Day 6: Lake Anslie, CBI ☀️☀️ 20°

Touring The Cabot Trail!

We had a room at a golf course across the lake from where the activities were yesterday. This morning we weren’t in a particular rush, but as breakfast wasn’t provided at the golf course we eventually had to drive into Sydney. AT had found a decent little place online and we had a great breakfast there each for a reasonable $12.95.

Today was a long day as we set off just after 8 o’clock and arrived moments ago at our B&B at 7 PM. The plan for today was to see as many of the fall colours as we could and to get in a walk where we could literally be surrounded by the many colours.

After leaving Sydney, it didn’t take us very long to find some amazing scenery! Just about anywhere we pulled off we were treated to some stunning eye candy.😊

As we drove north up the east side of the Cape, the scenery, and the views continue to impress.

The roads are pretty good and we found only moderate elevation gains. However, others found the driving extremely difficult. We have come to appreciate that many people living out this way are not familiar with the techniques and skills needed to safely navigate sharp corners and steep descents. A number of people were riding their brakes and slowing down to almost a walking pace going around some of the sharper corners. Sometimes it was pretty difficult to watch, and also a tad frustrating.🙁When we arrived at the National Park gate, the attendant told us that she sees this all the time. People drive in to purchase their park pass in tears after coming down some of the hills, and asking if there’s another way to go back. We saw a lot of white knuckles on the roads today. What a terrible way it must be for these drivers to spend a day. In the end, you feel a little sorry for these people.

Our first stop at Cape Breton National Park was Warren Lake. Some months ago I had looked at the park area for potential hiking options using Google Earth maps. The reason I selected this lake was because the trail was long enough to be interesting and there were deciduous trees all the way around. This meant that we would have a really good chance of seeing the colours if we arrived at the right time. And we did!

The walking was easy, but after fighting off a nasty bug these past two weeks it was a real joy to get out and walk in the warm sun. I’m feeling like my usual energy levels are slowly returning. I should be fully recovered just in time to go home!😬

We both revelled in the warmth.

And the colours! We could just reach out and literally touch them. I found a beautiful red maple leaf and wore it on the edge of my front pack strap. It was so noticeable against my black jersey that a woman coming the other way, commented on how beautiful it looked. I think that leaf is coming home with me.🙂

The lake we were walking around, was engulfed in a bowl of color. The colourful trees literally ran from the lakeside all the way up to the tops of the surrounding hills. Perhaps you can see this in some of my images.

In a few spots, the ground was covered with leaves, but for the most part, we noticed that the leaves were still on the trees. I think they will likely stay there until the first series of heavy rains and high winds hit the Cape. We commented regularly about how fortunate we are to be here at exactly the perfect time to see these colours.

After making our way around the lake, we stopped at one of the picnic tables for a little bit of fruit and bread that we have been carrying with us. However, it was after 2 PM and we still had a long way to go to get up over the top of the Cape and back down the west side.

As we came across the top of the Cape, the cloud began to drift in high above, and suddenly we lost our sunshine. I guess this was good in one sense as there wasn’t a compelling need to stop and look at the scenery. With the sunlight gone, the colours became muted. I can assure you that had the sun remained out, we would’ve stopped many times, and this would have caused us to be very late arriving at our accommodation tonight!

I also wanted to note that we were able to see Newfoundland off in the distance as we approached the north end of the Cape.

Knowing that we were running quite late, we began looking online (when we had cell coverage) in an effort to find a restaurant up ahead. It turned out that the restaurant that looked most favourable had a Celtic Colours event happening there this evening. So we started looking for the first decent place we could find. We found what turned out to be a local greasy spoon. We shared a plate of fish and chips, and they were pretty darn good! It became clear to us that a lot of local families come here to eat on a regular basis. There was a smattering of travellers as well, but most of the people appeared to be local.

When we finally left, it was beginning to darken, and we still had an hour to drive to our accommodation. The good news was that everyone was pretty much off the roads having their own dinner. So we made pretty good time zipping along a part of the Cape that reminded us both of some of our driving adventures in Ireland. Clearly much of the population on the Cape live along the west side. There are comparatively fewer people living on the east side north of Sydney.

At one point, we turned onto a gravel road which seemed a bit odd. However, there was some traffic on it and clearly sufficient residences along the way to make it seem as though it just never got paved. It was at that point that we witnessed a quite beautiful sunset directly in front of us. I took out my phone and snapped a picture through the front screen as we drove along. The sunset got better, but this was the best I could do in the moment.

After eventually arriving, we drove a kilometre down a very narrow gravel road where we found our accommodation for the night. It seems pretty nice and breakfast will be provided in the morning.

All in, not a bad day! There are other hikes here that we had planned to do, but it seems that some of them are so popular that if the parking lot is full, you are not permitted to stop. In the morning we will decide a plan for the next couple of days and try to line up a couple of places to stay.

I’d particularly like to say ‘hi’ to Carol’s mum today. I’m delighted to hear that you are recovering well, and I understand that as usual you are following my blog in spite of my disjointed musings. I thought you might enjoy this last image because I suspect that my own mom would have enjoyed it too.🥰

That’s it for today. Tomorrow’s plan will come clear at some point. Hopefully we get a bit more sun, though it looks like mostly clouds for the next few days.

Cheers!

Geoff🍁🍁🍁🍁