Linwood, Nova Scotia to South Harbor, Nova Scotia – 160 Miles
We began
the day with Mass at Our Lady of Grace Monastery, just a few miles up the road
from the Hyclass Campground where we stayed last night. Mass began at 9:00am, but because it was a
traditional High Mass with candles, incense, and everything sung or chanted, it
took almost an hour and a half. We
weren’t sure if they do a High Mass every week because it is a monastery or if
it was only this week since it was Pentecost Sunday. The monastery chapel was a beautiful, circa
1950s structure that easily would have seated perhaps 300 people, but there
were only a dozen or so attendees in addition to the priest, two acolytes, and
a handful of nuns who were seated in a small chapel off to the side. It was obvious that we were not regulars –
besides driving up in a motorhome with Colorado license plates, we were the
only ones who were not recognized as neighbors by the regular attendees. Everyone was very nice, however, and most
made a point of coming over to us and greeting us or welcoming us to their
community. That has been something we’ve
noticed ever since we first entered Canada back in Saskatchewan and then
re-entered into Ontario. Every single
person we’ve met: store clerks, wait persons in restaurants, gas station
attendants – everyone –has greeted us with a smile and made us feel very
welcome. Canada is a country of nice people.
After leaving
Mass, we stopped for gas before getting back on the highway, then immediately
set out for Cape Breton, the northernmost part of the Province of Nova
Scotia. Cape Breton is actually an
island, or more precisely several islands separated from the mainland and from
each other by a large inland “lake,” which is really a large bay connected to
the surrounding ocean by several narrow straits and channels. I’m not sure what the names of the different
islands are, but as far as I know, they are collectively called Cape Breton
Island. I always assumed that the name
comes from the cape at the northernmost tip of the island, which reaches out
into the Cabot Strait, the wide body of water which forms the boundary between
the Gulf of St Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean.
It was therefore a bit of a surprise to me as I looked at the map and
saw the actual name of the cape at the tip of the island is North Cape and not
Cape Breton. Oh well, you learn
something new every day.
One
reaches Cape Breton Island by driving across a short causeway, which is only
about one kilometer long. The narrow
strait separating it from the mainland at that point is called the Canso
Strait. Once across the strait, we drove
up the western coastal road toward the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, the
one feature that most people seem to associate with this part of the
province. The early settlers of this
area, after the French Acadians were driven out or assimilated into the “new”
British culture, were Scottish – hence the name Nova Scotia. The Scottish influence remains as seen in the
names along the way: MacDonald, MacLeod, MacThis and MacThat. As with many parts of Canada, the road signs
are bilingual, only here they’re not bilingual English and French, they’re
English and Gaelic. A bit farther north,
just as you approach the western entrance to the national park, the road passes
through an Acadian region, and French once again becomes the other half of the
bilingual equation.
For the
most part, the road we followed passed through the rolling, wooded hills which
we’ve come to expect for this area, with a higher, more mountain-like range to
the east, toward the center of the island.
The farther north you go, however, the closer and closer the higher
terrain inches over toward the shoreline until, just as you enter the Cape
Breton Highlands National Park, there’s no shoreline left – the steep,
cliff-like slopes come right down to the water’s edge. Upon entering the park, the road immediately
climbs the flank of these slopes and traces along their edges. There are scenic viewpoints and turn-outs
every few kilometers, giving spectacular views of the surf pounding against the
rocky shoreline far below. The road
eventually tops out on a broad plateau some 1300 feet above sea level. It then traverses a series of deep valleys
with steep, winding grades that must reach 10 percent or more at times. These
valleys empty out into small coves and bays on both the Gulf of St
Lawrence side and the Atlantic side of the park, which stretches across the
width of the island at this point.
Tonight we are camped alongside one of these coves, called Aspy
Bay. Our campsite is on a small bluff
which looks down the bay and out into the Atlantic Ocean beyond. Tomorrow we head south down the eastern side
of the island, then back on the mainland and continue down to the Halifax area.
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| The road along the west side of Cape Breton Highlands |
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| View from tonight's campsite, looking out into the Atlantic Ocean |
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