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| Quiet fishing village of Neil's Harbour |
Today we are driving the east coast of the Cabot Trail all the way to just north of Baddeck, and then we will turn around and start our return trip to drive the trail counter-clockwise.
We start with a stop in the small rural fishing community of 'Neil's Harbour' to see the boats and the iconic red and white lighthouse now housing an ice cream shop :)
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| 1899 Lighthouse |
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| Franey trail |
Down the road we hike the 'Franey Trail' for a view of the valley. Due to time constraints on our day we just hike to the first lookout.
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| First lookout |
The drive to Cape Smokey is another steep climb up narrow, very degraded roads. We are super thankful to not be pulling our trailer as the road is literally broken away and crumbled in places. It's easy to avoid these dips and holes with just the truck but the trailer would have created challenges, especially when meeting on-coming traffic forces us to stay totally in our narrow, rough lane.
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| Sunny day |
The views are once again stellar and we see why the Cabot Trail is such a sought after adventure when visiting the east coast.
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| Atlantic Ocean |
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| Local fresh oysters |
Interesting that at the Cape Smokey lookout there is a guy selling fresh oysters, farmed by his family near Dingwall where we are camped. After he gives us a quick reminder demonstration on how to shuck an oyster, we are set to enjoy our iced oysters later :)
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| Views towards Baddeck down Cape Smokey |
The look out at Cape Smokey is actually a little ways down the other side of the mountain we just climbed up so we can see the steep descent we are glad to be avoiding as this is our turn-around spot.
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| Cape Smokey ski hill |
Now heading counter-clockwise around the Cabot Trail we get to see it all from a different perspective. We hadn't noticed on the way up the Cape Smokey mountain that there is actually a ski hill up here. These roads in winter must be quite interesting to drive :)
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| Grand old church |
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| White sand beach |
The new transmission brake Chris recently installed works wonderfully to help brake the truck on our way back down Cape Smokey mountain to Ingonish Beach. It is a popular summer destination along the Cabot Trail. The sand is super soft and white. Chris ventures in for a swim but it is much colder than the recent swimming spots we have enjoyed.
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| Sea weed on beach |
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| Black Brook Beach |
After relaxing for about an hour, we remember there was one last beach we wanted to stop at on our way back to our campsite. We move down the road to Black Brook Beach, another super beach location.
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| People enjoying the late day sun |
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Shucking oysters
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It is starting to get a bit late and hunger is in the back of our minds so we decide to have our fresh oyster appetizer right here. Chris bought an oyster shucking knife back on PEI and has been wanting to use it since. He did an amazing job :)
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| Clouds rolling across our evening sky |
We planned to be back by 7pm in order to be off the roads and avoid moose encounters. It is 7:03 when we pull up at our camp.
In Ingonish we stopped at a Freshmart and bought hamburger helper for supper...lol another gourmet meal:)
The setting sun casts great light onto our view of Aspy Bay.
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