Category: Travel

Here are some panoramas from our recent trip to Nova Scotia. Under each image is a link to pop up a big one in a new window. The big ones are 1600 pixels wide, but your Web browser might resize them to fit in the browser. If so, they will appear a lot smaller.

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Main-à-dieu, Cape Breton Island. This is a small fishing village on the east coast of Cape Breton, near the mining zone that loops around from New Waterford to Glace Bay and southward. It’s a bit off the main roads and doesn’t get much through traffic.

Pop up a big one in new window (1600×313, 415K).

This is a view of Bras d’Or Lake, from a lookoff on highway 4 near Irish Cove. I drove this route many times during my youth, and always slowed down for the magnificent view. This photo was taken from the rest area just off the road.

Pop up a big one in new window (1600×305, 420K)

Near Five Islands, on the north shore of the Minas Basin, one finds these striking cliffs and “flowerpots” carved by the relentless tides from the Bay of Fundy. To get a few this close, you have to explore the small side roads a bit, and in this case, scramble down a rocky slope onto the slippery red mud during low tide. When the tide comes in, it can rise a foot a minute, so don’t wander too far from your return path.

Pop up a big one in new window (1600×296, 380K)

Update: Check out the Queen Mary 2 in Sydney (Nova Scotia) Harbour, over at the Monday Morning Photo Blog . . .

Martine and I had spent an hour in the brilliant sun walking around the rocks on the shoreline at the lighthouse at Cape D’or, on the north shore of the Minas Basin in Nova Scotia. Returning to the highway on the dusty red copper-rich dirt road, we stopped and gazed at the view of Horseshoe Bay, where ore boats docked 100 years ago to load up on the raw material bored from the nearby copper mines. Today, it is pristine and unspoiled-looking under the deep blue sky, with no signs of its industrial past.

We get out of the car and walk the two dozen metres down to the hard-packed beach. The air smells fresh and autumn-cool, and the waves lap contentedly at our feet. A few logs of driftwood sun themselves nearby. The occasional scallop shell glints up from the pebbly sand.

Half a kilometre away, to the east, a bald eagle flies a hundred feet above the treetops. It circles and circles, then casually changes direction and circles again. I raise my binoculars for a closer view of this majestic sight. Then, from the sarcastic node of my brain, over which I have no control, comes the warbling voice of John Ashcroft singing his abominably corny song of patriotism, Let the eagle soooooaaaarrrrr!!!!!

This message is brought to you by the Canadian Society for Ruining Your Day. Thank you. Come again!

We have returned safe and sound, although Air Canada managed to lose our luggage. On a direct, domestic flight, they lose both of our bags. Word came in this morning that they’ve been found and will be returned to us this afternoon — in two separate deliveries.

Otherwise, the trip was lovely but not so restful, as we were on the move every second day and seemed to be constantly driving. The seafood was excellent, but small-town Nova Scotia really needs to give up the deep fryer. I did not manage to stay away from computers for the entire trip, but the three times I did succumb were very brief.

Long-winded and highly illustrated posts to follow in the coming days. Or maybe not, depending on my gumption and how quickly other things impose themselves. For today, however, I will simply rest and avoid fried food. And I’ll nurse the scraped shin I received when I wiped out on the slippery red mud on the low-tide rocks in the Minas Basin near Five Islands.

Vacation in Nova Scotia starts in four hours. No, I’m not taking the laptop. No blogging, no email, no nuthin’!

Disconnected for ten days. That’s the longest I’ve been away from the Web since 1995!

Be back on October 11. See ya!