Baddeck, Canada

Englishtown, Canada

Twice before on trips to Atlantic Canada I’ve tried to go on excursions to see Atlantic Puffins. Once was on a trip to St. John’s, NFLD and the other was on Grand Manan Island in SW New Brunswick. Both times I was scuttled by poor weather.

The best opportunity to get up close and personal with these cuties is at Grand Manan where you are actually able to get off the tour boat onto a small island where they come once a year to nest, and from blinds and in a very controlled environment you can get within feet of them. I was on the list for 3 days in a row and wasn’t able to get out on any of those days due to heavy swells.

However, today, just outside of Saint Ann’s Bay, off the coast of Cape Breton Island, I was finally able to see these adorable sea birds in person. I went with Donalda’s Tours departing from the government wharf at Englishtown. Donalda and her husband have been lobster fishers for 30+ years and 15 or so years ago they started doing these bird island tours as well. Their typical day starts with a 3:10 am alarm to get out to check on their lobster traps, re-bait them, get the catch back to the wharf and weighed and sorted as per their outstanding orders. All this before their first puffin run at 10:30 am. And our 1:30 tour came in at 4:30p. That is their routine 6 days out of 7 for the two months of lobster season. Not for the faint hearted.

As you’ll see from the pictures, even using a 175mm telephoto lens, you can just barely make out the markings of the puffins. We couldn’t get too close to the islands, both because of conservation efforts and because of the lobster pots around the islands. If you google Atlantic Puffins you’ll see why I am so enamoured by these little guys.

Of course we saw many more sea birds than just puffins, as well as gray seals, eagles and just as we were coming back we got the added bonus of seeing a mink whale. I didn’t get any pictures as it was totally unexpected.

Also unexpected was the eagle picking up a fish about 5 feet from my window. I managed to get a picture of it on my iPhone because I was checking my emails as we were headed back to the harbour. Someone alerted us to the eagle and so I looked up in time to see it coming and got the picture. In the right place at the right time.

After the tour out to the bird islands, I stopped in Baddeck for dinner at the Bell-Buoy Restaurant overlooking the Baddeck harbour. Attached is a video of the view from my seat and the entertainment provided all evening. Music is such a huge part of the Cape Breton culture.

All in all, another excellent Cape Breton day.

I’m starting to understand why the tourism folks current catch phrase is “Your heart will never leave.”

PS I’m so glad to hear from so many of you who are remembering their trips to this part of the world and re-living it through my blog. If you’ve been here or to Prince Edward Island and have suggestions for me to check out something you did and enjoyed, please, please let me know. I have no set agenda and happy to receive advice!

Baddeck, Canada

Baddeck, Canada

I awoke to overcast skies today so it seemed like a good day to visit the Alexander Graham Bell National Historic Site of Canada. The museum uses artifacts, films and programs showing how Bell and his team achieved Canada’s first powered flight which happened in Baddeck in 1909.     The site is run by Parks Canada and it primarily tells the story of the adventures of Alexander Graham Bell in the Canadian context. We all recognize Bell for his work on the telephone, but he had a whole lifetime of inventing and one of his primary passions was teaching the deaf which he inherited from his father. His wife, Mabel, deaf at the age of 5, was once a student and she became one of the most influential people in his life as well as a financial backer of his projects. Her father became the first president of Bell Telephone Company. Bell moved his family to Baddeck for health reasons, and built a huge home there on the hills overlooking Bras d”or Lakes, originally as a summer home, but it became an important part of their lives and they are both buried there. The Silver Dart, a replica of which is on display in the museum, was the first powered plane to be flown in Canada in 1909. It was first built in Hammondsport, NY and flew there in the summer of 1908 but it was then disassembled and moved up to Baddeck and was flown in the winter of 1909.    While I was at the museum, a class of students was being instructed on the art of kite-making as Bell used a lot of kites to prove various hypothesis regarding flight. I saw them outside afterward trying them out.     After a quick bite I then headed to Iona, a short drive and cable ferry ride south of Baddeck. It is the location of the Highland Village, a part of the Nova Scotia museum system. The village is a group of historical buildings moved to this site from around the highlands of Cape Breton, to tell the story of the Highland and island Scots migration to Nova Scotia. Various buildings span the time from 1770s – 1920s and there are “first person animators” (i.e. students and others dressed in period costume) who greet you in Gaelic and tell you about their experiences living in these times, their reason for the migration to Nova Scotia and then for many on to Boston and other parts of the eastern seaboard. This and other projects are hoping to ensure that Gaelic identity continues to be embraced, nurtured and celebrated in Nova Scotia. By the way, the signs in Cape Breton are written in both English and Gaelic. I chose a picture of this sign to post because we have some McKinnons in our genetic pool. I picked up a CD by Natalie and Buddy MacMaster of music from Cape Breton at the gift shop.    By this point it had started to rain, so I decided a nap was in order. During the 30 minutes of my nap I had 3 new neighbours when I emerged! It must be Friday! And since it was Friday I decided I deserved a night on the town, well, at least a dinner in a pub at the Inverary Inn. I had a great Chicken Caesar Salad, glass of wine and great conversation with the bartender and the proprietor. Everyone was excited for the first wedding of the season which is tomorrow. Apparently this is a big destination wedding location and there are at least one or two weddings every weekend. I had heard that there would be live music at the Yacht Club Friday night and so off I went in seek of that experience. I found not only the Yacht Club, some local music, but some new friends. I chatted at the bar with a lovely woman trying hard to get the bartender’s attention to get a drink and she ended up inviting me to join she and her companion who are on a bus tour from Halifax. Ingrid from northern Indiana, travelling with her mother and Maureen, a nurse from Massachusetts, were on the last couple of days of their tour. We also got talking to a couple of locals who were really enjoying the music. Great end to a great day.

Baddeck, Canada

That’s what the sign says, and from the languages I heard being spoken on the Trail today, I’d believe it. German, english from Australia, England, and USA, and another which I wasn’t entirely sure. Lesson learned for today: In Cape Breton you say, “Down north”, not “Up north”. I love oat cakes! My exercise ball makes a great footstool. The sun shone mostly brightly today, as promised, and so I took off early to navigate the Cabot Trail. Which direction you ask, well that is the 64,000 question. Discussions about the direction of travel – whether clockwise or counter-clockwise – consume visiter info booths and campground gathering spots around the island. On the advice of the pedicurist I went counter-clockwise, and it was confirmed by the Parks Canada employee at the gate that it was the right way to go about it. First, since most of the pullouts are on the right going counter-clockwise means you need to cross traffic less often. Second, the sun is in the right direction for photos doing the east in the morning and the west in the evening. (Of course that one depends on where you start the circle), and the vistas on the west are definitely better going north to south. The pictures really say it all. The only thing I’ll add is that I had awesome crab and corn chowder at the Chowder House up near the lighthouse in Neil’s Harbour. The people were super friendly, but then that is the case all over Cape Breton Island and more generally Nova Scotia and even more generally, all of Atlantic Canada. Oh yes, and don’t miss the moose picture. She came out of the woods and just stood at the side of the road as I slowed to a halt and took her picture through the windshield. Then off she went back into the woods.

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