Greetings… Once Again from Nova Scotia

After two great weeks of touring Newfoundland  and returning off the ferry we headed for Nova Scotia’s Cape Breton Highlands Peninsula. As you can see the road was quite whiny for some 120 miles. We held back a bit on the Cabot Trail due to dense fog, rain, and heavy winds until it cleared.

Fog along Cape Breton limited our view... so we took an afternoon cat nap at a turnout

Hurricane Earl's aftermath of strong winds caught us on the outer edge with 60mph winds. Halifax got the big hit with 150mph winds.  We caught this image 10 days afterward at the Halifax Maritime Museum. The damage basically was to power lines and some trees.

The best way to beat the bad weather predicament on the cape was to find a good tavern for some live Celtic fiddle music and Irish dancing. After that we were hooked and found two more Celtic places on Cape Breton to enjoy listening to fiddlers. The Cape’s highland sea cliffs and music left us feeling as if we were traveling in Scotland.

Keltic Lodge... Golfers par in the rain and the fog here

Cape Breton Blackfoot Cove

Keltic Lodge along the Cabot Trail in Cape Breton

Touring the only single malt whiskey distillery in Canada at Glenview was interesting. The tasting wasn’t too bad either if you like fire water. The fiddle player was awesome.

This Irishman plays nonstop tunes without any sheet music...

Canada's only still malt brewery

 

Gotta love their chocolate whiskey sause

Escaping to Fisherman's Cove on the eastern shore

Neil's Harbor Lighthouse

It has been lovely drive crossing south along the Nova Scotia eastern shoreline through coastal towns. Each turn in the road lures us toward new sites and untold discoveries. The inlets and coves are very picturesque. Houses are painted bright colors and some even have art deco designs.

We spent two nights and a full day in Halifax the capital taking in the  Maritime Museum of the Atlantic and tall ships around the wharf. JR the sailor was truly in his element there.

Maybe model ship building will become another hobby

What shipwright wouldn't love to carve figure heads?

To discourage piracy these chains called “gibbets” were hung in harbors to show pirates their fate of being tarred, hung, and gibbeted to warn others of the offense.

Pirate execution by hanging before place in a public gibbet post

 

The museum had fabulous ship models, oodles of maritime history, artifacts, and great exhibits about the Titanic disaster in 1912. Halifax played a big role in sending rescue vessels to that disaster to recover bodies. Five years later in 1917 the Halifax Explosion destroyed the city to ruins when the Norwegian ship the Imo collided with the Mont Blanc military munitions vessel igniting explosives in the harbor. Explosives hit Halifax about as heavy as that of Hiroshima. We don’t hear much about this incident in our history, but unfortunately its damage was 8x bigger than the Great Chicago Fire and 4x worse than the SF Earthquake.

Lobster buoys... Maybe we should paint Bucktides buoys back in the delta

Hank the Tugboat does Halifax Harbor Tours

We awoke early at 4:30 am to avoid any traffic getting out of Halifax. Driving in the dark through a crazy maze of interchanges was NOT fun. We won’t be trying that routine ever again. Off to explore smaller fishing villages along the southern shore now is so much more to our liking.

Crab traps stored along the harbor fishing sheds everywhere

The trees here are beginning to show signs that fall is coming. Occasionally we catch a good sunrise or sunset while being in the Atlantic Maritimes.

Sunsets at Argentia, Newfoundland on our last night up at the RV Park

Who couldn't help but get used to these on a regular basis...