Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, NS

After returning from Newfoundland, we spent several extra days exploring Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia. First, we drove the Cabot Trail, the famed drive around the north end of Cape Breton, around the edges of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and along some dramatic shorelines. To get to Cape Breton from North Sydney, where we were camped, we used the Englishtown Ferry to cross the narrow opening between St. Ann's Harbour and St. Ann's Bay, to the sandy spit of land extending from Cape Breton:

The current rushing through this narrow gap is very strong when the tides change, so the ferry uses the cable you can see in the foreground to keep itself on target. The whole ride takes less than 5 minutes, but cuts about half an hour off the travel time to Cape Breton.

As we drove north on the east coast of Cape Breton, the road snaked up, down, and around, providing many spectacular views on the clear, warm day that we were lucky to have for our drive:



Looking southeast along the eastern Cape Breton Island shoreline



We proceeded across the top of the National Park, stopping to view waterfalls that looked good in person, but not so great in photos. We stopped at the Rusty Anchor restaurant on the northwest edge of our drive, and enjoyed lunch on the deck as we watched tour boats in search of whales and persuaded Shelby that she had to stay off the edge of the deck.

On the west coast of Cape Breton, the road again twists and turns, high above the coast. We stopped at several lookouts to see if we could spot whales, but had no luck. We did stop on one lookout with one end cordoned off by police tape, and an ambulance on site - turned out that some unfortunate soul had driven his car right through the guardrail and down the steep slope - we never did find out what became of the driver.

We enjoyed the drive around Cape Breton, but were glad we were in the car, not the motorhome!