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Cabot Trail Nova Scotia

My first impression of the Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia – WOW!
This Canadian road trip is one of the world’s best. GO! for heaven’s sake. It’s worth the trip to Nova Scotia just to go on the Cabot Trail.
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The Cabot Trail follows a rugged Atlantic coast in the Cape Breton Highlands of Nova Scotia, Canada. Most travel the 298 kilometre (185 mile) route in summer but we traveled it in early September. If you like fall colours, try the Cabot Trail in mid October. We were told that’s when Nova Scotia’s colours generally peak, a good two weeks after other parts of Canada, including Quebec and most of Ontario.

More first impressions…

The strength of Nova Scotia’s Acadian culture

It still thrives along the eastern portion of the Cabot Trail. The dead giveaway is the distinctive red, white and blue Acadian flag which you see everywhere. Le Co-op in Chéticamp is one of many places where you can find traditional Acadian fare. I ordered a fish soup and freshly-made molasses bread before heading to the little craft shop next door. Hooked rugs are a Chéticamp tradition. A sweet little one made by an 86 year old local made it home with me.

In the 1740s Louisbourg was an important French fishing port and the third largest port in North America after Boston and New York. It was also the centre of Acadian culture. Although not on the Cabot Trail, it is close enough and worth a visit. I could not believe the massive size of present-day Louisbourg but Parks Canada staff who operate the national historic site told us it’s a fraction of what the original walled port was. The quality of craftsmanship is extraordinary and so is the interpretation. If you go, take a guided “Touching History” tour for a look at some of the port’s archeological finds. Point of View Suites is on the water in the little town of Louisbourg with a view of the fortress. It operates a Beggars Banquet – an 18th century style dinner theatre – on the property, so this is where we ended our day.

Outlandish artifacts of Acadian Culture on the Cabot Trail
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The Ceilidh Trail (pronounced “Kay-Lee”) extends the reach of the Cabot Trail down the western shores of Cape Breton. The Gaelic culture in Nova Scotia is far beyond what I imagined. Music seems to ooze out of every soul here. Even in the smallest of towns you can find a Ceilidh or social gathering with Gaelic folk music and dancing. The Celtic Music Interpretive Centre in the tiny village of Judique serves a good lunch accompanied by a noon-hour Ceilidh. It’s also interactive. I took a fiddle lesson and even tried a jig. Nova Scotia’s Gaelic College is another good stop. This is the base for the Celtic Colours International Festival in October, when hundreds of musicians descend on the island to play and party. It’s also where you can order a hand-sewn kilt, custom-made. Canadian comedian Rick Mercer covered these “nine days of celtic madness” awhile back.

Mountains
The Cape Breton Highlands have a very different feel than the Rocky Mountains in BC, especially in Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Unfortunately, we had a major downpour when we drove through the park, so not much hiking. Next time, the Skyline Trail with its spectacular vistas will be our first trail.

Glenora Distillery near Mabou, Nova Scotia
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Nova Scotia single malt whisky
We wrote about Glen Breton Single Malt awhile back when we paired it with some delish New Brunswick smoked salmon. On this trip I got to see the Glenora distillery and drink its spring water, which is what makes this single malt so smooth. We had a good dinner here and I just might be back to stay in one of the distillery’s hillside chalets come fall when colours are at their peak.

Captain Marks whale watching cabot trail

Captain Mark’s Whale & Seal Cruise
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The Gulf of the St. Lawrence and pilot whales
One, I didn’t realize one side of the Cabot Trail is on the Gulf of the St. Lawrence and, two, I had never seen pilot whales before. We saw a couple of pods feeding on mackerel close to shore. We also saw a molly (NOT the aquarium variety) which our Captain said was rare. These massive sunfish usually prefer warmer waters.

Good food and lodging
The best oatcakes I think I’ve had anywhere are served at Inverary Resort in Baddeck. The dinner at Pictou Lodge in Pictou, our last meal, was exceptional. I also loved the Highland Sitting Room at the Keltic Lodge.

Happy Trails.

