Cabot Trail East to Meat Cove and back

Today we took a day trip up the east side of the Cabot Trail loop. We're camped about 30 km east of Baddeck, and took the east side road right up to the top of Cape Breton, at Meat Cove. A gorgeous day, which it usually hasn't been for our trips on this side of the trail. We got to a number of places we'd never been before. Sunny and 18C at 8:30 am.

Amazingly, everything at the Clucking Hen was calorie-free, so we stocked up! Several other stops at local craft shops, beautiful views around every bend, not too much traffic. Just a really enjoyable drive. 

This is likely the nicest weather we've ever had on the Cabot Trail tours, warm and sunny. There was noticeable litter though, which we really noticed after seeing how clean Newfoundland was that way - very little (virtually no) roadside litter there, in the areas we visited. 

We stopped for a cup of chowder at Neil's Harbour Chowder House, intending to compare it later on with some we saw advertised at Meat Cove. Purely scientific of course. Both the seafood chowder and the snow crab & corn versions were very good. Lots of lupins and wild roses out.

Neil's Harbour

 

A good stop at Cabot's Landing prov park beach, where Cath got her feet and her seat wet. We have pictures of stopping there with the girls on an earlier trip - that was in 1982!

We did make it all the way north to Meat Cove, with its gorgeous views. There's a campground there, and some people have braved the pretty awful road with some big rigs to camp there. I was happy to not be towing! I had a bowl of their chowder - different from the Neil's Harbour version, but both were really good. When we saw they cook their lobster in salt water, Cath had to have it instead of the chowder - really good too.

Meat Cove camping:

 Tent sites:

Outdoor dining at Meat Cove:

A happy diner:

And back in our base campground: