Prince Edward Island to Cape Breton Island

Friday 22 August

After fast (6:45am) we headed off just on 7:30am crossing Prince Edward Island (PEI) and heading for the ferry which would take us across to Cape Breton Island.

Some impressions of PEI. The island is very green. There are numerous waterways, inlets and small lakes. Much of the island is covered in forest. Houses dot the landscape, sometimes tucked tightly into the forest at other times land has been cleared and cropped or, less usual, under pasture. Churches popped up all over the place not necessarily associated with a settlement. Most churchyards contained a burial ground.

The ferry crossing took about 1 1/2 hours. Our bus was down on the truck deck along with a truck loaded logs amongst a mottly collection of other vehicles.

Shorthly after getting off the ferry we stopped for lunch before heading northern tip of the island and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Our lunch stop had great views

We did a hike which initially took us to a view point with views out across the Gulf of St Lawrence. The first part of the walk was along the Le Chemin du Battereau trail. This connected to the Le Battereau trail.

Along this second trail were the remanants of 5 houses that were occupied until aound 1930. The families who had lived there were identified along with the number of children of each couple. Each of these houses was quite isolated and quite a distance from the nearest settlement. There was no road through this area until the 1920s. On Sundays the families would walk down to the town to attend Mass. In winter they used to take a short cut across the ice. The footprint of each of the houses was quite small. It must have been quite crowded as the children grew up.

We stayed in the settlement of Cheticamp overnight. Like nearly every pleace we have stayed on this trip lobster and seafood are the staples and almost nothing else of note appears on the menu.