Round Cape Breton Island

We were up early, for today promised to be long day. Brec was worried about OTTER for Hurricane Lee arrives Saturday and watched various news and weather programmes on TV. His main worry was, had he done enough to protect OTTER from the storm and kept thinking of additional things he could have done! There seem to be so many different forecasts of what will happen to Lee though the direction of travel seems to be constant now, the eye will go into the Gulf of Main so passing to the west of Nova Scotia. 

The humans went to breakfast and it was a help yourself type of buffet. You could get fresh pancakes from a machine by pressing a button, then wait for them to come out the end and you could make your own toast. Coffee too came from a large machine. Suitably breakfasted we all got in the car and we were off.

The day started grey and overcast with some light rain showers, but the road was good and we made fair progress to our first destination which was Sidney a town on the Northeast end of Cape Breton Island. Occasionally one caught glimpses of the Bras d’Or Lake and the Atlantic Ocean to our right. Stops were made to take photographs when the road allowed.

As the day went on the weather improved and when we got to Sidney we found an Irish Pub where we could sit on their roof terrace with a view over the harbour for lunch.

The men had the fish chowder which we understand was delicious. Our BBF even shared his Guiness with Brec who couldn’t manage a whole pint.

We saw no organ grinders and paid much more for our beds!

We crossed over the water to get to the Cabot Trail. The Trail was a windy road through the mountains and offered great views over the ocean.

There were fun motives too.

And many views were spectacular.

Then we went through the mountains to the other shore on the North side of the island.

The sun slowly went down and we then drove on in the dark and only stopped at a place to eat.

Sandy drove the whole way  and we calculated that by the time we got back to our hotel in New Glasgow she had spent 12 hours behind the wheel. Thankfully as a former travelling sales person in the Paper Industry she not only was an experienced drive, but loved driving. A couple of glasses of Port in the “Shipfaced” glasses were drunk before all humans collapsed into bed.

A Road trip to New Glasgow

The humans were up early having slept reasonably last night. It was grey and raining as they loaded the car and went to Tim Hortons for breakfast.

We were early now so we lingered over breakfast and then drove into Halifax again to visit the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia. 

The car was parked in the same place as yesterday and then the way to the Gallery took us via the War Memorial Gardens which had a sort of tent city in it! Were they homeless people or protestors, we never found out.

A little further on in the gardens of a government house we came across a monument to the men of Nova Scotia that had fought in the Boer War, which was a surprise. The monument had been unveiled by the then Duke of Cornwall and York and his illustrious consort in 1901. He later became King George V and his consort Queen Mary the grandparents of Queen Elizabeth II.

On the other side of the house was a statue to Joseph Howe a proponent of free speech and a free press.

In the art gallery we bears were forced to  tick off the various motives we could find. It was fun and interesting, but we missed two so didn’t get the jackpot!

One large exhibit was about Maude Lewis a folk or primitive artist. She suffered from rheumatoid  arthritis from a very early age and lived in poverty in a small house in Marshalltown Nova Scotia. Her house was preserved in the Gallery and was very interesting as Maude had decorated it all constantly.

The house had no running water or electricity. 

There were ceramics in another part of the Gallery

And a replica of the wild boar staue that is in the Uffizi in Florence.

On the top floor were interesting exhibits of Indigenous Native art as well as Native Amazonian Art. 

This piece is entitled Miss Chief’s Wet Dream! The raft on the left represents European culture and history, you see Jesus, Mary Antoinette and Queen Victoria for example and the canoe on the right represents Canadian Indigenous people.

We actually passed this artist as we were going up the stairs and found his hair style intriguing, but thought no more of it till we saw the painting!


After a coffee in the French Café we got on the road. The weather was not nice really, virtually constant rain, sometimes drizzle and at others a real down pour, but Sandy our driver handle all with ease. Had the weather been better we would have had some stunning views of bays and harbours, but even in the rain one can get a feeling for how it would be when the sun shines. 

