Pat & John's Nova Scotia Adventure--Excellent

Cape Breton Sessions

The third leg of the trip took us from Nova Scotia's southern coast to the northern section where we could see Cape Breton Island's highlands and coast. The plan was to leave Mahone Bay, stop at the Halifax airport where Barb Bateman would join us, and then drive to an area just north east of Elizabethtown where we would stay for the week.

As it happened, though, a couple of things went awry. First, Barb's connections failed when her flight from San Fransisco to Toronto was late. Because she was traveling into Nova Scotia during one of the busiest tourist periods of the year, she stood by for a flight for 10 hours; without having much way to learn about whether Barb was able to catch one of them, Pat and I watched passengers disembark from just about every Toronto-Halifax flight in hopes Barb would be among the folks coming through the doors. Fortunately, she made it through the doors, we connected, and the three of us promptly left the airport with just enough time to get to Cape Breton, a little more than three hours away.

The problem, however, was that I made a wrong turn and didn't realize it for a long time. As a consequence, we notched another province--New Brunswick--on our travel belts. By the time we'd corrected that error, it was too late to get to Cape Breton, so we sought shelter. Given that this was the Friday of the busiest weekend of the season in Nova Scotia, shelter was hard to find, but Pat convinced a motelier in Truro to put us up for the night.

On the 2nd, we took a day trip north along the Cabot Trail as far as Cabots Landing. The eastern coast of the Victoria side of the peninsula is dramatically beautiful. Ocean views from Cape Smokey, White Point, and other spots along the coast provided lots of opportunities to look up and down the essentially unspoiled intersection of the Atlantic and Canada.

The little villages along this section of the Cabot Trail barely qualify as dots on the map. Mostly, the road is interrupted every few kilometers with a shop or, sometimes, two. Otherwise there are few clusters of buildings (dwellings and businesses) that would constitute a town. To be sure, there is Ingonish Beach and environs (suburbs?) and there are a few little villages (the one shown in the image is Neils Harbor) establishing that people live and work here.

The main activity, it seems, is creating crafts--clay, hide, wood, metal--for people to buy as they circle the Cabot Trail. Pat observed that there must be vacationers who cannot pass these businesses without stopping. I observed that we are not they.

One of the highlights of the entire trip was an evening cruise August 2 to the Bird Islands just past the mouth of St. Anns Bay. Our trip used the services of Puffin Boat Tours (a few hundred meters south of the Elizabethtown ferry) and was skillfully and happily led by Donelda MacAskill aboard John MacAskill's boat. We chose an evening tour for the sake of good light on the islands and, we hoped, good birds. The trip required about 2.5 hours, including about 45 min. going to and returning from the islands (each way). The weather could hardly have been better. And the wildlife was wonderful (see Birds).

• 30 July Lunch: Hardly--airport fare where, for the price of a veggie sandwich, I got to use a thin client to check personal e-mail.
• 30 July Dinner: Fish and chips in a bar at the Halifax airport.
• 31 July Lunch: Bell Buoy in Baddeck (902) 295-2581--This is a nice lunch. The Bell Buoy is located right on the main drag in Baddeck, just across and about 50-100 meters south of the Alexander Graham Bell Museum. I had a lobster-salad sandwich. Pat had a veggie burger. Barb had a burger. Total ticket = ~$45 Canadian (for three).
• 31 July Dinner: Snow crab feast (all you could eat) at the benefit for the local volunteer fire company. $12 Canadian each.
• 1 August Lunch: We picked up sandwiches and cookies from The Clucking Hen, a deli just northeast of our digs. Pat and Barb had egg-salad and I had (duh?) lobster salad. We carted these with us to a rest stop along the Cabot Trail and had an in-car picnic. The sandwiches were very good (~$10 each Canadian) and the deserts (yes, two) I had were quite good.
• 1 August Dinner: Near Saint Anns Bay, We stumbled into something very good, Chanterelle. Pat--salad with a dressing she especially liked and seafood bisque that was wonderfully intensely flavored. Barb: "The game hen, itself, was large, plump, and done to perfection. The stuffing had a lot of different grains, one of which was like tiny tapioca (quinona?); I enjoyed the texture. But the really outstanding feature of the dinner was the combination of tomato (very well cooked) and orange with pepper." John--fiddlehead soup that was excellent and a very good lobster newburg. Deserts: x and y. The dining area has a sweeping northerly view of a wooded valled with mountains beyond and, closer, of the mouth of a river as it empties into St. Anns Harbor. It's not really a restaurant, but the proprieter allowed us to walk in and have dinner. We were fortunate to eat here. Total ticket: ~$150 Canadian (for three).
• 2 August Lunch: Sandwiches from The Clucking Hen.
• 2 August Dinner: Sandwiches from The Clucking Hen.
• 3 August Lunch: At Castle Rock (probably has a Web site), we were able to grab a late lunch (after I voted "no" on sandwiches from The Clucking Hen). It turned out to be pretty good. Pat had a salad and I had Dhurling mussels in a very tasty tomato sauce. Total ticket = ~$25.
• 3 August Dinner: Lonnie and Roy cooked for us, preparing a nice seafood chowder for anyone who wanted it, salad (Pat and Barb), filet mignon (Barb), and crab-stuffed lobster (John). We all were very pleased with our eats.
• Places we considered but didn't get to test:
  • Keltic Lodge--

