Taken 2009 January 18 from Mabou Harbour Mountain
GPS 46°06.???'N 61°29.???'W
This photograph is copyright © 2009 by Charlotte Miller,
remains the sole property of the photographer,
and has been used here with explicit permission.
This photo from the winter of 2008-2009 was taken from the heights of Mabou Harbour Mountain, seen in the previous photo. It shows: the mouth of the Mabou River in the centre of the photo, lined by the breakwater on the southern shore; the sand dunes that form McKeens Point behind the breakwater and the beautiful sand beaches of the West Mabou Beach Provincial Park shore along the Gulf of St Lawrence (Northumberland Strait); and, beyond, the cliffs known as the Hogs Back along the Colindale shore of this southwesternmost corner of Inverness County, leading to the most distant (unnamed) point that marks the entrance to Sutherlands Cove and MacQuarries Beach northwest of Little Mabou. At the left of the photo, the hills of Glengarry and Rocky Ridge rise above the lower lands of West Mabou.
In spite of the wintry greyish colours of this photo, it is obvious that the sun was shining through the clouds, as the trees in the foreground are casting their shadows on the snow and the icy waters at the mouth of the Mabou River are sparkling under the sunlight making its way through the clouds above. The dull colours of the waters offshore are likely due both to a thin coating of ice (though it is difficult to distinguish the ice from the open water with any certainty) and the faithful reflection of the grey skies above. This is one of the very few views of this scene I have come across in which the MacPhee’s barn, visible behind the point this side of Sutherlands Cove, does not immediately draw the eyes to its bright red colour, surely one of the more unexpected effects of this wintry lighting.
Sufficient haze and fog hangs in the air over St Georges Bay that the mainland on its other side leading out to Cape George, easily visible from here on a clear day, cannot be made out in this photo. The distribution of the snow cover also remains interesting, with little or none along the more distant part of the Colindale shore, rather more in West Mabou, and, as one would expect, considerably more on the higher slopes of Mabou Harbour Mountain in the foreground.