The Cabot Trail

Friday, July 19 – Day 31

We headed north out of “Baddeck Cabot Trail Campground” around 9:30 this morning, we took a lunch with us as we expected to be out approximately 5 or 6 hours.  The trail is a 300 Km. loop road in the northern part of Cape Breton Island and includes Cape Breton Island National Park.

Just after we got onto the trail we saw a bag piper at the Gaelic College, we’d like to think that he was piping us in, but realistically he was just practicing. He sounded pretty good.  As good as bag pipes can be.  The east side of the island has a lot of Scottish names that are unpronouncable to most humans.  The scenery along the coast is spectacular and we spent lots of time taking pictures at the scenic overlooks.

  As we were taking pictures at one overlook we came back to our truck to find this guy pecking at the rear window.  He was obviously fending off a rival that he saw in the reflection.  He kept this up for a good 10 minutes – totally oblivious to us and a number of other sight-seers, who were taking more pictures of him than of the scenery.  Even when I got into the back seat he didn’t want to give up the fight.  Crusty old bird!

We continued around the loop till we got to the cut-off to Meat Cove…don’t ask me how it got its name.  We took this road approximately 30 Km. the last 8 Km of which are gravel, up and down hills and valleys till we finally arrived at the most northerly community in Nova Scotia.  There are a few houses and a store that sells gifts and ice cream to the tourists.  There are a few hiking trails that lead off  from here and other than a stony beach there is little else.  I got my feet wet where the Gulf of St. Lawrence meets the Atlantic Ocean.

 

By this time it was already close to 3:45 and we were only 1/2 way around the loop.  The whole east side was waiting for us.  This side of the island has its own spectacular views as well.  To me this is a classic picture of the Cabot Trail, although normally I have seen it photographed in sunshine…sorry, not today!  A light rain had started shortly after we left Meat Cove and continued more or less until we got home.  The last few hours we gave little attention to scenery as we were anxious to get home.  As it was we did not arrive there until 7:30; 10 hours after we had left.  We will try to get back along this coast again before we depart the island.  This seems like a nice area with lots of tiny fishing villages and a distinctly French Acadian flavour.