The Cabot Trail, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia

Wednesday, July 20

Okay, so last night we had the perfect campground, our own lighthouse with no one else, human or animal in sight. But tonight, we are literally in heaven on earth. Tonight I’m sitting here on the edge of a cliff with the ocean waves lapping lazily at the shore below me while I watch sea birds glide gracefully through the air and then suddenly arrow straight down to skewer a fish. In the background are a few fishing boats, and about two coves down I can see a white waterfall pour down onto the rocky beach. There are a few people around me, their colorful tents clinging to the edge of the cliff, but no more than four or five, and they are far enough away that I wouldn’t know they were there if it wasn’t for their colorful igloo shapes. I’m hoping to see some whales, as we were told that they sometimes come into the cove. And, yes, I am watching the water while I type, because Helen Risley taught me to type without looking at the keys!

Where are we, you ask. We are in Meat Cove, the “town” of 100 or so souls at the most northern part of Cape Breton Island, looking out on the quiet Bay of St. Lawrence. It is so peaceful here that I’ve already requested another night’s stay. Maybe I”ll never leave!

Last night Bob was cooking lobster, and tonight he’s cooking snow crab legs! Yum! They were swimming in the ocean this morning, so they are very fresh. We found out where to buy them because Bob went into the local Legion and asked! The bartender said, “ Go over to the end of the wharf and ask for Junior.” So we did, but the wharf was huge and extremely busy, so we didn’t find Junior at first. The crab boats had come in and were unloading their catch, men were taking bins full of the crabs and putting them on waiting trucks, and further down the wharf others were loading labeled boxes of crabs on trucks. When we did find Junior, we told him we needed enough crabs for two people. He went to a bin, pulled out five squirming red, ugly crabs, and charged us four dollars apiece for them. Of course, Junior weighed over 300 pounds, so his meals must be a lot bigger than ours. I ate one crab and Bob ate two, and we cooked the last two and took the meat out to refrigerate it until tomorrow.

Yesterday I was wondering what the lobstermen did after working for just two months of the year. Today I found out that the typical lobsterman will earn about $50,000 in those two months, so it seems he wouldn’t have to do much more the other ten months if he didn’t want to. Once lobster season is over, if he isn’t fishing for snowcrabs, he will probably fish for mackeral and herring to use as bait for his next year’s lobster season. The fish are frozen until next year. Then, he is able to draw unemployment from October through May.

The typical crab fisherman can gross over $200,000 in the short crab season. They are actually given a limit to the number of crabs they can catch, and most of the fishermen reach their limit in two WEEKS! Each crab fishermen’s license allows them to have 24 nets, and they can get up to 44,000 crabs per season with the license. Some of them have more than one license, even though the licenses are extremely expensive and difficult to get. For both lobstering and crabbing, an expensive license is needed, and there are only a few crab licenses available in each community. When a fisherman wants to retire, he either gives his license to a relative, or sells it, and that becomes his old-age pension. The only way to get a crab license is to inherit or buy it from an established fisherman. Some of the licenses have been sold for $1 million dollars!

The crabs weighed 1 1/2 to 2 pounds each and were selling for $3.25 a pound. That’s a lot of money for such a short season, but of course, the license holder also has to pay his helpers, probably 4-6 other men. This is the inland crab season, which means that the fisherman have to fish within 20 miles of the shore. Later on, there will be an offshore season where they have to be over 20 miles to get the crabs. Many of the crab fishermen have licenses for both seasons.

Prior to all this, we had a wonderful time visiting “friends of a friend” for several hours. Bob and Jan Garatt Wheeler are Americans who have lived in Nova Scotia since about 1969. Jan actually graduated from Candor High School in 1954! They moved to Nova Scotia because they wanted land along the shore, and that was the cheapest land they could get - $300 for 25 acres! Bob worked as a high school math and science teacher, and during the summers he built a house on their acreage. When he finally got it built, his daughters were grown, so they decided to run it as a B&B to help with college expenses. Since them, he has built 3 rental cottages on the property. He has done all the work on the beautiful buildings himself! He is now in his mid 70s and building his “last one.” They all hug the cliff and have beautiful views of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and are far enough away from each other so that each guest has privacy. They were almost as beautiful as our campsite :)

Thursday, July 21

It’s been another awesome day! When we woke up, it was as if the sea goddess had flung billions of diamonds onto the sea because it was glittering so much!

