Sep 10, 2024 - It's a 3.5 hour drive from Whycocomagh PP to our next campground in Hammond Plains outside of Halifax. We have 3 nights booked at Woodhaven RV Park. We are sad to be leaving Cape Breton, but looking forward to exploring the Halifax area. We stopped at a Walmart on the way and it's weird to be around highways and bigger cities for a change. We drove the 30 minutes to the Halifax Waterfront and enjoyed an afternoon wandering around the wharf area along with zillions of cruise ship tourists. The waterfront boardwalk is 2.5 miles long and has beautiful views and lots to do. We went to the HMCS Sackville museum, which is a WWII Flower-class corvette ship with the Royal Canadian Navy which took part in escort duties during WWII.
Maud Lewis was a folk artist from Nova Scotia that we had learned about at an art gallery in Cheticamp. She lived in poverty in a small house in Marshalltown for most of her life. She painted cheerful, brightly colored pieces and she received national acclaim as an artist in the early 60's.
We took a self guided tour of the HMCS Sackville. I liked this pretty knot that held the rope pull out of the way
A view of the harbor from the HMCS Sackville
AG's calling for some help from below
I like the triangle painted on this bench
This depth charge (anti-submarine warfare) is ready to be shot off the side of the ship (It looks like it has a face to me)
water taxi
We found a friend
Kev's motto
Kev the surfer dude
More poutine for lunch, gotta get it while we can. We ate at the Beer Garden with a great view of the harbor
the cruise ships are here
George's Island, the location of Fort Charlotte
The drunken lampposts display titled "Get Drunk, Fall Down"
lots of cafes and restaurants along the boardwalk
the Salt Yard
We've seen Cows ice cream all over Nova Scotia and finally got to try it.
Pretty sky at the campground while we had a fire.
Sep 11, 2024 - We spent the afternoon at Peggy's Cove today. It's a 35 minute drive from our campground. And it was a pretty drive along the coastline. Peggy's Cove is a small fishing community on St Margaret's Bay. There is some dispute about who Peggy was, some say she was a young shipwreck survivor. Others say she was the wife of an early settler.
Peggy's Cove Lighthouse
In 2021 a large accessible viewing platform was built, since the rocks can be very slippery. We saw a casualty while we were there, someone went chin first on the rocks (and I'm sure it's a daily occurrence)
lots of Adirondack chairs around
there are lots of rocks to explore
Kev's ready to go fishing
views of the town from the rocks
people love to make cairns
that lighthouse looks like it's in the middle of the parking lot
The village was founded in 1811 when Nova Scotia issued a land grant of 800 acres to 6 families of German descent. Peggy's Cove has been designated a preservation area, which restricts development. There are also restrictions on who can live in the community to prevent inflation of property values for the year round residents.
it is quite the picturesque spot
Peggy's Cove remains an active fishing community
It was definitely a fun place to take pics.
Everything looked scenic
I probably went a little overboard on the pics
One last lighthouse pic!
As we left Peggy's Cove, we stopped at the Swissair 111 Memorial, just outside of the village. On Sep 2, 1998 Swissair 111 crashed into St Margaret's Bay, 5 miles from Peggy's Cove. The town became the staging area for the crash. The Memorial site was a great place to view Peggy's Cove from across the water
Video view of Peggy's Cove from the Memorial
From the hike to the Memorial we could see the Bluenose II out for a sail
The original Bluenose was launched in 1921 as a Grand Banks racing/fishing schooner. It sailed until 1941 when it struck a reef near Haiti
In 1963 the Bluenose II was launched and now sails daily out of Lunenburg.
Sept 7, 2024 - It's a 2 hour drive from Louisbourg to our next campground at Whycocomagh Provincial Park. On the way we stopped at the Alexander Graham Bell Historical Site. I read the book "Reluctant Genius" by Charlotte Gray which I loved and was so excited to see the Baddeck area that Bell loved so much. He bought land on the lake Bras d'Or on Cape Breton, because the area reminded him so much of Scotland where he was born. The museum was free with our Canada Parks pass. It was a busy place today since it was a rainy day. The museum was a bit of a disappointment to me, but I was expecting a lot. It seemed a bit tired, but I was happy we stopped for a visit. After the museum we walked around the town of Baddeck, which was a cute little town.
We stopped at one of the many overlooks of Bras d'Or Lake, which is an irregular estuary in the middle of Cape Breton. It has two connections to the ocean and is tidal. Inflows from several rivers make the water brackish.
The Silver Dart, which Bell designed. It was the first powered flight in Canada, Feb 23, 1909. It flew a half a mile, at 40 mph
The original HD-4 hull of the hydrofoil boat that set the world speed record of over 70 mph in 1919.
Part of a letter from Bell, to his wife Mabel. "any where in the wide world you wish I will go. And the more traveling you want the better I will like it" Those are words I can also live by!
Mr Watson, come here. I want to see you!
The view of Bras d'Or from the museum. You could supposedly see Beinn Bhreagh Hall, which was Bell's residence on Cape Breton. It is still owned by the Bell family and not open to the public
flowers in front of the museum
When we made it to our campsite at Whycocomagh PP it was raining. Kev got us set up!
Sep 8, 2024 -
It rained a lot last night, and today is still cloudy, but supposed to be dry until later tonight. We went for a walk around the campground, which is at the base of a mountain. There would have been some great hiking trails to check out, but everything was too wet for a hike today
There was a view of Bras d'Or from the tent campsites
I wish we could have a fire at this campsite
Sites 1 and 2
The campsites had both water and electric and lots of grass
We went to the Red Barn for lunch and Mirabelle got to come with us.
After lunch we stopped at Big Spruce Brewing, which was just 15 minutes from the campground. We've been drinking the beer all over Cape Breton, so it was another brewery we were interested in. I had also seen that they are part of Harvest Hosts, so it would have been a nice spot to camp if we were only doing one night in the area.
Nice bar with a view of the lake
lots of picnic tables and benches on the grounds
cute bike rack
and a screen porch with more views. We learned a new game, the Bears and the Bees, which we liked.
We got a few of our favorites to go...Camp Spruce and Ready Yer Knot (Kev loves a good red ale) and even got to have a quick campfire before the rain started again.
