Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Wow, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia is gorgeous! A wonderland of green hills and rocky shoreline awaits you. Bob and I drove the Cabot Trail, a 187 mile loop around the northern end of the island. The cliffs and water look very much like Big Sur or Panoramic Highway in Marin County, CA. On one side is the Gulf of St. Lawrence and on the other is the Atlantic. It was cool, in the 50s and rather rainy, so we didn’t get to hike in the huge Provincial Park as we had planned. The campground host said that before hurricane Earl came through it had been very warm and muggy, but not so now.

We went whale watching out of a tiny little town called Pleasant Bay. We had our choice of many different types of boats, but settled on an open cruiser called the Double Hookup. The weather was a bit cloudy, but we encountered a total of more than 50 long finned pilot whales. This was my first time being with pilot whales and they were very much like orcas. We saw small pods with males, females and calves. They weren’t at all bothered by the boat and sometimes they surfaced right next to us.

Just up the road from Pleasant Bay, we visited Gampo Abbey, the Buddhist monastery where Pema Chodrun teaches. They were in retreat, but we were able to walk around on the grounds and visit the stupa. We heard that the monks have an annual baseball game with the local volunteer firefighters, with the monks in robes and the firefighters in full gear. As a symbolic gesture to the Buddhist precept of not harming any being, each year the monks buy the last days catch of the lobster season and then hire a boat to go out and release all the lobsters back into the sea. This seems to amuse the locals quite a bit.

We also stopped at St. Peter’s Catholic church in Cheticamp. Built in 1893, it is by far the tallest building in town and the interior is fabulous. Everything was wide open so we able to wander around upstairs and down.

There are several different languages spoken on this island. Cheticamp, where we stayed is in the Acadian area. It’s been fun to listen to people speaking a “kind of French” that you won’t hear anywhere else. In other towns you’ll hear Gaelic. Bob and I love Acadian fiddle music and we saw several groups.

Food is fun in Canada and we usually try out a new flavor of potato chips each day. So far it’s been roasted chicken, fries and gravy, jalapeno and cheddar, dill pickle, ketchup and the good old salt and vinegar. I think I’ll stick to sour cream and onion.

Next stop is Hopewell Rocks on the Bay of Fundy to see the enormous tides.