Cape Breton

Windy and rainy - boat tour to Bird Island cancelled - no puffins today.  We may wait until we get to Newfoundland to take a tour.

We drove to Baddeck, 20 miles, and toured Parks Canada Alexander Graham Bell Historic Site.

From there we drove out to look at Bras d'Or Lake and toured a Gaelic village.  A museum site with typical houses from 1800 - 1900, blacksmith building, general store.

To get to the lake and the Gaelic village we took a small ferry - 7 car max - $7 Canadian each way, saved driving the long way around.  The ferry was pulled by a cable, one person operated it, directed us to board and collected the fare.  The ferry schedule - ran on demand.

The on/off ramp lowers to get on/off and up for crossing the channel - we were the first car on.

Two cars going and three cars coming back.

Returned to Baddeck and did laundry down at the Baddeck Marina.  The only place in town with laundry.

Two washers and two dryers for people traveling by boat.

Small marina

Beautiful sunset - the rain finally stopped.

Rainbow out motel front door

Picture taken out motel window

Tomorrow - back to Halifax, 5 hour drive - we will probably make it an 8 hour drive.

Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada

Back to the park today.  Drove over to the west side and hiked.

Our first hike was the Skyline Trail - lots of people on the first half of the hike.  We did have some quiet moments.

We did the back loop on the way back and saw fewer people - more peaceful

We were walking along and we did come across this

Continuing back down to the car

Later, we did a short - 3 mile walk

This walk took us past some old homesteads, what was left of them, this was typical, just the remains of the foundation, 11 - 13 people lived in the houses up here.

Tomorrow - we're off to see puffins and check out Bras d'Or Lake, Biospere Reserve (UNESCO)