The World's Shortest Ferry Ride

October 6

We have arrived in Nova Scotia, "Canada's Ocean Playground." Specifically, we are on Cape Breton Island, at the port of Sydney. (Note: in Nova Scotia, on Cape Breton, at the port. Why the difference? I will save the question of the quotation marks for another day.)

Nova Scotia - New Scotland - is proud of its Scottish heritage, but the Scots were relatively recent immigrants.  The area was originally settled by the Mi'kmaq (who gave us the word wigwam), perhaps as far back as 10,000 years ago. The Vikings may have visited somewhat later. The French began arriving in the early 1600's and called it Acadia. Starting in 1755 the British began the Expulsion of the Acadians, as in Evangeline:

This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks . . .

After the American Revolutionary War, British Loyalists and former black slaves began arriving. Cruise passengers began arriving in in the 20th Century.

Our ship is greeted Scottishly

The Scots started arriving in the 1770's, and they left their mark. Gaelic is still spoken in parts of Cape Breton. Road signs are in English and Gaelic. Fiddling and step-dancing and ceilidhs are very popular here.

The cruise terminal in Sydney

Sydney is a city of about 100,000. It was founded in 1785. We have been to Sydney before, so we rented a car to see the countryside this time.

Our destination today is the Cabot Trail. The Cabot Trail is a scenic highway that follows the coastline of Cape Breton Island. It consistently makes all the "Top 10" lists of the most beautiful drives in Canada or in North America. The Cabot Trail makes a 185-mile loop and we were certainly not going to have time for that, so our goal was to drive to Ingonish and back. We had enough time to come and go, with a few stops, plus a little cushion so we didn't miss the ship.

There are two ways to get to Ingonish. You can drive around the foot of St. Anns Bay, or you can take the Englishtown Ferry. We thought the ferry might be more fun, though we were worried that it might involve some delays. We decided to take the ferry on the drive out to Ingonish and take the other route coming back.

If we turn to the left, the overland route will bring us around the foot of the bay to the opposite shore

If we turn to the right we will eventually come to the ferry

We turned right, and eventually came to a lookout point ("lookoff" in Canadian). What's that? Did they build a bridge?

Nope, there is still a ferry there and we just made it. Who knows how long we would have to wait for the next crossing. It must have to go all the way around that island there. (Actually, this photo and the next two were taken on the way back, but you get the idea.)

Wait. . . .It just goes over to where that other car is?

Under way? No, the ferry is still at the dock.

Two minutes. 

That's how long the ferry takes to make the crossing. Two minutes. It takes longer than that to drive down the causeway on the other side. Crazy!

There weren't many places to eat that were open this late in the season. We stopped at bakery/cafe called The Clucking Hen for coffee and a snack. Nice baked goods. Then we continued on along the Cabot Trail towards Ingonish. Ingonish wasn't much. We continued a little further and reached a toll booth at the entrance to a national park. This was as good a place as any, so we turned around and stopped at The Clucking Hen for lunch on the way back. Sandwiches with home-made bread.

I really wasn't that impressed with the Cabot Trail. Maybe the good part was the part we didn't get to see. I was expecting sweeping views of cliffs and ocean. We only saw a tiny bit of that. Much of the road stayed away from the coast and we saw a lot of boring trees and schlocky side-of-the-road tourist-oriented development. I hate to say it, but think this drive is over-rated. 

That being said, it wasn't all disappointing:

On the way back we missed the turnoff to the overland route and found ourselves at the ferry again. Oh, well. Ferries are always fun!

Here it comes!

Cheesy factoid:

Canadians eat more mac and cheese than any other country. (I tried to look up the spelling of mac and cheese and I found mac 'n cheese, mac n' cheese, and mac 'n' cheese. I would like to know the rule for this in case I ever have to write about rock and roll.)

Back on the ship we had a nice dinner and then saw a comedian named Tom Briscoe. He was very funny. Some comedians make fun of other people, and it is sometimes mean-spirited. Tom Briscoe is the kind who makes us laugh as he joins us in making fun of ourselves.