SEPTEMBER 22, 2018
We awoke late to a rainy and windy morning. I made some coffee and Carol and I sat in the Vistabule and chatted while sipping our coffee. Rain was on again and off again. Our neighbor was in a tent and we figured he must have had a very rough night. We heard him get into his car sometime in the early morning hours and leave..figured he must have headed for a hotel. As we were chatting he returned and we struck up a conversation. It appears he’d had a fine night’s sleep and is a landscape photographer who likes to photograph extreme weather. So he was up early to catch the weather in action. His name was Charlie and he was from Virginia. We talked away most of the morning about everything from mental health (his speciality), travel and of course photography. Charlie is also a Nikon shooter so we had a lot in common.
With stomachs grumbling we headed into Cheticamp to find breakfast, the Frog Pond Cafe was recommended, but closed. We found a fancy restaurant the ‘La Gabriel’, which was not serving breakfast so we each had a fish sandwich with French fries and still spent forty dollars - oh well it’s Canadian dollars, right. We explored the town of Cheticamp poking in and out of all sorts of places.
We drove out to Cheticamp Island and ended up on a road (which might actually qualify as a road) but it was mud, rocks and steep, heading up to the top of a hill at the southern tip of the island. The all wheel drive of the Subaru performed very nicely and we were glad for the high ground clearance. Fog and mist swept across the bay which was filled with whitecaps and dramatic clouds - and not a boat moving. Later Carol and I visited the museum there in Cheticamp and learned more about the Acadian people and the very hard life they had here in Cape Breton. Rug hooking if a big craft here and it seems that everyone is rug hooking. A young lady gave a demo of hooking and all of the souvenirs are small hooked pieces - coasters and wall hangings and such. We were glad we stopped.
Back at the campground we found the sun had returned and we headed to the Salmon Trail where we were greeted with a sign that said ‘Bear In The Area’. Our bear spray was back in the trailer. We hiked anyway and never saw any bear, just as well. What a beautiful trail. It follows along a river that the salmon return to each year. It was a wide and rocky river and we were serenaded by the rivers’ song as we walked. It was an easy walk but just what we needed. I had left my tripod back at came and tried to do a makeshift rock base for the camera…
We returned back to camp and I made a fire. We had plenty of wood as a camper across the way had left us a good bundle of wood. Carol started in on some fresh vegetables and I got the grille on the fire. I grilled up some chicken breasts and a nice fresh slab of Salmon for Carol. I am not much of a Salmon fan. We had a great evening around the campfire. We chatted with several people who were curious about the little trailer. We met another couple (from Wisconsin)who had a teardrop and have been traveling with it for about four years. Last year the made the trip to Alaska.
We put that on our bucket list and think Stella would be a perfect trailer to do that trip with. The wind had died down and the coals were putting off just the right amount of heat to stay put next to the fire. The moon, which was just about full came peeking over the mountain, poking in and out behind some small clouds scudding across the sky. (Why is it that clouds are the only things that scud…) I don’t have any idea what time it was when we finally turned in but I know it was a fine day in Cheticamp.
Below is a gallery of more images from the day. Click any image for a larger view.
