Rule Bretonia

Well here we are.  We have made it to Halifax after a few days in beautiful Cape Breton.  I cannot emphasize enough the beauty of Cape Breton but I will admit that it was a bit of a comedown after all of our experiences in Newfoundland.  Cape Breton is a gorgeous place, however.  Some of the most unique scenery we’ve seen….it was nice to see so many deciduous trees once again.  The whole place smelled heavenly.  And the coastal sections of the Cabot Trail….holy smokes!  But still, it is not Newfoundland.  I think if we had gone to Cape Breton first, before heading north, we would be a little less jaded.  But I really don’t want to cheapen the experience because Cape Breton is a magical place.  I really wish we’d had more time to get to know the place better.

It would not be too far of a stretch to say that we feel like we are in the middle of the dénouement of this story.  And that is a bit of a bummer.  We sure don’t want to go home yet but we are pretty exhausted and it’s been quite an adjustment to revert back to a nomad’s mindset after being so settled for so long.  All this, of course, is not to say that we are not having fun.  Despite Krissy now feeling under the weather, we are having a heavenly time.  It’s just very hard to get to know a place in the way that we did in Newfoundland now that we are once again doing one and two nighters in places.  The key now is just to pour all we got into every stop and enjoy it all as much as we can.  Where before we cultivated deep relationships with places, now it is more like “hit it and quit it”. 

Our boat arrived in North Sydney on Tuesday morning and we were glad to get off that wobbly vessel.  We were among the first off the boat and our first stop was to do some shopping in Sydney.  We got what we needed, groceries and stuff, and started making our way towards the Cabot Trail, which loops around the Cape Breton Highlands, and through the national park, and is where both of the hostels are.  We didn’t make many stops along the way and wound up getting to the Bear On The Lake hostel by mid-afternoon.  Being that we spent the summer working at HI hostels, we have a letter that allows us to stay for free at any HI hostel, and that letter is valid until the end of October.  Much of the rest of our trip is being “financed” by those pieces of paper.  Bear On The Lake would only comp us one night so we arranged to stay at a different hostel for the next two nights.  But we will get to that later.

Despite having the word “bear” in the name, the hostel is a nice place with a spectacular view, tucked away, kind of in the middle of not much.  One of the volunteers there, Tanya, was actually a guest at the Skerwink hostel sometime in the last couple of weeks and it was good to see a familiar face.  We got ourselves settled in and went off to hike the trail to Egypt Falls.  The trail was about a thirty minute drive from the hostel and we almost missed it (you have to turn down a long dirt road to get there).  The trail was short but very steep.  The last bit you have to hold on to ropes to guide yourself down lest you slip and fall off the edge, especially when it’s wet, like it was.  For anyone who has seen my new profile photo on Facebook, you know that the payoff was spectacular.  We are big fans of waterfalls and have seen many beautiful ones on this trip (and elsewhere) but this one was one of the most majestic.  There were ropes on the side of the falls where you can climb up the different levels but neither of us were feeling that bold.  So we just hung out down there for a little while and started making our way back up.  It was quite the asskicker but it took less than a half hour to get back to the top.  We were a bit winded but glad we did it.

Flow, water, flow.

Hans and his new dominion.

Just a sampling of the beautiful falls.

And then pretty much the whole dern thing.

Andersons love waterfalls.

From there we rewarded ourselves with a trip to Big Spruce Brewing, which is a local craft brewery, about ten minutes north of the hostel.  It is very nice to be back in a place where there are craft brewers.  There is not much of a beer scene in Newfoundland (aside from Quidi Vidi and Yellowbelly, who serves their beer only at their pub).  I loves me some Black Horse but I am glad to be able to taste hops again.  Anyway, Big Spruce had three beers on tap – a red ale that was pretty decent, an IPA called the “Kitchen Party Ale”, and something called “Hoppucino”, which is an IPA that is infused with coffee.  That one was really weird and I swear I can still taste it.  The Kitchen Party ale was quite delicious and I ended up leaving the brewery with a growler of that.  I am looking forward to sharing that with someone before too long.  While we were there we met an older couple from Arizona who, as it turns out, used to live in Alexandria, right off of Telegraph Road (near Wilton Woods).  They moved from there about twenty years ago so I filled them in on how much the place had changed and they were fascinated about our adventures.  I love that whole “small world” thing about traveling.

