Wednesday, July 10th and Thursday, July 11th
For the sake of “full disclosure” it is now Friday July 19th
that I sit and write this. Norm and I
are racking our brains trying to remember just what we did on these two
days. I hate writing the blog this way,
but we have been pretty busy, and with no internet, so it didn't get done.
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| Bald Eagle spotted near the coast on the Cabot Trail I love my zoom lens! |
One day we drove to West Mabou and hiked a couple of the
trails that overlooked the ocean. You
probably are beginning to notice a pattern here. We like ocean overlooks. Well, overlooks of any kind. The bad part about that preference is that
you have to climb up there to, um, over-look!
As we started off on the trail we read all the common signs warning us of coyotes in the area. How to react should we see them.
- Stand tall
and “look big”.
- Make noise. This is the hard part. Norm doesn't talk much.
- Make noise. This is the hard part. Norm doesn't talk much.
- Don’t run, whatever you do,
- Don’t look them in the eye ( how to
you keep an eye on them if you can’t look them in the eye? ) - and whatever you do, don't turn your
back on them.
- Just back away.
- And then
the last bit of advice they give you is just a little unnerving. “ If they attack, use whatever is available
to defend yourself.”
Oh, my! We brought our bear spray - that should work, providing the wind is not blowing at us, and a small jacknife in case I need to poke him in the eye. ( that's a joke ) I still prefer
the “knock your spouse out with a rock and let them feast on him while you run
the other way “ method sounding the best.
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| We're not sure what this is, but it is the biggest "dog"print we have ever seen! |
We survived without any coyote attacks and had a very nice walk up and
down some good sized hills of which we picked the highest to enjoy our picnic
on.
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| Gaelic is actually still taught in schools here, a lot of the signs are in both Gaelic and English |
We can’t remember what we did after that, senior moments. If it was not for this blog, we probably would not remember any of this trip before we reached home! ( But the credit card bills always tend to remind you, don't they ).
The next day was a dreary morning after torrential rain
during the night. We drove down to
Judique to the Celtic Interpretive Center and enjoyed a pleasant bowl of
seafood chowder ( I have had about 6 on this trip ) and watched some very
talented young woman play the fiddle and dance.
It is just amazing how they stomp their feet to the beat of the music. Now
this is not the usual foot tapping most musicians do, this is where one foot
may be stomping on the heel, then the toe, while the other may perform an
alternate beat using just the toe! As
the tempo increases, the tapping gets faster and faster until the player is out
of breath and sweaty with the exertion.
I don’t know how they do it.
PLUS,by the way, they are playing a VERY complicated fast-fingered
melody with the fiddle at the same time!
WOW!
As we headed back, I dragged Norm into a few local craft
shops on our travels, but we still did not buy anything.
We set up in our wonderful campsite we had reserved 3 months before, then watched the orientation video in the Visitors Center and planned our next week of adventures; hiking, biking and a long day of driving in the car seeing the rest of the island.
Friday, July 12th
2013
Today we headed up the beautiful coast to Cape Breton
Highlands National Park to camp for the next 10 days. I am so excited! The weather forecast for the week ahead
should be beautiful. It was a beautiful
drive with breathtaking scenery. Tall,
rugged cliffs, wind-swept beaches, and tiny, weather beaten houses standing
guard against the sea.
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| Campsite #95 Cheticamp Campground Cape Breton Highlands National Park |
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