Englishtown Ferry and the Cabot Trail

No photos of the Alexander Graham Bell museum and site in Baddeck, NS as they are memory card erased.  It is a very nice site and I was most impressed with other inventions including a hydroplane he built that his wife drove at over 70 mph on the Bras d'Or (Lake of Gold, for you non French speakers).  Bell invented and built the hydroplane in hopes of selling it to the Navy during WWI.  Alas, the war ended and no one wanted it.

I did document what I think is our last ferry ride, the Englishtown cable ferry.  Carried 11 cars on our trip.  Cute little thing that took us over a narrow portion of Bras d 'Or on NS Provincial Route 312.

It was just about a 7-9 minute ride across the narrows, cost $5.50 Canadian. The line moved fairly quickly for loading.

and route 312 linked us up to the Cabot Trail which took us to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Portions of both are seen in the photo below.

Of course Patt and I went for a hike on one of the many trails in the park.

They are all kinda nice, you could describe this one as real nice.

It went out to a point on the Atlantic. The winds were calm, the sea like glass.

We are staying on the west side of the Park at Pleasant Bay, photo below a short walk from our B&B cottage.  It is on the Gulf of St Lawrence.

Fortress Louisbourg

Saturday we went to the Fortress at Louisbourg. A fort built by the French to guard their capital city of Ile de Royale which is what they called this portion of French Canada and the port city of Louisbourg, which in the mid 18th century was the third busiest port in North America,  The cod fishing industry was more important and valuable to France than the fur trade coming out of Montreal and Quebec.  

Despite the efforts of these French soldiers, the fort was unsuccessful in each of its two efforts at holding off attackers. The English took the fort, evacuated the French back to France, then in a peace treaty gave the city back to France.  Then the British took it again. Each time by siege. A few years after the British captured the fort a second time, they brought in sappers and blew it up- leveled it-  (making it an archeologists dream.)

The rebuilt fort, and it is rebuilt— is very well done with all sorts of period re-enactors dressed as soldiers that shoot guns periodically - below.  Period re-enactors were also dressed as shop keepers, servants, tradesmen, and a whole town full of people.

they have fortress walls, gun emplacements and so on.

Throughout the town, there are craftsmen, like this guy, building a small boat -  he called it a chaloup - a French word - using period tools and methods from the early and mid 1700s.  Note the wooden shoes too.

We took the hike around the facility, to the ruins area - only 20% of the fort has been reconstructed. The fields were full of wild flowers and the sky was quite dramatic.  It it a seaport town and the ocean was to my back with this photo. Actually erosion by the sea has taken a part of the site already.

All the stuff in the various homes, offices, barracks, supply houses, shops were exact replicas from inventories and records of owners who lived in the various buildings. The French had detailed plans for the construction of the town and kept exact records on what transpired in the town as it was an important revenue source for the French Crown.

The rifles that the soldiers used were also replicas — they weighed almost 10 pounds.  The soldier let me hold it up as if I were to shoot it.  I probably would have missed what ever I would have been shooting at.

leaving Newfoundland and Labrador

Over the horizon behind us is Newfoundland and Labrador.  This morning, Saturday the 23rd we are in Louisbourg,, check that Historic Louisbourg, Nova Scotia - that is the French spelling too.   On Thursday we left Witless Bay, on the east coast of Newfoundland and drove across the Island on Canada Highway 1, (their interstate 1)  They call it the TCH - trans Canada hwy.  It is a big island and it was a long drive, spent the night in Stephenville, then Friday AM drove the short distance down to Port aux Basques for the Ferry.  No storm, no rough seas, no drama, just a bright sunny boat ride.

Today we visit Fort Louisbourg, site of an important English victory in their many fights with the French.  (I wonder how the French Canadians feel about all these historic sites?)

and for the record we sailed on the Highlanders — named after the regiments from Nova Scotia that were in the British Army in South Africa, WWI, and WWII.

oh and the internet here is s l o w

hence the abbreviated post.
tomorrows may not be much more

Puffins

Wednesday we went to two of the islands in the Witless Bay Ecological Preserve.  They are uninhabited and are protected bird colonies.  Several hundred thousand birds nest on these islands every year.  The most famous of the resident species is the Atlantic Puffin of which below is a rescued fledgling.  This one decided to leave his nest on his maiden flight that ended up on land rather than at sea.  Either blown ashore by wind or attracted by light it is unlikely that he/she would make it back to sea without help as their take off from land is next to impossible so we are told.  (we went to the Puffin rescue Tuesday morning prior to our afternoon hike).

The young ones (and old ones too when not in mating and nesting mode) do not have the distinctive colorful beak.  

Juregen Schau, a German, who spends his summers here started the "Puffin Patrol" to rescue landed fledglings and it has become quite the big deal.  He is a charming fellow who tells a good story well.

He enlisted a number of volunteers to carry boxes of puffins (note the last guy in line) to be put on board a zodiac to be taken out to sea for launch.  Normally they do not take them out to sea but toss them into the air at oceanside, but this particular day due to the wind and rain they were taken out to sea.  ( I told youall in yesterdays post the weather was bad.)

