Cape Breton rocks!

We arrived in Nova Scotia on Saturday morning. We caught the 8:00 ferry from PEI. Of course the first place we visited was the welcome centre where we got lots of  information - information overload!  The tourist information hostess suggested we make a reservation for the night and then proceeded to phone 3 places before she found us a spot. She assured us it was nice campsite. We got there and there was at least 100 trailers parked side by side. We could only get an unserviced site and we were given several sites to choose from.  Not one of them was level! We ended up buying firewood so we could level the camper. (We do have some, but we didn't have enough!)  The site we chose was nice in that we had a great view of the ocean and the sunset was spectacular, but there was no privacy.  For that many sites they had 1 bathroom with 6 stalls and 3 showers for the women.  That place was busy and pretty gross by the end of the day.  I went for a swim and then stood in line for a shower.  When I got out there were at least 6 women lined up waiting.   I tell you both Woodall's and the provincial campsite books they give you are sure misleading.  I have given up looking forward to a campsite.  It only makes me want to cry when I get there.  Woodall's gave this a 10* for the washrooms!  Having said that we stayed at the nicest private campground yet since we started this trip. Nice private sites and clean, clean washrooms.  Gerry and I both made a point of telling the owners how nice their campsite was.  Unfortunately we could only stay the one night. After our problems getting a site for Saturday night we didn't sleep well, worrying about the next few days, so on Sunday morning we stopped at a visitors centre and made reservations for the next 3 nights. (One was the really nice one, one was the dive we are in tonight and one was the National Park which was average or below at best.)  With that out of the way, we were able to enjoy the Cabot trail and enjoy it we did!  I would have to say that the Cabot trail is the most stunning area we have been to so far.  On Sunday we planned to go whale watching at 1:30 pm.  We only had to travel 80 km from our campsite to the whale watching village and having left at 9 figured we had lots of time. Wrong!  I came to accept that we were not going to make it.  We stopped for a couple of short hikes (less than 2 km each) but we stopped so many times at lookouts for Gerry to get pictures that we pulled into the parking lot at 1:15.  The last half hour was tense as I wanted to push on through but Gerry kept stopping and saying"just a quick picture honey".  As he was roaring down the mountain into the fishing village I was in the back packing a bit of lunch.  Did I mention the Cabot trail is very windy and up and down?  Sadly when we got there we found out the tour had been cancelled  because of high winds.  Plus we found out that we might not have been able to get on because we didn't have reservations.  Anyway we moved on and went to visit a Buddhist Monastery that was close by. It was ok, nothing special.  After that we did a couple of short hikes in the park.  Very enjoyable. That night we stayed at the best private campsite yet!  The only problem was the Internet and cell service was spotty.  The next morning we phoned another whale watching site on the East side of the island and yes they were sailing and yes they had room.  So we headed north abut 1/2 hour and had the most amazing ride!  We saw tones of pilot whales, seals, birds and beautiful scenic inlets.  Gerry has it all recorded on camera trust me!  That day we still had time to do a coastal hike which was also very scenic! The Cabot trail has lots of coloured rock, lots of deciduous trees, beautiful beaches and lots of waves spraying against the rocks.  I have not been quilting because there is so much to see.  Also they have a lot of  roundabouts here; sometimes  2 in a row.  I think the first three roundabouts we were on we got off at the wrong spot.  Gerry blamed me because I took my eyes off the road so I stopped quilting for a while.  I have made some other navigational errors as well.  For example, today as we were driving to our destination, I noticed that none of the towns listed were on my map, but I kept quiet.  All of a sudden the road ended.  I told Gerry this but he thought  I was joking.   I was not.  There was a small cable ferry to cross an inlet.  I figured out where we were, and it wasn't that much of a detour, but again, I don't know how I missed the turn off. For our 3rd and final night in Nova Scotia and the Cabot trail we stayed in another "nice" campsite according to the books and tourist information guides. (It was not). The only saving grace was that the town of Bedeck had a Ceilidh night so we went. Music is such an important part of their culture, I really wanted to see this. It was very informal; a fiddle player and a piano player but very enjoyable!  Both players were very talented.  They were basically jamming, but the fiddler explained a lot about the Gaelic culture and way of life in between songs. It started raining while we were at the concert and
continued to rain and rain all night.  There is something very comforting about being in a dry camp
er and listening to the rain pelting on the van.
Wednesday we were scheduled to leave for Newfoundland.  We made the reservations on Saturday when we landed in Nova Scotia and plotted out our rough plans.   It is a 16 hour ferry ride fromNorth  Sydeny to Argentina, NFLD. The ferry leaves 3 times a week and it is always at night I.e. 5 pm.  We were able to get a reservation for the ferry but not for a berth.  As it is the ferry ride will cost us $565. A berth would be another $200.  Not looking forward to that but Gerry has promised me a hotel when we land in Newfoundland and I am looking forward to that!
I am at an Internet cafe so will publish this while I can. Stay tuned for Newfoundland!