Mouth of the Southwest Mabou River

This photo, taken on a summer boat trip in the evening to which I was invited, looks up the mouth of the Southwest Mabou River. Murphy Point is at the far left, out of the scope of this photo. Big Cove is behind the tree-lined point in the centre of the photo, blocked from view. The junction of the Cèilidh Trail (Highway 19) and West Mabou Road is also in the centre of the photo, but on the land across from the aforementioned point. Nicholsons Island is at the far right of the photo and the second mouth of the Southwest Mabou River is to its right, out of the scope of this photo.

The Southwest Mabou River draws me back time after time after time because of its peace and serenity and extravagant natural beauty; I never tire of walking along it. No mere photos can convey what one experiences when one puts oneself in situ: one’s field of vision is much wider than the camera’s, so one sees much more all at once; the sun playing over the water and warming one’s skin; the constantly changing firmament as clouds appear, move across the sky, and disappear; the flowers and the birds and the occasional chipmunk, red squirrel, or fox encountered along the trail; the breezes blowing; the lush vegetation in all of the hues of green; the river’s gurgles and the birds’ chittering; the impressions on all of the senses at once make for a much stronger, immediate, and more vivid impression than any set of photos can possibly hope to convey. If you have not yet enjoyed the Southwest Mabou River’s charms, I hope that this essay will have at least served to encourage you to be out exploring them at your next opportunity; if already know of them, I hope they will, as they do for me, recall fond memories of the times spent along its banks.