Cape Breton Island

As soon as we got across the border to Cape Breton Island on the Canso Causeway, we picked up tourist information. The attendant said we were just in time for peak colour. That was sensational news. Ominously though she said leaves were starting to drop. I was prepared to take what nature would deliver. It has been a great run of autumn splendour on this trip.  And, like all great beauty,  it was coming to an end.

We had a nice drive to Mabou where we stopped at a small but well supplied grocery store. By well-supplied I mean they even had a good supply of liquor. They had some nice rums. That is unusual. In the US only the big liquor stores have that. Tiny ones never. It was great to be back in civilization.

We drove to the Tulloch Inn in the middle of nowhere and secured our accommodation.  We were a bit surprised how far away it was from all conveniences. We met the owner and Willem from the eastern townships with whom we had a nice conversation and a sip or two of rum.

We went for dinner at Witt’s Public House in the town of Inverness about 18 km. away. That would be inconvenient we realized. We had sea food chowder followed by Haddock and chips which we were sharing, as we do increasingly as we get older. Why don’t we get skinnier?  It’s a conspiracy.  Our haddock was literally the largest piece of fish we had ever seen. The entire restaurant stopped what they were doing and  watched the  waitress deliver this monster of a fish to our table. She it was the biggest fish she had ever seen. Frankly, it was crazy to bring us such a big piece of fish. When we were done a number of people asked her if she had finished it. We hadn’t. Impossible.  A Sumo wrestler could not have eaten it.

Unfortunately I did not take a photo of the fish  so people have to believe my fish story about the big one that got away.

The road back to our B & B in the dark was a challenge.  It was absolutely black dark and there was only an occasional car coming our direction but on the winding roads we were  shocked by the sudden burst of light in our eyes when one did..

After  getting back,  when I returned to the common room to read all by myself the owner seemed frantic and I wondered what was going on. It turned out that for some mysterious reason the pump for the water system was not working.  But he tried to assure he was on the case and would try his best to repair it. Sadly, his best was not good enough. As a result, we had no running water and no use of toilet facilities.  Staying in a B & B we had reserved for nearly a week was not going to work if we had no water, but I decided we would wait till morning to deal with it.

In the morning, the owner told me that he had not been able to fix the pump problem. So there was no water.  No Fix. No Poop.

That about did it for us. The owner had not been able to get a plumber. So regretfully we decided to move. The owner understood and refunded our money for the rest of the stay which we had already paid.

Travelling is full of surprise. And some of them are shitty.