Fantasy RV Caravan - Day 20

Wednesday, 21 August - Day 20

Despite a long travel day yesterday, Sprinty elected to do a repeat.  Maybe he has had enough of the rest days and being left alone in the campground while Kris and Darrell go adventuring with their caravan friends?

The official caravan schedule listed today as an optional tour, a Cabot Trail Self-guided Driving Tour.  The Cabot Trail loop is 185 miles, and it was suggested to allow 5 to 8 hours to make the loop.  https://www.tripsavvy.com/driving-the-cabot-trail-2972640

Some web research also found the following description:

• “The Cabot Trail makes a loop around Cape Breton Island, cutting across the top of the island and closely following the western and eastern coastlines. If you travel in a clockwise direction, you'll be on the "inside" lane as you drive along both coasts. Because the road goes up and down steep grades and curves, the clockwise direction is better for drivers (and passengers) who dislike driving next to steep drops.”

Initially, Kris and Darrell were not sold on 8 hours of driving, although Sprinty was game.  When we stopped at the Visitor Center yesterday and inquired about where the best places to see along the Cabot Trial, the staff said parts in Cape Breton Highland National Park were the best.  We thought a manageable driving day would be to drive counterclockwise (despite the warnings) along the east coast to around Neil’s Harbor, then return the same way.  

We started out before 8am.  After the long drive yesterday, Sprinty was thirsty.  Despite getting almost 20mpg, we were unsure of diesel availability on the Cabot Trail and wanted to start off with a full tank.

An interesting thing about fuel prices in Canada.  They are regulated by the government on a Provincial basis.  So all the fuel stations have the same price.  The prices in Cape Breton were a few cents more per liter than in southern Nova Scotia, likely reflecting the additional cost of transportation.  But Petro Canada, Canadian Tire, Irving, Esso, etc all have fuel at the exact same price.

Some research indicated there was a cable ferry at Englishtown that might save 20 minutes if there were not too many cars in the queue to take the ferry (ferry only takes about 12 cars at a time).  And if it was running.  Research also indicated it was quite a steep ramp to get on and off the ferry, and vehicles with long overhangs might scrape.  Already concerned Sprinty might scrape, a check of the tide tables found it was low tide, making the likelihood even higher.  We bypassed the ferry.  Just as well as we learned later from Tony and Ginny, our Australian caravan mates, that the ferry was not running this morning.  So not only did they have to drive anyway, they lost an additional 20 minutes going down to the ferry only to have to turn around.

Part of our research on the Cabot Trail also found a web site (https://www.ottsworld.com/blogs/cabot-trail-itinerary-one-day-cape-breton/) on what to do if you had only one day to drive the Cabot Trail.  Many sites recommend taking at least three days - likely depending on what activities you wanted to do, and likely supported by the tourist industry.  We learned there was a lot of inconsistent information about the Cabot Trail.  Such as motorcycles were being banned on the Cabot Trail for 2019 due to loud pipes - we saw lots of motorcycles.  Such as steep drop offs on narrow, winding roads conjuring up memories of driving the Almalfi Coast - we did not see any drop offs we thought were harrowing despite driving counter-clockwise.  Once you picked a direction, you could not turn around - there were as many places to turn around as any other blue highway.  Etc, etc, etc.

The drive was very pretty.  We stopped briefly at a lookoff (Canadian for scenic overlook) where we could see the causeway to the Englishtown cable ferry

Our second stop was one of the ones recommended in the one-day guide, the Wreck Cove General Store.  We did not buy any souvenirs, but did find some nice LED flashlights and bought some.  While we were browsing, we eavesdropped on the lady behind the counter and two older men talking about buying land, building houses, and making ends meet.

We continued north and stopped at the Bean Barn Cafe looking for a latte.  Unfortunately, their latte machine was broken and they were awaiting a part that had to come from Ontario.  We left seeking a latte.

Along the way, we encountered road construction.  The longest stretch of one-lane road we had today was just before Cape Smokey, and the redirected traffic was on the inside lane.  Meaning that even though we had chosen the counter-clockwise direction, we drove on the inside lane through one of the steepest and twisty-est sections.

Our next stop was at a lookoff at Cape Smokey Picnic Park.  The one-day guide recommended not to stop at at the earlier smaller lookoffs as they were small, the views were not as good, and reminding you that you are trying to do it in one day (can’t stop at all of them).  

Photo of view from parking area

We decided to take the short hike to the edge of the cliff.  As we started down the trail, there was a sign to be coyote smart and what to do if we encountered a coyote.  Even though the likelihood of encountering a coyote in mid-day was remote, Darrell felt more anxious about a wildlife encounter than he did about any of the drive all day.

