By Land or Sea

They have military demonstrations

 

Friday

Had a good time at the playhouse last nite. It was a stones throw from the campsite. They had a kitchen session last nite. Five people in the group – two guitars, a fiddler (who step danced), a electric piano player, and a girl that sang, played the guitar and did percussion on the box drum. It is a box you sit on – the front is thin wood and the back has a small hole, She was very good.

We drove around the south end of Cape Breton and ended up in Baddeck – it is on the Bra d’Or – we stopped at the on the south end and watched a few boats go thru a tidal lock. Bra d’Or is a salt arm that extends up thru Cape Breton, There is a lock because the tides are a little different on each end. Boats can go thru on their way north or south and it is big enough to cruise around for a while. It looks like a big lake with several arms. A schooner guy that does day sails with tourists said the shoreline of Bra d’Or has abou 1200 miles of shoreline. 

 There is fishing for cod, mackeral, sea run trout and the occassional salmon. 

 

There is a distillery that makes single malt whisky – called Scotch in Scotland. Making malted whisky is interesting. Basically, you make a strong beer with malted and smoked barley, yeast and good water, but no hops. It is then distilled twice and aged in bourbon barrels for years. We took a tour and had a taste. Nice – but not smoky. Quite expensive. There is also a hotel and pub at the site.

The signs for each town are bilingual, English and Gaelic. It was settled by many from Scotland. There are at least 500 Gaelic speakers in Cape Breton.

We relaxed at the campsite – the Cabot Trail tomorrow.

 Sat.

Time to drive around the top of Cape Breton and thru the National Park.  We chose to go clockwise, Just befoire we entered the park we lucked on a great bakery and got some rolls and pastry.

The west side has quite a few Acadians - while the east side is more Scottish.

The views were spectacular.

 There are moose, bald eagles,  black bear, lynx and some bold coyotes. It is an all day drive with stops,

We stopped by Effies Brook.

 The Highlands

 There is a 14 mile long lake - Lake Ainslie - that seems to have mostly farmland around it. There seems little activity, even though is has decent fishing. There are trout, salmon and smallmouth bass.

 On our way south, we stopped at the Highland Village Museum.   It traces the Scots from the time they left Scotland and  when they arrived in Cape Breton.  You can hear someone speaking Gaelic  and vist a series of house they built thru the first ones and as they advanced.  

 They have some of the heritage breeds of sheep, chickens, and cattle.