We stopped for a late lunch of BLTs after an hour on the road in a very small diner and then only stopped occasionally to take the stunning views through the window.

Brec had told us all about his time in 6th Grade when he was so bored that he would study the Atlas and discovered an odd named place in Nova Scotia. He called it Eecum Seecum, but we now discovered it for real as Ecum Secum and so had to take a photo of him when we got there.

It’s at the arse end of the world for we now found we no longer had a mobile signal for miles and miles. Our BBF, however, still managed to navigate us onward.

In honour of Pat and Dan Markovich who sang the Sea Shanty Barrett’s Privateers for us the first time on the Camino in 2015 we had to stop and take a photo.

“Oh the year was 1778

How I wish I was in Sherbrooke now

A letter of marque came from the king

To the scummiest vessel I’ve ever seen

God damn them all! I was told

We’d cruise the seas for American gold

We’d fired no guns, shed no tears

But I’m a broken man on a Halifax pier

The last of Barrett’s Privateers.”

Then it was on to New Glasgow and the Travellodge Suit where we have no decided to stay for three nights.

The humans went to the Shopping Mall nearby to eat in the Boston Pizza and Sports Bar. There was female Ultimate Fight Competition and Baseball on the TV and our BBF said the women took no prisinors, but really went at it and drew blood. Not a pretty sight. 

They returned to us in the hotel and thence to bed. It’s been a long day on the road and tomorrow promises to be as long again.

A good day in Halifax

The humans were up early around 08:00 hrs as Brec had some important phone calls to make. He left the room to do so. Sandy and Alan slowly gathered themselves to join him in the restaurant for breakfast. Soon thereafter we all left the hotel to drive directly to the Maritime Museum in Halifax. Our BBF sat in the front seat next to the driver and using iMaps navigated Sandy the driver. Brec sat in the back and read out various passages from the Guide Book on Nova Scotia he had. 

We arrived without problems even though the day was grey and drizzly . Now we had to drive around a bit to find a car park, but find one we did. Then our BBF had a need to get wifi as he had to solve some car insurance problems. Out of the car park we found a nice little French Café with excellent coffee. We sat upstairs and our BBF now found in order to get on line with HUK24 he had to have his German SIM in the phone as the web page was trying to send him log in confirmation details! Now he had a problem as he has lost his Apple tool for opening the SIM card tray. Sandy came to the rescue and borrowed a scarf pin from one of two young Arab women which fitted perfectly. SIMs changed he did the business which admittedly took a bit of time. When he had finished and put back the US SIM card he returned the pin to the Arab woman and said in Arabic "Shukran jazeelan"! which means thank you very much. They were very surprised and a nice conversation ensued. They were two women from Iraq, one had been in Canada since 1999 and the other since

Business done it was but a short walk to the museum. The humans now agreed a time to meet again at the entrance and they were off in various directions.

We started with our BBF upstairs in the TITANIC exhibits.

And we were privileged in being able try out a replica of one of the ship’s deckchairs.  They were only available for first and second class passengers and when the chip went down thrown overboard in the hope that the hoi polloi  could save themselves by clinging to one!

There were a number of sail boat exhibits but what fascinated our BBF were the many models of steam ships and even a couple of engine mechanisms where he was able to turn a handle to make them work.

A model of Halifax Harbour as it was in 1812 was not quite finished but very interesting too.

We can’t seem to escape Hurricane Lee, for here was the lates prognosis of its track! Outside it was raining so our BBF bought  small umbrella and Sandy bought two, but Brec had an important conference call to make and had disappeared to find somewhere quiet to make it. He had spent his whole time in the TITANIC exhibit and intend to comeback after his call. Sandy and our BBF went for a late lunch.

They found an Irish Pub!

And indulged in Muscles, which were tasty.

