The adventures of Jane, Kell and Miles - Ingonish, Cape Breton 8/29/07

Ingonish, Cape Breton 8/29/07

Written by Jane
Thursday, 30 August 2007
Halfway around the Cabot Trail... I guess the Abbey was just not in the cards for me this trip …. They said that they have a full contingent of retreatants right now and cannot accommodate me for even a day of sitting – boo hoo! But Miles has promised me a day of solitude here in the trailer or out if I’d prefer, in lieu of the time I would have spent at the Abbey. But truthfully, I don’t know what I’d do with myself here alone all day. Of course, I could just sit here as I would have been at the Abbey but it’s so much harder to do in this space! No excuses though. Some time on my bum meditating is really what I need right now …. We’re coming up on a month on the road and I can feel it wearing on my nerves now and then. I can see how giving each other time and space alone is going to be really important. We decided to leave Cheticamp to seek a less bug infested campground and one with better chance for an internet connection. It was very hairy drive … Miles thought it in some ways worse and in some ways better than California’s highway one. The scenery is just as breathtaking but in a softer way. It’s also much less disturbed. The Airstream halfway down French mountain. Kell and Miles at the Crofter's hut in the sugar maple forest. Kell finding birds with his binoculars. Hawk floating over French Mountain. The view towards Digby from French Mountain. The drive involved a lot more switchbacks and a much steeper grade, which was a bit scary while pulling a 10,000 lb. Trailer. Our brakes were definitely smelly by the end, but it worked out. The truck pulled very well until the check engine light when on … at which point I went into full on panic mode, frantically checking the manual to find out why our brand new truck with only 7500 miles on it would throw a check engine light. So, for the second time on our trip we made use of our Onstar service and were pleased to find out that they can run codes remotely while we were driving down the road … amazing! We were relieved to find out that the engine was fine, though it looked like there might be a problem with our Turbo doodad that we have to have serviced within the next couple of weeks. Whew! The good news is we found a new campsite in our flight from the black flies in Cheticamp and now we’re on the east coast of Cape Breton. Black fly free but also hopelessly disconnected from the internet … drag. Mostly for Miles but for me too. We’ve been relying on the e-mail and internet to get so much busy work done … mail, banking, budgeting, etc., that it’s really hard to manage without. Ingonish is beautiful … I’m running out of descriptives for all the places we’ve been so just see the pictures (assuming I’ve figured out how to get them uploaded by the time this posts). Cliffs at Ingonish Beach. Sandpiper at Ingonish Beach. Very rocky coastline with lots of sweet protected coves. There’s a lot more lowland bordering the ocean here than there is on the west side so it’s more approachable beauty in that way. And the beaches are sandy and swimmable within the coves. Kell and I took a 2 1/2 hour sail on a schooner yesterday out of Ingonish’s South Harbor. Moonrise over Digby Harbor. Kell aboard the schooner. It was spectacular though the whales, dolphins, seals and other typical sightings were consipicuously absent from our cruise. We did see a sail fish and some loons, as well as lots of beautiful coastline. It was nice in a way not to have the distraction of whales, etc., since I got to spend lots of time playing with our new camera and generally lazying about this beautiful wooden boat, while the deckhands (two young guys) played pirate with Kell and another young boy aboard for the sail. hold onto your hats! It was sad not to have Miles along with us but he’s been engrossed in trying to get the software he’s spent the last seven years working on ready for open source posting on the internet. It’s the culmination of a lot of years of work for him and the timing of the release is important to him as well, so he’s feeling pressed. But every few days we manage to get him to come on an outing with us. Unfortunatley, the last one he shared with us was a musical performance in a local octagonal ceilidh house, where traditional gaelic music that is endemic in these parts is usually played. But this time, it was a few middle aged locals who’ve taken the inspiration from traditional music and instruments and made folk music (some of it really bad) out of it. There was some relief from the general sappiness of the music whenever they broke into the real traditional fiddle music that you can never tire of listening to. Kell loved the traditional stuff too, bouncing around on our legs and clapping his hands as the beats got faster and faster. He was mesmerized really. We’re already wondering which instrument would be best to bring out his unique and innate musical genius (wink wink). OK – it’s off to the local library and then the beach to see how cold the water is! Water on the rocks.
Last Updated ( Thursday, 30 August 2007 )

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