Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

 We headed up to Cape Breton based on a local’s advice we had met in a provincial park before Halifax.  This would be the furthest east we could make it on this trip without a ferry.  Based on a route we won’t be following exactly Google maps says we are 3,900 miles away from home.  I chose a counterclockwise route for the Cabot Trail based on finishing the loop with the best scenery.  The drive was long (around 6 hours), but the scenery made it worth it.  We were ready to be done driving so we turned to the trusty Overlander app and found what I think may have been our best spot ever.  Meat Cove.  Had to look up where the name came from and apparently it’s from hunter’s who used to dress their animals there in its early history. Despite seeing sun for quite a bit of the day, the rain was coming down pretty hard as we sought our spot about 15 miles off the highway which included about a 5 mile dirt road at the end.  The spot was a pretty narrow driveway down to a cement foundation of something that used to be there . I had to walk down and scout it since it would require backing down and had to make sure we could make it out the next day.  Paula was very concerned whether we could make it out, I thought we could so I backed us down.  The view was Epic!! and we had it all to ourselves, with the exception of a group of kids coming to check it out after seeing me down there. The view includes a water fall in the distance, we saw pilot wales and heard them blow out their spout, we watched the lobster boats bringing up their pots through our binoculars. We had a great meal of leftover chicken vindaloo from Costco along with a salad.  Woke up in the morning to a deep bass sound which turned out to be the lobster boats. The sun worked it’s way out and made the view even more gorgeous.  We left the spot around 11:30 and made our way onto the best part of the Cabot Trail National Park.  There were quite a few steep grades up and down with curves mixed in for fun.  I let many people pass that were in a bigger hurry.  We targeted what was the most popular trail in the National Park called Skyline.  Since it was Monday the crowds weren’t bad at all and the hike was very cool.  At the end there is a boardwalk that is very nicely constructed with a bunch of stairs that take you lower.  Interestingly there were no handrails which made the view better with less obstruction.  Another interesting thing was the land management to deter Moose from eating the small fir trees and turning the land into grasslands.  They built a fence around an area the size of 9 football fields to keep the moose from destroying it.  We really wanted to see a moose and I’ve had my eyes out, but we have yet to see one despite seeing signs quite often.  After our hike we stopped at a couple roadside views in the park and then located our next spot on Overlander.  There was one other van when we pulled into the spot.  I saw the guy walking up the beach and popped out of the van and only got a cold hello.  We were very close to the water again.  The wind really started to pick up in a gusty manner coming from many directions.  We were lying in bed and the van was getting whipped around like when you experience turbulence on a plane.  Knowing we wouldn’t be able to sleep due to the wind, we relocated back to a town called Cheticamp for some shelter from a building.  Unfortunately the wind shifted direction again and I had to move to the other side of the building which finally provided some relief for the night for a short night’s sleep.  We laughingly pronounced the town name Shittycamp when left at 5:15am.