Welcome to Nova Scotia!

We made it to a new province in Canada – Nova Scotia!

Nova Scotia is a province that is located on its east coast.  It is one of the three Maritime provinces  – (the word MARITIMES is a regional designation for the Canadian provinces of Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. These make up a cluster of peninsulas and islands and are significantly affected by the Atlantic Ocean – Thank you google! – haha)

Nova Scotia is the most populated province in Atlantic Canada, with an estimated population of over 1 million people – it is the second most densely populated province and the second smallest!

After checking into our campground (Waves End campground since it’s right on the ocean) and “set up camp” we went out to sightsee a bit and get a feel for where we were and what we would be doing over the next day and a half!

Our campground was on the Cabot Trail – after hearing SO much about it, we decided to head to the entrance to Cape Breton Highlands National Park and get a map and see a little bit of the Cabot Trail…well let me say – EVERYTHING WE HEARD ABOUT THE CABOT TRAIL WAS TRUE!  Driving along the road, nothing seems too exciting – just a road with houses, campgrounds, restaurants, harbors, etc…and THEN….

It’s hard to even describe what it looks like!  The pictures are great, but just don’t really capture what you see with your eyes!  One of my favorite parts was to stand at an overlook and marvel at the Atlantic Ocean and the vastness of it all!! WOW!

After a GREAT night’s sleep in the Airstream – with the ocean waves and the breeze blowing through the open windows – the sun came up and we were ready for another exciting day to see more of God’s majesty !

(SIDEBAR:  I have to say we have had the most AMAZING weather the entire trip – out of a month of traveling so far, we have only had rain three times, and it never caused us to change our plans or anything – God is good!).

I follow a couple on YouTube who travel all over the US, and I had seen them do a hike to an old gypsum quarry that is now a lake – it looked amazing and we were only about 10 minutes from it – so we headed out midmorning to go check it out…it was an easy hike, only about 1 ½ miles round trip – the whole way to the lake, I just kept hoping it would be as pretty as it seemed on the YouTube video…..

IT WAS!!!!!  The color of the water was so vibrant and it was such a peaceful place!  When I watched the couple on YouTube, there was one part where the husband is sitting on a rock really high up, and I couldn’t figure that out when we approached the lake…and then I spotted ANOTHER trail that went higher!  It was pretty steep, and I noticed a rope tied to trees to help people get up and back down the trail! (like repelling!)   The lake was beautiful, but I knew it would be more spectacular from the top of that hill!  SO……

I was right!  What a view from up at the top, which gave us a whole different perspective on the lake and the rock “walls” around it!  I realized that unfortunately I had to come back DOWN the hill, which seemed more scary – going down backwards and holding the rope!

SUCCESS!

COMING DOWN!

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What a nice way to start our day!  After the hike, we wanted a bite of lunch, and this same couple that I watch on YouTube went to a place called “The Dancing Goat” – what a fun name – it’s one of the most popular restaurants in the area and, once we got there, we could see why!  Baked goods, coffees, breakfast sandwiches, desserts, homemade cookies, etc!

It was delicious and a great “reward” for the hike to the lake!

As we were driving to check out the Cabot Trail, there was a hike called THE BOG TRAIL.  It was a very short hike through a beautiful wetland/bog area, with a boardwalk to keep your feet dry as you walk!  There were some interesting plants along the way, and we looked and looked for a moose – but no luck!  It’s a great place to spot them, but not for us!

We had not planned anything for dinner at our campground, so we decided to go get a bite to eat in the town of Cheticamp, a few miles down the road.  The man who was camping next to us said we HAD to go to a family restaurant in town because they had live music and it was great – the music is called CEILIDH (pronounced KAY-LEE) and is very popular in the area!  Off we went to what was going to be a GREAT experience!

The décor was great inside, with every wall covered in sports jerseys – mostly hockey! Right away, Leonard and I searched to see if there would be a Sidney Crosby jersey since he is Canadian!  After some searching, we found it!  And it was right above a Mario Lemieux jersey!  How fun for us!

Our table happened to be right in front of the stage where the people would be performing – it was a man on the keyboard and a woman with a fiddle – I had no idea what to expect….and as soon as they began I KNEW we had done the right thing coming there!!!

The music was so fun and they were SO good!  Enjoy a couple short videos to get a taste of what we heard!  I could have listened for hours!

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What a fun and full day we had – so much to experience with not enough time to do it all! But tomorrow’s a new day!…..

We were on the move again, headed to Broad Cove Campground, located IN the national park. The drive was along the Cabot Trail and was filled with amazing views again, around every corner!  After checking in, we went and checked out a couple of scenic areas to walk out on rocks, and then also a beach that was beautiful!  Enjoy some of the scenery that we saw!

The BEST surprise of all is that we saw seals !!!!  Lying on the rocks in the sun, and playing in the waves!  We sat and watched for about 30 minutes!  Still looking for a whale but no luck!  (same with the moose I guess!)

Back to the campground for another great night’s sleep before another day of exploring!

The next day brought another trail to hike – the MIDDLEHEAD TRAIL, which is one of the best ones to do!  It follows a long, narrow peninsula separating two ocean bays, and ends on cliffs overlooking the Atlantic Ocean – it’s 3 ½ miles long and a LOT of it is uphill!  Even on the way back, which we could NOT understand! Haha..  A perfect way to start the day!

After our hike, we found another little fun place to stop called the GROOVY GOAT – not to be confused with the prior DANCING GOAT!  The Groovy Goat is a goat farm, soap shop, and café!  So we checked out the goats….

And we checked out the soaps…

And we looked at the café, but didn’t eat anything! (I know, surprise, surprise!)

The way we ended this part of the trip was taking our chairs back to the beach and just sitting there, enjoying the sunshine and the waves and the fresh air – it was so relaxing!  We even spotted a waterfall on the rocks nearby!

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Before we left this morning, Leonard got up and caught the sunrise at the campground – God’s majesty on display!!!

What a fun few days along the Cabot Trail – next stop is going to be a REAL adventure – we are going Tidal Bore Rafting on the Shubenacadie River – I ALSO saw this on YouTube and may be crazy for making reservations…I’ll report back after we get back!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Until next time….