Map of the Cabot Trail, Nova Scotia
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Dan Kirwan reminisces about touring Cabot’s trail in 1951, before the highway was built…

The Skyline Sunset Hike in Cape Breton Highlands National Park is one of the Canadian Tourism Commission’s Canadian Signature Experiences.

A big thank you to Visit Nova Scotia and Destination Cape Breton for making our trip possible.

Much of the Cabot Trail overlooks the sea.
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Cemetery stories

My fascination started years ago on a high school exchange to Boston. I was strolling through Boston Common and the Granary Burying Ground where Benjamin Franklin, Paul Revere and John Adams are buried along with “Mother Goose”. Mother Goose? What a surprise and not without controversy, and that’s what hooks me. Always more questions than answers with a good cemetery story.

There’s a family history of cemetery love. Ancestors of mine made monuments and gravestones in Quebec. One became a sculptor and made World War I memorials too. Two generations later, my mother began traipsing through cemeteries in Canada, the US, England, Scotland and Ireland and poring over town and church records long before the web made genealogy searches easier. I took a trip with her to Scotland in the 1990s. Copies of wills, ancient newspaper obits, and old letters mapped our route. We got our first hit in St. Cuthbert’s Burying Ground in downtown Edinburgh. A grave of a grandfather from way back. His epitaph read “Death is a debt to nature due that I have paid and so must you”. I never forgot the little verse and always thought it was his until I googled it today. Up popped several sites including a fascinating New York Times story on Sleepy Hollow Cemetery from 1894.

Titanic grave site at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax

Monument erected to the memory of an unknown child from the Titanic disaster

Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, Nova Scotia is in every Halifax guidebook. The cemetery is one of three in the city that hold the graves of Titanic victims. Its Titanic gravesite has 121 graves lined in a curve on a knoll, like the bow of a boat. When we visited, stuffed animals and cards were scattered around the base of the Unknown Child and J. Dawson’s grave was covered with handwritten love letters. I wonder if Leonardo Di Caprio knows of the effect he’s had here or what the real J. Dawson buried here would think. He was Joseph Dawson from Dublin Ireland, a 23 year old coal trimmer. The Old Burying Ground in downtown Halifax dates to 1749. This is where British Major General Robert Ross was laid to rest. He and his troops burned Washington DC in the War of 1812. And you wondered how the White House became the White House?

The Old Burying Ground in Halifax

Lloydtown Pioneer Cemetery was our introduction to Lloydtown, Ontario and its prominent place in history. In the 1830s, rebels led by town founder, Jesse Lloyd and outspoken journalist/politician William Lyon MacKenzie met here and planned the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion. Every Canadian school kid has heard of the rebellion but it’s hard to believe that today’s Lloydtown was once the #2 town behind Toronto in Upper Canada. The Rebellion failed but not before the rebels had planted the seed for democratic and responsible government in Canada. LLoyd fled to the US where he died in 1838 leaving a young wife and fourteen children behind. They’re buried in the little 1834 cemetery along with other early Lloydtown settlers.

Graves at the Crowfoot Cemetery

Crowfoot Cemetery sits high above the Bow River in the Badlands of southeastern Alberta. Below, a ridge of land stretches across the Bow underwater. For centuries, migrating herds of buffalo, horses and people crossed the river at this point. Blackfoot Crossing became historically significant over time and in 1877, Chief Crowfoot signed famous Treaty 7 here. The cemetery is the final resting place of Chief Crowfoot. Little crosses with the names Running Rabbit, Bad Boy Lepetre, Owl Child and Benedict Prairie Chick gave us a brief glimpse of Blackfoot life. Siksika Nation is part of the Blackfoot Confederacy which also includes the Piikani and Kainaiwa of southern Alberta and the Blackfeet of Montana. Down the road from the cemetery, Blackfoot Crossing opened in 2007. It is Canada’s largest aboriginal historic site dedicated to telling the story of the Blackfoot Confederacy.

