Km 8,521 - Meat Cove, Nova Scotia

We are now sitting at our absolute furthest point from home. We are camped at water's edge at the absolute northern most point of Cape Breton island. Without options (other than the ferry to Newfoundland & Labrador), I suppose it is time to turn around and go home.

After packing up after three nights in PEI, we headed to Nova Scotia via the ferry. He headed straight for our campground in Dartmouth and headed into Halifax for the evening. Halifax is a real nice city with a great deal of character. We got a bite to eat down at the waterfront and then walked up to Citadel hill to enjoy the good view of the harbour. Our second day in Halifax was nonstop rain. This poses a bit of a problem when camping. Luckily, we were in a city, so we spent the afternoon getting an oil change and strolling around the mall. Our last day in the Halifax area was spent touring the southern coast of Nova Scotia. We did all of the famous tourist stops like Peggy's Cove and Historic Lunenburg. We stopped in Mahone Bay and did a sunset sea kayak paddle. There was a boat festival on so the harbour was crammed with boats, including the Bluenose II, a reproduction of the famous vessel that adorns our 10 cent piece. The kayaking reaffirmed the notion that I need to get myself a kayak. Next Spring.

We headed out of Halifax Sunday morning and headed for Cape Breton. We passed over on the Canso causeway and did a short, but beautiful drive on our first day on the island. The highlight was passing through Creignish, childhood home of Frank MacDonald (a.k.a "Frank the Bank"), my rotational partner in Yemen. We stopped for the night at the most amazing campground situated high on a hillside overlooking Bras d'Or Lake, Cape Breton's large inland saltwater lake. Today, we set out to do the Cabot Trail, one of Canada's most scenic drives. We have completed half of it and it has been unreal. As I mentioned earlier, we are camped at Meat Cove in another great campground. We are perched high up with sheer cliffs dropping below us to the ocean. Very dramatic.

Our intent is to finish up Cape Breton in the next 2 days (a real shame as it really deserves more time), and then head for Quebec. We have no real ideas for Quebec, but are thinking of starting with the Gaspe Peninsula and heading down the banks of the St. Lawrence to Quebec City.