We had a late start to the day, and then headed out towards Cape Breton Island. We stopped at a few scenic areas alongside the highway. Most of the drive towards and in Cape Breton was beautiful. The highway often ran along the rocky coast and you could see waves crashing on one side of the highway and vibrant green hillsides (reminiscent of Scotland) on the other. It was very cold and windy along the way, also evocative of Scotland.
We then went to Glenora Distillery in Glenville. It is a single malt whiskey distillery, at one point being the only one of it’s kind in North America. The tour cost seven dollars, and it wasn’t very long or worth it. We did receive a small taste at the end, and the whiskey was pretty good. The bottles cost as much as a bottle of good scotch though, so we didn’t buy any. The grounds of the distillery itself were very nice. It is located on an old apple orchard and a small stream. Both of these factors supposedly play into the flavor of the whiskey.
We then drove on a small dirt road to Margaree Harbor. The harbor was on one side of the bay and a small rocky/sandy beach was on the other. We walked along the sandy beach, looking at the rocks and skipping them in the water. The waves were really strong and the views were very pretty. We had a picnic lunch at a table overlooking the harbor. It was the perfect setting.
From there, we continued on our journey towards our campground at Cheticamp in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We stopped at numerous lookouts along the way to ooooooh and aaaaah over the view. We also stopped at a total of 3 grocery stores looking for chicken cutlets.
While waiting to check into the campground, we realized that we had not reserved a site with a firepit. We had assumed they all had one but were proven wrong. Luckily, we were able to arrange for a different site with a fire pit and grill. The site itself was rather large and had a big concrete picnic table. The only problem was that the fire pit was right near the table, so we could not use our canopy over it. We were not too worried because the forecast seemed to be in our favor. By this time it was late afternoon, so we set up our tent and then went for a drive along part of the Cabot Trail.
The Cabot Trail is a long loop road that runs across the top part of Cape Breton Island. We stopped at a few rocky beaches with pounding surf and great views. We continued up the trail, stopping at more overlooks to check out the view. The plan was to take a short one mile hike to check out the sunset over a beach. At the base of the trail, where they tell you about the hike, they had a posting of a recent bear sighting, which really freaked Theresa out. We started up the hike anyway, Theresa being nervous the whole way. We went for a short while, but then decided to turn back when we realized that we didn’t have a flashlight in case it got dark. We sat on a piece of driftwood at the rocky beach and watched a little more of the sunset. We then drove back to the campground to prepare dinner and sit by the fire.
