Gypsy Travels ~ Fifty Shades Of Green (Prt.2)

 I'm back finally with some more shots of our recent trip to Canada.  If you missed my last post, we recently returned from visiting friends and family in Nova Scotia and spent a good portion of our trip re-wilding on Cape Breton Island.  We spent most of our days adventuring in and around the tiny town of Judique, where our family cottage is located.  There are miles of nearly abandoned beaches with some of the warmest ocean waters to be found in Nova Scotia.  We are a family of fish and the swimming was more beautiful than I remember, the freshest, clearest mermaid water.  I could spend every day for months on the beach there. Perhaps one day I will...
One of our main goals for our trip was to drive around at least part of the Cabot Trail, one of the most scenic road trips on the planet.  I traveled the entire trail  (185 miles)  once when I was a teen and once in my Mothers womb when my parents camped their way around the trail in a handmade truck camper.  It was pretty groovy to make the same trip again with my own husband and baby daughter 33 years later.  Although we didn't make it around the entire trail, we did manage to travel all the way up the Western side of the Island to the Northern most point (where we stopped to have lunch) and then back again in one day.
There are so many places to stop and explore we could have easily spent an entire week camping to have seen all of the sights. We managed to stop at many of the look out points, from the wild craggy beaches below with crashing waves, to (literally) breathtaking mountain top views overlooking the Atlantic, 902 ft in the air.

The trip from Judique to the beginning of the trail snakes through the river valley of Margaree. You are surrounded on both sides by densely forested rolling hills and farm homes tucked here and there in the valley, next to a wide and lush river in its center, just like in a fairy-tale.  The road signs all have a Gaelic translation for each of the settlements names. Every little town you come upon is more charming than the next. There are more spectacular camping sites than I could fathom (I want to stay in ALL OF THEM!) One with tiny A-frame cabins in a clearing on the side of a mountain with no visible road to get to them. Needless to say I was mesmerized by the beauty yet tortured by the possibilites as well. Haha.

The road climbs and climbs and dips and curves along the intensely gorgeous coastline.  When we finally reached the highest point, I could barely take a picture let alone get out of the car.  I'm terrified of heights but these views were worth the jitters.  Nature is so humbling with it's intense power once you are removed from the every day conveniences of the city.  I was reminded of our frailty and impermanence and wowed by my ancestors who carved out a life on the edge of this wild and beautiful island.

There was so much more to see, hiking trails through every kind of beautiful terrain. Towns full of outsider art to be explored.  If you ever have a chance to visit Nova Scotia, MAKE SURE you add The Cabot Trail to your list of must dos. You won't be sorry you did.
xoxo-Andrea