Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

 So, let’s see, where was I? When, after a calm crossing from Newfoundland, I arrived at the Spanish Bay Inn right by the waterfront in Sydney I had thought that the next day,on  Wednesday, I would go around the Cabot Trail once again. Instead I decided to stay closer to Sydney and pay a return visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg, a National Historic Site that I had been to during one of my first Retirement Rides. 

But first I rode to Glace Bay to see the Marconi Historic Site at Table Head where, on December 15, 1902 Marconi sent the first west to east trans-Atlantic wireless message from the station he had built there to Poldu Cornwall. Here is a picture of a model of the huge antenna that was erected at this site  

and a vue east from the site

From there I rode the shore route to Louisbourg stopping briefly at Port Morien to watch some of the lobster catch being unloaded from the boats that had gone out to check their traps that morning. It takes them but minutes to move the big crates of lobsters from the boats to the scales where they are weighed and into truck trailers that are waiting to take the catch to whatever processing facility they supply. 

At Fort Louisbourg 

I attended a demonstration of the firing of guns.

and watched the public humiliation of a voleur and traitor that children and adults in period costumes, and visitors who had been asked to participate in this display of justice being applied, yelled at after the charges against him where repeatedly read many times by an official looking official. The convicted criminal was paraded down the Fortress’ streets to a prominent place where his hands were bound in chains and an iron collar was locked around his neck; there to serve his sentence. That is, until the crowd  having shifted its allegiance from prosecutor to prosecuted, called for the poor victims release. Mercifully for all, the official, understanding the mood of the crowd and not wanting to have to deal with the mutiny that might well have ensued had he not acted as wisely, granted the reprieve. But not before a stern warning that he should not offend again and three loud cheers of Vive le Roy!

After all that excitement I went to see the Louisbourg lighthouse. 

After dinner, and an ice cream cone Tuesday I went for a walk along the Sydney waterfront to the cruise ship terminal building and came upon the 17 mettre, 8 tonne steel Big Fiddle, a tribute to the role that fiddlers and their music have played in the cultural heritage of Cape Breton. 

The weather was perfect on Thursday for the long ride from Sydney to the Marshlands Inn in Sackville, New Brunswick. I only stopped briefly to get some gas after having crossed the Canso Strait that connects Cape Breton to the rest of zNova Scotia. There I met Kathy from New Brunswick with her remarkably well-maintained and much-loved 1974-75 BMW motorcycle. As the first motorcycle I owned was a 1972 75/5 there was much we could chat about. One thing we easily agreed to was that BMW motorcycles were the best and they were meant to, and could, be ridden for a long time. 

Marshlands Inn in Sackville:

Canso Strait:

Tomorrow’s ride is to Campbelton, my last stop before crossing into the Gaspé Peninsula, the homeland of my ancestors.