Although I had awoken earlier, I turned over and went back to sleep, only making it out of bed at 9h. A very nice morning, sunny, warm (+25 (77)), and with a good breeze blowing to keep the bugs away; it was hazy over the water, with St Paul Island barely visible. As I was enjoying the beauty of the day, I noticed a disturbance in the waters below the Lodge, which I attributed to a pod of whales feeding. I had breakfast of orange juice, a big dish of oatmeal topped with the blueberries I had purchased yesterday, and tea; I was some bemused to note that the blueberries were marked as “Jersey Fresh!”, exported from Hammonton, New Jersey! It’s not like Nova Scotia and Cape Breton don’t both have excellent blueberries, though it is a tad early for them to be in season yet. After breakfast, I packed up my duffel and stowed it back in the car, finding it, as always, very hard to leave this gorgeous place.
but are caused by animals feeding, most likely a pod of whales.
The Meat Cove Road descends to the village right of centre in the photo.
The newly rebuilt Chowder Hut is near the centre of the photo.
the path taken by the road to Lowland Cove up the “Western Wall”.
A bit of the Meat Cove Road descending to the village can be seen at the far left.
I drove down to the village for lunch and found the Meat Cove Restaurant closed for food the day, though I spoke to some friends who were there (it’s not only a restaurant, but also a museum and a community gathering place). I continued on to the Chowder Hut, newly rebuilt from the bottom up over the winter and with a great outside patio with grand views of the coast to Black Point and further east. The sun made the patio feel hot in spite of the +22 (72) my car’s thermometer recorded, so I dined inside, where I had their chowder with fish cakes and beans; the food is now served on real, not paper, dishes and with real silverware, not plastic. The chowder came with lots of potatoes, shrimp, haddock, and bits and pieces of other seafood in a rich and creamy broth, served with a mussel in its shell on top, and accompanied by a dinner roll and margarine; I found it a tad salty (my diet skimps on salt, so I am overly sensitive to salt), but overall quite good and very tasty. A generous serving of beans accompanied the two large fish cakes with onions in the fishcakes as I prefer, tartar sauce, another dinner roll, and margarine; delicious and very filling! After lunch, I drove back up to the Lodge, changed into clothes more suitable for tonight in Baddeck, and reluctantly departed.
from the bridge over the brook in the village.
is available every day of the year from this web camera.
It looks east along the coast to Black Point, with a glimpse beyond of Cape North.
as it falls into the waters of Meat Cove west of Black Point.
seen from the Meat Cove Road.
cannot be completely captured in a single panorama on the iPhone. This one has all I could fit into one shot,
but it lacks the highlands east of Meat Cove Mountain and the waters off Blackrock Point.
It is always so hard to leave Meat Cove! I hope to be back at the end of August, and perhaps earlier,
so farewell until then.
At 13h35, I was on the road. It was such a beautiful day and the scenery so compelling, I had to stop at least a few times for photos, even though I already have many, many duplicates of these amazing vistas. Outside of South Harbour, I turned onto the White Point Road, now signed as the “Cabot Trail Coastal Loop”. While the Cabot Trail over South Mountain is pretty, it can’t hold a candle to the beauty of the White Point Road, which follows the coast from South Harbour to Neils Harbour, passing by White Point and through New Haven. I stopped for photos, of course, at numerous points there and along the way south to Ingonish; though it began to cloud up some south of Neils Harbour, it continued overly warm at +28 (82). The beauty of the Cabot Trail is always varying and always stunning, whether on the west coast in the Chéticamp area or on the east coast in the Ingonish and St Anns Bay areas; what a jewel in Cape Breton’s crown! Construction is ongoing in Indian Brook and in Tarbotvale, where I was delayed in both places. But I made it into Baddeck by 17h30 and got my ticket for the cèilidh tonight (they are often sold out, but high summer is still a bit off), after which I had a light supper at Wong’s: the house salad and their shrimp and vegetables, both excellent; the shrimp dish came with cabbage, carrots, broccoli, green onions, white onions, celery, tiny corn cobs, mushrooms, and lots of completely shelled medium-sized shrimp in a fine sauce: delicious!
How hard it is to leave this majestic beauty!
from the turn-out just east of Black Point Brook. The point at the left is Cape North
but the view reaches around past Bay St Lawrence to the cliffs at Capstick.
