Thursday 27 September 2001

Friday 28 September 2001 - Monday 1 October 2001

Further on into Cape Breton, the pretty, rocky but economically bereft eastern part of Nova Scotia. Nothing much replaced the coal mines and steel mills when they closed down other than a bit of fishing, and now it's estimated that about 90% of young people leave the area as soon as they can. Stopped at the KOA in Baddeck, the town where Alexander Graham Bell set up his summer home. Found that Jamie, Doris and Stuart had beaten us to it; it's a logical central point from which to tour round the cape.

Next day, visited the Bell museum. I hadn't realised how prolific an inventor he was; apart from the telephone, he came up with the audiometer, the photophone (a device for transmitting speech by light rays, predating fibre optics by some time), the wax cylinder phonograph and the induction balance. While in Baddeck he became interested in aeronautics and marine propulsion, and his group developed the aileron and the hydrofoil. Their 'hydrodrome', built in 1917, held the water speed record for many years ...

He also worked most of his life with the hearing impaired (his father developed a system for teaching the deaf to speak, and his wife was deaf), founding a school to train teachers of the deaf in Boston. Quite a bloke.

On Sunday we drove round the Cabot Trail, a circular tour of the northern part of  the cape where John Cabot is believed to have landed in the Matthew in 1497. Beautiful weather and views all the way ...

... and something we've not seen before - a scarecrow farm ...

On our last day we went to Fortress Louisbourg, a reconstructed town on the site of the original settlement. Normally it's well staffed with appropriately costumed re-enactors, but we arrived on the first day after the season had closed and most of the actors, being students, had gone back to college; some were still around though, including the lovely hostess at our authentic period meal ...

The meal was a little tacky but quite fun. We sat in tables of eight and were each issued with a spoon and a bib. I chose the chicken which could have been a mistake given the spoon, but it was surprisingly eatable.

The town was settled and garrisoned by the French in 1717, captured by the British in 1745, given back to the French a few years later, then captured again for the last time in 1758 by the Brits who promptly destroyed half of it. Imagine how the world could have progressed in the 18th century if all the men and resources hadn't been wasted in futile pissing contests between national leaders.

In the evening we went to a ceilidh comprising a fiddle player who mostly stayed in tune, a staid keyboard player, and a couple with no teaching ability to lead the dancing sets. We left early.

Tuesday 2 October 2001 - Friday 5 October 2001

Four days travelling clockwise round the coast, with a different campground each night. We soon decided that we liked the south coast of Nova Scotia better than Cape Breton, in fact better than anywhere else in Canada: we like the people, the scenery, the coastline, the architecture, the food, and the peace and quiet, the only down side being the quality of the roads. The foliage was starting to produce its beautiful fall colours, which helped.

At Guysborough we came across monuments erected by the Prince Henry Society of North America, which apparently is devoted to establishing as historical fact a voyage by Prince Henry Sinclair of the Orkneys to America in 1398 ...

They seem to acknowledge that the Scandinavians (Leif Ericsson and friends) were probably the first Europeans to do it several hundred years earlier, so why this particular voyage is so important to them is not clear. Perhaps they just don't like Italians.

At Mahone Bay they were having some sort of a harvest festival which involved groups of mannequins all round the town ...

... including a fine one of the Royal Family (God bless them) ...

Got another one in my series of Christine with silly animals too ...

We're really getting into the afternoon radio serial on CBC1. Called Kit's Law, it's about a fourteen year old girl girl living with her simple minded mother in mid-20th century Newfoundland and the attempts of the nasty townspeople of Hare's Hollow to get them put into institutions. Sounds monumentally depressing, and it'll probably all end in tears, but it's well written and has a certain fascination: what ghastly experience will befall them in today's episode?

Briefly visited Lunenburg, a picturesque coastal town and UNESCO World Heritage Site due to its connection with the development of the Atlantic fisheries in the 18th century. The museum cost $8 a shot, but while we sat eating our lunch we noticed a number of people going in and reappearing 10 minutes later looking vaguely unimpressed, so we didn't bother. Nice houses though ...

