Day 61 Fri-Sydney Harbour Views!

Actually feel so, so run down today…so after hitting the Hwy..I actually had a Kip in the car..I try not to do that…

Today we headed for Cape Breton Island…it’s been a pretty boring trip all up…the scenery has been very boring…we did see a beaver home in a waterhole…shame I didn’t have time to just sit and watch that little beaver…but we didn’t…The Canso Causeway!
Coming into the island was across a massive causeway…

(The Canso Causeway (Cabhsair Chanso in Gaelic) is a 1,385 m (4,544 ft) rock-fill causeway in Nova Scotia, Canada. The causeway crosses the Strait of Canso, connecting Cape Breton Island by road to the Nova Scotia peninsula. Its crest thickness is 40 m (130 ft), carrying the two vehicle traffic lanes of the Trans-Canada Highway, Nova Scotia Highway 104 on the mainland side, and Nova Scotia Highway 105 on the Cape Breton side, as well as the single track mainline of the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway.

Constructed in an "S" shape, the causeway has a base width of 244 m (801 ft) in waters having a maximum depth of 65 m (213 ft).

Cape Breton Island remains circumnavigable as a result of the 24 m (79 ft) wide and 570 m (1,870 ft) long Canso Canal, which is located at the eastern end of the causeway to allow ship traffic to transit the Strait of Canso. The 94 m (308 ft) Canso Canal Bridge is a swing bridge which carries the road and railway line across the canal.

The word "Canso" is believed to be derived from the Mi'kmaq word kamsok, which means "opposite the lofty cliffs."

On July 2, 2014, it was announced that the Government of Canada would transfer ownership of the causeway to the Nova Scotia provincial government. The federal government will still maintain the Canso Canal and the navigational locks.)

Once across we stopped at the tourist info centre and wandered through the Scottish gift shop….very Scottish Nova Scotia …which as Jess guessed means New Scotland…so town names, and street names all very Scottish…
While in the info centre the bridge towards the end of the massive causeway must have opened or spun around…it must be on a rotating turn table…anyway we missed seeing it happen,..but the traffic was banked up for ks we must have just missed it…how fortunate was that…these poor buggars had a good 15-2o min wait fir the bridge section to reopen…shame not to see it in action though…

We had a pic sent to us from Tim and Jess that they were in Queensland…🤪😂 it’s a place near where they stayed at Hubbard yesterday…and we ended up in Sydney for lunch.. at The Governors Pub and Eatery…..good views over the harbour below in Sydney…food so, so….after lunch we drive down to the harbour seeing a massive Fiddle….nothing like Sydney views ha ha ha….we really couldn’t pretend they are certainly 2 very different cities that’s for sure…but both do have a harbour….

Then off we headed to our home for the night at the Ceilidh Country Lodge in Baddeck…nothing special…no microwave but bonus a bigger fridge with a good size freezer…

The island so far hasn’t really got anything outstanding with sights…but maybe tomorrow will prove me wrong… yesterdays views were outstanding hard to beat I think…

We finished off our day with Dinner at a swanky restaurant Jess had picked for dinner…everyone enjoyed their meal…well nearly everyone….I had the soup like I had the soup for lunch…I have come to the conclusion that Canadians just don’t know his to make soup…for a country that has so much cold you would think they would have a soup meals down pat….I can honestly say I have had one, yes one truly amazing soup meal…and that was at a little diner in the middle of nowhere…the rest have been quite tasteless devoid of flavour…disappointing to be honest….I know we have been eating out 96% of the time…and haven’t tried a real home cooked soup…but the diners, restaurants , pubs just seem to push out tasteless grub without thought to flavour…😩😩😩 can’t wait to get home and make a good soup….

The restaurant we had dinner at was an old manor house…with lots of accommodation it was very much in the style of the old days in a movie where everyone sat in the parlour or front porch reading and sipping sherry ….the service was very good as it has been just about everywhere we go..,only a few places where staff should never have gotten out of bed….White linen table cloths and napkins..very quite atmosphere that I think us Aussie broke….we even had a little dessert tonight which is a total rarity…I didn’t eat all my soup being not very that tasty and the biscuit thing they put with it was sweet, crumbly and just horrible to eat so didn’t have that either…so I had room for a few mouth fulls of a chocolate dessert thing….Anyway it was meal, gave me nourishment I think 🤔….

Back to the motel where it looks like a huge wedding party are also staying…very active this arvo…so many of them…it’s been quite overcast today, hopefully for their wedding our for Jess it’s sunny tomorrow…. She wants to go on the World renown Cabot Trail tomorrow afternoon to see the sun setting as we walk on it…she must have seen a picture depicting this scene and I am sure she us a romantic at heart…so the plan is to do the long boardwalk later tomorrow to catch the sunset…I’ll be honest I hope we get it we have only seen a few good sunsets this whole trip…nothing like you guys have been getting at home…Read more