We established temporary residence at Sea Parrot Oceanview Manor, which carries an Elizabethtown address but is located on the Cabot Trail between Indian Brook and North Shore. We stayed in the main house, which is new, fresh, and full of artifacts, including many from the U.S. southwest (check out the Remingtons), and which the proprieters (Lonnie and Roy) say will ultimately be accompanied by individual guest cabins.

The Sea Parrot does, indeed, have an ocean view. Off the back porch, the lawn leads to a rocky beach (we understand some of the rocks were recently deposited by a storm) and the water's edge. In the distance (upper left of the photo; easier to see in the larger version) one can see the Bird Islands, a target for a birding trip (see "Sights").

Our room was bedroom-sized and had an adjoining bath with a tub. The other room was slightly larged and had an attached bath (shower only). We had run of the house, as did Crystal, Bradley, Chelsea (dogs), and Oreo (cat)--all of them befriended Pat--but we spent most of our time on the porch or clustered around the kitchen island.

Lonnie provided very nice breakfasts. She laid out an island of fruits, yogurt, breads and jams, coffee, juice, and etc. for us to sample on our own schedule in the AMs. Then, as each of us made our way to kitchen area, she was willing to provide short-order service for whatever individuals wanted to add to the buffet. Given our proclivities, the three of us were almost always satisfied by gabbing the fresh fruit, breads, and imbibables and retreating to the porch to nibble and watch the local birds. (I have to own up to having poached eggs on toast one morning; they were cooked just right!) We all agreed that we'd be quite willing to return to this place.

Because Barb's already see just about all the birds on the local planet, she wasn't expecting many new items for her list. However, Pat and I expected that this section of the trip would provide different birds and some lifers for both of us.

From the point of view of the Bird Islands, one can see that Dan Hallahan's book, "The Big Year," made it to its way into a third set of hands on this trip. Pat read it the first few days, I had it until the 2nd, and Barb began it then. It's a fun read, worth the time. Pat was just starting a Peter Mathieson tome, a promising one, I'm sure.

Around the Sea Parrot B&B, we spotted a few species, including a yellow-rumped warbler, a flicker, a black guillemot. There were, of course, the usual crows, gulls, and other common suspects.

On our trip to the Bird Islands, the MacAskills pointed out many species, in addition to which we saw a minke whale and many gray seals. The birds just from that trip in rough order that we saw them:

• Bald Eagles (as we made our way out to the islands, but they were just a prelude for the dozens of eagles we saw on the two islands; apparently, these islands are their private farm from which they harvest eggs and young birds of other species).
• Great Blue Herons.
• Great Black-backed and Herring Gulls.
• Great and Double-crested Cormorants.
• Black Guillemots.
• Atlantic Puffins.
• Razorbills.
• Black-legged Kittiwakes.
• Ruddy Turnstones.
• Bank Swallows.

I found the absence of apostrophes in place names to be disconcerting. I'm representing names (e.g., St. Anns Bay) as they are shown on the maps. Do politicians and geographers routinely omit apostrophes in what appear to be possessive names? I need to research this!