September 24 - Meat Cove to Mabou

Leaving Meat Cove we looked back at the TCs still there. It's a remarkable place to camp.

Our last day together, we travelled in small groups back down the Cabot Trail, again conquering the 13% grades. Some of us rolled through Cheticamp and on to the Glenora Distillary. This is North America's only distillery using everything from Scotland except the water. They won't call it Scotch but that is what it is. At over $200 for a 250ml bottle, we did not leave with any.

Our goal was Mabou and the The Red Shoe Pub for a farewell meal and an evening of Celtic music. Of course we knitters stopped at a local farm where they raise the sheep, shear, spin, and dye their own wool.

Paula and Jerry arranged for us to park on the local dock overnight.

We walked up to the pub, again had local food and listened to fiddle, piano, spoons and pipes. We scattered in the morning heading back to ME, MA, PA, NY, and CT. The thought and effort Paula and Jerry put into this trip will grow into legend. Thanks you two for all the hard work, photos, and those great Nova Scotia caps.

Paula and Jerry:

Eh Canada ! You are a beautiful place.

September 21 - Cabot Trail to Cheticamp

September 21 - Hurricane Igor interfers with our Truck Camping plans - how dare he! Originally we were leaving Englishtown to go to Meat Cove but the gale force winds made us reconsider. Jerry and Paula called both camping places and found that we could swap days. So today we headed around the Cabot Trail from Englishtown to Cheticamp instead of Meat Cove. The winds were at least 40 mph but the day was clear with huge waves kicked up by the hurricane winds.

What is it with Nova Scotia and the coffee and pastry shops? We have not noticed overweight folks here but it is probably because most of the walking they have to do is straight up and down steep hills. We stopped at the Clucking Hen for coffee and disturbed the locals by filling the parking lot. Local wood and glass artisan shops were within walking distance so they were probably happy to see us.

We next stopped at the Chowder House at Neil's Harbor, parking on the lobster wharf and taking about a bazillion photos of the huge waves. They were really rolling in at about 12-15' and breaking at sea.

There was a very small local road from Neil's Harbor back to the Cabot Trail which gave us vistas far to sea and an idea of how this land is formed. Deep valley's, steep hills/mountains and protected harbors and always the very restless sea pounding in.

The west side of the Cabot Trail is very steep, a long, tough climb even for our TC trucks. We stopped several times along the way to rest the trucks and look out over the ocean. It always amazes us when a person in a rest area asks "Are all of you together?". Like why would thirteen truck campers roll in together if we weren't together????? The Cabot Trail is as spectacular as we had all hoped it would be.

We're camped in Cheticamp for two days. We'll backtrack to Meat Cove as none of us want to miss the chance to camp on a remote cliff overlooking the ocean and watching (hopefully) whales pass by. By Thursday the hurricane winds and waves should be gone and a more comfortable camp will be possible.