A Day Off

When you've been working 9 to 5, Monday to Friday for so many years, you assume that when you finally escape from that routine, you'll be working fewer hours and your weekends will be extended. Wrong. We recently stopped and realized that in the two months we've been here, we had not had as much as one day off, let alone two consecutive days! The weekend as we had known it, had ceased to exist for us. A dry, sunny day was a painting day or a gardening day, and there was just so much that had to be done that we found ourselves overwhelmed and unable to make time to just rest. It seems strangely difficult to arrange a "weekend", and even taking a couple of hours off to watch a movie made us feel guilty somehow. Then one fine, sunny morning we woke up still feeling exhausted even after a night's sleep ... and that's when we decided to take an entire day off.

Funny how, when you live on the Cabot Trail, you're too busy to actually see any of it. We decided to rectify this before the summer was gone. It was a beautiful sunny morning, at the bottom of our driveway we turned right instead of left, and headed towards Margaree.

The harbour at Margaree is lovely and I snapped a few pics:










Lobster is a huge industry here in Nova Scotia, and everywhere you look there are lobster traps:




I hadn't realized until we stopped off at Margaree, how much I missed that ocean smell! The scent of seaweed and salt water is quite intoxicating.

Further up the Trail from Margaree is Cheticamp, which is part of the Acadian region of Cape Breton. Cheticamp is a charming town, packed full of places to eat and hotels, motels and B&Bs. The French influence is quite apparent. It was very busy and seemed like a very popular tourist destination, with whale watching tours on offer, and lobster dinners at every corner. There also seemed to be a disproportionate number of hairdresser's.







As you pass through Cheticamp and get closer to the National Park, the mountains start to get higher and the landscape more rugged.







Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada cuts across the entire northern lobe of Cape Breton Island. There is a $15 entrance fee for a passenger vehicle with two occupants, and if you are going to be camping there, you need to buy a permit.




As you drive along the Cabot Trail within the National Park, you steadily climb into the higher elevations along the coast. Some of the mountains are over 400 metres, and the views are spectacular. Scenic lookoffs are thoughtfully placed, and you can get some incredible photos.










It was definitely a good day to tour the Trail, with blue skies and sunshine the whole way. We stopped off at a place called the Rusty Anchor at Pleasant Bay for an excellent fish and chips lunch, the place was busy and the food delicious. The very northern section of the island is not in the National Park, so you exit the park at Pleasant Bay and then it's possible to take some side trips off the Trail to places like Meat Cove, which we decided to leave for another time. Then you turn back south and enter the Park again (you only need to pay once!).

The National Park is very well maintained and the roads are excellent, but you do need to pay attention while driving as there are some very steep inclines and hair-pin bends. The views say it all:










There are many different camping areas within the Park, with terrains to suit every taste. There is fishing, hiking, swimming and mountain climbing all within reach, and beautiful coastal areas with rocky cliffs and beaches to explore. Did I mention that this is all along our road?







We stopped at this area which had a nice stretch of rocky shoreline and a couple of beaches where people were actually swimming.  There were lots of little trails to explore as well.  All of the camping stop-offs within the Park were very nicely equipped with parking areas and washroom facilities.  As well, every so often along the Trail there were emergency shelters with a phone available.  This would definitely save your bacon if you were caught out.




On the way back down the other coast, we were treated to more stunning scenery.  Cape Breton resembles parts of Wales and Scotland, with probably the best parts of each, and improves upon both in its own unique blend of highland landscapes.




One of the highest mountains in the Park is Cape Smokey, and the driver needs to have both hands on the wheel at all times to safely negotiate the steep roads which snake up and down the hump backs of the highlands with plenty of hairpin bends.  We were driving behind a guy who was riding his brakes practically the whole way, and the smell of burning rubber told us that by the time he got home, he`d need a new set of brake pads!




When you once again exit the National Park. you come across the town of Ingonish, home of not only the Gaelic College, but also the Highland Links golf course.  Ingonish is a very well-kept town and definitely worth a visit.  From Ingonish we travelled back down the Trail towards the Bras D`Òr Lakes, past St. Ann`s and thence back towards Baddeck and our section of the Trail.

It was a glorious day and the weather could not have been better.  If you have never seen the Cabot Trail, it is well deserving of its status of one of the seven wonders of Canada, and should be on everyone`s bucket list.

All in all, our day off was very enjoyable indeed.  We`ve agreed that we must try and find a way to schedule in two consecutive days off every week.  Now, what did we used to call that -- there was a term for it -- oh yes, a weekend!