The morning started off well with an apple pancake breakfast followed by a short walk on a trail along the shoreline. After that we sadly prepared to leave Cape Breton Island. A last brief visit at the information center helped us find some points of interest on the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia on the way to Halifax. Our first stop would be the Canso Islands and Grassy Island Fort National Historic site. A short boat ride brings you to Grassy Island.

Archaeological evidence suggests that the Mi’kmaw and their trading partners had been coming to these islands for over 2000 years. The first European fishermen came in the 1500s and in the 17th and 18th centuries, France and Britain fought for control of the area. Today one can tour the island and see wells and faint outlines of where building once stood, but the vegetation hides most of the ruins. In fact, one of the information panels stated that remains of a large house was still visible, but all we could find were the lawn chairs for weary tourists.

The highest of the day was certainly the swim at Tor Bay. We had an entire sandy beach with crystal clear water to ourselves. The water was refreshing and we swam for at least 20 minutes with Pepsi tired to a rock on the beach watching out for us. The rocks on the beach and the dark clouds made for a dramatic scenery. Unfortunately, the sign in the parking lot said “No Camping” so we had to move on.

About 10km down the road was a short gravel road that lead down to a municipal beach. The parking lot is our home for the night.

During the rising tide, quite a number of people came to the beach in search of sea glass and one couple had found a large handful, including some pieces of china. It turns out that one of the women searching for glass works at Sherbrooke Village, a pioneer village from the 1800s which we will be visiting tomorrow and she will be demonstrating how to make ice cream starting at 2:30pm. We will definitely be there.

We left before 8am without breakfast or coffee and were rewarded at a beautiful lookout with big grey clouds, rugged rocks and rough waves. We spent a good 45 minutes enjoying and photographing the scene.

Having worked so hard, we deserved a hardy breakfast at the Westside Cookhouse in Inverness. The omelettes where great and the coffee excellent!

Nearby was a photography gallery with canvas prints of Nova Scotia images taken by two photographers.

The next street had a store called Tears of Glass which specialized in making jewelry of glass washed up on the beach. We’d never heard of this before and were told it was from glass thrown into the ocean that is broken and tumbled by the action of the waves and rocks.

The idea of visiting another distillery was interesting to us and we hoped it would a scotch whiskey one given the large Scottish influence in this region. It was high end distillery with bottles costing as much as $750. The tour had already started and since we’re not whiskey experts like Martin’s brother Ron, we chose to move on.

Close to Port Hood was some more affordable at the Galloping Cows. We were welcomed by two beautiful dogs one of which was Sam, the 15 week old shepherd.

It wasn’t about the dogs, but the spreads and sauces. We talked for a long time to the owner and learned about his small business and its national and international successes.

The owner suggested a beach for a good swim with waves. We drove another gravel road to get there and found the beach well visited. It wasn’t all that sandy and the water had quite a number of jellyfish in it. Nevertheless we had a short swim with Pepsi looking out for us and guarding our belongings. After the swim we walked the beach looking for sea glass and found two pieces, one amber and one green.

We were still missing a bit of culture for the day and this came in the form of a performance and dance at the Celtic Music Interpretive Centre.

It was now time to look for a spot for the night. One of the phone apps we use listed a parking lot at a trail that was right next to the water and we checked it out, finding another camper already there. We talked to this couple from BC for a long time before we went for a short walk and then had supper.

We woke up early and Ruth prepared a wonderful porridge with strawberry jam and maple syrup. We got the van cleaned up and headed north. Pepsi is 15 now and can’t wait to get her driver’s license.

First stop was a lookout point with pink granite and good waves.

Shortly after that stop came Black Brook Beach. It had a beautiful sandy beach and the water really showed some spirit with waves were a lot of fun.

We aways try to make it to where the road ends and this trip was no different. Meat Cove is the most northern community in Nova Scotia and is at the end of a gravel road. The name comes from the fact that it was more of a hunting than fishing place. Quite a number of cars and tents were at their small and very dusty campground because many hikers come for the trails in the area. We, however, came for a coffee and Sprite and headed back the dusty winding road, not sure whether the effort had been worth it.

We drove towards Cheticamp looking for a suitable place to spend the night. One campground in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park looked interesting but required self registration and lacked the necessary envelopes. In Cheticamp we found a campground but it was full and only had overflow parking available on the lawn for $33.90. We declined and went for dinner instead, figuring we could find a free parking spot somewhere in the town. Dinner was at Le Gabriel where we had an Acadian platter with frigot, fish cake and meat pie accompanied by baked beans, vegetables, a relish of green tomatoes, a beer and live music.

The sun was setting and we took pictures at the small harbour across from the restaurant. While down there we met the owner of the Captain Zodiac whale watching tours and asked him whether we could stay in his parking lot for the night. He was very nice about it and very welcoming.

We awoke to the most beautiful sunrise over foggy rocks and ocean. And no, you won’t see any of those images as they are only in our memories.

After breakfast we took the Lighthouse trail along the coast with its stunning views and interesting trees and plant life which were explained on signs along the way. For example, the coastal forest has stunted trees because of severe winds, salt spray and poor soil quality. Ruth really liked the wild roses.

Further along the trail, we came to a rockier area and became mountain goats, climbing to the edge of the rocks to enjoy the play of the waves.

We spent way more time than we had expected and now needed to leave so that we could get to the Louisbourg Fort. Thankfully it was relatively cool so that we could leave Pepsi in the van with just the fan and not need to turn on the noisy generator and air conditioner.

A bus took us from the visitor center to the fort and we were astounded by the size of it and the small town contained within it. The current reconstruction is only one fifth of its original area.

We visited houses of craftsmen, middle class people and the architect, who was the third highest ranking person in the fort. It was nice to see beautiful architecture, connected by fences and vegetable gardens with chickens and turkeys running around.

At the bakery we had a choice of three different kinds of bread – whole grain, eaten by the lower classes, half white/whole grain for the middle classes and white bread for the higher classes. The breads are baked in the traditional manner. We bought a large $5 loaf of the wholegrain, still warm, and enjoyed half of it on the spot.

A highlight of our visit was a talk and demonstration of life as a soldier, complete with the firing of muskets and cannons. The muskets certainly were temperamental and take a long time to reload. The living conditions of the soldiers were hard, with little pay which also needed to cover their clothing. They bathed once a year and wore their shirts until they fell apart before moving on to the next one. On their days off they worked for local craftsmen on construction or repair of the fort for extra money.

A great exhibit covered the reconstruction effort. The fort had been completely destroyed and historians, archeologists, architects, designers, craftsmen and artists from Canada, France and England worked on this immense project for 20 years. The craftsmen hired were often laid-off miners who were retrained after the mines closed.

Time to check up on Pepsi. She was sleeping away, nice and cool and demanded a treat. We set course for the Cabot trail and all the artisans along the way – leather, pewter, glass, pottery, and chocolate. We only bought chocolate. The Cabot trail road is steep, narrow and not always in good shape but the vistas make up for it.

This is a long weekend and we still didn’t have a place to stay and were warned that the grocery stores might also run low on food. We stopped at the Cape Breton campground and were told that all sites were full and that for $25 we could park in the overflow area. We decided to move on, saw a grocery store on way to stock up, and found a commercial campground that still had one site. It turned out to be unsuitable – small and with quite a slope. We took our chances and moved on and turned into the next park campground. A woman on foot was ahead of us at the park kiosk and taking a long time. We thought she might be getting the very last spot. Boy were we lucky – she had just cancelled her fully serviced site and we snapped it up. To celebrate we ate our freshly bought chicken and were serenaded by a live guitar player and singer at a nearby site. He was really good!

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.