That reminded me of when we were in Bar Harbor, Maine, back in May, and we stopped by the visitor’s center and the guy working there grew up on Fort Hunt Road, and his folks still live there.  We had a good time talking about Primo’s and all the other little things that only someone from 22307 would appreciate.  Yep, it’s a small world.

We eventually made it back to the hostel and made dinner.  There were a ton of guests and staff there, all hanging out and having a loud, good time, and I will admit that we were feeling a little out of place and not very sociable.  It is much different to be in a hostel as a guest, and fly-on-the-wall, rather than living and working there with friends and I was able to better sympathize with those guests at the Skerwink who would hide out in their rooms while we were all downstairs raging.  Also, after the previous nights and the lack of quality sleep they offered, we found it best to just hide out in our room and research what we were going to do the next day.  Unfortunately we were in a five-bed dorm (with the most uncomfortable, almost unsleepable, beds in the world) and it was packed and pretty hot in there.  It was, again, not a good night’s sleep and we were pretty busted up the next day.

Oh yeah, Nova Scotia is hot.  Sure it might not be as hot as home but after living through a chilly and wet Newfoundland August, this is sweltering.  Just as we kept outrunning the warm weather when we were heading north in May, it looks like we are outrunning the cold weather now.  As I type this, in our private hostel room in Halifax, I am sweating bullets.

So anyway, Wednesday we woke up and started making our way around the Cabot Trail, towards the next hostel – which is called the HI Cabot Trail Hostel, easily enough – in Pleasant Bay.  We made a few stops for photos and also did a couple of short hikes along the way.  The first was near Freshwater Lake and half of that trail was beautiful.  The second half involved walking down a service road and then around some tennis courts and whatnot and it was definitely a letdown.  The beach there was nice and we had lunch there.  The sky was sunny and it was pretty darn hot.  If we had the wherewithal to swim, we would have suited up.  But we didn’t, so we moved on. 

This is really the only good photo of the Freshwater Lake trail.  It is weird but nice to see leaves changing colors.

We also stopped at Green Cove which is a tiny trail that leads out to a really dramatic rocky spit.  By that point it was really windy and almost feeling like Newfoundland.  We very much enjoyed that.  The sea, at that spot, was very rough and the waves crashing against the rocks was pretty awesome.  We stayed out there for a while and just relaxed before moving on.

Lovely rocks.  This part reminded us a lot of Maine.

As did this part.

Hans on the rocks.

Taking it all in.

A whole bunch of cormorants in Green Cove.

Better to see you with, my dear.

Not sure exactly where this beautiful spot was but it's somewhere along the Cabot Trail.

After doing a spot of grocery shopping in Neil’s Harbour, we headed towards the hostel.  The Cabot Trail is known for being one of the most beautiful coastal drives in North America and it really did not disappoint.  It would get even better the next couple of days.  We eventually made it to the hostel and, as soon as we got there, the sky opened up and it rained hard.  So we just hung around the place.  It is a tiny hostel and is run by a sweet lady named Dawn.  Our good friends Henning and Johannes – Ze Germans – volunteered there before they headed to Newfoundland and we got to admire the work they did on the place, and Dawn showed us photos of them doing said work and had wonderful things to say about them.  One of the guests who was in our room at the Bear On The Lake hostel was also there, this bloke called Jordan.  I felt bad when he told me that he was about to throw a pillow at me the night before, for all my snoring.  Oops.

