Day 3 - We take the Ferry to Nova Scotia - and meet ASSHOLE CAPE BRETONERS

After last years experience we decided to reserve our ferry ride the night before, just to make sure we'd get on the Ferry from Woods Island to Caribou. We chose the 2:45 crossing figuring it would give us time to slowly make our way to the Ferry.

Near Woods Island Ferry

In the end we ended up at the Ferry around noon, so we asked them if we could move our Ferry ticket to the 1 o'clock Ferry. They put us in the standby line and we got in to the 1pm Ferry.  On the ferry I ran into a woman with a Pitbull called Mira, that she was taking to Mira River :) The lady said she was "Taking Mira to the Mira"

Ferry going in the other direction

We stopped at the Canadian Tire at Port Hawksbury because the cooler fried both 12V plugs in the truck. I suspected since both went out, that it was a fuse and not a fried port. We had debugged the cooler with an electric plug and the cooler was really dead.

The mechanic was super nice and he took a fuse from another place to make the 12V work again. I will have to get that checked next time I go to the mechanics.

 We got to Corney Brook around 5pm and the camping spots were fully booked. So we went back to Cheticamp for dinner. We saw RCMP car there just before the entrance of the park, giving tickets.  That's when I realized that the picnic sites at Grand Falaise was overflow camping.  We considered camping on the beach at Pleasant Bay but when we passed there was a bunch of locals drinking around a fire already.

We ended up at MacIntosh brook and realized that it was also overflow camping. The sad part is that we only noticed the stops on the right side of the road. There were nearly as many spots of the left side of the road.

We setup our tent and were probably asleep by 10:30. Around midnight I started to hear loud talking, singing and general noise. Eventually I had to get up and go to the bathroom after Terry got up to pee. I wandered to the bathrooms next to a kitchen shelter, and noticed that there was 4 people drinking, 3 men and a woman. I figured they were camping too and just having a drink. WHile I was in the bathroom, there was knocking at the woman's bathroom door, I assumed it was a moron letting out some steam.   I finished washed my hands and left pretty quickly, like I tend to do in the midlde of the night.  I heard just as I hit the grass going towards our spot "FUCK, I missed her. She left the bathroom too fast, I couldn't FUCKING SCARE HER".  Which got me to run to my tent.

The noise did not stop. In fact one idiot decided to get into his car and start playing music at a pretty loud volume.  One man nicely said "Could you turn it down, it's almost 2am and I have children trying to sleep". The guy said "no problem" and turned it up as loud as he could. Then he got into his car, and drove about a foot away from each tent a couple of times and then left the campsite tearing off like a bat out of hell in one direction. Came back a few minutes later going in the other direction.

The sad part is THERE IS NO FUCKING CELL RECEPTION THERE!!!  There is also no emergency phone. There is emergency phones about 20 km one way near French Mountain and there is another emergency phone 20 km in another direction. BUT NOTHING AT MACINTOSH BROOK.

Are the Cape Breton folk that live near Cape Breton Highlands National Park so rich that they can afford pissing off and scaring off tourists?

Basically these 4 morons in 2 cars, terrorized about 30 people trying to sleep, some with children between midnight and 2:45 AM. It was about that time when they finally fucked off.

Day 8 & 9: The Seals at Corney Brooke

This is my third time at Corney brooke. Never noticed the seals before but there was a family of seals that spent part of the day fishing. Took a lot of photos this time. It was cute, at some point it was like there were ground hogs and there was up to 6 different heads bopping up and down.

Day 9: Cape Breton Highlands National Park: Corney Brooke & Chetticamp island

There was a woman traveling alone from Alaska!

Moose Print with a pine cone

The Cabot Trail

House in Cheticamp

St Joseph Church in Cheticamp

Cows on Cheticamp Island

Lighthouse at Cheticamp Island

Road from Cheticamp Island Lighthouse

Road between Cheticamp and Cheticamp Island, also where beach is found.

Day 8: Cape Breton Highlands - Corney Brook and Skyline trail

Cabot Trail between Cheticamp and Pleasant Bay

Where you see orange, it's the view to Corney Brooke Campsite

Corney brooke campsite, seen from other side

Better view of Corney Brooke campsite and beach

Cabot Trail Hare

Skyline trail

Cabot trail seen from SKyline trail

Cabot Trail seen from Skyline trail

Day 8: Cape Breton Highlands Provincial Park - Corney Brook

Cheticamp area of Cabot Trail going towards the highlands.

Cheticamp harbour and Eglise St Pierre

Picnic area at Grand Falaise, which was full of campers both Saturday and Sunday morning!

