Day 63 Sun-Puffin Sea Adventure

What a shame we can’t stay longer here…lovely room other than I keep banging my head against the sloped ceiling…up early to get blog done but the net is so, bad…we have no phone reception at all…only the net which is the worst wifi we have had nearly the whole trip…
Try as I might after I had finished I couldn’t send it so lucky I can keep it for when we get good wifi…which looks much better at the Talisman Lodge near Baddeck….

We had brekky again at this motel…the lovely owner went out of his way to make sure you had everything you needed…

He was telling John about the Lobster season onl,y lasts from about April to a June…then they do the crabbing…… most fishermen have filled their quoters and are only 2 weeks into the season…we are still learn how they survive fir the rest of the year with only those few months of work.. We asked him about the closed down motels…he was saying a lot if motels have been bought out by fishing industries to put up their workers…the huge motel we saw yesterday shit down near the Whale Interruptive Centre was originally owned by a young 35 yr old who won 14 Million he had his mother running it and when Covid hit he shut up shop and has since just worked away from it…so sad…it’s a massive Complex…that’s just going to rot to the ground if not salvaged……he hasn’t put it up for sale he just left it and walked…😢😢😢

Anyway we thanked our motel owner and headed out to kill some time before we went onto the Puffin Boat Cruise Jess has organised….before we left Cheticamp we started to drive around but then parked up to look at a boardwalk along the habour and inlet along Cheticamp…it was peaceful and interesting just wondering along the great wide boardwalk…seeing an old light house…information boards about the old town being originally a harbour to transport out Gypsum from the mine near by…and about all the disasters that lead them eventually shutting down the old mine…it was a sad tale indeed,.,

Also as we walked along we saw heaps of lodging places right in the waterfront that edge the boardwalk….only issue many of the areas had rotten piers I front if their lodgings which made them look a but 2nd rate even though they were probably getting big money for them.,,

Next stop was the massive Saint Pierre Cathedral..it was huge and fortunate open so I could leak into it…nearly as lovely as the one I was in last week…just amazes me these massive structures that take so much upkeep in tiny villages like this one…I know they were bigger communities years ago,,,but now they would have very few going to them unless everyone in the village is Catholic..,😂🤔😁…..

(Built in 1893, St-Pierre's Church majestically watches over the Acadian community of Chéticamp. An imposing 212 feet long, 74 feet wide and with a steeple rising to 167 feet, St-Pierre's lavish Baroque interior and original Casavant organ make it one of the most ornately beautiful churches in the Maritimes. At the time of the construction, Chéticamp was a very poor parish. Under the resourceful leadership of Father Fiset and the devotion of his parishioners, the community was able to come together to achieve what seemed impossible. Much of the work and materials were donated. Parishioners all gave one day a month of labour. Stones, quarried from nearby Chéticamp Island, were hauled across the frozen harbour by horse-drawn sleds in the winter and lumber was donated from the land of community members. Father Fiset's wise direction not only contributed to the construction of this glorious church, he also worked tirelessly to improve the lives of the Acadian people of Chéticamp. Father Fiset is entombed in St-Pierre as an eternal testament of the community's love and gratitude.)

(Chéticamp was a fishing station used during the summer months by Charles Robin, a merchant from the island of Jersey, and is considered one of the Acadian capitals of the world. In the years following the Great Expulsion, many Acadians came to this area. The first permanent settlers following that era were the families of Pierre Bois and Joseph Richard, who arrived in 1782, although both brothers John and Paul Chiasson along with many other French settlers like the AuCoin family were believed to have predated Bois, Richard and Robin by over 100 years. Chiasson is looked at today[by whom?] as the oldest family name on record in the town. Many of the original family names still reside in and around the small town. They, like all the original founding family names of Chéticamp, can be found chiseled in stone in the town still to this day. Settlement was formally established in 1785 by a grant of land to the 14 original settlers. Today Chéticamp, which is at the entrance of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, is a popular tourist spot.)

