Day 33 - Halifax to Cape Bretton Island

Friday June 13, 2008

Day 33 – Halifax to Cape Bretton Island (Louisbourgh)
Well, I broke camp (and it took me less than half the day!) and set out for Cape Breton Island. It was shaping up to be a beautiful day, but as I drove towards the island, it started getting more and more windy. Then, the clouds rolled in and that was pretty much the last of the sun I saw for awhile.

It was about 3 PM when I hit Louisbourgh, so I decided to get started with it today and then finish it off the next morning. When I hopped out, there were gale force winds, and water was spraying everywhere. I feel like that just added to the mystique of fortress. Basically, the Louisbourgh National Historic Site is a recreation of the old fortress that used to sit at that site. Think Heritage Park in Calgary (with everybody in period clothing) except on a ridiculously larger scale. I stayed until close and was pretty cold by that time. At one point, the wind was strong enough (it’s funnelled by the front gates) to knock a couple people off their feet.

I had Lobster for dinner. I started my stopwatch, but forgot to stop it, so I actually have no idea how long it took me (but less than 24 minutes). I know it was kinda slow though, because the second time the waitress walked by, she took pity and asked if I needed help or instructions. I felt like that person who eats in an Asian restaurant and then is offered a fork.

My random selection of B&B for the night (camping was totally out of the question) led me to the Foghorn B&B. The selection process consisted of me randomly pointing to a place, phoning it, and then picking the first friendly person to pick up the phone. I called Tash that night and found out that we had both picked the same B&B by random fluke. Kathleen (my host) remembered them from last year and actually found their entry in the guestbook. Small world. She had some great stories because she worked for 20+ years at the park. She had thrown a garden party for the queen and prince of Wales and met the Japanese royalty. The B&B was fantastic, and even had satellite TV! Good thing, because it was still galeing outside so I wasn’t going back out. They had an enormous dog, which really liked jumping on me (I think he could smell the lobster).

The day was Friday the 13th, but despite that, I thought the day went really well.

Leg Length: 436 km
Time: 5 h 35 min
Avg. Speed: 78 km/h


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