Top tip #18: Canadian champagne is good stuff, second only to the real thing and much better than any of the Spanish, Australian or American equivalents. It's also only CA$10 a bottle (about £4.50). Don't know if you can get it in England, but I'll certainly try.

The otherwise pleasant Bayberry Campground at Barrington had a toilet system we hadn't come across before: similar to a standard long drop, but instead of a hole in the ground the offending material went into a bin liner partly filled with sawdust and sat looking at you until you covered it with more sawdust Sounds nastier than it actually was, as everything was kept nicely clean.

The nearly new reconstructed Acadian village at Pubnico is at a lovely spot by the sea ...

They have a number of old buildings transported from other parts of the province, which have been weatherproofed but not yet restored due to lack of money and time. Incidentally, unlike New Brunswick where all the Francophones tend to live in the northern half, in Nova Scotia there are various scattered pockets all over the place, and this is one of them.

Saturday 6 October 2001 - Monday 8 October 2001

Today, we had our worst dining experience in North America so far. We'd previously seen the 'donair' advertised, and had assumed that it was the Canadian equivalent of a doner kebab, so when we stopped for lunch in a small town where it was that or pizza we thought we'd risk it. What a mistake. We had of course expected the traditional pita bread stuffed with half-cooked lamb and garnished with salad and assorted salmonella and e. coli: delicious. What we got was in pita bread, but there the resemblance ended. The 'meat' was a variety of minced animal products preformed into slices (similar to haslet but not as nice) and partially reheated. The 'salad' was a few scraps of onion and tomato smeared on the pita bread. However, the pièce de resistance was the sauce in which the meat was smothered, which was white, sweet, and tasted vaguely of vanilla; I don't know what country's cuisine this is supposed to be, but I don't want to go there on holiday. The worst thing was that I was so hungry that I actually ate most of mine, although Christine had the good taste to dump the whole thing and have a slice of dry bread instead.

After our gourmet treat and a day of driving through wind and rain, relieved somewhat by a good radio program about Sandy Denny (hands up all those who remember her and / or Fairport Convention), we stopped at the Scotia Pines Campground near Truro. There were more campers here than we'd seen in the whole of the last week put together; we'd been staying at some fairly small places, and a few times we were the only ones there. Watched some cable TV and had a lie in.

Next day, into Truro to see Victoria Square and get another photo of Christine with a silly statue ...

... then on to the huge and spectacular Victoria Park (the early inhabitants of Truro were loyal but unimaginative when naming parts of their town). In the afternoon we finally got to see the huge tidal bore sweeping in from the Bay of Fundy and up the river, although due to unfavourable phases of the moon etc. it was only about 4" high rather than the several feet it can reach on occasions ...

Bit of a letdown really. To make up for it we had an enormous Chinese buffet meal followed by donuts and cookies. Great Britain and America started bombing Afghanistan today, endearing us to Moslems everywhere.

Next day went for a drive around the coast intending to do a bit of walking. On the way we spotted 'That Dutchman's Farm' and went for a look: his family concern makes outstandingly good cheese and baking, sells traditional Dutch liquorice, runs a restaurant and cafe, farms, and keeps pot-bellied pigs and a multitude of exotic birds including emus and some pretty chickens ...

His farm also incorporates a number of nature trails, so we did our walking round these after stocking up with cheese. The fall colours are pretty much up to speed now ...

Today being Canada's Thanksgiving Day, almost everything was shut. However, we did finally find one restaurant that condescended to remain open, and had an enormous turkey dinner followed by lemon meringue pie.

Tuesday 9 October 2001

A day of driving round the coast on the north side of the Bay of Fundy; very similar to the south side. Stopped off at a campsite at Spencer's Island which turned out to be closed, although we discovered that this was the place at which the Mary Celeste was built ...

Stayed the night in solitary splendour at Fundy Tide campground in Advocate. Our last night in Nova Scotia, which we've decided is our favourite province of Canada: good food, nice people but not many of them, beautiful countryside, they speak English, and you can drink the water. Tomorrow, back into New Brunswick.