August 9, Saturday – The Best in North America

We awoke to a drizzle that seemed to be following us since central Maine. Today we were going to drive the coastal route of The Cape. We got different opinions from the locals as to whether to drive it clockwise or counter clockwise. One local said that she had gone around the cape both directions and preferred to go clockwise so you can see the views coming up, plus you were driving on the side of the road opposite to the drop offs!?! Another stated that the route you take depended on the weather: overcast go clockwise; clear day go counterclockwise so the sun wouldn’t be in your eyes. Everyone agreed that taking an RV on the coast clinging, steep climbing roads was suicide. We went counter clockwise in the Jetta because that’s the way most tourists do it. Plus it was overcast and foggy.
On the eastern shore drive there could have been anything and we wouldn’t have seen it. The land was low with occasional hills then dive into a river valley with a tiny village, then work its way back up onto a ridge. At the settlement of North Cape the road made a major turn inland and did some serious switchback climbing up the spine of the North Mountain. It was here that we ran into our first and only tourist bus lumbering up the ascent. In fact there were virtually no cars on the roadway. We heard later that tourism was off 60% due to the high cost of fuel. I can relate.
Finally we worked our way around the northern tip of Cape Breton and into a different weather pattern. The cloud layer was now just above us rather than being in the clouds. When we reached the top of North Mountain, we were both totally surprised that it was flat. The continental glaciers had smoothed off the upper reaches forming a barren land with numerous bogs and shallow lakes. The vegetation was stunted and looked like northern Canada.
We were just getting use to the terrain when we entered a cleft in the plateau which the road took and all the work that we had just done to leave the shoreline was about to be negated. Down we went, twisting and turning and then boom there was the ocean as far as we could see, or technically the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It reflected the black and mincing skies overhead. From here the narrow road lived up to its reputation as the best scenic coastal highway on the North America continent bar none. Amazing vistas then sweeping down to the water’s edge then snake along above the surf from one rolling ridge to the next with remote villages thrown into the mix. Eye candy and a driving delight with pull outs screaming for your attention. It was definitely everything it was billed as – and no traffic!!