Return to Prince Edward Island.

We had breakfast outside at The Telegraph - for me breakfast outdoors is a real treat. We had a little view of the Bras D'or Lake so it was lovely.

That's me - not the one with the moustache (but then again ...)

The front of The Telegraph - the motel part was behind.

Our view at breakfast of the Bras D'or Lake.

We decided to do a bit of the circuit of the Bras D'or Lake on our journey back but roadworks, which have been an ever-present feature of our trip to Canada, prevented us from doing so. Steph (carol's friend in Toronto) told us that there are 2 seasons in Canada - Winter and Construction. We have certainly experienced Construction!

Cape Breton is such a rich blend of cultures - Mi'kmaq, Acadian/French, Irish, Scottish and, I suppose, Canadian. It was a shame that we did not have a chance to explore them further. In places the signs were in English and French, inother places in English and Mi'kmaq, in others again, in Gaelic and English. The Gaelic tradition seems to be flourishing with schools of dancing and language and music.

Jim and I had started our trip to Nova Scotia via the Confederation Bridge and had intended returning the same way. The woman in the Baddeck ? asked us why we would do that when we could save ourselves over 300km of driving by taking the ferry from Caribou in Nova Scotia to Wood Islands in PEI. Jim was finally persuaded and we arrived in Caribou well in time for the 1 p.m. ferry. We stopped at the entry booth to pay but the attendant told us that we pay when we leave the island. We interpreted that as paying either when we got on the ferry or going off. We arrived on PEI and drove off like everyone else. Jim had his credit card ready to pay (mine being disabled) but we were several kms on the highway and we hadn't paid. We went through all sorts of scenarios. Had we been expected to queue somewhere on the ferry to pay? Did they have some kind of sophisticated device that read number plates - in which case we expected the car rental company to be able to capitalise on it sand charge us a fortune. Or had we simply, unintentionally, missed the paying area. It seemed to us that we had stolen a march on them and saved ourselves about $70.

The internet is wonderful, however. We googled the ferry and discovered that the situation is, in fact, that you pay on leaving the island - Prince Edward Island. And we had paid at the Confederation Bridge on leaving the island! Ireland should try a tourist attraction ploy like that!

Views from the ferry. There wasn't much, other than sea, unlike the ferry journeys that we did in BC from Vancouver Island to Vancouver.






We were back in Bonnie's cottage within an hour after getting off the ferry. The sun was shining, the computer wouldn't cooperate for blogging so there was nothing for it but to relax in the sun in the garden.