Thursday, July 23, 2009

Day 32 (7/23/09) - Baddeck

Yeah - sunshine today!

We ate breakfast in the campground's cafe and left at 9:30 (61°) for a tour of the Sydney area before our 1:30 boat trip to Bird Island. We stopped at Englishtown to check out the location of the boat and discovered a tour leaving with seats available. We took the 10am tour instead.

The seas were a little rough because the tide was changing and the weather was still clearing. There was some concern that it might be a little too rough for the trip. In fact, one passenger turned so green he had to relocate to the stern. The tour leader said it was the first time in 14 years that someone barfed in her boat - heretofore, they had made it to the railing. And, we were there!

The seas remained slightly choppy all the way to Bird Island. We saw numerous bald eagles - the tour guide threw out fish to attract them, and they complied by flying low and close to the boat - no more than 6 feet away. An impressive sight.

Numerous types of birds were seen on, and around, the island. But, the bird we were there to see was the Atlantic Puffin. We were not disappointed. Many of the cute little buggers were seen bobbing in the ocean like rubber ducks. We could see some in holes in the cliffs were they were nesting, and other flying about, rapidly beating their small wings. They have to work hard at flying. Also seen were several types of gulls, razorbills, guillemots, kittiwakes, cormorants, and herons.

Most of my pictures were taken through wet windows on a rocking boat so they weren't so good. A few are shown on Smugmug (probably tomorrow - internet extremely slow). If you're reading this blog to get information on a trip of your own, I'd recommend taking the other tour company to Bird Island - Bird Island Boat Tours. Their trip leaves from a point closer to Bird Island and we noticed their boat had open windows for all of their passengers. An open window would have allowed us to take much better photos. And, the guy that barfed was not on their boat.

A note about the current campground - Baddeck Cabot Trail Campground. This is the best campground we've seen on this trip. The sites appear to be level and each site is separated from the next by large evergreen trees. Even the road to the campground is paved. Very nice.

We ate lunch out and Steve got his piece of rhubarb pie (with a little bit of strawberries) and ice cream.

A great day with no rain! Tomorrow we begin our trip around Cape Breton Highland National Park - the Cabot Trail.

Distance traveled: 90 miles (145 km)
Time: 2.2 hours
KPG: 33
Fuel: $54.84 (62 l at $.91/l)

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