On our way to visit the Cabot Trail we spent a day in Chéticamp; and we were very glad we did! Once we were settled into our room at Laurie’s Motor Inn (a great place to stay!) we headed to Seaside Whale and Nature Cruises.
I wish I had brought my camera on our whale watching tour. I would have liked to get images of the landscapes of Cape Breton Island since taking photos of whales are impossible–especially if we only see one! That being said I would still highly recommend the tour! Even despite the fact that our tour guide read from pages he had printed off the internet as well as a fact books about whales he purchased a years ago– we still quite enjoyed ourselves. I wish I could remember his name because our tour guide was awesome and we remember him fondly when we reminisce about our trip. He wasn’t trying to be funny, but all things considered he is something to talk about!
Like I mentioned, our tour guide tried to tell us all about whales since we were on a whale watching tour. However, you could tell he did not know a lot about whales as he read from the sheets he printed from the internet. When we would see (or thought we had seen) a whale he would quickly tell us the species even though I think a true expert would have difficulty with this. We did appreciate his effort. After seeing only one whale he needed something to fill in the rest of our 3 hour tour. This is when he began to talk about the town of Chéticamp– something he really did have great knowledge about! He tried to get us to buy waterfront property which he said goes for under $100 000. That night my husband and I started planning our retirement, thinking about purchasing a property in Chéticamp and found out that the tour guide was right on the mark! Our tour guide also talked about when we do take the Cabot Trail we should be sure to walk the Skyline hiking trail. He was right! It was an absolutely beautiful hike and we actually saw a moose up close! In addition, the tour guide recommended great restaurants for dinner. On his recommendation we went to Le Gabriel Restaurant & Lounge where we had an excellent lobster dinner and enjoyed live local music! Our whale watching tour guide also recommended we visit the local church before leaving town; Saint Pierre. Since he was right about so many things we decided to go on his recommendation. More of that to come in the next post. The whole tour was unprofessional yet great at the same time! Instead of using the speaker to talk to us as a group, the guide went around to each set of individuals and repeated the same speech (a total of 7 or so times) each time he wanted to discuss a new topic. The captain also allowed the children on the tour to steer the ship– and you could tell they were actually steering! If we had to do our trip over, we would still go with Seaside Whale and Nature Cruises.
Now for the photos I did take it Chéticamp:
A Typical Morning in Chéticamp
Chéticamp use to be one of the centres of the fishing industry. These photos show what is left or how things are now.
I had to take this one as it carries my namesake:
Well Wishes and Prayers
Creative Cards and Photography by L. Thiessen 