Fri. 16th October ’26
Today we are driving along the Cabot Trail from Chéticamp to Ingonish, on the East side of the island. Whilst the drive is only about 100 km, there is so much to see and do. We have a day of jumping in and out of the car so many times that my post is in danger of just saying we stopped at x, y and z so I am not sure how to proceed. The lady in the Parks Canada Visitors Centre was very helpful in circling a number of stops on a free paper map and also lets us know what was shut due to coyote activity. She also told us the Skyline Trail was fully booked today and tomorrow. Well that was a surprise because firstly my research had not told us we needed to book and secondly how come it is so busy so late in the season!
Not walking the Skyline Trail freed up a couple of hours for other stops. We were disappointed as this had been one of the reasons to come to this northern part of Cape Breton. Instead, we decided we had time to detour to Meat Cove at the Northernmost point of the Island. The end of the road at the cove is roped off as a campsite, so we were not sure where we were supposed to park so we tucked La Bête in a corner as best we could before taking a walk around. When we returned another half dozen cars had joined us! These roads are narrow in parts so it must get really busy and frustrating in high season.
We have been hoping to see wild mooses if that is the correct plural of moose [Ed. no, it isn’t], on our walks and driving in this part of Canada. We even tried the 3km walk at Benjie’s Lake which we’d been told was our best chance of a sighting, but no joy. Besides squirrels of all colours (red, grey and black) we have not come across any animals on the trails but we did see this inquisitive fox cross the road on the way to Meat Cove.
In true Dave and Janet style we stopped at a small park, gated off for the season but still accessible on foot. The plaque by the water edge stated that this was where explorer John Cabot a Venetian, who sailed from Bristol, is believed to have landed in 1497 making an early contact of a European with the New World. This is a lot earlier than the history Dave has been writing about and before we stopped here we had no idea that this monument was here. He did however give his name to the drive along this northern part of Cape Breton Island.
As we crossed the peninsula the scenery changed and the Aspy fault line can clearly be seen running through the area, as a V-shaped valley winding its way for some 40km. It would have been formed many years ago when two continental plates met and pushed the sea floor up forming the Appalachian Mountains, and making the valley. At this time of year all we can see is miles and miles of trees in full autumn colours, which is just quite spectacular.
The whole area is so picturesque that we took more images than usual, which will take a proper going through when we get home. The coastline and rolling hills are photogenic. I will just mention three other notable stops. Our slavedriver had told us about Black Brook Cove with a waterfall running onto the beach and Green Cove, a headland with pink granite rocks that was much busier. The waterfall at Black Brook, in particular, was hard to photograph. The rocks on the beach made that approach difficult and even driving round to the top of the falls there was no easy access. Dave found / made a path and took some pictures, but those will have to wait until we get home before we see how they have turned out.
However, our favourite stop was at Beulach Ban Falls. Not only was the waterfall beautifully framed by the leaves on the trees, but for the few minutes I had camera on tripod, we were the only people there and we were able to capture the pictures we wanted.