Return to Halifax

Today was our last day on the road as we have to hand back the motor home tomorrow between 8am & 10am. We had a relatively short trip down the motorway to the campground just up the road from the motor home depot. The rest of the day was spent on the unenviable job of cleaning the van and trying to fit everything we had acquired into the suitcase space available! We did get the opportunity of a good long walk and took a few minutes out to explore the local lakeside beach where many of the locals were enjoying a swim. Water Temp 23 degrees C Air temp 25 degrees C

Sherbrooke Restored Village

We awoke during the night to the sound of roaring thunder and lightening the likes of which we have never seen before. Apparently it went on for about 4 hours. We heard the microwave ping so knew the power had gone off. By morning it had stopped raining but the power was not back on. We were one of the more fortunate as we had gas and a full tank of water allowing us to still shower. The campground was reliant on the power to pump their water so there was none until the power came back on about mid morning. Weather wise the day improved as it progressed and we spent an interesting 3 hours looking through the Sherbrooke Village. The town has been completely restored taking it back to about 1844. All the buildings are exactly as they were back then and have not been reconstructed or moved to the site. Unlike Avonlea (the Anne of Green Gables Village) it is not commercialised and touristy. We tried to get a camp site for the night at Murphy's Cove but found that the campground was full so moved on to Upper Lakeville where we got the last site in a nice camp on the edge of a river used for recreational activities. We later learnt that it was a holiday week-end which was the reason the campgrounds were full.

Canso Islands and Grassy Island Fort

The next morning we drove into Canso where one can purchase a reasonable house for the princely some of C$40,000. The town has a population of about 900, sports a Co-op store, a hospital which can handle the basics, an old folk's home plus the Parks Canada Visitors Centre. It was here that we watched a short video about the Canso Islands and Grassy Island Fort. Canso was one of the early European fishing ports (around the 1500s) in North America, and grew to be a thriving community of fishermen and merchants from New England. All went well for about 200 years before it became a casualty of the Anglo- French rivalry for North America when the French destroyed it in 1744. We took a short boat ride across to the island where one can still see the remains of some of the houses from around this time. Up until about 20years ago one of the local farmers used to transport his cattle to the island by raft and use it for grazing in the spring but since then it has been over taken by the wild roses and grasses. We travelled westward pausing at Goldsboro, where the natural gas comes ashore, before stopping for the night at Sherbrooke. This town is renowned for its restored village. Having sat for a reasonable amount of time we decided to go for a wander after tea. We ended up in the village which we learnt has road access at night as 3 people still live there. We met one old guy of 91 who is living in the house built by his father. His friend, who was 90, got chatting to us and offered to take us for a drive around the area. He was most interested in where we had come from and told us all about the locals and the history of the place. We got the impression he was a bit lonely and just wanted to chat to somebody different. Could have been along night had we taken him up on his offer!

St Peters Canal

From Louisbourg we followed the coastline down to St Peters where we stopped for lunch and to look at the canal. The canal was built to connect the Atlantic Ocean with Bras d'Or Lake It was started in 1854 but took 15 years to complete as almost the entire 800 metres had to be dug by hand. Tidal activity at both ends of the canal causes a 1.4m difference in water level between the lake and the ocean. Here we left the Cape Breton area, crossing over the Canso Causeway and travelled on down the Marine Drive and camping for the night at Fox Island just out if the township of Canso. Here the mosquitoes flew in droves and ate like hungry wolves. We had travelled a distance of 263 kms so for us this was a reasonable distance in comparison to our usual average of about 100kms a day.

The Fortess of Louisburg

Today we went to the attraction that is synonymous with Louisburg, that being the Fortress of Louisburg. In 1961 to employ many of the out of work miners the Canadian Government embarked on a 25 million dollar project to reconstruction this fortress on its original site. In actual fact they have only reconstructed a fifth of the original leaving the remaining portion to be completed by future generations. Detailed records from when it was first built has allowed them to rebuild things on exactly the same original site, and in some cases where the building had not been completely demolished, to reconstruct it using the remains and salvaged materials.
Now the history lesson! Louisburg was settled in 1713 by a French expedition relocating from Placentia, Newfoundland. By 1740 the population had reached 2500 with garrison numbers of about 700. In 1744 Great Britain and France declared war and in 1745 the British captured the fortress after a 6-week siege. The inhabitants and garrison were deported to France. In 1748-49 a treaty handed the colony back to the French and the inhabitants returned. Not having learnt a lesson from the last time when they were caught by the surprise land attack from the British, they were once again defeated in the same manner in 1758. To prevent a 3rd siege, a treaty was signed in 1763 and in 1768 the British garrison withdrew from Louisburg. In 1928 the Fortress of Louisburg was proclaimed a National Historic Site. Now each summer the Fortress springs to life as dozens of costumed animators become the town's residents of the summer of 1744. Period homes and exhibits line the central streets of Rue Toulouse and Rue Royale, as well as the busy waterfront. Men, women and children enact the range of society from the leisurely activities of the rich to the hard physical labour of the poor.
On our return we walked through the town but apart from 5 churches, 3 gift shops and a couple of small diary/groceries stores the town was dead. We did visit a small maritime museum and a railway museum.

Marconi's - the first long distance radio communications 1902

We retraced part of our route to Sydney the next day on our way to Glace Bay where Keith was keen to visit the site from which Marconi transmitted the first official wireless message across the Atlantic on Dec 15th 1902. This national historic site honours Marconi's role in the development of today's network of global communications. Next we visited the Glace Bay Heritage Museum that has been set up by the local Historic Society in an old building that was to have been demolished to make way for a parking lot. Our last museum for the day was the Cape Breton Miners Museum. Unfortunately we were a little pressed for time so did not take the underground tour to the coal face as we needed to find a camp for the night in Louisburg. We found one right next to the Louisburg Playhouse where we wanted to go and see the performance of "Lyrics and Laughter", a show put on each night by an extremely talented group of 6 musicians. There were a number of humorous little skits, step dancing and lots of typical Cape Breton fiddling songs and tunes. The guy on the fiddle was absolutely brilliant and made it look so effortless.

The Big Fiddle - Sydney Nova Scotia

The next part of our journey involved a reasonable amount of travelling on the highway; taking us from Englishtown to Little Bras d'Or. The lady at the camping ground had recommended that we backtrack slightly and stop off at the Gaelic College at St Ann's. It was from here that Rev Norman MacLeod a Presbyterian Minister lead 900 of his followers firstly to Australia and then on to Waipu in NZ in about 1861. The centre also has a reputation for its kilt making. At Little Bras d'Or we stayed at a camping ground overlooking the lake. It was a lovely peaceful scene that was only disturbed by the 20 plus motor homes arriving at 10.30pm off the New Brunswick Ferry, and half a dozen more arriving at about 12.45am off another ferry. As luck would have it the biggest truck and trailer unit from this bunch got to park right next to us! The Arm of Gold camp which is the English translation of Bras d'Or is the closest camp to the ferry and provides it with a considerable amount of its business. Earlier in the afternoon we had taken the freeway into Sydney to look at the sights. We stopped at the Info Centre where we were able to see "The Big Ceilidh Fiddle" symbolizing Cape Breton's musical tradition. Cast in steel it weighs 10 ton and stands 42ft 4ins with the bow being 52ft 4ins. It plays fiddle music 24/7. We walked the old part of the town looking at some of the earliest buildings before walking back along the boardwalk that runs along the edge of the harbour. It was around 6pm and the place was just about deserted.