The Atlantic seen from Corney Brooke Campsite on Cabot Trail

Cabot trail along the coast between Cheticamp and Pleasant Bay

Cabot trail along the coast between Cheticamp and Pleasant Bay

On Day 8 we drove from Whycocomagph provincial Park to the self-registering non reservable Corney Brooke campsite. After the problems we had finding a site on the previous week-end, I figured if people have to leave self-checkout sites by 11 am, if we showed up around 11 am we'd get a site. I was correct. We got there around noon, and the most protected against the sun site was available. Site 1. we took it for the next 2 days so we had no issues finding a campsite for both Friday night and Saturday night.

We noticed when we drove down  to visit the next morning that dozens of people were camped at the Grande Falaise picnic area, and not very bright. If you are going to spend the night where you aren't authorized, you pack up your tent by 7am.  We passed around 12:30 pm on Sunday and there was idiots still camped at the Grande Falaise having to discuss why they had a tent there with RCMP!!!

Corney Brooke. The edge of tent is shown on left!

Two time-lapse from Cape Breton trip 2014

One of my travel companions makes really nice time-lapses. These are two from our road trip to Fundy National Park and Cape Breton.

The video below is from the location that destroyed my tent last year. As you can see it was not that windy this year otherwise the tri-pod would not have been stable enough for this sunset.

Day 9 - Neils Harbour, Wreck Cove, Ingonish Beach

Neils Harbour, Nova Scotia

Our first stop after leaving Meat Cove was Neil's Harbour. It's a quaint town on the North east side of Cape Breton and is scenic.  The multiple coloured fishing boats always lighten up a photo taken under grey clouds or even rain.

We stopped at a few lookouts on the Cabot Trail, and also at Broadcove campsite, so I could show my friends the beach there, it's pretty. 

Ingonish Beach

'Then we stopped again at Ingonish Beach and walked the beach for beachglass. 

Wreck Cove, Nova Scotia

We stopped at Wreck cove to walk the beach there, which is not sand but pretty much all round rocks. By then we realized it was getting late in the day and used the GPS to head to Mira River. It decided it was faster to go by the Ferry in Englishtown, so we took this tiny ferry.

Lobster Roll with Gluten free bread at Cedar House Restaurant

As we're driving down the 105 towards Sydney we were all peckish and I notice a bakery restaurant, called the "Cedar House" in Boularderie.  We knew it was going to be good as the parking lot was full and it wasn't even 5pm. We had to wait a good 10 minutes to be seated and it would have been worse if we had gotten there at 5:30 for instance.  The lobster roll was delicious and I got it on gluten free bread!!!!

You know you're in suburbs of Sydney, NS when you see this

We drove through Sydney  passing by the iconic "Lick-A-Chick. We also passed by an exit for "Balls Creek" but sadly camera did not catch it . We drove past all of it and went to Mira River Provincial Park. It's a good thing I remember how to get there, as there were zero signs indicating it was going to be there.

Day 7 - Cape Breton Highlands National park and driving to Meatcove

We had rain and then drizzle from 9 till we left Corney Brooke. We stopped at the Bog but sadly it rained during our walk through the bog.  We could have gone to a few trails through the park like walking to Benji;s lake and several other trails but on the French Plateau it was pissing with rain. As we moved towards Pleasant bay there was a lot of fog so half of the photos at the random lookouts are full of fog.

Hummingbird in pleasant bay

We stopped at Pleasant bay to eat at this restaurant I went to last year that has wifi and some hummingbird feeders. It's also a motel, and has a small giftshop. Food is always good. But their cola's were expensive.

We stopped at the beach in Pleasant Bay and spent an hour or two on the beach. I enjoy walking on beaches I find it really zen.

Pleasant Bay Harbour

After leaving Pleasant Bay we drove all the way to Meat Cove, the north most point you can get to by car on Cape Breton.

Meat Cove beach at dusk

Day 5 - We drive to Cape Breton

I'm still chugging Buckleys for my flu and cough and it's getting harder. The stuff is really gross, but it does work. I don't seem to be developing bronchitis.

We pose besides the Iconic welcome to Nova Scotia sign

We left Fundy National park today and drove towards Nova Scotia. We got there by 1pm and continued driving  I got so emotional when we crossed the bridge over the Canso causeway.

The Bridge over the Canso Causeway. 

We stopped in Port Hawksbury to eat at the Fleur de Lis, a local restaurant in the mall across from the Canadian tire. We also stopped in Canadian Tire to pick up more propane and fuel for my friends stove.