We went on a whale watch to see pilot whales and seals along the coast. As is everyone around here, the crew was super friendly and knowledgable. We got to see 40-50 whales and about 100 seals. The captain had some kind of device underwater that allowed us to hear the whales as they fed on squid under water.

Then we went back to Cheticamp and I toured the Rug Hooking Museum. This old craft is practiced here by many of the women who make a lot of money from selling their rugs. Most of the rugs in the museum looked like beautiful paintings, they were so well done. The “hookers” actually employ 3 women to dye the yarn in hundreds of colors so that they can get all the shades they will need to make things look realistic. There were two rugs in there, each about 4 feet by 12 feet, one made for the US bicentennial, and one for some similar Canadian celebration. It took 7 miles of yarn for each one and 6 months to complete each!

Then we went back to the dock to get our supper and we had to wait for the boat to come in. That was wonderful because we then saw the process of off-loading thousands of crabs! The boat had 6 storage compartments, about 2 1/2 feet wide, 3 feet long, and 3 feet deep. The workers would open a compartment which was packed as tightly as could be with the crabs and some ice. The men would reach in and crab a handful of the crabs, each weighing about 2 pounds, and drop them in a plastic bin. As the bin got emptier, they crawled in to scoop up the crabs. The bins were passed to another guy would would stack them four high, but some clamps on them, and then help guide them as they were lifted out of the boat by a small crane. Then another man disconnected the clamps and put them on a scale, then onto a pallet. Yet another worker came with a small fork lift and moved them to the back of a waiting truck where they were again packed in ice before being hauled to the processing plant which was located very nearby. It took about 30 minutes to get 25,000 pounds of crabs off the truck and hauled away. Then the workers hosed out the compartments and filled some of them with the mackeral they would use for bait the next day. We bought four crabs right off the boat before they went onto the truck and had them for dinner! Bob has decided that that is his new favorite food!

Then it was back to meat Cove for another night of viewing the scenic ocean and talking with all of the friendly people at the campground!

Friday, July 22

We again woke to a glorious morning by the sea, and took our time getting ready to leave as we just love this place so much. Finally we got back on the road and wandered past several small seaside communities, stopping to eat the most delicious seafood chowder in one of them.

Then it was on to the Gaelic College in St. Ann’s which for some reason had closed early today, so we drove around Bras d’Or Lake for awhile, and are now camped here for the night. We both miss the tiny fishing villages and open sea of the Highland area, but will soon see similar sights in Newfoundland, I’m sure. Tomorrow we’re going on a boat tour to see puffins, and then to a miner’s museum. Early Sunday morning we are taking the ferry to Newfoundland where we’ll stay for a couple of weeks.

Saturday, July 23

Our boat tour to Bird Island was great. We saw about 50 bald eagles, puffins and their cousins, the black guillmots, blue herons, several types of gulls, and many, many seals. The puffins and their cousins were mostly hanging out in the water because they were scared of the bald eagles. This way if a bald eagle comes after them, they can dive down in the water and swim, because nothing can keep up with them when they are in the water.

Then we went to Glace Bay, NS, where we were treated to a great tour of an old coal mine by a retired miner. His stories brought the hard life of the miners to life! He actually worked in the mines when there were better conditions, but he was telling us stories about mining in the early 1900s when boys as young as 9 or 10 started working in the mines. Their job was to lead the horses who were pulling the loads of coal out of the mines, or to open some doors that controlled airflow when the miners needed to pass by that place. Of course their only light was a small candle or oil lamp for many years until they got battery operated lamps. The horses were specially trained to work in the mines and lived in the mines, getting about 1 week a year off. Since they lived underground, they became blind, but they were better cared for than the miners. We put on hard hats and capes over our clothes because it was pretty dirty under there, and most of the mine was 5 feet or less in height, so even I had to bend over. Poor Bob was bent practically in two as he went through the tunnels! It was a good tour, though, and we certainly felt sorry for anyone who had had to work there! There is no mining done on Cape Breton Island anymore, however, as it became to expensive. They could buy coal from Pennsylvania cheaper!

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