As we pulled out of St John’s on Thursday, the captain announced that due to the tail of a hurricane we might experience rough seas during our crossing to Cape Breton Island. To avoid the worse of these he was going to speed up and change course slightly and hug the coast. Whether as a result of his superb navigational skills or his dubious weather forecasting we completely avoided any poor weather and the sea was as calm and flat as any we had experienced. The only disturbance of the water being the many schools of dolphins that darted to and fro across the path of the ship. Several people said they saw whales, but unfortunately we didn’t have the chance to shout “There she blows”.
Today’s port of call is Sydney Nova Scotia. Named after the same Lord Sydney as the Australian city, but while its antipodean namesake has its famous bridge and opera house this one has the biggest fiddle in the world…..
……and to carry on the theme a very large chair.
Originally an industrial town with coal mines and steel works Sydney nowadays relies on fishing and the tourist trade as its main sources of income. A boardwalk traverses the harbour side with memorials to the merchant sailors who lost their life’s in the second world war.
The boardwalk lead to a park which was originally owned by the British admiralty to supply wood for ships but now is a serene area surrounded by beautiful small wooden houses.
We came to the park to see a mural commemorating the steel workers of the area but having walked right around we could not find it, so made our way back into town. (We subsequently found out that we were in the wrong park, the one with the mural was 1.5 km in the opposite direction).
Walking down the Main Street we were pleasantly surprised to see and hear a classic car rally taking place. Cars parked either side of the street with more arriving all of the time…..
….a mixture of real classics such as this red Chevvy……..
…….together with some hot rods.
Apparently this is the annual fall rally so we were very lucky to experience it.
As we entered the older part of town and the noise of the revving engines disappeared into the background we once again came across the lovely coloured houses that seem so common in this part of the world.
In this area there are a number of small museums, each vying for the title of the oldest house in Sydney, and two of the oldest churches in the region. This one is the Anglican St George’s.
In the museums locals dressed in traditional costumes told us tales of the early settlers and their families and how they used gardens herbs to treat illnesses and even apparently to stop milk going off. Three years studying food technology and thirty five years in the dairy industry and I never realised mint could do the job of a pasteuriser!!
The region has a long Scottish heritage and is the only area in the Americas where Gaelic is still spoken and the people are so friendly and helpful. Noticing a violin in one of the museums I asked the guide whether he played. We were then given a short recital of traditional Cape Breton tunes. Very enjoyable.
Tonight we sail towards our next Canadian stop, Charlottetown.