(The gypsum in the mountain behind Chéticamp village was originally discovered by M.W. Grandin, a New Glasgow prospector, in 1897. This discovery excited the poor village, whose inhabitants were primarily dependent on fisheries for their livelihood. By 1907, the Great Northern Mining Company was formed and the village parish priest, Rev. Pierre Fiset, was made president. Mining machinery and a 5,000-ton ship were purchased and the mine became operational by 1908.
“When they first built it, they were hauling gypsum to the harbour by horse and buggy, so carriage,” said Aucoin. “Then they got a steam locomotive and built the track.”
By 1911, a railroad track connecting the Gypsum Mine to the port of Chéticamp had been completed and a locomotive, La Vielle Louise, was shipping gypsum the four km distance to the coast.
After several changes of ownership, the mine was eventually sold to the National Gypsum Company in 1936. It continued to operate until 1939 when the transport ships and workers were needed for the war effort during the Second World War.
After that, the site sat abandoned for about 70 years. The mine pit filled with water and Mother Nature gradually reclaimed the land. The Gypsum Mine in Chéticamp, seen here in this photo dated late 1920s to early 1930s, operated from 1908 to 1939. CONTRIBUTED/Gypsum Mine Trail committee )

On we went up the road to another tiny village Margery Harbour……it had a couple of lighthouses in odd spots…a lovely old church and some abandoned properties…but looked very tranquil in its setting.,.also had an amazing scene along the coast of craggy massive rocks….

From here we had to do a quick trip to Englishtown where we are to meet Tim and Jess for lunch…only issue is Englishtown isn’t actually a town…all it has is a harbour and a Ferry that takes people across to the Cabot Trail…so Tim sent us a msg that fortunately it managed to sneak through the atmosphere to tell us to meet them back up the Hwy at a restaurant on the turnoff to the Cabot trail…so off we speed got there only to discover it wasn’t opened…so plan C to heard back up the Hwy to Baddeck…. Which we did then had heaps off issues finding somewhere to get a takeaway…we were in a time limit to get back for our Puffin Cruise..l
After driving all over Baddeck looking for Tim as we thought he was behind us but he wasn’t…John had wring car wrong person and we spent good time driving around looking for the wrong ones…finally we found a little cafe that could make us a Club Chicken Bagel and I asked if they had hot chips…well we have chips with salsa…🤔🤔🤔🤔 I thought for a minute went ok that’s great… add that to the bagel…I went to the loo and as I came out could see big bags of corn chips….🤔🤔🤔🤔 that’s when it dawned on me I had ordered Corn Chips…they call hot chips fries here and I was tired and not in the ball ohh well that’s they way it goes in another country…life has to change quickly with our normal expectations because they aren’t what we think they will be.,,we had food we didn’t care.l,and it was a very tasty bagel in fact one if the tastiest means we have had….. and by late arvo those Corn chips tasted amazing 💓😁😁!

So back we dove again up this road we had now done 3 times in last couple of days… dry unusual on the trio to do any back tracking,,,and by the time we finished we were taking off on it one more time..,

We lined up at the only spot in this town the harbour…an older, much older couple are running theses tours…I would say for many years now….by the time we were all seated in very tight seating the boat still had more coming on board…they had and looks like do over book each trip…so a heap had to sit out the back…it was a very hot day yesterday so I can only imagine it would have been hard to take out the back…I was sitting next to a window and I was cooking with the sun coming down in me… the boat was an oldie, and the seats were like the old style school busses…straight up and down but with less room than a plane seat to move the legs around..it certainly wasn’t the most relaxing but we managed….

Off we set with the craggy coastline on our right…we had spoken to a couple of ladies just before we went getting off the more ing cruise and they suggested we sit on the right side of the boat…

It took about 45 mins to get out to the Rocky Outcrops of Bird 🦅 Island’s…straight up we got to see these little puffin birds popping out if their hidey holes….then more and more and more

