Winging It Travel Blog

I've run off to join a tribe of beach dwelling paddle boarders. This is the route we took, we highlighted it as we went.

    Our last day was spent with our friends Ally and Johnny, who have moved to Cape Breton into a gorgeous waterfront house they built. First we went to Black Brooke beach. Elsa had a couple friends to help her build a whole sand town, forget the holes!  We did one of my favourite activities, body surfing!     The waves were manageable. Once in a while a big one would sneak up on you. The worst one crashed on my head, pulled down my swimmers and then took my sunglasses. What a bully! Charlie said that if I had any lunch money it would have taken that too. I staggered out of the ocean and sat on my towel to recover. At least I didn't 'starfish onto the beach' - which is Johnny's term. He told us about seeing a wave get the best of some older ladies, it spit them out of the ocean and they starfished onto the beach, twirling onto shore, arms and legs out.      The same fun-filled day we went to a secret location, locals only. No one was there but us,...

    We decided to go visit Fortress Lousbourg since it seemed like the thing to do around here. I've stopped googling the places we are about to visit, as has Josh, so we didn't know what to expect at all. For example, we were wondering why we were parking so far away from the Fortress. And then, to our surprise, we had to get on a shuttle bus. What the heck? What is this place?     When we arrived we were in the 1700's (us and a gaggle of other tourists). People in 1700's costumes greeted us, the whole town was set up as it was. There were restaurants and bars, chickens, I even saw a little girl walking with her mom in a little French Colonial dress. As soon as I saw the set up, I knew my mission. To get to the bottom of the tricorn hat.  It has no apparent function, I know it doesn't keep the sun off. Was it just for show? What was the point of this hat? As we approached the town the cannon was set off at noon, it was loud! Photo from wikimedia commons showing...

     After the Skyline Trail we headed to Meat Cove, the most northern tip of Cape Breton. Meat Cove is a beautiful little cove with a horrible name. According to the internet (always a suspect source of information) this is where meat was processed during hunting trips by explorers. It is said you could smell it when you were out at sea. We can be thankful these oafish hunters didn’t get to name everything in the area. The borrowed Scottish place names prevalent in Cape Breton are miles better than “Meat Cove”. This beautiful place has been named in the top 10 most spectacular coastal locations in Canada. The view from our cabin      We settled in our little hillside cabin and walked down to the cove. I was sure I wasn’t going to swim on this overcast day. The shingled beach was full of cairns and inukshuks, which for some reason I find annoying. I fought off the urge to smash them all down and watched Charlie and Josh get in. The water was surprisingly wa...

     Of all the places we have been on this trip, the Cape Breton Highlands felt the most foreign, like a different country altogether. I imagine it's like Scotland, I could almost hear the bagpipes playing.     I'm embarrassed to say all this time I thought the Cabot Trail was a long hiking trail, like the Appalachian trail. I was becoming more surprised by this as we got closer because I have seen no joggers and few signs of locals exercising. The portions are huge and the food is loaded with fat and sugar. It's very different than the West Coast, where they are obsessed with health.     I was wondering who, exactly, was hiking the Cabot Trail. Turns out it’s a road! You sit in your car and drive along it. It has some lookouts with signs, if you can heave yourself out of your car to read then, should you have the energy and a place to put your lobster roll. You can see the Cabot Trail in the hill in the background     We drove the twisting ...

       Donelda didn’t make money the first four years of her tour boat operating, her business languished until she changed its name from St. Ann’s Bay tours to Puffin tours. She told us her whole life story on our boat tour. It was a 40 minutes to the puffin island so we heard it all, she has lived a full life.    On the way out to the island she threw fish into the water. Bald Eagles swooped out of the sky and got them. This would be frowned upon on the west coast, it’s a different world out here! I was awestruck by it's powerful wings and large talons.     Once we got to the island we saw all kinds of birds (listed below), four life listers for me! The puffins were not in a big crowds but were out fishing. Donelda warned us about making noise, she told us about a girl who screamed, and nary a puffin was seen. Then Donelda proceeded to get on the boat roof and start shouting: “Puffin in flight!” , "Puffin under!" and the incomprehensible “Puffin...