Eric Stendal

Date: Saturday, 12 September 2026

City / Region: Northern peninsula Cape Breton/Cabot Trail – Cheticamp, NS

Weather: 17 or 18° outside with no rain and very light wind today.

Morning Summary

We had an early night last night and both slept pretty good. Two double beds in the room; it’s very cozy with the two chairs and couch. We would come back here anytime.

Shelley went out to the Tim Horton’s nearby to buy her steeped tea (bagel with cream cheese), and I stayed with Maggie to capture the above photo of the sunrise.

We are planning our drive up to Englishtown, then on towards Meat Cove. I haven’t showed Shelley the photos from that area yet, but she’s going to love it. The drive proposes to be spectacular.

We took the Englishtown ferry across to start our drive along the Cabot Trail. The ferry shaved off 40 mins, and was a good decision.

The Ascent of Cape Smokey

The Cabot Trail roadway opened up before us right away as we set out. We passed St Anns Bay, through Plaster Provincial Park, the North Shore, and up towards Cape Smokey Provincial Park.

We stopped alongside the road and grabbed a photo:

We continued our drive looking out at North Bay Ignonish to our right and high stunning green tree mountains to our left.

Pink Granite at Green Cove

We came to Green Cove and pulled over to walk on the boardwalk that takes you out to the rocks. They were dry for us so we were able to amble around them pretty well. We snapped some fantastic photos here.

We saw someone parked in the parking lot from Massachusetts, and they had a ‘bumper sticker’ on the front hood of their car, “Dear Canada – We hate him too”. I just had to snap a shot of that.

Afternoon Summary

Arriving at Neils Cove, we walked a short distance from our parking to the lighthouse. We saw some laneways which had miniature lighthouses for sale – the kind you would put in your garden or on your doorstep – big, but not tiny. They looked really nifty.

The Chowder House Seafood restaurant opened at noon (it was now 11:45) so we walked around admiring the stellar view all around us.

They had a large expanse of grass area with picnic tables dotted here and there for their guests to enjoy their food out of doors.

Lunch at Neil’s Harbour Lighthouse

I was able to order their fish cakes which came with “chow chow” – basically homemade baked beans with a side of ‘slaw that was marinated with something that had a slight ginger taste. That really brought out the fish I was eating and was very tasty.

Shelley had chicken strips and we both had a side of fries. We really recommend this place to you. You can eat in, of course, but with Maggie we were ‘forced’ to enjoy their out of doors seating. (We loved it outside!)

Crossing The Highlands

We made our way north west to Cape North and North Harbour climbing up back and forth on the road to reach our turn at St Margaret Village to head to Meat Cove.

I had seen photos of Capstick and Meat Cove online and really wanted to go there. Shelley was game for it. That was, until we got to the point of the road which said, “Pavement Ends”……

The road then became a series of bumpy, water-filled potholes of displeasure. The car jostled to and fro no matter how slow you were driving. Then, for no reason, there would be a nice patch of pavement to tease you, followed by more WWII blasted roadway with hard-ridged tractor blade ripples. It was brutal. Then there were the switchbacks and turns typical of a winding mountain road with steep cliffs beside you on the one side, and on the other a sheer drop with minimal guard rails to quell your anxiety.

We arrived at Captstick, which was one of the places I had seen on Google. It did not disappoint. It was stunning. The large expanse of grass in the photos was private property so we could not venture in further for any photos but I took what I respectfully could.

We then pushed on further up the roadway to Meat Cove. Meat Cove is the end of the road at the uppermost tip of Cape Breton Island. You can see in the photos that it is a camp site. That’s it. Not a lot of room to turn around, hardly anywhere to explore (unless you’re camping there). We were able to park the car and get out to grab some photos and it was beautiful, but worth that drive?

At around 2:30 pm, we started to hear some bad noise coming from the car. It sounded like a high pitched scraping sound coming from the front end. We had no choice but to push on, after having gotten out of the car to visually inspect things.

We drove on a little more and then it REALLY started to make noise and squeal. That was it for us. We pulled out our ‘gold card’ CAA and made the call. They were terrific. They sent help but due to our remote location (and I mean remote – being on that little roadway near Meat Cove) it was going to be an estimated one hour and 45 mins.

Not long after, the tow truck operator assigned to our call by CAA telephoned. He wanted to verify our location and situation. As luck had it, I had gotten out of the vehicle again just before his call, and I had moved the wheels from one side to the other, and we applied and released the electronic service brake. The car moved quietly. We tried a little further. No noise. Nada. Nothing. I was on the phone with him. “We might be okay here,” I told him. “Well, drive on a bit and call me back to let me know how you’re making out, I’ll keep coming your way until your call,” he replied.

We made it down to St Margaret Village and pulled over. We called and let him know that we were good to go. He was very pleasant and humorous. We carried on down the highway towards Chéticamp.

Beach Time

We stopped at the beach in Petit Étang in Intigonish on the west coast of Cape Breton Island. We picked the perfect time to be driving south as the sun came upon the water in a beautiful way.

Evening Summary

Shelley and I made it in to Chéticamp and checked in to our hotel. We stayed at the l’Auberge Doucet Inn. It was a great little place to stay. We were provided a room upstairs, which to Shelley didn’t feel right. She sensed that she had booked a different room because they had only ‘one’ pet-friendly room.

She went down to the lobby to see the lady behind the desk and she graciously moved us down below to a room on the bottom floor so anyone who would have been below us would not hear Maggie’s “click-clicking’ steps on the floor above.

Sunset Arrival in Chéticamp

Supper was going to be at L’abris Restaurant. We had to wait about 35 minutes for one of the three picnic tables to become available outside. These were the only ‘dog-friendly’ tables outside.

Once we were assigned our table we ordered our food and drinks. I enjoyed a Lemon Dill Salmon with garlic fingerling potatoes, creamy lemon dill sauce, and broccolini. Shelley had the L’abris Burger, with smoked cheddar, bacon, lettuce, tomato, red onion, pickles, garlic aioli, and instead of fries, she ordered the salad.

She loved the salad – even though it was k a l e. It tasted good, was pliable, and edible. The chunks of apple in the salad were very tasty too. She asked my opinion of what was done to them. “Ginger”, I said, “and the kale has been massaged with oil to make it more tasty for you.” Sure enough, the waitress confirmed, that the kale had been massaged, and that the apples were poached with a hint of ginger!

Daily Highlights

• Our best moment was probably finding out that it was our service brake being somehow engaged that caused our car issue, and that it didn’t require a sophisticated fix in time, distance, money, reservation juggling, etc…..
• Funniest moment was when the tow truck driver commented (when he learned he did not have to come out all the way to see us), “Awww I was looking forward to seeing that backpack carrier you keep your wife in!” He knew about Maggie and her carrier we have for her.
• Our biggest surprise was how extremely breathtaking everything around us was. The sun, the sun sets, the mountains, the water….beautiful.
• We learned that it’s pronounced, “Shet-ee-camp” and not “Chet-ee-camp” with a hard “ch’ sound like ‘church’; it’s more like the ‘sh’ in ‘sheet’.

Logistics

• Not a lot of walking today but sure did a lot of driving and grabbing inside the car (Shelley) due to the roads.
• We spent a little on gas and some road snacks; lunch and supper.
• Moving on down the road to Antigonish and that will complete our ‘circle’ of Cape Breton Island.

Closing Thoughts

This day was FULL for us with adventure, exploration, new experiences, and wonderful memory-making views of everything around us. We remarked to each other that we should have added two more days to this part of our itinerary and stay only one night in Halifax. But hindsight is 20/20, isn’t it?