Nova Scotia is a beautiful place and it really reminds me of home. This is a little strange as I grew up in the city surrounded by buildings, traffic and noise and Nova Scotia has very little of any of these. Perhaps now that I am far from home I have begun to associate myself with the British Isles as a whole, with London being just a part of it. The weather here is very similar too. Even though we were promised blue skies and sunshine we were in fact given nothing of the sort. This didn't ruin the day, but it certainly
made it more
challenging especially when I had my camera out. The drive to Cape Breton was supposed to take between two and three hours, although google maps doesn't always take road quality into consideration, as on this occasion and the drive took just over four hours. At the park entrance I was greeted by a very friendly lady who commented on my lovely accent, which is something I never get tired of hearing. Sadly I couldn't repay the compliment as she had the strangest voice I have ever heard. I had been warned that the Newfoundland accent was strange by some Canadian friends, but I heard one the other day and it was indistinguishable from a Connacht Irish accent and not strange in the least (not to me anyway). I had heard the French Canadian accent, and although different from real french it wasn't particularly note worthy. This lady however, had a voice the like of which I have never heard. It was a mixture of canadian, french and an extremely bad dutch/swedish accent you might hear from an actress on a Channel 5 soap playing a scandinavian nanny (the fact that I didn't distinguish between Dutch and Swedish should help you to imagine how poor the acting would have to be). I had to bite my lip to stop myself from bursting with laughter. I am really not trying to be cruel, I love different accents and I even loved the quirkiness of this one, though it wasn't even slightly pleasant to the ear, I am merely trying to portray how comical it sounded.
As we began our drive along the coast it became evident just how badly wrong the weathermen had been. Huge waves were beating the shores and rocky outcrops and we could hear the wind swirling around the car, a few times I had to steer into it so as not to be blown into oncoming traffic. I was looking for a good point to photograph the shore and the rolling hills that crested the cliffs when I saw a car pulled into a viewing area. I quickly pulled in next to it only to see that the driver had his bonnet up (the 'hood' to you North American readers). Before I could drive away he had signalled for me to roll down my window, which I begrudgingly did, and asked me for a jump start. I tried not to look too disappointed about having to step out into a raging storm and duly assisted him. He was very grateful and we both continued on our way. The rain was off and on, almost exactly like a light switch. The sky was dark and gloomy one minute,
bright blue the next, rainy then sunny, windy then calm, cold but alas it was never warm. It certainly made for some interesting photographs. I have pictures taken from the same spot only minutes apart and you wouldn't believe they were taken on the same day let alone in the same 5 minutes.
I had big plans to see Moose on our travels, with Cape Breton highlands boasting five of the beasts in every square kilometre (it is like a mile but not as long, for our American guests), although I fear they are afraid of rain and went into hiding. Perhaps on our next trip I will see them. There wasn't much in the way of viewing wildlife actually, although that might be because we never really left the vehicle, often stopping with the window
wound down to take a photo and then speeding off to another location. It was actually quite fun and led to me being quite productive, although I did feel rather lazy and wondered
whether I shouldn't try and use
my legs a little more in the future.
