Cape Breton Highlands
The Cape Breton Highlands National Park is the most highly touted vacation spot in Nova Scotia. The Cabot Trail - a highway that travels around and through the park - is recognized as one of the great marine drives in the world. The beauty and grandeur of this drive exceeded our expectations. From the high cliffs overlooking the Bay of St. Lawrence we watched pods of pilot and single minke and fin whales feeding and cavorting close to shore. Large, white northern gannets - seabirds - dive for fish in the same areas where the minke whales are feeding so it is fairly easy to find whales. The gannets dive from great heights and hit the water at high speed, diving under the fish and catching them on the way back to the surface.
On one of our hikes on mountain trails, a young bull moose shook his antlers at us when we approached it on a highland lake. Very soon it ignored us and went on feeding on water plants. This is the only part of Nova Scotia where there are large numbers of moose. Deer are fairly common and there are some black bears. The wild blueberries, serviceberries, and raspberries tempt us and provide an excuse to rest on our hikes. There are absolutely fantastic views of oceans, bays, mountains, forests, and harbors. Campsites have been excellent and we are having fun.
We are attempting to learn to identify the trees, birds and other parts of nature of Nova Scotia - trying not to rely exclusively on our visual senses for the identifications. Pat can hear warblers - that I can't - so she points to their location as close as she can determine, then we try to find them, usually in the foliage of trees and shrubs. Trees we can sometimes identify by smell. White spruce needles smell something like a skunk when crushed and balsam fir has a pleasant aroma - so distinctive that it can be identified when whizzing past on the highway.
We were wondering what it would be like to sleep again under only a sheet at night. We have slept under two blankets almost every night in Nova Scotia and often use an electric heater. However, watching the weather channel, we see temperatures in Texas and Georgia hovering in the high 90's and the chill here begins to feel good. The summer here has lasted about 2 days which we spent on the beach on the Bras d'Or Lake. The droughts here have never lasted more than a day or two. It rains quite a bit, much like in Alaska, but it only makes the clear, sunny days even more enjoyable. We do our driving on the nice days and spend the rainy days catching up on communications and reading. If I can avoid driving in the rain, it is a lot easier to keep the vehicles clean.
After reading the visitors guide to Newfoundland, we were excited about the possibility of taking the ferry overnight and spending a couple of weeks there. The views at Gros Morne National Park are said to be fantastic. We would like to see the bird islands, see more whales, and observe icebergs drifting by. You can take the ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Argentia on one end of the island, drive across the province, and leave by the ferry from Port aux Basques on the other side. However, it is a little pricy to take a large motorhome so far and 2 weeks there would not be enough time to have a nice relaxed visit. Therefore, it was decided to visit that province some other year when we can visit for a month or more.
Instead, we decided to come to Prince Edward Island (PEI), the home of Anne of Green Gables or at least the author - Lucy Maud Montgomery - who invented her. PEI is more heavily populated than most of Nova Scotia and depends more on agriculture. Potato, wheat, oat, and rye fields cover much of the landscape. It is a very pretty place with rolling farmland, fishing villages, and lots of flowers. The Provincial parks here often have full hookups (water, electricity, and sewage) whereas those in Nova Scotia usually have no hookups. Consequently, we stayed mostly in private campgrounds in Nova Scotia whereas in PEI we will stay mostly in Provincial or National Parks.
The mail has been ordered from Livingston, Texas and is to be sent here to general delivery, Montague, Prince Edward Island. It takes from 10 to 14 days to arrive. After 2 to 4 weeks here in PEI, we will start a long, slow trek back toward Virginia for Ellen's wedding.
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