September 26, 2013 Cape Breton,

Thursday, September 26, 2013

53 degrees this misty, drippy morning.  We decided to stop at Tim Horton’s for a little wi-fi and breakfast sandwiches.  Spent an hour or so there, then started the day’s journey toward Glace Bay on the east side of the island.

We had to go through the only city on Cape Breton, Sydney, which was pretty substantial and sprawling.  This was the only place on the island that we saw  many  “chain” stores like Subway and KFC, etc.  We took a few wrong turns so saw more of the city than we really wanted.  I have gotten very good at asking directions, and people have been unfailingly kind and helpful.

Glace Bay, our destination, once a mining and industrial hub with a population around 35,000 is now a rather subdued town with one tenth of that.  We learned why when we went to the the Coal Mining Museum. 

There are huge beds of coal surrounding and under Cape Breton, even today, but the last mining operations left in 2001, taking the steel mills and other industry with them.  The museum had good displays and a film, but the best part was an underground tour given by an ex-miner named Wishie.  He had worked in the mines for 34 years, following in his grandfather and father’s steps, and has been doing tours for the past 13 years.  He is a great raconteur, and told many stories, some humerous, some sad, in addition to technical information and day-to-day operations. The underground labrynth of mines are equal to the size of Halifax, with some branches extending  up to 7 miles under the ocean!  Lots of fascinating information about things like hazing of new workers, use of cannaries, pit ponies, rats, unionization, conditions,  child labor (his father began at age 10!) and more.

Many of the miners have left the area, changing jobs or going where the jobs are, but there are still some who hope that  negotiations with an Austrailian company will bring a return of mining to the area.

It was still rainy when we left and headed south towards Louisbourg, an old French fort with lots of history.   We went along the coast, through several small fishing villages.  In all our travels on Cape Breton, the majority of “towns” don’t have traffic lights or more than a few dozen homes and businesses. Other than the few major highways, the roads are mostly paved but in poor condition, with lots of cracks and patches.

We stopped to take a picture of  this house with a yard full of wood near a town called Main a Dieu.  A man came out to see what we were doing and was very friendly once he understood that we were curious.  He said he buys

 14 cords of wood each year for about $1200, and that will heat his home for the 10 months of the year that require heat.

A little further down the road we ended up at the harbor at Main a Dieu.  Many of the boats were out of the water, in people’s yards, with lots of lobster traps and buoys.  We stopped to talk with this man who was burning some wood along the shore.  He too was quite pleasant, and explained that the lobster season in this area is only two months long, and ended a few weeks ago.  It is heavily regulated to help preserve the fishing grounds.  There has been a moratorium on haddock and some other fish since the early 1990’s and he was skeptical that it would ever come back in his lifetime.  He said a few people were fishing for scallops or diving for sea urchins, but most folks had no work.  He emphasized that they wanted to work but there was nothing to be done.  They do get unemployment compensation when they aren’t working.

We found internet at a small convenience store/laundromat in Louisbourg for a little while and then headed out a rough road for the lighthouse.  Some Roadtrekkers had recommended this spot for boondocking and we had a great , though foggy, view of Atlantic all to ourselves. Quiet  except for the gusty winds as we enjoyed spaghetti and meatballs for dinner.