The Meat Cove Road surely equals the best the Cabot Trail has to offer!
reaching all the way to Money Point at the right. The triangular mountain is Wilkie Sugar Loaf.
Aspy Bay is to the right of the photo and mostly outside its scope.
at the western boundary of Smelt Brook.
seen from the White Point Road.
which actually has an even better view including the beach at the mouth of Neil's Brook.
No one did: it is from the Cabot Trail along the North River in North River Centre
looking across St Anns Harbour at Kellys Mountain. Murray Point is at the left and Munro Point is at the right
of the gap seen in the centre of the photo.
There was a brief shower while I was eating supper: the sidewalks and the street were wet, but the sun was back out shining bright as I walked back to St Michaels Parish Hall for the cèilidh. The artists tonight were Mike Hall on fiddle and Marion Dewar on real piano; I sat with a good friend and we chatted until the cèilidh got under way. Nancy MacLean runs these cèilidhs and fills the hall every night with great audiences during the summer months and into September; she always ensures that the visitors from away get a good introduction to the music and to the dance, though it’s never the same each night. Tonight, Mike taught the audience to recognize the major genres in Cape Breton music (march, strathspey, reel, and jig) and illustrated them with his playing. A lovely “In Memory of Herbie MacLeod” (Marion was Jerry Holland’s accompanist in his later years) was soon followed by two figures of a square set Baddeck style that Nancy led some volunteers from the audience through, once for practice and one to Mike and Marion’s music. I left at the break in order to get to Brook Village on time for the dance at 21h30, happy to have heard what I had, but sad to have missed the other half. I highly recommend these cèilidhs to everyone: even if you know the music well, you will likely pick up some new piece of information you didn’t have before, and you will for sure enjoy the top-notch players that play for them.
does so much to transmit Cape Breton’s music and culture to thousands of visitors to the island each year.
Her support for the music and musicians is invaluable.
Pastel skies over St Patricks Channel accompanied me to Whycocomagh and I arrived during the sound checks at Brook Village just before the dance started. Tonight was a special event, with dual fiddles and dual keyboards: Andrea Beaton and Shelly Campbell on fiddles and Allan Dewar and Mac Morin on keyboards. All four played for the first square set, except for Allan who was out on the floor listening to the sound quality during part of the first figure; it formed as soon as the music started with two big groups, splitting into three groups for the second figure, and its third figure was danced in two queues by fifteen couples. The hall rapidly filled up, so the second square set was danced by four groups and over twenty couples in its third figure (with two queues, it is hard to get an accurate count, so take these with a grain of salt as my best guess). Over thirty couples danced the third square set. Shelly and Allan played a waltz that brought at least twenty couples out and continued for the fourth square set, with nearly forty couples in its third figure. Andrea and Mac then took over for the fifth square set, with over forty couples in its third figure. All four musicians rejoined and played for the rest of the evening. A waltz brought out eleven couples and was followed with no pause by the sixth square set, danced by about forty couples. The step dance sequence brought out Siobhan Beaton and Hailee LeFort dancing together; Katie MacLeod (I think); Mairi Britton; Emerald Rae (Boston area); Hannah Krebs (I think); Neil MacQuarrie; two young ladies I don’t know and don’t recall seeing before; Cheryl MacQuarrie; Joe Rankin; another young lady I don’t know; John Robert Gillis; Anita MacDonald (I think); Mac Morin, who came down from the stage; Burton MacIntyre; another lady I don’t know; and Andrea and Shelly, both barefoot, step dancing together to keyboard music only. Due to the length of the step dance sequence, the seventh square set began late at 0h54, so they skipped its second figure; it was danced by more than thirty couples, most of whom were very lively young adults in this set. The music was fantastic all night long and with four players brought out the best in each other and in the dancers on the floor. This is not the usual format for a Brook Village dance, but I sure hope it will be repeated again. It was one rollicking evening!
with Allan Dewar and Mac Morin on dual keyboards at the Brook Village dance tonight. Wow! Wow! Wow!
during the the step dance sequence at the Brook Village dance tonight.
On the way back to Whycocomagh, I ran into patchy fog and admired the nearly full moon. It had been a wonderful day, starting in Meat Cove and ending with a superb Brook Village dance. Even though KitchenFest! was over, the music is still going full bore! I was tired, but very happy, as I got into bed at 1h45. Only in Cape Breton!