I arose a few minutes before 8h to yet another lovely sunny, blue sky day; a coolish breeze kept the +21 (70) from feeling over warm. What a lovely string of beautiful days we have had! The clear air is great for photography!
I lolled about the motel room reading and then went off to Jane’s in Little Bras d’Or for breakfast. Afterwards, I drove out the Point Aconi Road and noticed some lovely views I didn’t remember from the last time I drove the road more years ago than it should have been. The lighthouse and adjacent buildings seen in the photo on this page were destroyed by fire some years ago and replaced by an automated light, so the point looked quite different from what I remembered. It is a gorgeous spot with a 360° panorama and with today’s clear air, I spent a long time photographing with “Big Bertha” the coast east towards Glace Bay and west towards Kellys Mountain and then the whole shore from St Anns Bay to Cape Smokey. It is one marvellous set of views! I could have easily and contentedly sat there all afternoon.
¹ Posted on Thursday, 29 June, for Friday, 23 June. I have again added a few photos not posted on Facebook.↩
Lots of beautiful sights and features from this place. Where am I?
Correctly answered by Michael MacKenzie Little: Point Aconi. What a view! From Cape Smokey to St Anns Bay
to Kellys Mountain to the Great Bras d’Or Channel to Point Aconi. The Bird Islands are even in there.
With “Big Bertha” I can see the vehicles climbing up Cape Smokey!
Destroyed a few years back by a fire, it has been replaced by…
on the automated light at Cape St Lawrence!
I later learned that it was laying cable for the Maritime Link project
bringing hydroelectric power from the Muskrat Falls generating station in Labrador to Nova Scotia and beyond.
being serviced by the lobster boat off the stern of the larger ship.
A similar shape occurs at the end of one of the Bird Islands.
to renewable energy (several wind turbines can be seen at the left).
I then drove into North Sydney, stopping for photos at those spots I had noticed on the way out to Point Aconi, in search of a lanyard for my iPhone I could use to patch the one that broke; Walmart had none, but sent me to the Dollarama, which had a very meagre selection from which I chose one to serve until I get home and can get a proper one. On the way there, I found a great view of Pottle Lake, which plays a major rôle in supplying drinking water to the Sydney urban area, off Exit 2 on the 125, so I went back to photograph it and then continued on Johnson Road to its end and back into Little Bras d’Or. I briefly took the Trans-Canada Highway and turned left onto the Hillside Boularderie Road and followed it to the Groves Point Provincial Park, where I had a picnic lunch of the third lobster my friend in Meat Cove gave me (kept refrigerated since then), chips, lettuce, and strawberries, finishing off the last of the car food. Just as I finished, a swarm of black flies arrived, so I hastily sought the protection of the car. I then drove on to the St James Road, which I took back to the Trans-Canada Highway and drove to Whycocomagh. I found the Whycocomagh Port Hood Road freshly gravelled from Highway 252 to Ferguson Road, smooth and pleasant to drive now. I took the Glencoe Road and the Upper Southwest Mabou Road to Port Hood, where I got my motel room for the next three days. It was +26 (79) in Whycocomagh and +25 (77) in Port Hood, but felt really warm, perhaps because my left arm got sunburnt on the way.
across the road from the Point Aconi Harbour Authority wharf.
Allan Bonnar answered the second part of this correctly: Alder Point;
after several tries, Gloria Burke MacDonald answered the first part correctly: the Little Bras d’Or Channel.
This view is from near the Point Aconi Harbour Authority wharf.
seen from Exit 2 off the 125.
No one identified this one: it is a view to the southwest along Pottle Lake; the Boisdale Hills are in the distance
at the right, with Mt Cameron the high point centre right.
what are the two features at the left, the water, and the land at the right?
No one identified any of the features in this view across St Andrews Channel from the Groves Point Provincial Park.
The two features at the left are Georges River and Mt Cameron, with Long Island in the centre;
the water is the St Andrews Channel (the Washabuck Peninsula can be seen at the far end of the Channel),
and the land at the right is Boularderie Island.
I worked on Tuesday’s post in my motel room and then drove to the Red Shoe for dinner and the evening’s music, featuring Rachel Davis on fiddle and Mac Morin on piano. Friends offered me a seat at their table and we had a good chat before the music started. A visitor from Nebraska who had found my web site came over and introduced himself to me. It was mainly a non-local crowd and many left about 22h; you’d have needed a team of horses to drag me away from the driving playing on fiddle and the superb piano accompaniment! Burton MacIntyre step danced and Mac gave us two piano solos during the evening. I picked up a copy of the new Còig CD, Rove, from Rachel, a member of that group.
After the music ended, I chatted with a friend and met one of his friends. When I left after a half hour, I was surprised to find a steady rain outside and got a bit wet on the way to the car. As I left Mabou, the rain got harder but had lightened considerably by the time I reached Port Hood. I was in bed by 1h.