Gulf of St. Lawrence

Sunday, July 14, 2013

We drove up the coast to Inverness, turned left down to the harbor area and found places to park. Then I got my bike together and began to explore the town. I found a Harness Race Track and learned that it would have races at 1:30 pm.

While we were at the races the harbor parking lot filled up! The temperature was in the 90s and we eventually learned that Inverness is the most popular beach on Cape Breton Island. So we had lots of company.

We had the Gulf of St. Lawrence on one side of the sand dune, and a harbor beach on the other. This is where Linda walked her dogs.

Checking out the Track before the races.

We had a lot of fun "voting" on winning horses. Since I was having no luck at all, I chose Jackson County, and would you believe this horse won the race!

In the grocery store was a poster for a music concert at the Catholic Church to send the teenagers to do good works in Brazil, so I went up and enjoyed the show.

A view out the T@b window where we parked in Inverness.

A picture from the harbor side of our rigs.

We heard about the music at the Red Shoe Pub in Mabou so had an early supper and stayed for the music at 5:00 pm.

Derrick and Melody Cameron played guitar and fiddle, traditional music popular in this area. The audience was rapt, the music lived up to it's reputation.

The next day we headed north along the Cabot Trail, passing through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park crossing over two mountains, French Mountain and MacKenzie Mountain. Parts of the road were very steep and we went slowly and stopped often.

We parked at Point Pleasant where there are several Whale Watching businesses and a nice harbor. it is Snow Crab season for about ten days so we watch the boats come in and load the catch into ice buckets.

Here I am parked next to a stack of lobster traps that are drying out before being put away for next year.

While I was out, a T@b owner from British Columbia, Linda,came by and left her card. She has been traveling 3 1/2 months. We e-mailed each other and I was able to tell her about the Yahoo T@b group which is a forum for solving problems regarding T@bs. She also has a blog.

We were on another beach. One evening I saw a seal stick his head out of the surf near shore and take a look around. He didn't stick around long; he was checking on the humans to see if anything interesting was going on. I think he found us quite dull.

Our last day in Point Pleasant we took a whale watching ride. There were four operators to choose from, and e liked one of the two decker boats, so that made the decision.

We stayed out about two miles and saw lots of Pilot Whales swimming together, not afraid of our boat. The shore looked quite different from out at sea and we had an enjoyable trip.

As soon as we returned we headed out to the top of the peninsula, Bay St. Lawrence, another small fishing town.

This is our parking spot at the harbor.

We went to the pier to buy snow crab off the boat. The Captain of the boat and crew who had been out since 2 a.m., sold us 4 crab for $35. Paul and Garth cooked them up in big pots. Linda hosted our crab feed in her rig.

Pretty tasty.

We took a stunning drive to Meat Cove.

Newfoundland is behind us on the other side of Cabot Strait but. What you see is another point of land from Cape Breton; Newfoundland is too far away to be seen from here .

This is the furthest (farthest?) away from California that I will be on this trip.

More of that breathtaking scenery between Bay St. Lawrence and Meat Cove, a wild and beautiful place.

Later we drove south down the east side of the peninsula to Aspy Bay which is one of the landings explorer John Cabot made when he sailed over from Genoa. He was a Venetian citizen, looking for a passageway to Asia in 1497. He found Newfoundland and Cape Breton instead for King Henry VII.

Aspy Bay as a wonderful place to discover. It still seems undiscovered.

Beautiful Aspy Bay with North & South Harbor.

We drove through the little town of Dingwall to better view the scenery.

Here are two photos taken by Garth of the pilot whales during our whale watching expedition.

Pilot whales.