Views from Cape Mabou

The storm had dissipated by the second day of Celtic Colours, replaced by a lovely warm and sunny day, though with a lot of haze in the air which spoilt to some degree the photos I took this day. Prior to the Saturday afternoon Celtic Colours concert at St. Matthew’s Church, I usually take a ride up the Foot Cape Road and then out to Sight Point or to Cape Mabou, as my mood dictates. This year, it proved to be Cape Mabou, which I had not ascended from Broad Cove Banks in a couple of years.

I drove up and out the Cape Mabou Road as far as I could, being stopped about 4.8 km (3.0 mi) in by a huge puddle lying across the road: I attempted to drive through it, but it proved too mucky and too deep for my Prius, so I quickly backed out of it and turned around. Checking the GPS coördinates of the puddle, I confirmed my memories of previous trips there and found I had made it to within a kilometre (0.6 mi) of North Highlands Road, the terminus of a hike I made in 2007, described here (with photos).

On my return back to Broad Cove Banks, I stopped at several points for photos; photo #1 is one of those, looking to the east of northeast: if I have my bearings correct (I really need to return here on a clear day!) it shows Godfreys Mountain, which lies southeast of Inverness Village. The closer ridges in the middle distance are, I believe, on either side of Foot Cape Road. But it is the lovely colours of the grasses in the field that really caught my eye here. When I was here some years ago, this field had been mown and hayed. Given this year’s atrocious spring and summer, it looks as if no hay was taken from here. Moreover, the colours in the deciduous trees are still unturned; no hint of the colours seen in Maine, New Brunswick, or even mainland Nova Scotia on the way here!

The two photos at the bottom were taken closer to Broad Cove Banks, next to the new tower recently built on the side of Cape Mabou, about a kilometre (0.6 mi) from the start of Cape Mabou Road in Broad Cove Banks. Photo #2 looks along the coast to the northeast. Inverness Village is at the far right, mostly out of the scope of this photo. The long arc of Inverness Beach runs from left to right across this photo; the bulk of Gillis and Beaton Mountains lies beyond in the haze. This photo is also good evidence for why the name Broad Cove was chosen for this area. Photo #3, which has a small amount of overlap with the first, looks more to the right (east). Inverness Village, or that part of it visible from this vantage point (much of the nearer village is below the line of sight), is in the middle ground and the mountains beyond again are obscured by the haze. St Margaret of Scotland Church in Broad Cove, site of the oldest annual traditional Scottish music concert in Cape Breton, can be seen right of centre between the tops of the two bare trees in the foreground.