Canso looked much better by daylight than it had the night before. Still, it is just a dying little town that is struggling to hold on. Even the RV/Marina attendant lived in Halifax and made the three hour commute weekly to take a few days duty in Canso.
Before leaving town, we took advantage of a break in the weather to explore what is left of this sleepy little fishing village. The rain was a bit too much to take advantage of the boat tour out to Grassy Island, but we did find a harbor view path. It seems that Canso is making a great effort to try and breath some life into their tourism appeal thorough trails, paths, tours, public art, festivals, etc. Although we were impressed by their effort, we’re not sure if it will be enough. We were glad to have inadvertently stayed an evening in Canso and to learn about the not so quaint side to the life of a fishing village, but it is not a “must return” type of place.
One last thing from Canso. This building was our first glace at the town. Imagine rolling into a desolate town at sundown and seeing this place. All we needed was some Halloween music and bats flying out of the rafters. On the way out of town we had to stop and get a picture. This too is a reconstruction effort, but considering it has signs on it saying “Beware of falling bricks” who knows…
Following the coast, we set our sights on Cape Breton. Along the way we added another lighthouse spotting to the list. This one is located near Queensboro.
JD took some time to explore the information kiosk near the lighthouse park.
By lunchtime we were on Cape Breton. Our first order of business was to find the local information center and find out the latest on hurricane Irene. Given the forecast, we decided to delay a day before taking the Ferry into Newfoundland. This meant we would have a day and a half to explore.
The first sight we were greeted by was a series of large signs reading “No Frackin Way” glancing over to the series of homes and outbuildings whose owners were obviously responsible for the signage we were shocked to see Homer, Bart, Marge, Lisa, baby Maggie, and the rest of The Simpsons cast. Who knew that Springfield was in Nova Scotia.
Taking the highway we came through the town of Baddeck. Alexander Graham Bell lived near this town for a while, and there is a national historic site/museum commemorating his work. The hillside of the museum also gives a great view of the lighthouse.
As we often do, it was not long before the truck left the pavement and found a bit of dirt and gravel. After exploring some back roads, we checked into the North Sydney/Cabot Trail KOA. There are only two KOA kampgrounds in Nova Scotia, and we managed to stay in both. The view from our campsite was of the highway bridge, but with a bridge this beautiful, we soon forgot the bit of road noise.
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