Rowkin Rovings Blog

Weather was still very overcast but precipitation did not occur. The wind certainly made its presence known. We drove along part of the coast on our way to Louisbourg and the waves were pounding against the rocks. This picture does not do it justice. Imagine the wind roaring and only being able to stand at an angle. If you were foolish enough not to put your jacket on before you got out of the car, no way were you going to be able to put it on afterwards without a considerable argument with the elements.

There are a lot of cruise ships out there at present chasing the colours and reckon there are a lot of repeat buffets happening.
Also took the opportunity to go and see the oldest lighthouse in Canada which was built in 1730 but we are pretty sure it was not the original one. It was built to guide the ships into the harbour where Fort Louisbourg was.

Louisbourg is very relevant to Canadian history as this fort was built by the French in 1720; lost to the English in 1745; traded back to the French in 1748 for land in the Netherlands that the English wanted and then recaptured by the English in 1758. The French were sent back to France.

When Louisbourg is taken by the British for the second and final time in 1758 it marks the beginning of the end of French New France (French North America). From that point on, although the French people stay on in North America they are ruled by the British. These French are 100 years after the Arcadians which we spoke about when we were at Wolfville.

Are we giving you the impression that Canadian history is very confusing!! Believe us, it really is very confusing and continues today. We won’t go into anymore history though we will mention to you about the rebuilding of the Louisbourg site.

When the fort was abandoned back in 1758, the British took a lot of the rocks, bricks and whatever else they could salvage to parts where it could be used. Remember the Citadel we went and saw in Halifax where they set off the canon, well some of the Stone went there. So the site ended up as just stubble.

When the mines in the Cape Breton area were closed in the 1960’s, the government stepped in and had the miners retrained as carpenters, stone masons, electricians etc and employed them to rebuild the Louisbourg site. The site was very large but they have rebuilt about a tenth of it. They have decided not to continue rebuilding as it would just repeating what they have already done. The site stands as the largest reconstruction project in North America.

What was really good about this living Museum was that the guides were not just in period costume but they were also in character. They had an amazing wealth of knowledge of the period.

Everything is now starting to shut down in the Maritimes with shops, cafes, hotels and parks rolling up the side walk. They also have to take their boats out of the water as the it freezes over and you cannot leave them in the water as they get crushed. We bumped into this fellow coming towards us down the roadway.

So this is the last night in Baddeck so went out for yet another pizza in our favourite place and wiled away a couple of hours chatting to other travellers who had either done what we had done or what we are planning to do. Lots of good information traded.

Tomorrow we will be doing the Cabot Trail which is one of the highlights of this trip and it looks like Mother Nature is going to be on our side with clear skies projected.