They now went shopping, or rather Sandy accompanied Alan to an out door shop where he hoped to find a new small penknife as he had lost the one he brought to America! They had nothing he fancied so as it was raining he bought a light weight rain jacket instead. On the way back to the car park Sandy was of the opinion she knew where it was and forced Alan to cross a street. He told her that she was directionally challenged and she laughed when she had to cross back again. She made another wrong assumption when driving out of the car park disagreeing with Alan about which way to go. In a car such errors are not hard on the feet.

They returned to the museum to pick up Brec and drove then to our overnight accommodation which is the ground floor of a small house in a residential area of Halifax. We have two bedrooms and the large kitchen contains a washing machine and dryer so laundry was put on. Brec made some nibbles they had an anchor beer off the boat and then Brec went for a nap before they went out for a meal in a Chinese restaurant just round the corner. Apart from the weather it had been a good day in Halifax.

A horrid day in Nova Scotia

Today was not a good day for the humans in our group! On the basis of what can go wrong could go wrong, did go wrong! Brec was up early and took himself off to the boat to do the last minute things to secure her before we could all leave on a land based holiday. Sandy and Alan were to go and get the hire car. Now it started to unravel. Enterprise Car Hire which had confirmed the booking on Friday now said that they had no car for us! The motel where we stayed the night offered no breakfast so Sandy and Alan went to Tim Horten's and had breakfast there. A taxi had been booked to take them to get the hire car for 11:30hrs and since the only other hire car firms were in Halifax airport perhaps they should try there. Paddy our taxi driver said no problem she could take us there. So off we went. The drive took about an hour and a half. 

In the Airport Car Hire building we now stood in line to wait to be served. Sandy had tried booking the car with Avis on line and now discovered that she had reserved a car in their downtown offices, here in the airport the price and taxes was different! Sandy used her elbows and her charms and common sense prevailed and we got a car at a much better deal. We were told to go to bay J16 but when we got there, the bay was empty. Using the car key they had given us, Alan found it in bay J11.

On the way back to Lunenburg the humans stopped for lunch at a cool looking old fashioned Diner

It had one Thunderbird on the roof and another inside.

Our BBF even had a Strawberry milkshake which he changed to, “to go” and took it to drink in the car.

We passed through areas where there had been terrible fires earlier in the year and many houses had been burnt down. Nature though is recovering and grass and ferns are beginning to grow again between the dead trees.

Back in Lunenburg we now searched for Brec. He was not answering his phone, so our BBF went looking to where he might be. When he did find him Brec was worn out for his day had not gone as planned either. The place where he had hoped to leave the dinghy now wouldn’t let him and so he had to search around to find another place. This involved him having it to get the dinghy, without assistance 3 meters up on to the dock, then to deflate it and pack it in it’s bag, then carry it and the motor a fair distance to where it was to be stored.

However, now we were all together again the mood lightened and the humans searched for the nearest motel/hotel where we all could stay one night. They found one in Bridgewater and drove there. It was a little run down which explained the price and was out of the centre of town. We now learned that the price was different for three in one room, but we bit the bullet, for all we wanted now was a bathroom and a bed. Then the bombshell came that the restaurant was closed and wouldn’t open till 08:00 hrs for breakfast, and we had chosen the hotel because it had a restaurant we thought!

This place has key cards and now the humans discovered that the cards wouldn’t open the door! Back to the receptionist, who told Alan to now go to a different room, but as he got there ran after him to say no she had changed her mind, she would replace the battery in the original room door instead. She opened that door with a proper key and let the humans into the room. 

It’ll do we said and chose our bed for the night. The men showered and then the humans all went to dine in the KFC next door, only to find it was a take away only place! Back to get the car keys and take the car to find the nearest restaurant to us. In the car the internet wouldn’t work so Alan got out a number of times and back into the hotel to use their wifi. Eventually he found a fish restaurant and they drove there. It was a good choice they all found and enjoyed their meals. Then it was back to the hotel where Brec was the first tired bear to go to bed. Sandy and Alan shared a glass or two and booked the next accommodation in Halifax before they too retired to bed.