The Cabot Trail

August 9th, 2007
Bus tour of Cape Breton

215.0 Miles

Rainy, windy, overcast

Another 12 hour day on the bus in ghastly weather. A shame, because the drive on the 184 mile Cabot Trail would have been spectacular – what a gorgeous part of the world!

Our guide today, Peter Steele, did a terrific job of filling us in on every possible bit of information he could – he talked non-stop the entire day!

Stunningly beautiful highlands and ocean scenery – when we could see it…steep cliffs and deep river canyons. About one-third of the Cabot Trail, which took about 20 years to complete, runs through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park – with a quote ‘cool maritime climate’ (maybe on another day), where we would see a mix of Acadian, Boreal and Taiga plant and animal habitats not found anywhere else, including some Arctic-Alpine plants left over from the last ice age!

The first people to inhabit this area were the mi’k maw Indians, and they’re still around after 7000 years! Of the 142,000 people on Nova Scotia today, 12,000 are the mi’k maw.

History? In 1497, the King of England paid John Cabot to try to find China – he made landfall instead on Cape Breton. When returning to England, his ship was stopped dead in the water by the sheer numbers of cod feeding near the surface. This brought the English back to the area in the early 1500s, since the waters around England were pretty much fished out.

Alexander and Mabel Bell came to Cape Breton from Scotland – he died here in 1922.

The museum honoring Bell and his many inventions is one of the most fascinating I’ve ever been to. We could have stayed for hours! His experiments with kites, his air machines that beat the Wright Brothers! Incredible achievements!

The cliffs along the sea on Cape Breton are home to at least 350 pair of breeding bald eagles, who live on a seafood diet! And the area is home to black bear and moose (over 5000 now and growing).

The American settlers won’t the only ones cruel to the Indians of the lands they wanted – the mi’k maw were forced to give up their 7000 acre home and accept only 700 acres in the 1800s.

The island has very little top soil – the Margaree Valley is the only area offering good farming, so most family farming is disappearing when the children grow up and leave, just like in the U.S. There is still some land devoted to beef and dairy cattle and to sheep.

The palette of green I keep referring to includes balsam fir, white, black, brown and red spruce and some scotch fir, among others!

There is not much snow here in the winter, due to the warmth of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. August temperatures can reach into the 100s. As we’re seeing everywhere, the weather here has changed considerably over the last 20 years – the island has experience a major drought, with many wells going dry. There are still a lot of apple trees, brought over by the Scots.

Passing thru the Acadian area, we learned of the French hoping to settle here as New France – they sent plenty of people but no money. The people had to take care of themselves and learned to love the land. They did not welcome the French when they returned, expecting to be in control. The settlers refused to take up arms for the French. The British were outnumbered by the Acadians, who wouldn’t support them either. This was the time of the 7 year war – the Queen Anne’s war. 12000 people were expelled from the area, but returned after the war.

The Acadians are a very proud people, and show their heritage, fly their own flag, live their own lives!

We learned that the Gaelic language has only 18 letters, but they make up 113 sounds! Next to impossible to understand! One phrase we tried to learn – “tikity boo” meaning really good! Then there is “ciad mile failte”, pronounced “keyad illa fellchay”, meaning 100,000 welcomes – and “slainte”, pronounced “slon cha”, meaning to your health.

The waters here are rich with 40 species of whales, and serves as breeding ground for gray seals.

There are 300 lakes in the highlands and innumerable waterfalls.

Saw the spectacular Highlands Links golf course, rated 64th in the best 100 in the world. They also have great ice cream!

Rumor has it that Bill Gates has purchased a local island, Ongonish Island, but our guide winked at us when he told the story, so who knows.

There are reputed to be over 500 ship wrecks off the coast of Cape Breton Island, making this a very popular skin diving destination, particularly in “Wreck Cove”.

Recent studies have led some to believe that the earliest settlement here was Chinese, which would certainly change our history books if proven true!

The sun came out about 6 pm today, too late for good pictures, but there are not enough superlatives to describe the Cabot Trail if the sun would shine all day!