There were only a few guests that night so we cooked up some fish cakes for dinner, which were delicious, and enjoyed the quiet.  The rain had stopped so we took a walk through the woods and down to the shore to watch the sunset.  It was a beauty.

Sunset in Pleasant Bay.

More sunset in Pleasant Bay.

When we got back I set up shop in the common room and set about finishing the last blog entry.  It would take another day before I could get it online with all the photos and stuff but I worked and worked and it was both fun and sad to recount all the great memories of our recent experiences.  There was no place to buy beer anywhere near the hostel but I had a couple bottles of India Beer in my backpack so I chilled those and sipped on them while thinking about Newfoundland.

Because of the lack of guests that night we got moved to a private room which was great for us and also for Jordan, since he did not have to hear me snore.  Win, and win.

Thursday we got up and got a bit of a late start.  Our first order of business was to hike the Skyline trail, which is not far from the hostel.  It’s about a 7k hike but it’s mostly flat, until you get near the end of the world and then there is a series of boardwalks, steps, and platforms that descend towards the edge.  Getting back up those stairs was a bit of a challenge but the scenery was outstanding so it was totally worth it.  Oh yeah, we ran into that girl, Tanya, again while we were hiking the trail, along with some of the other guests from the Bear On The Lake.  We hiked some of the trail with them and chatted for a bit.  Again, small world.

No dachshunds allowed, flying or otherwise.

The flat part of the Skyline Trail.

The view from the Skyline Trail.

The even better view from the end of the Skyline Trail.  You can see part of the Cabot Trail.  That part of the drive was phenomenal.

Beautiful sky.

After we finished the trail we stopped by a couple of beautiful spots, the names of both currently escape me.  The first stop was overlooking the water and a good bit of the coast and we had lunch there and relaxed in one of the red chairs (there are ten of them dispersed throughout the park and you can take a challenge to find them all....we only came across a few).  We also stopped by a beach and walked around and threw rocks and had a brief but quite pleasant time.

The view of the coast from our wonderful luncheon spot.

Hans takes the one-red-chair challenge...and wins.

A good rock-throwing beach.

From there we drove to Cheticamp which is a cute little coastal resort town along the Cabot Trail.  Picked up some beers and groceries and then made our way back into the park to hike the Bog trail.  It’s a pretty short one and, true to its name, is a boardwalk that goes through a bog.  The mosquitoes were not my friends (or they most definitely were my friends, depending on how you look at it) and I got totally eaten up.  The scenery was quite pretty though.

That's some boggy business.

I can totally let this bog me down.

Pitcher Plant!

The last trail we headed to was MacIntosh Brook.  It is a short trail but my feet were killing me (I am dealing with a nasty case of plantar’s fasciitis, I think, on my right heel and oh jeez it smarts sometimes) so I gave it a miss and waited while Krissy did the hike.  There, I had black flies swarming around me and it was a long, tedious wait.  Turns out the hike was even simpler than the sign suggested and, were we to go back in time to that moment, I would have joined her.  Live and learn.

Krissy says there is nothing witty to say about this because it is just a brook.

Someone call the Barcelona lady.  We got her lunch.

And dessert.

Beautiful little trickly waterfall that I am now sad to have missed.

Another shot that is not of me getting eaten by black flies.

Aaaaaah.

We headed back to the hostel and I was a bit ragged out and didn’t really feel like dealing with dinner.  Krissy made a salad and I got in on some of that but that was it for me.  I set up the laptop and started in on actually putting the blog together, with photos and stuff.  The internet at the hostel was really slow and unreliable so it took until almost midnight to get that together and posted.  As I said then, I wanted to give Newfoundland the respect it deserved by stopping that entry with our departure, rather than report on all the above.  Other reasons for that decision dealt with me being wickedly tired and not all that down for writing and adding more (also, that blog was long enough). 