(1. Nicknamed “sea parrots” – and sometimes “clowns of the sea“! – Atlantic puffins have black and white feathers and a large parrot-like beak. They are small seabirds measuring around 25cm in length.
2. Puffins spend most of their lives out at sea, resting on the waves when not swimming. Their range spans the eastern coast of Canada and the United States to the western coast of Europe.
3. A puffin’s beak (or bill) changes colour during the year. In winter, the beak has a dull grey colour, but in spring it blooms with an outrageous orange! It’s thought that the bright colour helps puffins assess potential mates.
4. Puffins are carnivores and live off small fish such as herring, hake and sand eels.
5. Puffins are fab flyers, flapping their wings up to 400 times a minute and speeding through the air at up to 88km an hour. Wow!
6. What’s more, these brilliant birds are great swimmers, too! Using their webbed feet as a rudder, puffins can dive down 60m under water in search of their favourite fish.
7. In spring and summer, thousands of puffins gather in colonies on the coasts and islands of the North Atlantic Ocean to breed. They usually pair up with the same partner as previous years – some may have been together for 20 years!
8. When starting a puffin family, our feathered friends dig out a burrow using their sharp claws and beak, usually in a grassy bank or rocky crevice. At the back of their burrow home, they build a nest lined with feathers and grass where the female lays her egg. Both parents take it in turn to incubate the egg for the next 36-45 days before the baby “puffling” hatches!
9. In the wild, these winged wonders live for around 20 years. Their main predators are hungry gulls, which can snatch puffins mid-flight or swoop down and scoop their tasty treat from the ground – so they need to keep alert!
10. Although puffins are not classed as an endangered species, populations in some places are in decline. The main threats are overfishing, which can lead to a shortage of food for puffins, and pollution – particularly oil spills. Not only does the oil make these beautiful birds sick, it destroys their waterproof feathers, essential for their survival.)

My goodness watching theses little creatures fly was so entertaining with their little wings flapping so fast but they just didn’t look long enough to sustain themselves…but they do…

Our entertainment didn’t stop with just puffins…there were RazorBill’s, Black Guillemot’s, Black Legged Kittiwakes, Herring Gulls, Great Black Backed Gulls, Double Crested Cormorants, Great Cormorant’s, Great Blue Herons, Common Loons and to top it off with heaps of Bald Eagles…it truly was a bird watches paradise…and a couple on board had their massive bird lenses on their cameras…You truly needed that to see the details on the birds…and see the bald Eagles hiding under big over hangs that protected them but made it had to actually see them easily…

Then to a final too off heals and heaps of seals…the most unusual colours…some looked like Dalmatian dogs with their b,suck and white spotty affected fur…in the beginning just like with the puffers there were only a few….but after a while it seemed like the word got out and they just started streaming out bobbing in the water and sunning themselves on the rocks…I was as fascinated with the Rocky outcrops as the animals….it was so interesting,,.even got to see 2 faces on the end of the Rocky outcrops…funny she never mentioned this to the big group…the Judy had heals of great info…but I could just tell it was a job without a passion for them both…they looked like it may have been once but now just about the money…Tim worked out they would make $5,000 ea trip and they do 2 a day…but as I said to him you have to take into account once the cold come that little boat wouldn’t go anywhere with the ocean freezing around theses parts…
Even though I could see the lady’s lose if passion it was still an unreal tour seeing so much wildlife all together in one spot….. my only disappointment was I had hoped to see a whale…but as Jess said it’s a Puffin Tour Rell…and there was no mention of the occasional whale sighting on any if the media advertising….ohh well for another day I guess…it was still worth going on…

We drove back over what seemed very familiar now our 4th trip on this Hwy…to our home fir the night the Talisman Lodge….over looking a huge lake which we now know is actually an inlet from the ocean…as we arrived there were about 50 or more Canadian Geese…..they were eating…next thing we see them having a swim and then they were gone…

This place had a chicken diner and it was highly recommended with their crispy chicken…they had special of a pound of wings and a beer for $13.99 which we thought that’s perfect fir us plus a fresh salad….Looks like every other person from the motel plus around the trails thought the same thing and the staff were under the pump big time…people ordering constantly…you could tell they were over whelmed nit expecting the sheer volume to come in and virtually all around the same time around 7pm.,,Tim and Jess had used their brains and had dinner in Baddeck much better plan than trying for this…it took much longer than they said to get out meal…which once we got it was really good..yep great crispy chicken and a really good fresh salad…it is an Indian nit native other running this motel a family affair I would say…
My down side was the chicken even though it didn’t taste oily must have been I was as sick as a dig from it uo till after 1230 trying to stop that extreme reflux and nausea…me and some oils just don’t mix….good thing I still have drugs…took a bit but finally settled so I could sleep…it was another huge day but a good day seeing nature at its best…

We honestly wouldn’t have gone on a tour like this but when Jess suggested it we felt we should go with them, we are so glad we did….Read more