After a quick breakfast and some shopping we started our journey to discover Nova Scotia. Roger, our tourist information agent had recommended a scenic drive on Hwy 366 which follows the coast and was definitely worthwhile. Anne Murray has a house along this stretch as did Ron Joyce. There is a Tim Horton children’s camp here as well.

Our first stop was Heather Beach where we had lunch at a picnic table overlooking the Northumberland Strait at low tide. The red sandy beach has some sections of rock and red clay. Needless to say, after lunch we went for a swim. This isn’t an easy task at low tide as the water is only knee deep for quite a distance. We walked on a sandy bottom, then a rocky bottom and then sand again and rocks again until we could swim very carefully on our backs. We had a great time!

After our swim, Pepsi also got a chance to explore the beach and she did with great excitement.

The park even had a water wheelchair!

On route again, our next stop was the The Seagull Company, a pewter manufacturer and shop. The factory was closed because it was Sunday, but they do offer tours during the week. The shop has really beautiful items with different patterns.

Tatamagouche is a quaint small town along the route with lovely shops, including a brewery, chocolate shop and museum. The museum staff was just taking the Open flag in when we arrived, so not much to report here.

Frustrated, we had to visit the Appleton Chocolate shop where we each had one Maple Lavender truffle, especially designed for a festival. It was interesting, but the St. Sauveur chocolate shop is still our favourite so far.

Nearby was the Tatamagouche micro-brewery which also had a small bar and patio. We decided to buy two cans of beer for our sausage dinner later on. The young woman at the bar suggested a small park just out of town for our BBQ.

The park has a number of picnic tables along a small loop, is very well maintained and clean and became our stop for the night.

We had a really peaceful sleep in the small picnic park near Tatamagouche and before we left, we had to take some pictures of this fairy tale like location.

Martin had researched the next few locations that might be of interest and first up was a sheep farm nearby. A visitor’s barn held a number of ewes with their lambs that were so tame you could pet them.

Of course there was also a store. Wool and yarn stores attract Ruth like moths to a light. After half an hour of agony about what wool color to choose, she settled on a kit for traditional mittens lined with wool.

Just down the road was Pictou, a pretty quaint town with a harbour and a number of captivating stores. First up was the Grohmann’s knife factory. Free tours are available for groups of 4 to 12 and Ruth quickly went into recruiting mode with the customers in the shop and soon we had our group of 5 for the 1pm tour. We ended up with 12 in the tour. It was fascinating to learn the steps that knifes go through during fabrication.

Lunch was sparse but delicious, comprised of two squares from Mrs. MacGregor’s shortbread bakery. We did of course also buy some of the shortbread as well. It is squirrelled away in the van, waiting for its turn.

It was time to find a campground and we found exactly what we needed. Cranberry Campground is right near the water, has laundry facilities and free hot showers. We did four loads of laundry, cleaned the van, and were definitely ready for a shower after all of this.

We started the day with some gin and vodka. At a distillery, of course. After a tour. We visited the Steinhart Distillery and learned how they make their award winning vodka and gin and got to sample some afterwards. They have also started to brew beer according to the German Reinheitsgebot. The distillery is owned by Thomas Steinhart and he comes from a long heritage of distillers in Germany.

One cannot live on booze alone, so we headed over to the Lobster Interpretive Center which turned out to be information boards on a cafe wall. Did you know that lobsters can be left or right handed, breathe through gills beneath their shell, listen with their legs and smell with their feet and chew their food in their stomach between three grinding surfaces?

After the lobsters, the tuna also wanted a say and we learned about the blue tin tuna which is caught in this region and exported to Japan for sushi. The interpretive centre had a video that showed how these huge fish are caught by line and hook and then need to be tired out for several hours by playing them. After the chase, the fish’s body temperature is too high to yield quality flesh, so it is dragged alongside the boat to cool it down. It then further cooled once on shore before it is auctioned off and shipped to market, often to Japan for high quality sushi. The whole process takes about 10 days.

After so much seafood and fish, we decided to have an early steak dinner at Mother Webb’s.

It was hot and humid today so we stopped earlier at the Linwood Campground where we have a great spot overlooking a small bay, and most importantly, power to run the air conditioning. Unfortunately the beach is 4km away.

After breakfast the temperature was already rising and it would be a hot day. We crossed the Strait of Canso and arrived on Cape Breton island. Our first stop was at the information center where we collected a long list of things to do and see on the island thanks to a wonderful agent.

Because of the heat we decided to head to the east side of the island as it was cooler there and we stopped in beautiful Battery Park in St. Peter’s for a picnic lunch followed by a magnificent swim. There is a campground in this park, but it was too early for us to stop.

We followed highway 4 along Bras D’or Lake and we thinking of where we might want to stay for the night. The perfect solution presented itself shortly after and Ruth slammed on the brakes and turned left into the Ben Eoin Beach Campground on a narrow peninsula. We were really lucky and got the last waterfront site, right in the middle of an extended Mi’kmaq family from around the area. They turned out to be super friendly and we had great conversions with some of them.

The campground is mostly seasonal sites and on our walk we met and talked to several people who spent their summer vacations there for many, many years. The highlight however was a beautiful swim in the salt water lake caused by its connection to the ocean.

The sunset was lovely and even Pepsi got into enjoying it.

First things first – a swim before breakfast on a slightly foggy and quiet morning. Our neighbours were still asleep. While having breakfast outside our neighbours slowly appeared. One of the people we had met on our walk the day before came by and wished us a wonderful trip.

It was a bit sad to leave, but we had a full program for today. First up, the Membertou Heritage Park where we learned about the Mi’kmag First Nation. We took the guided tour and learned so much more than the information panels provided through conversation with our guide Nikkita and stayed way longer than expected.

The next stop was another museum of a different kind. Coal mining was an important industry in Cape Breton, having started very early on. The Miner’s Museum in Glace Bay is built on a real coal mine and offers a tour of the mine by a retired coal miner.

Our guide was not only a miner for 27 years, but also very active in the union. He explained the history of exploitation of the miners by the companies they worked for and the provincial and federal governments who profited from the coal industry. The mine tunnels were very low and the guide explained the dangerous work the miners did.

The museum exhibits showed in detail the different types of coal and how it can be mined. It documented the lives lost in this dangerous occupation.

All good things come in threes and we still had a few minutes (8 to be exact) to visit the Marconi museum. You might remember him from a previous posting. This museum is located at the site where the first transatlantic wireless transmission took place.

We drove to Louisbourg to be here early tomorrow to visit the fort. The first lighthouse in Canada was constructed here and the third one is shining on us as we write this. We decided to spend the night right next to the lighthouse and feel very protected.