June 28-July 3, 2023

Wednesday was a travel day as we made our way from Prince Edward Island to Havre Boucher, Nova Scotia. It was about a 6 hour drive. There is a ferry between PEI and Nova Scotia that cuts the travel time in half but it was not running due do mechanical issues with the boat so we took the long way around…not sure we would have taken the ferry anyway since driving the RV + truck on/off a ferry is a bit challenging. Anyway we made it to our destination, Linwood Harbor Campground, without incident and got settled in. Our Florida friends, Bill & Beverly who were still tagging along with us, checked into their hotel room in Port Hawkesbury and then joined us for dinner.

The next morning we met up at the Troy trailhead on the Celtic Shores Coastal Trail with our bikes. This turned out to be a fantastic ride along the coast and through farmland on a beautiful sunny day! We ended up riding about 20 miles round trip and loved every minute of it. Here are some pics.

We met a nice local man on the trail (the only other bike we saw all day!) and he recommended the Clove Hitch Bistro in Port Hook about 20 minutes up the road for a late lunch. It turned out to be a great recommendation. Beverly and I had delicious lobster rolls and we all enjoyed the savory seafood chowder.

After our meal we went in search of local lobsters since this was the last day of the season. Our friend on the bike trail had given us some suggestions on where to look and after a few stops and starts we struck gold at Little Judique Harbor. This fisherman had LOTS of lobsters, including some very large ones. He offered us a 3.5 pounder (Beverly is holding it in the picture) but we opted for one 2.5 pounder (on the scale) for Bill and 1.5 pounders for the rest of us.

Since we had just eaten a very big, late lunch we decided to save them for dinner the next night. The fisherman told me to put them in the crisper drawer in the refrigerator and cover them with a wet towel so that is what I did 🙂  I checked with John in the office at the campground to see if they had a pot and cooker we could use the next evening and he said indeed they did. Yay!

We met up back on the Coastal Trail again the next day for a ride further north on the trail in Mabou. It was another fun ride through farmland and along rivers.

After our ride we went back to the campground and cooked up those awesome lobsters (still kicking around in the crisper). Bill’s couldn’t even fit on his plate. What a feast!

The next morning we moved on to our next camping spot in Sydney on Cape Breton Island. It was a short 90 minute drive to get to the Sydney KOA. Here is our beautiful spot over looking Seal Bridge.

First on the agenda was to drive the 185-mile Cabot Trail and visit the Cape Breton Highlands National Park on the northern end of Cape Breton with Bill & Beverly. We got started early in the morning (well 9:00 is early for us) and ran into some fog for the first hour or so. Then it cleared up nicely and we had a beautiful day. We decided to make the trip counter clockwise and pulled off frequently to view the beautiful scenery.

Near the end of the drive through the park we got an unexpected treat when we spotted this black bear by the road. So fun!

Although we had eaten local mussels, oysters and lobster we still had not tried the local snow crab. Unfortunately we missed the tail end of the season by a few days when the delicacy was reportedly selling for around $2 per pound. However, Bill & Beverly were able to find some frozen for about US$6.50 a pound and bought us 4 nice clusters for dinner.

Next we head off together in Bill’s SUV on the 7-hour Marine Atlantic Ferry ride for our 10 day excursion in Newfoundland. Stay tuned for that update in a couple of weeks. Should be exciting!