bed early and had a good nights sleep. The next morning we took off for Baddeck where we will tour the Cabot trail Cape Breton Island area.
We stayed in the Cape Breton National park in "Broad Cove" campground. It was a beautiful place to stay and we ran around the area from there.
We visited Mary Ann's falls, Dingwall harbor, the Bay of St. Lawrence and "Meat Cove" a quiet little fishing village.......
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| Overlook |
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| Dingwell Harbor |
Very steep with many curves. We had high overhanging rocks on one side with the ocean below us on the other side. It was beautiful drive.
curves and more curves
A bald eagle perched high on a rock above
Making it to "Cheticamp Paige St. Piere" we were ready to shut it down after a long and tiring day of driving. We spent one night there and drove on towards Canso. We saved about 75 miles of driving by taking a small ferry across the inlet |
Our campground just outside of Sherbrook set beside this little lake, too beautiful for words......The town of Sherbrook has restored an entire village as it was in the 1700's.....They have the doctor's office, the wood shop, the general store, an old home, a nature center, and a pottery shop. It is built on a dirt street so you can walk from one to the other stores and take a tour and learn the history surrounding each of them. We spent the day there, then had a marshmallow roast out at the campground that evening after supper. There were beautiful flowers in this town everywhere we looked and "Molly the cow" was even tied up in the back yard at one the homes in the village.     September 8th and time to leave for Halifax. As a side note, our daughter was getting married the next day! They wanted a very small wedding and the groom's parents were also away on a trip, so it was attended only by the bride's brother & sister and the groom's best friend. Arriving that afternoon to a nice campground outside the city of Halifax we went ahead and scheduled a 3 hour city bus tour for the next day. Halifax is a wonderful city with a lot of history... The tour guide was great. He took us to the "Citidel" where we watched the changing of the guard, and viewed the harbor, then visited a park.   Gazabo in the park While in Newfoundland we learned that they had received the first sos from the titanic and were the first to arrive with rescue ships. However, the decision was made to take the recovered bodies to Halifax because even though St. John's was closer, they were not equipped to handle that many bodies and those needing medical treatment. As part of the tour we were taken to the cemetary where the 121 victims are laid to rest. It's a beautiful site with all of the graves lined in a gentle curve resembling the bow of a ship.  We also learned about the massive explosion that took place in 1917 in the harbor. As two ships filled with WWI explosives collided 1900 people died in the tragedy by drowning, fire and shock. Over 9,000 were injured. The sounds of the explosion were said to be heard and felt as far away as Prince Edward Island. All buildings for about 500 acres were obliterated. Some buildings over 10 miles away were damaged. We found a cute little Irish Pub and stopped to "toast the bride and groom at 1:00, the time they chose for the services.  The next day we traveled out to "Peggy's Cove"......a wondrous and beautiful place with the rocky coastline being the most unusual we've seen on the trip.    Massive mounds of smooth sea washed rocks form this coastline Monument to the Fishermen, please click to enlarge Near Peggy's cove stands the memorial to the "Swiss air flight 111 that crashed in 1998.  Swiss air 111 memorial  Standing near the crash site Leaving the Halifax area on September 11th we traveled on down the road to our next stop at Lunenburg. A wonderful small town built right on the hills of the waterfront.  We also toured the wharf and went through a great museum dedicated to the whale, and we learned the history of ship building and seen the "Blue Nose II". The second of the most famous sail boat in racing history.  Entrance to the Whale museum   From a distance, the Blue Nose in dock   From Lunenburg we traveled to "Chester" which held many surprises and "first's". We had a really nice campground there. Our travel buddies and we decided to try our hand at cooking our own lobsters. We had eaten some wonderful sea food since leaving home but there's nothing like doing it yourself over a campfire.......right? The first job was to find a store that sells live lobster so to town we went. It was a delight as we pointed to them in the tank and the store owner fetched them for us.  With our supper to be, we ventured back to the campground to prepare them.  I had purchased some plastic "lobster dinnerware", disposable bibs, butter pots, and little individual lobster shaped serving dishes for the garlic/cheese mashed potatoes I made as a side dish.  The "cooks" serving them up and it's time to eat  Needless to say that night we were stuffed and had a good night's sleep with very full tummy's. While in town at the fish market, the lady at the check out ask if we had been out to see "The Ovens". We said no, we didn't know what they were and hadn't heard anything about them. She said "well you've got to go and you'll be in for a wonderful surprise. "The Ovens" is a series of blow holes that the sea has washed into the cliffs just outside of town....... The national park service had built great viewing points and made it a favorite tourist stop in the area. The holes can be viewed from where the water enters, and with a bit of bravery you can also venture into the tunnels they have cut beneath the rock where you're standing at the back of the blow hole. It was an awesome sight.   Looking straight down from the top Where the water enters one of the blowholes  Jim entering an oven  Mary inside the oven We also drove out to "Oak Island" home of the famous money pit. They have stopped allowing anyone on the site now but we could view it from the end of the island off of the main highway.  As we had prearranged our travel buddies made the decision to drive back to the states from Yarmouth Nova Scotia while we are going to leave from Yarmouth on the "Cat Ferry" to dock in Portland Maine, then drive to Boothbay, Maine. Our daughter had called the previous week to tell us that her new in laws were vacationing there and since we were going to be in the area they would like to meet us in Boothbay and spend a few days together. They were staying in a hotel and we would be at the campground. She gave us their phone number so we contacted them and made arrangements to get together. We were to meet up again with our friends at a campground in New Hampshire one week later. Saying goodbye to Lunenburg they took a different hiway and we headed for Yarmouth to catch the ferry. While in Yarmouth we had a couple of days to prepare for the crossing and see a little of the area. We We visited a museum on the wharf that holds one of the largest collections I have ever seen, it took hours to go through. It covered a lot of fishing history, memorabilia of the people who made their livelihoods in it, many antiques and early pieces depicting the development and progress of the area and all of Canada. Next door to that was the "Fuller Brush house" where he developed the Fuller companny and lived most of his life. Many of his famous products were on display.   We also visited the "Cape Fortune Lighthouse, and the small village of Sanford which claims the "World's Smallest Drawbridge"  The next day we used to prepare for leaving Canada and get the pickup and camper ready for our ride to the States on the Cat Ferry. "The Cat" travels at a speed of nearly 50 mile per hour, operating between Yarmouth and Bar Harbor Maine in 2 hours and 30 minutes, compared with a crossing time of over 6 hours using a conventional ferry vessel. We were sad to hear that it has since been discontinued. We cleaned the camper from top to bottom inside and out, and the pickup arranging all of our treasures to clear the border inspections and make the journey back. On September 17th we bid farewell to Nova Scotia    The "rooster tail" behind the ship as we say goodbye to Canada on September 17th United States here we come! Please continue to 2006 NE US |
We stayed at outside the little town of Canso for two nights, it had been a hard week with a lot of driving and sightseeing.
