Nova Scotia, Canada

Our Route within Canada in bright green
Lobster ready to cook

It's a hard life

Mother & daughter on the Cabot Trail (see road below us)

The Cabot Trail ahead of us

Beautiful scenery around every bend

A significant highlight of our trip has been to catch up with my daughter Kim who has been living here in Antigonish, Nova Scotia for the past 18 months. On our first night here, she took us to have dinner with good friends she has made here - John, Suzanne, Emily & Katie treated us to a typical lobster meal - 2 freshly cooked lobsters each served au naturel (melted butter on the side) with home made potato and spinach salads. Those who preferred not to have lobster were served a gigantic filet mignon, cooked to perfection! Delicious!

Next morning we drove the RV over to Cape Breton Island to spend the next two nights on the 185 mile (298 km) Cabot Trail. Despite warnings of rain and cold, we had the most glorious weather and were able to have campfires both nights. We stopped at local eateries for morning tea and lunch on most days, merely to experience the cuisine. For dinner the first night we called into a lobster shack and purchased a 2lb lobster (still alive) and then had to come up with a way to cook it as I had no pot big enough. Murray quickly found a chap who didn't just settle for lending the pot to us, but actually cooked it for us too! After it was cooked, and almost being an expert at extricating the lobster meat, I added the meat to a pot of seafood chowder. Voila, lobster chowder to go with garlic bread. We had it sitting by the fire overlooking a bay that you can see in the photo of Murray with the lobster, and Murray & Kim by the fire. Black bears were in the area last week, so we made sure we secured our rubbish overnight.

Next day the road wound up into the heights of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. Absolutely breathtaking scenery. It seemed that lobster buoys dotted almost the whole length of the coastline - we often pulled into a rest bay and watched the lobstermen working their pots. We had our eyes peeled for wildlife, and finally saw a young moose on the side of the road. However, by the time Murray slowed the RV down, and Kim & I got our cameras focussed, it had darted into the bush. Murray took after it with the camera, but the moose was faster! Oh well, our dismay was shortlived as we soon pulled into the 'Rusty Anchor' for lunch, and we got to see some whales out in the bay. They were in the distance, and they were small, but the binoculars did help to bring them closer.

It seemed no time at all before we were back in Antigonish. We dropped Kim off at her place and returned to our campground. A few hours later, Kim arrived for her last meal with us. She has now said her goodbyes, and we wonder where we will meet again - she starts work at the University of Copenhagen in November...hmmm, that sounds like a great place to see her next!