Happy Birthday

Rick has a cunning plan. We go to bed at 10pm and make sure we are awake at 6am for the next few days. This way he is wondering if we will feel less jet lagged when we get home on Friday.

I eventually staggered into consciousness about 6.15 am. Rick started writing the blog and I studied the map- so many different ways to go round the Bras D'Or Lakes to get to Louisbourg on the North East coast just south of Sydney.

We heard quite a racket on the deck just below our room and Rick reported several Blue Jays in dispute. It was impossible to move around the room without all the floor boards creaking (yes, they were ten times worse than at home) so I took his word for it.

Hummingbirds

As we prepared to leave 'The Auld Farm' a large number of hummingbirds swooped down to the nectar feeders just outside the lounge windows. It was fascinating to watch them. We were so close we could even see their tongues lapping up the syrup as they hovered, their little wings beating so fast and their tail feathers pulled in acting as brakes. They weren't as colourful as the ones we had seen at Kris and Dave's in Ontario but amazing to see.

More rain this morning and forecast to be on and off all day, so we decided to spend some time at the Alexander Graham Bell Museum run by Parks Canada before taking the most direct route to Louisbourg.. We could have spent more than two hours here. What an amazing man. So much more achieved than the invention of the telephone. Many of the theories of his inventions were tried, tested and developed at Baddeck, where he and his family had a summer home near the lake's edge. Quite where the house is we couldn't work out for the centre and grounds are modern.

Entry to Louisbourg

An hour and a half on the road brought us to Louisbourg and the entrance to the reconstructed fortress which is about two miles from the town. You are transported from the entrance with its small museum by bus. They run every fifteen minutes (you're not permitted to walk the mile long road to the fortress).

A prosperous fisherman & his wife

We had three hours to explore this amazing reconstruction of this former stronghold before closing time but could have spent more. The whole area has been rebuilt as it would have been in 1744 before we dastardly Brits got fed up with repeatedly deporting the inhabitants who kept insisting on coming back and razed it to the ground in 1768! The rooms in the houses that are completely finished are furnished and arranged as they would have been at that time and there are costumed actors to tell you about their life there. At 5pm, having watched the ceremonial firing of the cannon from the ramparts out to sea, we were bussed back to the park entrance.

A short drive back to the town and we checked in to the Stacey House B&B before heading for the nearby 'Grubstake' restaurant. Unfortunately we arrived just after the world and his wife so it was a long wait for service, much apologised for by our waitress. It was well worth it though.

Birthday meal

I raised my glass to the birthday boy who was tucking in to crab cakes with cajun mayonnaise, followed by sirloin steak. I had smoked salmon on brochetta with cream cheese and fillet steak. Replete and tired we headed back to our lovely B&B for day two of the experiment to counter jet lag.

Louisbourg, Canada