We also stopped at Sobeys and bought some food before taking the road towards Cheticamp. Luck would have it that I chose to take fastest route and that  was the road along the east side of Lake Ainslie. The lake is big and does not seem to have tons of homes on it.

We made it to Cheticamp, and continued driving to Corney Brooke. The campsite on the side of the Ocean that had destroyed my tent the year before.

View from Corney Brook campsite

Just before we  got to Corney brook, while driving on the Cabot trail in Cape Breton Highlands National Park, we saw a mama moose with her baby moose. Sadly they ran into the bush so fast 3 photographers were not fast enough to point and shoot!

Cape Breton trip 2014

Again this June I am travelling to Cape Breton. Due to a vacation restriction at work, where my boss, and his boss do not want ME to take 2 consecutive weeks, during the period between June 15th and October 31st.   Which is REALLY SUCKY since my favourite activity is camping and this covers the ENTIRE camping season.  However by taking my vacation in early June, I will be allowed taking long week-ends for camping here and there. Hell I may even be able to squeeze in a festival!

Anyways so I arranged my trip to leave May 30th, and come back June 12 or 13th in that ball park.  The sucky part is that there will only be Fundy National Park, Cape Breton Highlands National Park and Mira River Provincial Park opened in the 2 weeks we will be there. So no camping at a new site every night. On the other side of the coin though, at least at Corney Brooke, we will have a spectacular view of the sea, hopefully there are NO gale force winds any of the nights we're there. But the view despite the wind was spectacular.

This year I will get to see the parts of Cape Breton I have not yet seen, like the area between Sydney and Port Hawksbury along the coast. I'm guessing it won't enthrall me as much as the Highlands.  I wonder how many moose we will see?  I hope I will deal better with Sydney. I've warned everyone and their mother, that Sydney makes me crabby.  Dunno what it is about Sydney.

I'm still madly in Love with Cape Breton

Despite the fact that everything that could go wrong went wrong, and I ended up driving back 14 hours beyond pissed, I'm still madly in love with Cape Breton and am planning my next trip there, hopefully with companions that won't try to make me go home every other day. With companions that won't add to the wrong and help me enjoy the trip.

I'm being told that I dumped my companion because my trip didn't turn out how I had expected. No I dumped my companion because he bitched, whined and complained throughout the trip and was ready to go home when we just arrived in Cape Breton. He hated it visibly, but I did not. I just wish I had gotten opportunity to visit more. Driving all that distance to spend time in a tent really wasn't what I wanted.

He thinks I'm blaming him for the trip not turning out how I wanted. No I'm blaming him for being a dick during the trip. VERY DIFFERENT.

It doesn't matter though does it? Take someone in, be nice and they bite you in the end.  See if I'm ever nice again.

Day 6: We drive along the Cabot Trail towards Ingonish

So after spending the evening ignoring a too-friendly neighbour at night at Cheticamp campground, we woke up at 9am.  The tent survived the night and it actually didn't rain. We packed up and drove first to Benji's lake where we saw a female moose eating along the side of the trail.

 We also stopped at most lookouts to check out the various views, we also walked to Macintosh falls. Despite the warnings we didn't see Moose, bears or coyotes. Of course it probably helped we had bear bells and made a lot of noise. We did near 1 dragonfly near the Macintosh falls.

Next to Macintosh falls

We had lunch at Pleasant Bay, and I spotted a hummingbird at a feeder in the restaurant window.

View of Pleasant Bay

We also stopped in Cape North to check out a few gift shops. We stopped at one lookout near black brook, and after talking a bunch of photos, I went to the bathroom. Right after  I left, my companion saw a bald eagle that swooped inches from his face. Pity I wasn't there.

We then continued to drive up until we got to Broadcove Campground. By the time we got there it was raining. We waited for the rain to slow down and put up our tent, then we put up a small tarp to cover the back door of the tent and most of the sleeping area of the tent. We used our large tarp folded over a rope on one end to cover over the picnic table as we only had 2 tarps. At least it gave us a dry area to be able to cook with. 

Macintosh falls

It was weird, when we got to the camping area, there was a weird older creepy guy driving a gray/blue Eldorado pick up truck with red plates that kept going around the parking lot over and over and over. Like he was stalking someone. Then after he finally left, the RCMP went around the campsite as well. This is found strange as I've never seen police in any provincial or federal park I've ever been to camp in. Made me wonder if someone else found him creepy and complained.

I've got 2 swelled up black fly bites, and tons of mosquito bites that haven't swelled.

 

Where river meets sea!