Lesley and Stuart's Travels: Wednesday July 26 – Sydney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Sydney is an old coal-mining town, and it used to have a large steel works and coke ovens. The steel works ad coke ovens are gone and the town has put a lot of effort into removing all contaminated soil and rejuvenating the soil and planting trees and grass. The area now has parks and playing fields, and well as some business. The coal mine closed also. The town also has the only First Nation reserve (Membertou Reserve) in Canada located within city limits, for the Micmac people.

Our on-shore excursion today was A Taste of the Cabot Trail, an all-day tour. Here people speak Gaelic at home, and Gaelic is taught in schools and universities. ‘Nova Scotia’ means ‘New Scotland’ in Latin, and many Scottish customs and traditions are maintained. There are two registered tartans here, with the pattern and colours representing parts of life here.

Alexander Graham Bell, inventor of the telephone, chose Baddeck (48 miles from Sydney) for his summer house. There are many references to Bell in the area.

We stopped at the top of a mountain, the beginning of the Cabot Trail, to take in the magnificent vista before us – lakes down below reflecting the mountains around.

We stopped at the Gaelic College for a comfort stop and to look around the Scottish gift shop. Listened to a young man (18 years) play bagpipes that he had inherited from his aunt. He told us he was in the process of joining the reserve army as a piper. This college is renowned for keeping alive the Gaelic language and Celtic customs.

We went into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and visited Bell’s favourite beach, Ingonish. This was very pretty and although the waves appeared to be dumpers, many swimmers were enjoying it. Not many went out as far as Aussie swimmers do though. This is the Atlantic Ocean. Some of the group (who live on America’s west coast and used to the Pacific Ocean) put their feet in the water to say they’d done it. We didn’t bother.

The rocks were rolled there by the tides

We drove past Cape Smokey Ski Resort, its ski lift stationary and its ski runs a lovely shade of green. This is the only area where they get natural snow falls that last longer than a few days, unlike in Sydney.

Green ski runs

We went to the Keltic Lodge, on Middle Head Peninsula, which had been built and owned by Bell’s friend until his death. The scenery here was lovely. The cliffs under the Lodge are of pink granite, and the green trees, blue water, and pink cliffs made a lovely photo.

More red chairs to enjoy the scenery

On the way back we saw two eagles (bald eagles), one fishing for its dinner and the other sitting atop a tree. There were lots in the distance circling a camp ground on a high bluff. The few remaining Canada geese were fattening themselves, ready to continue their migration south into California, America.

We were held up (there and back) by road works to do with the widening of the road, and the bus was late getting back by 10 minutes (we should have boarded by 3.30pm). The ship was waiting for us, so it could cast off and sail (which we did at 4pm). [The ship will wait for ship-organised tours, but if you go on-shore under your own steam, and get back late, you are left behind and have to find your own way to the next port to re-join the ship!]

We joined Gary again for trivia, then came back to our cabin. The crew have been doing maintenance on the verandahs, so for the third time in four days they had to access our verandah via our room to finish the job. We get $100 each on-board credit, and if it isn’t used we get it in cash, for the inconvenience the maintenance may have caused us (it caused us no inconvenience!).

Spotted on the journey today:

These are everywhere. Tim Horton was an ice hockey player who started this fast food chain. It sells coffee, pastries and sandwiches. We're told it is good for catching up on gossip too!