The next recommended stop was for the Middle Head Hiking Trail.  The trailhead was located near the Keltic Lodge at the Highlands and Cape Breton Highland Links golf course.  The trailhead parking was full and Darrell still had latte on the brain, so he talked Kris out of doing the recommended 2.4 mile hike to pursue a latte.  We stopped in the lodge for a latte, only to find it a white linen restaurant, so we took a pass.  On the way out, we passed by the second tee box of the golf course, and took advantage off a pull off to stop and get some pictures.  As Darrell was doing so, the course marshall came by encouraging the taking of photos, and recommending other nearby holes to photograph.

We also encountered a golfer going by who told us that Cape Breton Highland Links golf course was rated #7 of the public golf courses in Nova Scotia, and the course condition today was as good as he had ever seen it.  We were tempted to deviate from the plan for the day, but the price ($130/person greens fees plus $30 cart fee plus 15% HST per person) and an already full day planned won the argument.

Photo looking from #2 tee box

Photo of #16 

Photo looking towards #2 green from #16 green

Photo of #17

Our next point to see was Aspy Bay.  A lady in the campground raved about the Aspy Bay area saying it reminded her of Hawaii.  Throughout the day, we saw many people riding bikes on the Cabot Trail.  We even saw someone riding some type of unicycle, and wondered how he would fare descending the steep hills (he must have done fine as we saw him late in the day on the highway near our campground).

Just one of the many views along the way

Darrell still had latte on the brain, and it was getting lunchtime.  So Sprinty headed on down the Cabot Trail in a counter-clockwise direction.  Along the way, at one of the lookoffs, there were some information on the Aspy fault.  We captured the information in photos for Tom and Heidi.

We stopped at the Rusty Anchor Restaurant at Point Pleasant, another recommended stop in our one-day guide.  Our one-day guide suggested sitting outside, and while the breeze made the 82 degrees quite comfortable, it also prevented any of the table umbrellas from being out out, so there was no shade, and the sun was a bit fierce.

We elected to eat inside and found 8 of our caravan mates were already there having lunch (also having elected to drive counter-clockwise).  We picked a table by the window to be as close to outside as we could.  After a couple of minutes, Tony and Ginny, our Australian caravan mates arrived and joined us.  We enjoyed a nice lunch and enjoyed getting to know them a bit better.

After lunch, we continued down the road enjoying spectacular views along the way.

Several times we tried to compare the Cabot Trail to other epic drives we have done.  We were unable to come up with any one comparison that was similar.  The Cabot Trail had characteristics of driving in Scotland (the area was Scottish until they were forced to merge with Nova Scoria), the Blue Ridge Parkway, Big Sur, Maine and a few others.

Alas, we spent most of the drive concentrating on what there was to see, the road, and enjoying the sights, and did not take dozens of photos from the road.  Just as well as it is a challenge to capture the experience in a few static photographs. 

As the Cabot Trail loop ended around Baddeck, where we were yesterday visiting the Alexander Graham Bell Museum, we decided to see if we could layer on golf after all.  It was about 4pm, and we had found a 9-hole course that was out in the middle of nowhere.  No web site, suggestion a mom-and-pop type of course, and being late, we thought we might be able to get 9 holes in.  Google Maps routed us down 3+ miles of gravel road and two one-lane wooden-decked bridges to the Baddeck Forks Golf Course near Baddeck, NS.  The greens looked quite nice as we drove up.  Seeing no practice facilities, we checked in and found we could get on, and decided to try for 18 holes. 

With no warmup, we were off.  Darrell pulled his tee shot left, while Kris hit the fairway.  On Darrell’s second shot, we learned about the size of the green (they were small greens) with woods and bushes only three paces from the green.  Although Darrell hit a beautiful low draw needed to get to the green around the trees, it found the adjacent woods.  The first of four dropped shots Darrell had on the day.  Darrell bounced back to make six pars on the next 8 holes to make the turn 3 strokes up.  Both of us were less consistent the second time around, but Darrell’s four pars and a birdie on the back nine kept him in front to take honors on the day.

We finished the golf at about 6:30pm, playing in just over 2-1/2 hours.  We headed back to the campground for showers to wash the bug spray off.  We expected a lot of bug problems on this trip, and have been surprised the bugs have not been as bad as expected.  Today at the golf course was one of the worst with mosquitoes, biting flies, and gnats requiring three applications of bug spray and lots of swatting.  Getting the bug spray off was worth the two quarters we each had to pay for our showers.

What an awesome day.  We are so glad we drove the entire Cabot Trail, and did not let the misinformation keep us from getting out and exploring.  No doubt we could have enjoyed several days camping, hiking, bicycling, kayaking and golfing along the Cabot Trail - it would take us five days or more if we sampled each of our many activity interests.  All the more reason to visit again one day.