Today was
one of those days where we finished the day somewhere totally
different to where we had expected to be. Rather than ending up in
Baddeck for another night of Ceilidh based entertainment, we found
ourselves on an overnight ferry to Newfoundland. But that is
skipping ahead of time a little so I will back track.
Our initial plan was to go for a long walk in the national park and
then to work our way down to Baddeck. I though had woken up full of
cold and the last thing I felt like doing was walking. It was one of
those days where if I was at home I would be curled up on the settee
with a big mug of tea, a good book and a stack of DVD's to work my
way through. Instead of walking we hit the road, driving down
through Ingonish and on to Cape Smokey. Here we stopped to enjoy the
view. This side of Cape Breton faces onto the Atlantic Ocean and
there are great views up and down the coast and of the small
villages dotted along the way. At some stage we decided that the
ceilidh we had gone to in Mabou would last us for some while to come
so rather than heading for Baddeck we headed east across the cape.
Just after Indian Brook we took a small road that on the map just
stops in the middle of St Anns Bay. The road is in effect a causeway
spanning the bay and it ends about forty metres before the other
side allowing enough room for boats to get further down into St Anns
Harbour. A small chain ferry takes you across to the other side. As
we got there a huge lorry with a full load of logs was going aboard.
Not surprisingly, it had the ferry to itself. Within minutes it was
off the other side, the ferry was loaded and was coming back our way
to take us to Englishtown. From here we followed route 105 to
Sydney.
At Sydney we did a slight detour to find the Cape Breton branch of
Stones, the RV dealer who had fixed up Morty's water works problems.
We now have a problem with our water heater and have been boiling
pans of water to wash up for the last few days. We found them just
outside of Sydney and waited for the service chaps to come back from
lunch. The problem turned out to be the circuit board which has
blown and has now been replaced. Yet another bill that we will try
to recover from Roulottes Gilbert (who we bought from) when we go
back through Montreal.
While we were there we were able to take a look inside the other
trailers that they had on show. Some were huge, able to comfortably
sleep 6 people (as long as about four were children) with all mod
cons. The ones that surprised me most though we the ones that fold
away into a flat trailer box shape. We have seen loads of these on
campsites and I always thought they looked as if they would be
really small and cramped inside. Not so. The sleeping areas fold out
and look more roomy than the space we have on Morty and they come
equipped with dining area, fridge, cooker etc. The only thing they
do not seem to have is an onboard loo.
While we were waiting around at Stones we replanned the rest of our
day. The next province we are heading to is Newfoundland and
Labrador and the ferries there go either at 4:00pm or 11:30pm.
Knowing that there was not much else we wanted to see in this part
of Cape Breton we booked for the night ferry for tonight. We then
headed out to Glace Bay hoping to see the Miners Museum and the site
where Marconi sent his first message across to Cornwall.
The Miners Museum would have been an interesting visit as part of
the tour is led by an ex-miner who takes you down into the mines
themselves. Unfortunately we got there just before it was closing so
could not do the tour. At the Marconi site, the state of play was
worse. This is only open in the summer season so we did not even get
to talk to a human being here. We did though resolve a dispute that
had been ongoing since Stef read the guidebooks.
They talked about how this was a site where Marconi conducted
experiments on radio transmissions but did not actually say that
messages were sent or received from here. Stef had decided that as
such, the messages probably went to/from somewhere else, I disagreed
saying he was just being cynical. When we got there, it was the site
where the first transatlantic message to Cornwall was sent from, but
it was not where the first, and earlier, transatlantic message from
Cornwall to Canada was received. Funnily, Stef had changed the goal
posts of his earlier debate. It was no longer a debate about whether
any messages were sent or received here but it was that this site
was not where the first message was sent/received. Typical man! (and
he is now disagreeing that he changed the goal posts!)
Miner's Museum at Glace
Bay
With nothing much else to see we headed back to Sydney. It is just
an industrial town but some of the streets in the town were very
picturesque with old style clapboard houses and green canopies of
shade from the trees on either side. We found the local library and
went in to use their internet access to check mails and other bits
and pieces of information. We then headed out to the ferry terminal
to catch the ferry to Newfoundland.
It was only about 8:00pm when we checked in for the ferry and we had
over an hours wait before boarding would start. We had decided to
wait for dinner and eat on the ferry so went for a little amble
around the terminal. There was not really much to see or do but we
found a little bar and had a drink to kill some time. When we
boarded we were right at the front next to a big livestock trailer
full of cows. They could obviously sense that something unusual was
up (apart from being stuck in a trailer) and were all mooing away.
They already were providing quite a rural smell in the air!
Being a clever chap Stef had reserved a cabin for us, unfortunately
not one with a porthole or window but it was comfy enough and better
than trying to sleep on chairs in the main lounge. We went for a
walk around the ferry and finding a member of crew I had to admit
defeat, Stef had correctly worked out which was the front of the
ferry, something I would expect from an experienced day skipper such
as he! Hungry, we then found the cafe and had an unremarkable
dinner. I had set my expectations low so was not too disappointed in
my fish and chips but Stef's hot dog left a lot to be desired.
Tired and knowing we would have a long day's drive ahead of us
tomorrow we went and got cosy in our cabin and headed for bed just
as the ferry left port. They were surprisingly comfy and it was not
long before we were both sound asleep.