We woke up Friday and got on the road a little later than planned.  It seems that Krissy is starting to pick up on the cold that I was battling last week (and am just now starting to get over) so she was dragging quite a bit.  But we had a long drive to Halifax so she had to power through.  It’s almost six hours from Pleasant Bay to Halifax, maybe a little less when you do 130 on the highway. 

On our way out we stopped by the Glenora Distillery, near Mabou, for a tour and a tasting.  It is the first single-malt distillery in North America, and the only one in Canada.  Because it is not made in Scotland it cannot legally be called Scotch, but it’s made in that tradition and pretty much is Scotch.  Or, as I like to call it – “Scotchy Scotchy Not-Scotch”.  Now, I am not a Scotch drinker, or much of a liquor drinker at all, but that was pretty tasty.  We learned a lot about the process and the history of their brand, which is known as Glen Breton.  All of their whiskies are pure, not blends, and only utilize three ingredients (water from the brook that runs through the property, barley, and yeast).  The only difference in the varieties is the number of years each one was aged.  Most of their whiskies you can only purchase at the distillery itself, and they are wickedly, almost mind-bogglingly expensive.  We sampled the 10-year (which is the only one you can get elsewhere, and not very many places) and I enjoyed it enough that I wound up buying a bottle, despite having to sell a kidney to procure it.  I am looking forward to opening that when we get back home.

The outside of the distillery.  The architecture of the whole place (which also features an inn and restaurant) is modeled after traditional Scottish distilleries and is really awesome.  I wish we'd gotten more photos of this place.  If you are ever in Capr Breton, you need to stop here.

That was really the only major part of our day.  From there we just high-tailed it to Halifax and got in sometime after 4pm.  We checked into the hostel, which is another HI hostel that we are able to stay at for free.  We got the hookup here – they gave us a private room with our own washroom.  It’s a bit hot in here and the WIFI does not extend to our room, but it’s still nice to have our own place.  The hostel itself is very big – the biggest one I’ve seen so far.  There are, I think, 75 beds here, and there are lots of common rooms and a huge kitchen that looks like a diner or something.  Not a bad place to stay but I don’t think I would want to work at this one.  Very busy.  Ze Germans also worked here for a while before they headed up to Newfoundland and they had a great time.  The folks who work here remember them and it was cool to have at least some tiny little link.

After being in Newfoundland for so long, one thing we were craving more than anything was Indian food.  Upon our friend Seeta’s suggestion, we checked out a place called Grand Taj, which is just around the corner from the hostel.  They are apparently famous for their butter chicken and they should be.  It was outstanding.  Krissy got madras chicken and it was spiiiicy.  Even she had to rock the reita to cool off.  Afterwards we walked around a bit but she was feeling wonky so we went back to the hostel.  I, however, left her there and went out walking for a while.  Stopped by Taz Records, which is this awesome store that I shopped at when we were here in May.  Unfortunately I got there about four minutes before they were to close so I didn’t really get a chance to browse or buy anything.  Which is good since I had just spent a mint on fancy booze.  So I just walked around a little more and then headed back in.

And that brings us up to date.  Today we are leaving Halifax to visit our good friends Heather and Neil at the goat farm, about a couple hours southwest of here.  We are looking very forward to seeing those goats again, especially the ones who were just tiny babies when we were there in May.  There are also baby pigs there which will be fun to see (and even more fun because we will not have to feed them…we are only visiting).  And also the kittens, who I’m sure are getting closer to being grown up now.  And, of course, we are excited to catch up with Heather and Neil and regale them with stories of our experiences in their homeland.

Before we get there, we have some other stops to make, including the big farmer’s market in Halifax, a return stop by Peggy’s Cove, and a trip to Lunenburg, to revisit the Ironworks Distillery (and get another bottle of that Rhubarb Esprit, since we drank the last one at the Bonavista Social Club).  But we are getting ahead of ourselves.  More on that, and plenty of further adventures, in the next blog entry.

See?  I told you I’d have this one to you sooner!