Walking among the graves at Crowfoot Cemetery

After a visit to the Sedalia Coop in the hamlet of Sedalia, Alberta (pop. 18), we were on a gravel road headed for Cereal when we came across this prairie pioneer home. A plaque on one side caught our eye and we stopped to read it:

The Gray Homestead in the Canadian Badlands of southeastern Alberta

Quebec’s Magdalen Islands

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This Quebec Maritime story follows our British Columbia (BC) post on the Dogsled Mail Run. Each describes an unusual way that mail was delivered in Canada. In 2010, Canada Post issued two stamps commemorating these unique mail deliveries. I stumbled on both while researching dogsledding in Canada. Even though I was raised in Quebec, I’ve never been to Quebec’s Magdalen Islands (aka Îles de la Madeleine), the site of the second unusual mail story.

Reproduction « ponchon » barrel at Musée de la Mer, on the Magdalen Islands, in the Gulf of St-Lawrence between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.
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Magdalen Islanders knew they had to come up with a way to deliver the mail, but island fishing boats were deemed too dangerous to sail because of moving ice. That’s when local, Alcide J. Gaudet, came up with the idea of using an empty molasses barrel. Letters were placed in the barrel, a sail and rudder were added and they signed the barrel “Winter Magdalen Mail”. It was launched on February 2, 1910 and just over a week later, it washed up near Port Hastings, Nova Scotia. Murdoch McIsaac found the barrel and when he opened it, he discovered a note from the islanders requesting their mail be delivered, so that’s what McIsaac did.

Although the molasses barrel has long since disappeared, one of its letters survived and is on display at the Magdalen Islands’ Musée de la Mer (Museum of the Sea). According to a Magdalen Islands blog, in the 1990s, a second group of islanders tried to recreate the barrel launch. Despite launching in similar weather, tides and currents, their barrel was lost at sea.

Photo courtesy of Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine. Photographer G. Theriault
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Photo courtesy of Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine. Photographer M. Bonato
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One of our Montreal friends, Steve, is a huge windsurfer/kiteboarder and heads to the islands every year. Canadian travel journalists, Katherine and Eric Fletcher are also big fans and include the Magdalen Islands in their Quebec Off the Beaten Path guidebook. Katharine also gave me a good travel tip. She suggested we drive to Prince Edward Island, hop on the Souris ferry, tour the Magdalens and then catch the ferry and return to central Canada via the St. Lawrence River. Magdalen Islands and Quebec Maritime tourism sites are informative and the staff I spoke to at both were helpful too.

I think it’s time for a visit.

Photo courtesy of Tourisme Îles de la Madeleine. Photographer M. Bonato
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Halloween across Canada

We are not a superstitious people, not susceptible to assumptions of supernatural causation. But facts are facts, and we are a curious bunch. So every year at about this time we venture out, often by candlelight, in search of the truth that awaits us in the cold darkness…

European settlement in Nova Scotia dates back to the seventeenth century. In Canadian time, that’s a lot of history. @AuthenticCoast and @travelbyterry have been tweeting me about an interesting Nova Scotia haunt. The DesBarres Manor Inn was built in 1837 in the seaside village of Guysborough on Nova Scotia’s eastern shore for Supreme Court Justice, W.F. DesBarres. Justice Debarres was the grandson of J.W.F. Desbarres, a military man and mapmaker who accompanied Major-General James Wolfe at the great battle on the Plains of Abraham. It is rumoured that Wolfe gave DesBarres his pocket watch at the moment of his death, and that it hung in the Manor for many years. Spooky!

Surrounding the Plains of Abraham is Québec City. As night falls, Ghost Tours of Québec guide visitors through the cobble stone streets and ancient buildings of the old city, regaling them with tales of murders, executions, mysterious sightings, tragedies and hauntings.

Mon Dieu! Tours are in English and French.

In Ontario (known before confederation as Upper Canada), Fort George is regarded by many as the most haunted place in Canada. It was headquarters for the British military in Niagara during the War of 1812, and the scene of much blood, death and suffering. Many soldiers and civilians alike are still buried on the grounds of the fort. Some people say that distant cries can still be heard there.

If you dare to set foot in the fort on a weekend in October, check out the Friends of Fort George Halloween ghost tour. This two-hour guided candlelit walking tour is conducted by Ghost Tours of Niagara.

