47 On to Broad Cove

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

32 Off to Nova Scotia
33 Whales, Digby Neck
34 Yarmouth and beyond
35 Through to Lunenburg
36 Lunenburg
37 To Halifax
38 Halifax
39 Halifax and Bluenose II
40 Halifax
41 Halifax Citadel
42 Fixing Morty
43 Greenwich & Stanhope
44 Charlottetown
45 Canadian Confederation
46 Whisky and Ceilidh
47 On to Broad Cove
48 Glace Bay and Marconi
49 Arriving in Newfndlnd
50 To St John's
51 St John's
52 St John's
53 Avalon Peninsula
54 To Twillingate
55 Rain to Rocky Harbour
56 Gros Morne
57 Vikings up north
58 Wind and ferries
59 Labrador

Canada

Cheticamp to Broad Cove, Nova Scotia

Monday 19 September 2005 (day 120)

Panoramic vista point eh?

We woke to another rainy day, which will limit our whale watching opportunities. Around Cape Breton Pilot, Minke, Fin and Humpbacks are all common and in good weather you can see them from the lookout posts on the edge of the road. I doubt we will have such luck today. We to'ed and fro'ed into Cheticamp, first on the hunt for propane as our tank is running low. This we found at the local co-op, a real Aladdin's cave of a shop. Here you can buy everything from your weekly shop to an extension for your house, all houses here being in effect big garden sheds.

Heading back up and through the National Park we realised that we had forgotten to also fill up with petrol. A quick calculation based on fuel consumption and we felt we probably had enough to get to the next petrol pump at Cape North but decided to play safe. We turned back to Cheticamp, filled up and then set off on our way again.

The weather was pretty foul and there were lots of low hanging clouds. As we drove we could see the wind rolling in and blowing the mist away. Parts that had been totally misty on our first attempt through the park we now much clearer as we drove through for the second time. There was a gradual climb uphill along the side of the Jerome Mountain (366m) and French Mountain (455m), small compared to those we had been on in South America but still pretty impressive as you had the full impact of the height from sea to the summit. Along the way we passed a couple of men cycling up. They must have had pretty strong leg muscles to keep going.

We had planned a walk at French Mountain to get the benefit of the sea views. We parked up in the car park but decided it was too wet and muggy to really enjoy it and that we would carry on. One slight little problem as we left though. Stef, reversing backwards, had not realised that the grass and bushes at the side of the road were not at road level but were growing from a ditch. Fortunately, our spare tyre is on the back of the van and this hit the ground with a crunch and a bash before the wheels could get stuck in the ditch. There were no visisble signs of damage, just a few bits of mud and grass stuck on the back - a lucky escape. The North American caution for not getting sued for anything continued on the map from the National Park. They showed you which roads were steep marking them as "drive safely on the mountains. Use lower gear...". Winding down to Pleasant Bay what you think is open ocean is still the tail end of the Gulf of St Lawrence, vast open expanses of water.

From Pleasant Bay we climbed back up to the plateau of the national park where the woodland changed from pine and fir to maple trees. We stopped at the Lone Shieling home to 350 year old maple trees and a replica of a Scottish Crofters hut. Land had been left by a local man to the National Park on the condition that they built and maintained the shieling, a copy on one on (I think) the Isle of Skye in Scotland. A small walk takes you through the forest to the shieling. It is a simple hut, larger on the inside than you think it will be from the outside. A wall divides the space into living and sleeping, the beds simply being stone bunks that are covered with straw. One full side of the hut is open and is filled by peat bricks when it starts to get cold.

Turned out beautifully

Around the shieling a path leads down to a bridge over a stream. We had not seen this at first and were trying to work out how we would get across without either getting wet or slipping as the water was fast running and deeper than my boots. On the other side it takes you through the maple forest. This made me wonder who first found that you could get syrup from a maple tree and what had led them to give it a go. It was the same type of musing I have about what led someone to mix certain elements together to get plastic, or to beat flax and then sift it so that you could spin a yarn to make cloth etc etc.

In the maple forest there was a really peaceful and calm aura. The trees are very tall and supple and through their green canopy sunlight filters through to the ground below. This forest is also home to a wide variety of species of palms, some of which are rare and unique to this area. All around small saplings are growing, starting their climb upwards to clear sunlight. The path continues down to meet the Anse River. Here it is probably ten metres wide and runs fast over rocks and pebbles creating the ever relaxing sound of trickling water. At this point the water had a reddy brown tinge to it, reflecting the colour of the soil in much of this area.

Back on the road we headed down towards Cape North following a fairly straight road along the valley of the Middle Aspy River. Information panels along the way told the story of the valley. This valley lies along one of the fault lines in the earths crust, they believe the same one as the Great Glen in Scotland. I can well believe it as the landscape all around here has been very reminiscent of Scotland. The valley is now totally covered in trees and here and there, as we have seen for the last week or so, one or two are just starting to change colour.

We followed the road down as far as Broad Cove where we decided to stop for the night. What had started as a really wet, rainy and miserable day ended in bright warm sunshine, with clear blue skies that looked crisp and clean, as if they had just been washed. It was so warm that we dusted down our little barbecue, lit a wood fire and enjoyed dinner al fresco, something we have not been able to do for a while. The information they gave us when we booked in included a leaflet on what to do if a brown bear came into the site. Much as I would love to see one, I have decided I only really want to see one if a Park Ranger is on hand with a gun with a tranquiliser dart in it so that if the bear goes on the attack the Ranger can stun it.

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