July 4th, 2019 – July 8, 2019

Note: We have been home now for about 2 weeks. It was hard to blog as we drove across Canada due to remote camping locations and the long driving days. I have read many blogs that just suddenly ended, and they left me wondering about the return home and the final parts of the trip and it just kind of bothered me, but now I understand….the return home is a busy time, seeing family and friends, getting the hot tub operational again (prioritizing at a time like this is essential), getting your home and life back in order,etc. I am determined however to see this blog though to our return home, and hope to do so within the next few weeks.

We boarded the boat operated by Bird Island Boat Tours and motored out to Bird Island for a “3 hour tour” (…..key theme song from Gilligan’s Island…). We were promised that we would get to see puffins, among many others, and I was excited to see these little clown like birds (friendly clown, not scary clown).

Our Captain told tales of Cape Breton as we motored out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We learned about the demise of the cod fishing industry, the overfishing of lobster that is currently underway and of the Cape Bretoners who had, for years, been flown back and forth to work in Ft. McMurray but who then, when the oil companies decided they could no longer afford the flights, had to decide whether to move to Alberta, fly at their own cost, or quit their jobs. We also heard stories about pirates and rumoured lost treasure and we were told about the birds that we would likely be seeing that day.

We had excellent weather and saw a lot of birds. Here are some of the pictures from the day:

We finished up our time in Cape Breton with a visit to the Fortress of Louisbourg.

We prepared to take the ferry to Newfoundland. From Cape Breton there are two ferry options. The first is a 12 to 14 hour ferry ride to the south east corner of Newfoundland, which puts you within about 130 kilometres of the provincial capital of St. John’s. The second is a 6 hour ferry ride to Port aux Basques, in the south west corner of Newfoundland. As Piper would need to stay below deck in the truck for the entire crossing, we chose the shorter ferry. We ended up on the night crossing and started the crossing at about 11pm.

We were excited to head to Newfoundland, but our first stop on the island would be to a vet…Derek had looked at Piper’s teeth a day or two prior and had discovered that she had a rear molar that was broken in half. We had no idea how much pain she was in, with dogs being very good at hiding any discomfort, but we knew it was important get it looked at before the tooth began to abscess. We googled vets on the island and had a plan in place as we boarded the ferry.