After spending the night in Louisbourg, we headed back across the island to the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton National Park for a day of harrowing driving and pleasant hikes. Cape Breton in different communities has bilingual signage, some in French & English for the French Acadians (like our guide in Louisbourg) and others in Gaelic & English.
Rather graphic warning signs, don’t you think?
” This is the forest primeval. The murmuring pines and the hemlocks,
Bearded with moss, and in garments green, indistinct in the twilight,
Stand like Druids of eld, with voices sad and prophetic,
Stand like harpers hoar, with beards that rest on their bosoms.
Loud from its rocky caverns, the deep-voiced neighboring ocean
Speaks, and in accents disconsolate answers the wail of the forest. “
You may recognize this opening stanza from Longfellow’s epic poem Evangeline, his telling of the story of the expulsion of the Acadians. His version of the story puts the blame squarely on the British, although we now have to acknowledge that it was just as much the New Englanders who were behind it.
Cape Breton Island has water everywhere. In addition to being surrounded by it, it has interior bays and lakes that bisect it and rivers and lakes throughout. We hope enjoyed the abundance of pictures today. Our hotel had an incredibly fast internet connection (for a hotel), so we went overboard. Tomorrow, we go back over the causeway to mainland Nova Scotia and make our way to the ferry to Prince Edward Island.