Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Nova Scotia has two sections, the mainland attached to New Brunswick, and Cape Breton, an island just off the northeast side. Cape Breton is easily reachable by a short causeway but seems like a completely different world. It’s known for its Celtic culture and music and the natural beauty of its highlands that reminded Scottish and Irish immigrants of home.

The Cabot Trail, a 185 mile scenic drive, loops through the mountains, along the coast, and in and out of Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We had read that the most beautiful parts of the Cabot Trail were the northwestern and northern sections so we chose the Chéticamp campground as our homebase for almost 2 weeks. It is a breathtakingly beautiful area but the roads to get there were terrible and we were the largest rig in the campground by several feet in each direction. Next time we’d probably choose a more central location.

The town of Chéticamp is a small Acadian (early French settlers of the Maritimes) fishing village. An interesting thing we learned about the Acadians is that they were expulsed by the British and ended up in Louisiana where they became known as Cajun.

We were close to the National Park’s most popular hike, the Skyline trail.

And all the views along the Cabot Trail in this area are stunning. We never made it to the eastern side so we can’t compare.

On Saturday, we explored a couple of the detours off the northern part of the Cabot Trail. First, a short hike took us out to White Point.

And after a bit further and more remote drive, we ended up in Meat Cove. There are a few houses, a food truck that wasn’t open when we were there, and a campground for tents/vans in Meat Cove.

We hiked the Overlook trail and then down to the water for these views and also saw seals swimming around.

And then went over to the beach next to the campground.

The next day, we wanted to attend a ceilidh (pronounced kaylee) or a kitchen party as they are also called. Cape Breton is famous for these Gaelic music/dancing events held at churches, community centers, and pubs. We decided on the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou, about an hour south of Chéticamp, and the music and food were great!

The following week, we felt like the Cody kitty needed to see a vet because a bump on her back had recently grown. But given our remote location, there wasn’t one within 2 hours so we decided to move to the town of Baddeck one evening after work.

Baddeck is on Bras d’Or Lake, a large inland sea in the center of Cape Breton.

The most famous citizen of Baddeck, who had a summer home there, is Alexander Graham Bell. Parks Canada has a museum that we got the chance to visit.

Unfortunately, Cody’s meds made her sick so our last couple of days in Baddeck were stressful. Particularly because our next move, to Newfoundland, required an 8 hr ferry crossing. But we survived and we all seem to be doing better now!