roadtrip around the cabot trail.

two full days in the car watching the world go by gives your mind a lot of time to relax & unwind. we were headed for the cabot trail, in cape breton nova scotia, in our trusty toyota echo. the road winds its way through forest, drops down close to the atlantic, the shoulders dotted with the occasional yellow sign warning you of deer, caribou or moose. we pass all manner of roadside cafes & diners, all named variations of 'the groovy goat' or 'the clucking hen' (you get the idea).we spent a night camping (i wrote about it here), another in a wood cabin at the edge of a cliff in a town of 68 people, and a few in motels with blinking neon signs & statues of puffin out front. ill-prepared for that night in the cabin, we arrived in the remote town of meat cove with no food, only to discover the one dining establishment was closed for the season. back along the dirt road we went, racing the sun, passing small town after small town searching for an open sign hanging in the window of a co-op. when we finally found one, i added a jar of nutella to our loot in celebration. some of it might have been eaten straight from the jar with a spoon while watching the sun rise the next morning.sometimes it's the big things, like making it on a 3 hour hike with packs not meant for hiking & a throbbing toe from when you stubbed it about an hour in. & sometimes it's the little things. like catching a glimpse of the northern lights dancing when you least expect it, or the sun peeking around the edge of a cliff in the early morning, or even eating nutella straight from the jar with a spoon.we tried our best to soak it all up, these few short days back in september.photos from cape breton, nova scotia