SEPTEMBER 20, 2018
After another 10 hours of sleep... the early start wasn't quite as early as we had anticipated but no matter, because no schedule. Off we went down provincial road number 2 headed back toward the TransCanada Highway. Rolling over the gentle hills along the Bay of Fundy was awesome and the scenery spectacular with glimpses of the bay here and there and then opening up to a grand view with small farms scattered all around. I love traveling.
Soon though we were back on the highway and the scenery changed to that of highway travel, so we put our audiobook back on and chatted and listened as the miles rolled by. We stopped for gas and right across the street was a huge food mart. We parked next to another tiny trailer but never had the chance to meet the owners. We restocked fresh vegetables before moving on. Crossing the bridge from the 'mainland' of Nova Scotia to Cape Breton, we stopped at the info center and picked up Route 19 (the Ceilidh Trail - pronounced kay-lee) which leads to the Cabot Trail. We had several stops planned along this route. The first stop was the Celtic Music Center where we shared a blueberry desert and each had something to wet our whistles. We listened to a young lady on fiddle accompanied by a man on piano. Celtic music, hmmmmm. I am sure that it is just me but after a few Celtic songs they all begin to sound the same..di de dum de di de dum...interesting, nice to listen to, but a little goes a long way.
Our next stop was the Glenora Distillery just north of Mabou. We wanted to do the tour of the distillery and the last tour was at 4:00..of course this is the time they decided to make a lot of single lane construction areas..we made it to the distillery at 3:59 and in time for the tour. The Glenora Distillery makes Canada's only single malt whisky, which they can't call scotch, but it is easily recognizable as a very good scotch like whisky. We heard tales of how the first ten years of production all had to be stored as you cannot sell a single malt whisky younger than 10 years, so those years were years of just money going out with nothing coming in. The tour was an interesting one filled with good single malt information and tales of the company growing and getting to the place where it is today, making a great whiskey. Our lady tour guide was a pretty much no nonsense kind of lady, but informational. We ended up with a tasting of the 10 year old whiskey. Next year they will be bottling their first ever 30 year whisky. We bought a bottle of the 14 year old whisky before finding a campground for the evening.
I had found a few places and we ended up at the Ceilidh Campground back down the road a few miles, just south of Mabou. The lady at the camp office was delightful and even though they were full she found us a spot and ran us an extension cord and only charged us for a tent site. Our lady camp host was in a bit of distress as the owner, who was near 80 years old had just fallen off a ladder and was rushed to the hospital. She thought he had banged his head pretty hard and was very concerned. We kept getting reports..ultimately, his injuries turned out to be relatively minor and he should make a full recovery. We chosen this campground because of it's proximity to Mabou where we had planned on having supper at the Red Shoe Pub.
Here we could listen to more Celtic music. This type of social gathering is called a Ceilidh (pronounced kay-lee, hence the Ceilidh Trail). carol and I sampled the local brew with supper. I had the fish and chips (perfect) and Carol had salmon (also perfect). We really enjoyed the music, even more than I had expected), and I know what I just said but this guy and his guitar were really good and he mixed up the music quite a lot. He sang Irish ballads of course, and sea chanteys and even a John Denver song, and he had enough of a sense of humor to keep the evening lively.
I enjoy the Canadian pubs, they are not so much a dark bar as we seem to have back in the states but rather the lights are on and families gather to socialize and there are even clocks on the wall. Every once in a while everyone in the pub burst into song, they all seem to know all the songs.This was genuinely a fun place to be. What a way to end a day of travel. Gallery below, click any image for a larger view.
