New England Trip

The drive to Cape Breton Island was long – about 300 miles - and took us through some very empty countryside. Most of the time, the road was pretty good, though we had many long slow upgrades that we had to take slowly. The road runs fairly straight through the middle of Nova Scotia. There was enough traffic to keep us company, but not enough to slow us down. We stopped in New Glasgow at a WalMart (They are everywhere!) for some supplies we needed. We crossed onto Cape Breton Island near Port Hastings at the Canso Causeway, and followed signs for the Ceilidh Trail along the west side of the island to Dunvegan, where we had reservations at MacLeod’s Campground.. We thought a lot about Bill Starcher, our crew on Cahoots for many years, who named his J/22 Ceilidh. It’s pronounced Kay-lee. The name means a community sing and dance, or party. In this part of Cape Breton Island, there are lots of fiddle players and parties that last late into the night.

We found MacLeod’s Campground with no trouble, and discovered it is right on the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, with a beautiful private beach, and lots of terrific tent campsites near the beach. We remembered our tent-camping days, and thought what a great place this would have been for that kind of camping. Although our motor home campsite is a long way from the beach, on a hill, we have a great view of the Bay. The sunset and moonrise out here are beautiful. There are large grassy fields where Wicket can run his “Crazy Ivans” off his leash without disturbing anyone.

Attached is a picture of the beach. Instead of shells, the beach has beautiful lava rocks polished by the surf in shades of rose, blue, and black.