Taken 2005 July 31 from the Colindale Road at the guardrails
GPS 46°03.995'N 61°30.300'W
The turquoise waters of the Northumberland Strait (Gulf of St Lawrence) and the beach lying below the Cape Mabou Highlands in the background present a gorgeous scene, one of the most beautiful on Cape Breton Island. The cliffs at the left of this photo mark the mouth of the Mabou River; if you look carefully, you can see the breakwater below them which delimits the right side of the Mabou River as you enter it from the ocean, though the Mabou River itself is not visible in this view, being obscured by the sand dunes which lie behind the beach.
As I mentioned in the introduction, there are many gorgeous views from the Colindale Road; this is just one. I drive this road almost as often as I am in the Mabou area and it never palls. It’s best seen on a sunny day, like this one, but it’s still a very beautiful drive under less ideal weather. Given the micro-climates that characterize the Mabou region, you may well see clouds or rain down the coast in Mabou Coal Mines and sunny weather in West Mabou (or vice versa). Regardless of the weather, there is always some new aspect that reveals itself in the play of water, clouds, and sky on a spectacular landscape.