With our trailer loaded it was time to head out to cape Breton for a new adventure.. and adventure it was!
We left early on a Friday a gorgeous day here at home but by the time we got to the Canso causeway the rain was coming down and the wind was starting to blow
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We headed up towards the Cabot trail not quite sure of our destination for the night. The dark clouds followed us and the rain kept coming down in buckets. It was starting to get late, so we decided to stop over in Inverness area for the night.
We packed up early the next morning grabbed a Tim’s YES we are Canadian 🙂 and headed off again.
We had heard so much about Cape Breton Highlands park, we had though to spend a night here but after checking out the park, it was just too open and too many campers and buses for our liking. The hiking and backpacking is great there but for roof top tenting it is not very private if you like your space as we do! So we pressed on, the scenery was incredibly gorgeous, the winds were howling, although not a cloud to be seen. The were many white caps on the ocean far more than we have ever seen on previous trips up there, it was quite a sight to see.
The skyline trail we have always driving past but since we had time on this trip we decided to do the trail, it is about 10 KMS round trip. The hike is fairly flat and not strenuous at all, when we reached the end of the trail the wind was incredibly strong blowing me right off the boardwalk. It was difficult to stand without being shoved over by the wind! Seems as though this wind and wild weather this weekend is not letting up for us.
Wind Blown On the Skyline Trail
After our hike we headed further up the Cabot Trail and decided to go as far North as we could to Meat Cove, where we had thought of spending the night. The dusty road winding its way around the hills and through the valleys. We finally arrived in Meat Cove, the name apparently derived from the years when hunters used to dress their meat in this cove! 🙂 i would imagine hunting must be good in this area as there is not much of anything other than a campsite and a few homes.
It is really beautiful and there is a little restaurant where we had a crab sandwich which was out of this world divine! So if you are ever in Meat cove eat at the Chowder Hut, they have fabulous food there! It was a much need break from all the driving. We opted out from staying there as the winds coming off the ocean and cliffs were very strong and the area not at all sheltered from the constant wind. But well worth the visit and the food! And so we pressed on back up and down and round that winding dirt road back to the Cabot trail.
Once again we were running out of daylight, so we decided to stop in Ingonish. What a gorgeous beach area! i was in heaven seeing the sandy beaches but not so much in heaven with the constant wind that would not let up!
The next day we headed of towards Englishtown where we spent a night or tried to…. we set up camp and as the day progressed so did that bad weather… later that night we had to pack up the tent and head out as the winds were topping 100km/the gusts even stronger. The rain was torrential. Being close to the ocean did not help us either. Not wanting to risk the roof top tent getting damaged in the high winds. we packed up as best we could in the conditions and set out once again to find somewhere to sleep. We ended up in a motel along the way which in turn had a power outage from the weather! Our luck sure was not improving but we were safe if nothing else.
Went for a walk near our camping spot and found a beautiful bed of moss, i think it is probably the most comfortable “bed” I have ever been on! It was bliss to chill for a bit!
After another weird stormy night we set off once again bright and early to escape the bad storm which was still raging!
The Canso Causeway was closed to all traffic over two meters, i think we just squeaked by .. never the less we traveled across the causeway with great apprehension due to the high winds and rain, waves crashing over the side of the causeway was quite a sight to behold! The jeep and trailer did well but every now and again a huge gust of wind would send us swaying!
That night we set up in near Taylor’s head provincial park, the skies were still grey but the rain had stopped the wind was relentless gusting to over 70 KM/H. Our tent was battened down all windows toggled down and tie downs in place. The tent did amazingly well no problems other than the noise of the fly and the annex room catching the wind. The trailer with the RTT on it rocked and swayed endlessly. But old faithful RTT did her thing and kept us warm and dry 🙂
The next day we were up early again, the air was icy cold but the wind was STILL blowing, it is time to head home…
Breakfast on the frontier stove bacon and eggs of course, my most favorite stove to cook on while camping!! I will not go anywhere without this little stove!
Finally after travelling about 1800 kms we got back home, tired and very wind blown! The trip was an adventure of “lets see how we can conquer the wind today” but not all was lost we saw some beautiful scenery and some really wild weather!
