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Atlantic Canada  “Come in from Away”

By Richard Pennick

There’s “a down home” feeling about Atlantic Canada. The folks are friendly, the accents charming, the wit quick, and the pace a little slower so people have time to talk with those of us who have “come in from away”!

Springtime in Halifax is a delight. Along the waterfront, there is a spirit that the warmer weather brings out in those emerging from winter. A keen wind may gust across the harbor, but cafes and restaurants ripple with laughter, and early season visitors fossic through antique book stores, pottery and pewter art shops.

The waterfronts historic properties are a gathering place for locals and visitors alike - a motley collection of old timber warehouses and granite buildings which still bear the names of long departed shipping companies, stevedores and traders – and they now host all manner of enterprises.

Along the piers is moored the heritage of this maritime region. Cutters and tall masted schooners evoke days of Caribbean rum runners and privateers. Sightseeing boats, working tugs and fishing boats blend their wakes with bobbing yachts and the Dartmouth ferry. The compelling Maritime Museum chronicles a waterborne history, and features a Titanic exhibit, including a deckchair - but that’s another story. The ubiquitous James Cook tarried in these parts; his coastal navigational charts with samples of his journals of the region are on display.

One is never far from the sound of the pipes which tell of the fierce pride folks from this region have in their Celtic heritage. Even the Nova Scotian provincial flag bears the cross of St. Andrew. The cities many historic buildings, churches and museums exemplify the practical if austere mindset of those hardy settlers who established this community in the 1750s, but the many lively pubs hint that their descendents may have loosened up a bit.

Cape Breton and the Cabot Trail -Nova Scotia

Cape Breton Island on the northern tip of Nova Scotia, has been a stopping place for travelers for centuries. It’s another world with another people. For rural folk in the Atlantic region, the sea, its harvests, and hardships are part of life. The struggle, the uncertainty of making a living from the cod, the lobster or the Halibut breeds a hardy, staunch but romantic character with a love of music, poetry and humor.

Sydney on the cape’s east coast is where we joined the Cabot Trail. But before hitting the trail with its scenic, musical and culinary delights, we were given a brief history lesson and an interesting surprise. In the 1740's, France occupied what was then Canada and controlled access to the St. Lawrence and the fisheries through its fortress and fleet at Louisbourg. In time the British had enough of this and decided that Canada should enter the imperial fold. It nipped off Louisbourg, razed it to the ground, dispatched its garrison, and shipped many of the Acadian farmers to Louisiana. In due course, and using Cooks charts, the British sailed up the St. Lawrence, took Quebec and secured Canada for the Realm. (Historic novels penned in the 1940s’ by Nova Scotian author Thomas Raddall give an excellent perspective of how events and personalities might have unfolded during that era).

The reconstructed Fortress at Louisebourg is a short drive from Sydney. It looks now much as it may have in 1745 where in the words of Raddall, “it was made up of weathering unpainted wooden houses which had given it the gray and ancient look of a garrison town in, say, Brittany. There is an impression of great strength. The fortress stands on a point of moorland between harbor and sea, the land side guarded by massive walls of  earth faced with stone and standing thirty feet above ground level. There were six bastion, the Bastion du Roi a citadel in itself, separated from the town by a dry moat and containing the main barracks and the residence of the governor. All of these were well supplied with canon. The harbor entrance was guarded on the east by a battery on Lighthouse Point. At the head of the harbor squatted the Grand Battery with its twin sixty-foot stone towers and its heavy artillery, ready to rake the entrance or the anchorage at will”.

Nowadays, in the summer months, the Fortress springs to life anew. Dozens of costumed locals become the town's residents of the summer of 1744. Period homes, exhibits and theme centers line the streets of Rue Toulouse and Rue Royale, as well as along the busy waterfront. Men, women and children enact the full range of society from the leisurely activities of the rich to the hard physical labor of the poor. You'll see engineers, musicians, soldiers, merchants, street vendors, bakers, servants and fishermen. You can talk to a soldier about guard duty, living conditions, armaments, security, food and a soldier's life in general.

Visitors may dine in the Fortress where costumed staff prepare and serve food and beverages based on 18th-century tradition and recipes. The restaurants observe the church calendar. So don't plan on eating meat dishes on days of abstinence (Fridays and Saturdays)! Visit the King's Bakery and buy a soldier's daily ration of bread!

Back on the Cabot Trail, “Awe Inspiring in all seasons” the brochure tells us, and it’s not far off the mark. Named for the explorer John Cabot, the Cabot Trail winds for nearly 300 km (185 mi) around one of the most beautiful scenic drives in the world. Overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence, lookouts offer views of Cape Breton's coastline, and pods of whales can often be seen just offshore and Bald Eagles potter aloft on ocean breezes.

The trail is dotted with small villages whose galleries display the depth of resident artistic talent. Displays of artwork, handicrafts, and cuisine are everywhere. The neat little harbors host colorful fishing boats and dory, the latter used to set and haul the lobster pots in season. Communities boast ”lobster shacks” where one may partake of one or two broiled ones, with hot drawn butter, fresh bread and a Keiths lager or two, tap a toe and raise voice in song with the locals!

To walk it off, Cape Breton Highlands National Park encompasses one of Canada's most exceptional wilderness areas. The highlands are a colorful tapestry of woodland, tundra and bogs, where wildlife is common and moose are often seen grazing in the quiet shallows of lakes and streams.

Cape Breton's most famous resident, Alexander Graham Bell, once said "I have traveled around the globe. I have seen the Canadian and American Rockies, the Andes, the Alps and the Highlands of Scotland, but for simple beauty, Cape Breton outrivals them all." Bell fell in love with the region and built his beautiful estate, Beinn Bhreagh, on the shores of Bras d'Or Lake, where he lived and worked for the rest of his life.

The Alexander Graham Bell Museum at Baddeck houses a unique exhibit complex where models, replicas, photo displays, artifacts, and films describe the fascinating life and work of this fascinating man and his family.

In the leafy community of Baddeck, we stayed at the Inverary Inn, a rambling old resort with an eclectic range of accommodation. We slept in the converted stables and enjoyed, what else, a lobster dinner and sing along with the locals. There’s a wide variety of accommodation around the trail ranging from comfortable B&Bs with friendly and interesting hosts (check out their accents), to motels, Inns and luxury hotels

The region may arrest the attention of golfers. There are world-class championship courses that surround players with the magnificent beauty of Cape Breton Highlands National Park or panoramic views of the Bras d'Or Lakes. 

Further on up and around the trail, Cheticamp is the center of Acadian French heritage with French language radio stations, and interesting Acadian cuisine. The museum accounts for the early Acadian history of the area. At St. Ann's, North America's only Gaelic College features displays on the region's early Scottish settlers in the Great Hall of the Clans. The Gaelic is still spoken on Cape Breton.

Nova Scotia moves to the sound of music - the fiddle, the pipes, guitar and voice - a center for traditional, Celtic-inspired music. Cape Breton Island is home to some of the finest practitioners of Irish and Scots fiddling, and Acadian music - with ties to ancient French folk and the Cajun genre it shares with its Louisiana cousin.

-Updated 6-16-99-

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