Why is it even though we do not have to pack up our home for the night when we stay at a hotel that we still cannot get away before 9:00 AM?  I guess that is just when we are supposed to hit the road . . . no sooner . . . but maybe later.

We had to head out on gravel outside of our hotel.  We stayed shiny side up, though.  We were determined to have a no fall day today.  We set our first waypoint today for Judique, Nova Scotia.  We were pronouncing it “Judy-Cue” but that might not be correct.  The GPS routed us on to Highway 2 and we made up some time from leaving later than expected even with a crazy ten minute wait at a construction zone in blistering 32 degree heat.  We saw the sign for the Sunrise Trail that I had read about online and decided to try it for awhile.  The start of the trail was pristine, recently paved within the last couple of years, with nice sweeping curves through rural Nova Scotia, with glimpses of the Northumberland Strait.  After about ten minutes, the road turned into about a twenty year old road, but it was still a nice drive and very quiet – only us and the mailman delivering the mail to resident mailboxes.

At Judique, we were now on Highway 19 and the Gaelic-infused Ceilidh Trail.  All the signs for the towns have their names translated into Gaelic.  It does not seem to roll off my tongue when I try to pronounce any of the Gaelic names.  I may have Scottish and Irish ancestry, but I do not think this language would ever come naturally to me.  How in the world do you pronounce “ldh”?  Is there a silent vowel that you can’t see but should know is there?

Our one touristy stop on the Ceilidh Trail was the Glenora Inn and Distillery.  It is the only single-malt whiskey distillery in Canada (or was it North America?).  It is Scotch without being able to be called Scotch because it did not come from Scotland, just like sparkling wine cannot be called Champagne because it did not come from Champagne, France.  Jeremy said he knew that about Scotch already.   Well, at least I learned something today from our visit.  We decided to stay and have our lunch at the distillery restaurant as we just missed out on a tour of the distillery by five minutes and they only run every hour (sounds a little like our ferry experience – how can we be running five minutes late for everything?).  We had a really nice lunch.  They had fiddlers playing traditional Celtic music and the food was excellent.  We tried their bacon-wrapped scallops in Glenora whiskey sauce and smoked salmon with a pickled onion and caper chutney, dill cream cheese and crostinis.  I was never a huge fan of smoked salmon – until today.  Oh, there was salad too.  We had some green today.

We passed through Mabou – the town that produced the Rankins.  Very small little place . . . and the entire main street was ripped up for construction; otherwise we might have stopped and toured around a bit.  I am a fan of Jimmy, after all.

Until the outskirts of Cheticamp, I was still not convinced that the Cape Breton scenery was living up to all the hype.  And, then we hit the Cabot Trail.  Hype justified.   It is absolutely beautiful.  The trees along the ocean disappeared and you could actually see the ocean and the houses and the boats.  It is one of those roads that you could stop every thirty seconds and take a picture . . . or just enjoy it and buy some postcards.  We decided on the enjoyment part but tried to take a few pictures.

Just after Cheticamp, the Cabot Trail leads you into Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  What an amazing ride.  Parts of the trip through the park reminded us a lot of Highway 1 in California and Oregon minus the heavy traffic and speeding, oncoming logging trucks.  We seemed to be the only people driving through the trail clockwise.  We had conflicting advice from various people – some advocating going clockwise to see the mountain vistas ahead of you and others advising going counter-clockwise so the water is to your right.  We think we know why to go counter clockwise now.  Most of the lookout points are on the water-side of the road.  Really, whatever “wise” you choose, it is stunning.

Our campground for the night was one of the first we found when we started researching for our trip.  It is called Hideaway Campground and Oyster Market and it is in South Harbour, Cape Breton, on the Cabot Trail just outside one of the exits to Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  It is definitely a winner, for us so far.  We had no problems finding the campground as the signage was well-placed and made sure that we “kept right” at all the forks in the road.  There was even a final sign that said “Don’t worry, you are almost there!”  Did they know I was coming?  Anyway, the staff are extremely friendly and suggested an excellent site for us that was treed (the hammock can go up tonight again!) and also had a view of Aspy Bay.  If you are not into tenting, they have cute little cabins that you can rent (one of them looks like a mini-lighthouse).  We can’t comment yet on the shower facilities.   They will be tested tomorrow.  Let’s hope Jeremy has a little cold water to go with his hot water this time.

More Cabot Trail tomorrow . . . can’t wait!