In the Canadian Badlands of southeastern Alberta, ghost tours and other paranormal events are wafting through the mist. The Haunted Atlas Coal Mine has BIG BOO and LITTLE BOO tours into the darkest corners of the abandoned coal mine. The Medalta Ghost Hunt is a nocturnal tour through a 100 year old pottery factory led by the Medicine Hat Paranormal Investigation team. And in the normally peaceful village of Stirling, Alberta, the Haunted Stirling Mansion is one of the best-produced haunted houses I have seen anywhere in Canada.

Lost in the Haunted Stirling Mansion

On Twitter, the Stanley Park Hallowe’en Ghost Train is known as @Ghost_TrainYVR. This year’s theme is Circus of Disaster. @Ghost_TrainYVR has been tweeting little teasers about this year’s event. Example: “The 1st circus in Ancient Rome was called the ‘Circus Maximus’ & more than 200-thousand people came to watch the show” Here’s a review of this year’s ghost train from the Georgia Straight, a popular Vancouver area media outlet.

If you know of a ghost tour or spooky Canadian factoid, please share it with us in the comments below.

Totally Scallops

In the course of my work, I sometimes get to stay at really nice hotels like the Fairmont Chateau Laurier in Ottawa. We’re talkin’ personal service, great food and a centre-of-the-world piano bar I want to live in forever. Anyway, the best thing about these places is that I get to meet interesting people.

I’ve known Judy Eberspaecher and her husband Alex for years. They’re travel writers. They make a living exploring exotic locations around the world and writing about them. Nice gig. I usually just sit there and listen as they take turns stretching my imagination with adventurous tales.

I didn’t know she was the high priestess of the scallop, the matriarch of the mollusc, the undisputed authority on my favourite edible bivalve! During her travels all these years she’s been collecting recipes for preparing scallops. Judy is from Nova Scotia, so she knows what she’s talking about. She takes a mean picture too, and her recipes are all illustrated with delicious photographs.

I have a mild scallop fetish myself. Once in a while I need to order up a big plate of them at Rodney’s in Toronto. When I’m in Canada’s maritime provinces, I eat them by the bagful. Come to think of it, if you know a great place to get scallops, let me know in the “comments” below.

Totally Scallops is almost as much a travel book as it is a cookbook. It’s a work of passion by a person who obviously loves her subject. Judy won the Best Fish & Seafood Canada Award from the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards (Madrid). Totally Scallops also placed 4th at the Paris Cookbook Fair for the Best Fish and Seafood Cookbook in the World. You can order a copy online at EberImage.ca Way to go Judy. I’m looking forward to the next time we meet.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Titanic

The first time we visited Halifax, Nova Scotia, we were on our honeymoon, many moons ago. Lucky for us, a travel media conference took us back there.
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Halifax, Nova Scotia is one of Canada’s historic ports of call, founded in 1749. In more recent times she has become a cruise-lover’s destination. That’s why I chose this week to post our Halifax trip even though we visited there in winter.

Lighthouse and harbour pilot boat in Halifax
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Welcome To Canada – Pier 21 museum, Halifax
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Pier 21, Canada’s immigration museum did not disappoint. “1.5 million immigrants, war brides, displaced people, evacuee children and Canadian military personnel passed through Pier 21 between 1928 and 1971.” What made our visit special was being with conference participants who immigrated to Canada with their families through this pier. I sat at lunch with a fellow from Germany who told us his story.

Deck chair salvaged from the Titanic on display at The Maritime Museum of the Atlantic in Halifax
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The 100th anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic was April 14, 2012. It created renewed interest in Halifax’s connection to the sinking. Halifax is where the largest number of Titanic victims are buried and where the Marine Museum of the Atlantic has many Titanic artifacts. The Titanic is also connected to St. John’s, Newfoundland, the oldest city in North America. When the ship sank it was 375 miles off of the Newfoundland coast. Here are some fascinating recordings and personal stories. And here is a short piece about icebergs around Newfoundland.

