Coastal Heritage Trail (South) (10/10/2010)

Our travels took us south from our campground in Glen Margaret south, around Margaret's Bay. Staying on the Coastal Heritage Trail, our route ran close to the shore past scenic harbors

 and parks where we could stop and walk along beaches with surprisingly fine sand. 

As we approached Mahone Bay we were greeted by the first of scores of scarecrows decorating commercial businesses and residential homes, alike ... part of the town's annual Scarecrow Festival.

However, Mahone Bay is best known for its "three churches"

one of the most photographed subjects in Canada.

From there we drove to the fishing village of Lunenburg, a town of brightly-painted Victorian and other homes and buildings in it historic commercial district.


Unfortunately, since I've come down with a cold and was feeling rotten we headed back to our campground earlier than planned.

Peggy's Cove and Halifax, Nova Scotia (10/09/2010)

Driving the coastal road toward Halifax, we first passed the fishing village of Indian Harbor.

A short time later we unexpectedly came across a memorial to the victims of the crash of Swiss Air 111 which went down on September 2, 1998.  The face of the left-side rock monument in the photo provides a direct bearing to the actual site of the crash.

Our next stop was Peggy's Cove (population 46), perhaps the most scenic inhabited spot we've seen on this trip;

and home to the most photographed lighthouse in Canada.

 In addition, it's shoreline is presents spectacular views ...

and the Fisherman's Monument.

We then detoured to Terence Bay to visit another memorial, this one to the 562 men, women and children  lost when the White Star Line luxury vessel SS Atlantic sank 

Arriving in Halifax, we parked the car and began a self-guided walking tour.  While the core city and sights are relatively close together, the city is on a hill.

The Citadel,

an 18th and 19th century British fortress with steep masonry walls and surrounded by a ditch up to 30 deep.  It was constructed over 25 years as the heart of the British defenses of Halifax's harbor (the world's second largest natural harbor) against threats from the French and United States.

Another not-to-be-missed place is the public garden.

Halifax also has a clock tower, courtesy of the son of George III of England,

as well as a number of churches with dramatic steeples,

naval and commercial ships from past years and

one vessel known to many children around the world.

We ended the day with an early dinner at

Antigonish to Glen Margaret,Nova Scotia (10-08-10)

A fairly uneventful three hour trip from Antigonish to Glen Margaret (just west of Halifax) , Nova Scotia.

Our only "crisis" was missing an exit, sending us over an unplanned toll bridge and through section of local Halifax streets.  Oh well ...

Prices (even when adjusted for the 4 cent currency differential) for two of our most important purchases:

    >  Gas:  $4.12/gallon.  Of course it's priced in liter so the advertised pump price of $1.11 looks pretty good.

   >  Wine:  A 1.5 liter bottle, which in the US would cost around $12.00-$13.00 is close to $20.00.

Alexander Graham Bell Historic Museum and Louisbourg Fortress (10-07-10)

We awoke to a warm wind and pouring rain and therefore took our time having breakfast.

Our first stop was less than a mile away at the Alexander Graham Bell Historic Museum.  Until today, all we knew about Bell was that he invented the telephone. However, it was his mothers deafness and father's research into speech that set his life's path.  He was one of Helen Keller's early teachers.  Interestingly, he married one of his deaf students who also became his business partner and soul-mate.

Like many other great inventors, he was not a single-faceted person.  Bell helped pioneer aviation in Canada, developed hydrofoil technology (one of his boats recorded speeds of over 100 mph), created a method of making phonograph records on a wax disk, invented a metal detector (which helped locate the bullet which killed President Garfield), worked with sound for underwater sound detection (a forerunner to today's sonar), invented a device for locating icebergs at sea, built a non-wired telephone using light as a medium, dabbled in animal husbandry, invented an iron lung, comemrcialized x-ray machines, opened a school for teachers of the blind in Boston and was a founder of the National Geographic Society ... to name a few of his many and varied accomplishments.

After leaving Baddeck, we ran into another two work zones, but finally reached Sydney (where we would have made time to see the city if it hadn't been raining) enroute to tour the Fortress of Louisbourg.

with the rain still coming down and the wind still howling ...

Construction began in 1722-23; although it took 25 years to be finally completed.  The fortress was the “largest military garrisons in all of New France”.  Many battles were fought and lives lost here because of it.  The fort had the embrasures to mount one hundred and forty-eight guns; however, historians have estimated that only one hundred embrasures had cannons mounted. Disconnected from the main fort, yet still a part of Louisbourg, a small island in the harbor was also fortified. The walls on the island were ten feet high, and eight feet thick. Thirty-one twenty-four pound guns were mounted facing the harbor. The island itself was incredibly small, with room for only a few small ships to dock there, yet it provided the extra protection Louisbourg needed during the sieges of 1745 and 1758; when the British finally dislodged the French.

 

While most of the buildings are dark, and likely somewhat miserable to live in by today's standards, the church was bright with large windows.

A long three hour drive brought us back to our campground.

The Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia (10-/06/2010)

With the forecast of deteriorating weather beginning late afternoon, we got an early start for the two-hour drive to Baddeck at the southeastern end of the famous Cabot Trail, a scenic highway.  The route measures 185 miles in length and completes a loop around the northern tip of the island, passing along and through the picturesque Cape Breton Highlands.

Approaching the Trail, we passed through several areas of fog which painted some beautiful scenes as it lifted.

We opted to take the less-driven, counter-clockwise route; which proved a correct decision, both for the views and sum position for taking pictures.

Before reaching the dramatic cliffs and ocean vistas, we passed some beautiful ponds reflecting some of the waning foliage color.

However, our first stop was occasioned by

just three feet from our car window.

Our next delay was the first of what turned out to be the first of half dozen encounters with

each of which were one-way delays ... which we seem cost us up to 15 minutes each.

Finally, the road climbed and we began to have some views of the Atlantic Ocean below

and some great views opened up.

The road then descended to near sea level as it wound its way around a number of bays, inlets and small villages.

Our roller coaster ride continued, climbing to as high as 1,500' and as low as a few feet above sea level.

At Neils' Harbor, we stopped to see one of the many lighthouses

and a small man-made harbor shielded by a jetty built with rocks the size of a car.

After driving inland across the north end of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada, we emerged on the northwest coast at Pleasant Bay and the coastline again became a series of one great view after another.

The road continues to wend its way up and over two 1,400 mountains and along the coast

With the sun now in front of us, the silhouettes were spectacular.

The village of Chéticamp, we ran across a few more interesting homes.

From there, we got one more ocean view

before returning back across the island to our starting point.

This evening we checked into the Telegraph House in Baddeck and spent the night in the room once used by Alexander Graham Bell, who made the town his Canadian home ... albeit, there was no TV in the room at that time.