Blowhole at the waterfront of Xcaret Park near Playa del Carmen, Mexico.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Playa del Carmen, Mexico.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Toluca on December 24th!

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Meat Cove, Cape Breton Island

We had a great day yesterday. The sun was shining pretty much all day, and although the temperature never got much above 12C (55F), the nice bright sun made up for it.

We did two short trails just after leaving Pleasant Bay yesterday morning. I've documented them in separate posts again. You can view the MacIntosh Brook Trail here, and the Lone Shieling Trail here. They were just short trails, totalling 2.3 kms (1.5 miles) but they count towards our goal of 75 kms (46.5 miles). We are now at 32.1 kms (19.9 miles)!

Heading down North Mountain.

View of the valley while heading down North Mountain

Ruth, admiring Beulach Ban Falls

We stopped at an old ranger station which has a road leading to Beulach Ban Falls. The ranger station has a fairly large parking area and the road leading to the falls is really only good for cars. So we parked Sherman and took the bikes off for the 4 km (2.5 mile) return trip to the falls. There were a LOT of mosquitoes at the falls, so we didn't linger. Took a quick photo and then headed back.

The Cabot Trail exits the national park at this point, and we took the road leading to Bay St. Lawrence and Meat Cove. We stopped at Cabot Landing Provincial Park for lunch. This is just a day use picnic park, but has a nice beach for walking on.

Beach and scenery near Cabot Landing Provincial Park

Sherman, Ruth, and Whiskey at Cabot Landing Provincial Park

After lunch, we headed north to the town of Bay St. Lawrence. We didn't actually enter the town, although we may return there today and camp overnight at their harbour. We did stop at their small co-op grocery store and picked up a few items. Surprisingly, the prices weren't bad. At least not any worse than grocery prices in the rest of the province!

The coastline on the road to Meat Cove

The "village" of Capstick

Looking down on the campground at Meat Cove

Meat Cove is the most northerly community is Nova Scotia. It's a pretty remote spot, only reachable by an 8 km (5 mile) dirt road. We had read that the campground there is $25 which is pretty much out of our price range for a parking spot, even one with a beautiful view. There are no services at the sites, and it's really geared towards tent camping. But they do have two or three sites suitable for an RV. As we were deciding whether or not to stay, the girl running things showed up and explained that since they were doing some repair to the shower building, the price was reduced to $15 per night for this weekend. That pretty much sealed the deal for us, and we decided to stay. But, our cash was running low, and upon emptying our pockets we realized we only had slightly more than $12! We said we could pay with credit or debit card, but she said that was not necessary and took our $12. For $12, we were very happy with our camping spot for the night!

Sherman, camped at Meat Cove

After supper we hiked up a trail to a nearby viewpoint looking back at Meat Cove and the campground. Can you see Sherman camped near the bottom right?

Another RV and a couple of tenters showed up after we did.

Sunset by the cliffs near Meat Cove

Only did 58 kms (35 miles) yesterday, but it was pretty slow going sometimes

13 comments:

  1. Never hurts to fumble through the pockets for money, whether intentionally or not. I can certainly appreciate these folks trying to eke out some sort of existence in good ole "Meat Cove" (what a name!) but $25 for no services at all? Jeez, at least give me an extension cord, even if I'm only getting 15 amps.
    Nice view. I can only imagine just how flippin' bleak it must be there in the dead of winter though. Looking out over the Bay of Fundy from our freezing cold farm house is indelibly etched into my brain I'm afraid.
    Thanks for the pics. I'm not too sure we'll ever quite make it to Meat Cove!

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  2. Looks so pretty. great shots, the waterfall is beautiful (I love waterfalls). Does deet work with the skeeters? they were bad here last week, seems to have died down.

    Cheers!

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  3. It is all so wide open and wildly beautiful....looks like a good time of year to visit...I'm sure the wind howls there! thanks for taking us along! best, susan

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  4. Mosquitoes can ruin the very best of times which is so sad. I love the pictures of the water rolling onto the shore. Just beautiful. And what a fabulous campsite for $12. Wow.

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  5. A perfect day and a great camp spot. Life is good.

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  6. What a beautiful area and that campsite is amazing.

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  7. what great spot and only $12!! what a deal!!!!

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  8. Hi kevin ruth (wiskey)just joined in `been following for some time now ,it good to tag along and see the world though your great point of view(great pics).

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  9. So beautiful there! Love the photo of Ruth at the waterfall. I could use a hike like that today. I'd give it a 10! It's 100 degrees here and way too hot to even be outside. Enjoying your "green!"

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  10. Such a great place to explore, glad your weather is getting better!

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  11. Thank you everyone for the wonderful comments.

    Bob...We love visiting Meat Cove and the area around here, but we can't imagine living out there all year. I guess some people just love that life and maybe others just don't know any different.

    Life's a Journey...We try to refrain from using bug spray and generally if we are moving we don't have a problem, it's when you stand still. The only places that we have really had a problem with them were on the Acadian Trail and at Beulach Ban Falls.

    Susan...I think that June is definitely the time to visit or in September. I would imagine that it gets pretty busy during July and August and we don't like crowds.

    jonyboytj...Thanks for following along on our journey, hope you enjoy it.

    Kevin, Ruth and Whiskey

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