Even today, tributes are left at the base of this stone erected to the memory of an unknown child whose remains were recovered from the wreckage of the Titanic, April 15th, 1912.
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We visited Halifax’s Fairview Cemetery where more than one hundred of the Titanic victims’ graves are laid in a curved line, like the bow of a boat. At the base of the grave of the unknown child there were many stuffed animals and flowers, which one might expect, but it was the flowers and the handwritten love letters covering the grave of J. Dawson that caught me by surprise. They were a sure sign that Leonardo Di Caprio’s role as Jack Dawson in Titanic the movie has been taken to heart. According to a 2001 Discovery Channel production, the real J. Dawson buried here is Joseph Dawson, a 23 year old coal trimmer who was from Dublin Ireland. Other Titanic victims’ graves are found in Halifax’s Mount Olivet and Baron de Hirsch Cemeteries.

I loved the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia and ended up buying a magnificent Nova Scotia winter sketch in the gallery’s gift shop painted by Nova Scotia artist, Mark Brennan.

Foyer of Alexander Keith’s Nova Scotia Brewery – the oldest working brewery in North America
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A little Shiraz restaurant in Halifax
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Local brewer, Alexander Keith serves excellent east coast beer. We had a special beer tasting and dinner at this downtown Halifax brewery. Expect good seafood in Halifax. We had plenty of it while we were there. Another delightful and unexpected find was Shiraz. This Persian restaurant may be tiny, but its flavours were anything but. I also enjoyed poking around in all the little shops on Halifax sidestreets. At Encore, one of the second hand stores, I got a great deal on a Jones reversible raincoat (new).

People having coffee on a wharf in Halifax
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Carnival, Celebrity, Crystal, Cunard and others have cruises up the eastern seaboard that include Halifax as a port of call.

Canada’s BIG mascots

According to the Chambers’ Dictionary of Etymology, the word is borrowed from the french word, “mascotte” meaning sorcerer’s charm or good luck piece.

Canada is a land of mascots. I’m not sure why but they’re plentiful here. The largest is Drumheller, Alberta’s T-Rex. Four times the size of a real Tyrannosaurus Rex, it weighs 145,000 pounds, stands 86 feet tall and is 151 feet long. The cost to build T’Rex caused a bit of mascot controversy in Drumheller. But today most who live here would tell you their mascot has brought them good luck in the form of tourism dollars. This dinosaur-themed town is now the heartbeat of the Canadian Badlands, an Alberta region known for its dinosaur fossils, many of which are displayed in Drumheller’s famous Royal Tyrrell Museum.

The Big Apple, Colborne, Ontario

Drive enough of Alberta and you’ll find mascots for just about everything. The world’s largest lamp for a lamp museum. A giant cornstalk in Taber, Alberta famous for its corn. Coronation Alberta’s giant crown was chosen to honour the coronation of King George V. A model of the Starship Enterprise stands in Vulcan, Alberta. Manitoba’s mascots include the Melita banana, a giant mosquito, the world’s largest curling rock, and ‘Tommy the Turtle’. A massive snowman, a giant set of hockey cards, several big buffalo and and a huge pitchfork are some of Saskatchewan’s mascots.

Shediac, New Brunswick, lobster capital of the world

Joe Muffraw, the lumberjack from Mattawa, Ontario

Sparwood, British Columbia has the world’s largest truck and Sudbury, Ontario has the largest nickel. A giant lumberjack is Mattawa, Ontario’s mascot. It was carved by a local artist using a chainsaw. In Canada’s Maritmes, you can’t miss the enormous red lobster as you drive into Shediac, New Brunswick, the lobster capital of the world. On a road trip through Quebec’s Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, we found Verger Lacroix’s basket of fruit and wine representing the apple orchards here. The Colborne area of Ontario is another apple region. The Big Apple at the side of a Highway 401 exit here has sold millions of apple pies to travelers.

Giant fruit basket in Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, Québec

In Pictou, Nova Scotia, the town mascot is Ship Hector, a reproduction of a sailing ship that brought the first Scottish settlers to the birthplace of “New Scotland” in 1773.

Hector Heritage Quay Interpretive Centre and the Ship Hector – photo: courtesy Town of Pictou, NS

Got a mascot in your neck of the woods? If so, we would love to hear from you.

On-board Ship Hector – photo: courtesy Town of Pictou, NS