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!