Back to the Preserve —  this morning Patt and I suited up in life suits to board a zodiac and go to the preserve.  A great boat ride too. Five passengers and the boat driver.

not your big ferry boat and out at sea these zodiacs are a treat to ride.

We rode along cliffs and actually went into that cave in the cliff up on the left.

and below is a photo of Green Island, one of the four islands in the preserve.  So named because of its color I assume?  When the motor was slowed the sound of the birds was almost overwhelming and the smell did not need the motor to be reduced to notice.

Here you can see some puffins, they actually dig burrows into the side of the island to lay their egg.

and just a few more of them.  Blacklegged kittiwakkes and common murres are there as well.  Several types of gulls are present. The gulls are there as predators.

That's the boat.  Three bench seats.

And that is where we are staying — ocean view.

Witless Bay

This is where we are staying — a fancy pants B & B for sure!  We love it.  The sun is shining and wow!! Yesterday, whatever day of the week it was, it was raining and COLD.  They had a fire in the fireplace and I backed up to it and it felt good.  This morning was dreary.  But now whoa - babe.

Lunch on the lawn with Sue, a new friend who works for the Canadian government — a secret type job, Patt and I think, researcher of some sort. Anyway Sue was fun and went on a hike with us. Yeah — that is the view from the B&B. Our window is the one to the left of the round room. Looks over the sea to the right of the lunch view.

Today we hiked a portion of the East Coast Trail. AWESOME. Going to hike some more. Until we met the chime guy at Prince Edward we had never heard of it.  Now we have some maps and have been on a very small portion of it and intend to be on some more.

In olden days, when there were no roads, the coves and bays were connected by foot paths.  The trail is an effort to reconstruct those trails as well as make a hike along the coast possible.  It is a hike - a trek worthy of making.

In many places the path went though bogs and wetlands. Also we spent a good deal of time among fir and spruce trees.  Love that Christmas tree smell.

Finally got lucky and caught the spray of wave crashing against rocks and actually got some against the cliffs on the left as well as the point to the front. Seeing the spray as waves crash is something I just plain like watching. One of the islands off shore — perhaps that one - perhaps not - is a famous one for Atlantic Puffins. Speaking of which. We actually saw and touched a fledging puffin this morning and I helped load baby puffins on a boat to see them off to hopefully prosper and do well as grown up puffins.  More about Atlantic Puffins tomorrow.

Photo below Patt and Sue walking along the rim of the trail along a cove. The sounds of the wind and waves were strong as the waves were heavy from the storm of yesterday and this morning.

Like it says in Genesis 1 "God saw that is was good" — Genesis has it right.  It is so very very good.

We had a great time in one beautiful creation.  Just can not begin to present how wonderful it was.  Wish I could.  But can not.  The interior of the trail was full of streams, moss, blue berries - yeah, we ate 'em too.

Seriously we are already planning our next trip to Newfoundland. And by the way, the correct pronunciation of this province would stress the final syllable and not pronounce the first "d" and many would not pronounce the final "d" or only very softly and with a lilt. As I mentioned earlier, Patt and I are not the only ones with an accent up here.

Cape Spear - eastern most point in North America

The sign says "le Canada commence ici … ou se, termine, ici"   For my reader who can not read French that says  "Canada begins here … or ends" depending on which direction you are going of course. There has to be a place that is the eastern most point in North America  and here it is and here we are.  For my reader who doesn't know me, that's me talking to brother Mark while marking this accomplishment.  I am assuming that I either have two readers or the reader who does not know French also does not know me.

But before getting here we did drive across the island stopping at the memorial in Gander for the 248 men of the 101st Airborne and the 8 airplane crew who died in a December 1985 crash after a refueling stop on their return from a peace keeping mission in the Sinai between Egypt and Israel.  

It is at the actual crash site between the airport and Lake Gander and was and still is the largest single air disaster in Canadian aviation history.

On to St John's, the capital of Newfoundland/Labrador, and up Signal Hill, site of the final battle of the Seven Years War between the French and British in 1762.  Important here because it settled the issue of who Canada belonged to — "God Save the Queen" gives you a hint as to the victor.

It provides great security for the narrows or entrance to the port of St John's. So the French most often would attack overland I understand.  Signal Hill was also the place Marconi first received a wireless transmission from Europe using Morse Code (what's that? says another of my readers).  Wonder what ole Marconi would say now?

Dinner was at a pub in the historic part of town.  

A true little crowded pub too. Noisy and lots of fun.

The Duke of Duckworth's entrance is in a little little alley between Water and Duckworth streets should you look for it.  Had cod.  Surprise surprise.

St John's is a harbor and we enjoyed watching this ship dock from our hotel room and later breakfast table — we've upgraded since Blanc Sablon.

And this is looking east, as in dead east, that point in the fence. Windy and COLD.

Rocky and bleak looking place.  Wish I had gotten a good picture of the waves crashing and it was possible for ya'll to hear the sounds.  Birds were diving hard into the water too for fish.