Antigonish to Baddeck, Nova Scotia

Unlike yesterday, today was beautiful! I had some breakfast in the Microtel lobby and hit the highway around 8:30. I made great time early on, traveling the 50 kilometres to the Canso Causeway in just two hours. I was really enjoying the good weather!

The Canso Causeway connects the Nova Scotia mainland to Cape Breton Island. I biked across, and for the first time in my life I was in Cape Breton. I still had a ways to go to get to Baddeck, where I am spending the night, but I also got to see the distance to the Newfoundland ferry for the first time!

Early on in Cape Breton I was finding my pace had slowed considerably, and for some reason I decided to let Google guide me onto backroads, as if that might help. I should really know better than this. As lovely as it can be to cycle the backroads (and it was in the case), it almost always adds distance (not necessarily the end of the world), and Google is completely unreliable in terms of determining the condition of the roads it wants to take cyclists on. At first it was lovely--paved, empty roads, passing forest and farm fields, but eventually I was on gravel and it was becoming less than ideal cycling. So, I returned to the highway, having added an extra six kilometres to my route without much point. Oh, well...

At the eighty kilometre mark or so for the day, I was feeling quite worn out. I was fighting a bit of wind, and my morale was waning. I often do not stop for lunch on my rides now, but I realized stopping for lunch was exactly what I needed today. There is a Tim Horton's at the Wycocomagh First Nation, and imagining all the wonderful things I would eat got me the next 20 kilometres or so. 

After lunch I had more energy, and I continued along the north shore of Bras d'Or Lake (which is actually an estuary, but looks like a large lake in the middle of Cape Breton Island if you look at it on a map) for another 40 kilometres to Baddeck. 

Here I am staying at the Ceildih Inn (I had no idea how to pronounce that word--something like "kaylee"--nor did I know what it means ["a social event at which there is Scottish or Irish folk music and singing, traditional dancing, and storytelling"]).

Baddeck is a nice place, and as I laundered some clothing at the laundromat I enjoyed a little tour. 

For dinner I tucked into a lobster and mussels!