Sunday – August 5, 2018
Drive Through Cape Breton Island
We started our day with a shared breakfast at the guest house. We chatted over coffee with a German couple also on a road trip and a Canadian family who had traveled from Vancouver and Edmonton to see their family member run in the Special Olympics. I enjoy talking with people we encounter on a trip and a shared breakfast table is good way to do it. We had a ferry ride to Newfoundland later in the day so that conversation couldn’t be too long if we wanted to see anything.
We had to head to North Sydney for our ferry and decided to travel along the northern shore of the island and circle around via the Cabot Trail until we got there. Cape Brenton Island gets more rugged and mountainous as you travel eastward. The center part of the northern arm is a national park. The road hugs the coast and is very scenic. Unfortunately we still had the rain on and off that was dogging us.
There is ample opportunity to experience beach towns and mountain hiking in very close proximity to each other. We weren’t doing any of that on this trip but certainly appreciated the many scenic vistas as we traveled. We couldn’t dawdle as we had to be there by 3:30PM for the ferry so we had to hustle along to arrive in time to sit around and wait to board!
MV Atlantic Vision – Boat #2
We got to the North Sydney ferry terminal where we were to board the MV Atlantic Vision for the journey to Newfoundland. This was an overnight trip and we had a cabin although unfortunately we were assigned an interior one. You think overnight on a ferry would be uncomfortable but this is a ferry with characteristics of a cruise ship. It is a big ship, 667 feet long, and can hold over 500 cars with over a mile of parking lanes for them. That is 3 garage levels. It has a buffet and sit down restaurant, a lounge, bar, games areas, sauna, and other amenities. It is also fast, traveling at up to 35 MPH and that speed created quite a breeze on the deck. If you want to see more about the ship, here is the Wikipedia link about it.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MV_Atlantic_Vision
We decided to relax and take advantage of the sit down restaurant where we of course ate various fish dishes – they were quite good. We had a nice conversation with the man at the next table about travel and things in general.
The lounge had a band which was a duo from Newfoundland singing folk songs. There was a group of young people watching them and the next thing you know the band had learned they were musical and invited them to play and sing. They actually did a great job singing and playing along with them. They were from Topeka Kansas and seemed to be traveling by themselves. I don’t know their story but it made for a great moment during our travel.
I was surprised how quiet it was in our cabin and the ship is so large that you only felt a gentle motion as we traveled. We found it relaxing for sleeping; it made for a nice way to overnight on the way to Newfoundland.
Today we drove 203 miles over 5 hours and 6 minutes for a trip total of 1224 miles. We sailed 350 miles over 16 hours by time we got to Newfoundland in the morning.