Nova Scotia - Cape Breton

Tuesday, July 19, 2022

We have packed our suitcases again and are driving from Halifax to Sherbrooke, a small town on the way to Cape Breton. It's raining and very foggy, although we are driving along the coast, we can't see anything. Today is the first day we haven't taken a photo.

Wednesday, July 20, 2022

After a very tasty breakfast at the small hotel, we start for the next stage to Indian Brook. We make a stop in the town of Baddeck. It is still raining. We find a nice restaurant and have lunch. Alexander Graham Bell was born in Baddeck and lived there most of the time. Therefore, there is a Bell Museum that we visit before continuing our journey. In Indian Brook, we stay at the English Garden Country Inn, which is run by Jalal Eftekhari. He told us his whole life story: he trained as a lawyer under the Shah regime in Iran. After that, he emigrated to Canada over 20 years ago. He first lived in Toronto and then had a hotel at Niagara Falls. His wife was addicted to gambling and lost a lot of money. He got divorced and moved to the wilderness in Nova Scotia. He is super nice and does everything for his guests. For the afternoon, he recommended the Red Island hike, which takes you along a lake, the sea, and a river, and we really enjoyed it. Unfortunately, it was overcrowded with mosquitoes, which bothered us a lot.

Thursday, July 21, 2022

Today we want to drive the Cabot Trail. We start quite early because we know there is a lot to see and we will stop at every viewpoint. The first stop is Cape Smokey. We continue to Ingonish and then to the Keltic Lodge, from where a very beautiful hiking trail, the Middle Head Trail, starts. It takes about 2 hours, but it's definitely worth it. We continue to Neils Harbour. The Chowder House is recommended as a restaurant. Of course, they serve lobster again. We sit outside and enjoy the view of the ocean. We continue on the Cabot Trail to Cape North on the other side of the peninsula. We make a short stop in Pleasant Bay before continuing our drive to Cheticamp. Our plan was to drive here. After a slightly longer break with a walk in the town and coffee, we start the return journey. We want to experience the sunset on the Skyline Trail. It is 7:30 PM, a bit early for the sunset, but we have to walk 4 km to the viewpoint and back. If we want to do the loop, it adds another 2 km and it's 28 degrees Celsius. We experience a fascinating sunset, but we skip the loop. It's almost dark when we return to the parking lot, and we still have to drive 133 km to the hotel. There are hardly any cars on the road. We don't arrive back at the hotel until after 11:00 PM.

Friday, July 22, 2022

We've already packed our suitcases again. We leave Cape Breton and head to Pictou, our last city in Nova Scotia. To shorten the drive, we take a small ferry across Jersey Cove to English Town. Little did we know that this would be the only ferry we would take. When we arrive in Pictou, we find out at the hotel that our planned ferry, with the beautiful name 'MV Holiday Island' from Caribou, Nova Scotia to Wood Islands, Prince Edward Island, caught fire due to an engine failure and almost burned down. The captain sailed the ferry into shallow water and then anchored it. All 230 passengers had to get into life rafts. No one was injured or harmed. It was the 10 AM ferry on Friday, and we were planning to take the same ferry at the same time on Saturday. It's hard to imagine what would have happened if that had happened to us. We would have had to leave our car and luggage on board. However, for us, it means that we will have to drive a long distance again tomorrow, 281 km by car instead of 62 km across the Confederation Bridge. The Confederation Bridge is the world's longest bridge, with a length of about 13 km. It was privately built, and the crossing costs 50 Canadian dollars. We see signs with the letters PEI everywhere, and at first, we don't know what they mean. Until we see a sign where the letters are separated by dots, P.E.I, and then we realize it stands for Prince Edward Island.

We decide to spend the afternoon at the beach and drive to Caribou. The Atlantic Ocean is already relatively warm here, so we can swim in it.