Nova Scotia & Cape Breton

The great weather we'd been experiencing couldn't hold out forever so we took advantage of a cloudy/rainy day and saw a few sites in Halifax. 

Public Gardens Park in the center of Halifax.  Note the model of Titanic in the center.

The Citadel offered an excellent example of a British Fort and continues to interest visitors.  Parks Canada has done an excellent job with the interpretative aspects of the Citadel.  Considering we were there during peek tourist season, we had the grounds to ourselves.

The fortress was never attached but well prepared to withstand one.

 

Again, we have the place to ourselves

 

A very enthusiastic interpreter

The weather continued cool and raining so we continued to transit going from Halifax to Cape Breton and spent a week exploring the sights of the Cape which included a couple rounds of golf.  The first, Highland Links, is rated one of the top 100 courses in the world (I believe it's #86).  The grounds were beautiful but play was slow as the course allowed for 17 minutes per hole (way too slow).

 

Cape Breton has a road along the perimeter with nothing in the middle as the geography is much too rugged.  It's said that if you make the entire drive around the Cape, it would take about 8 hours to complete.

We hiked to this pond where there was a beach and people enjoying the warm waters

The following pictures are of Mary Ann Falls.  We were fortunate the road was closed for maintenance so we hiked to the falls vice driving. Due to the road being closed, there were just 3 couples who made the hike... Needless to say, we have the falls to ourselves.

Note the young man making the 'big jump' into the waters.





Mary Ann Falls

The view returning from Mary Ann Falls

Since I couldn't decide which picture was best, I added two..  View returning from Mary Ann Falls

 



After a nice long hike, the next day we decided to drive from the south east side of the Cape to the north west side.  The drive took us along the coast and through the Aspe Valley which, again, was a "WOW" drive.  

Neil's Harbor, note how clean the water is.

Neil's Harbor

Bay of St Lawrence, Capstick

 

Bay of St Lawrence along the northern coast of Cape Breton

We drove along the upper ridge of this view

 

 

Lower section of Aspe Valley, just prior to the Bay of St Lawrence

Capstick, a typical fishing village

An overlook along the roadside

It felt like we were in another country...  Oh yeah, we were

 

Returning from the Aspe Valley, Dan noted a bird along the road.  The eagle didn't pay much attention to us and actually appeared curious to see us so close.  The next picture was an amazing sight to see as the eagle took flight...

 

Eagle posing for the camera

Amazing...

That's all for Nova Scotia and Cape Breton.  Stay tuned for Newfoundland.