After getting off the ferry Thursday morning we drove east to the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. This park is surrounded by the Cabot Trail, a scenic drive around the peninsula. It is also one of the top 10 bicycle trails in the world, but we ride our bikes for fun, not for the punishment of climbing mountain roads. So we spent Thursday and Friday driving and hiking on the Cabot Trail.

Many of the people in this area are of Scottish origin. This is a replica of a Scots Crofter's hut.

Mama and Baby moose along the trail.

remains of house foundations

Saturday we drove to the east part of Cape Breton. Along the way we visited a miners museum that recreated a 1920's coal mine. Most of the people brought from Europe to work in the mines were uneducated and unskilled. They ended up indebted to the company store and the companies continually cut their wages and supervisors often cheated them out of their pay. The retired miner who lead us on our tour started work as a teenager, in the 60's, in a mine whose shaft was only 36" high. The one we were in was about 50" and after an hour Tom and I both thought we would never stand up again! There are no operating coal mines in Nova Scotia now.