Reaching the mainland again we still pass farmland. We pass by fields full of blueberries and are just in time to take some, before the machines collect them all.
But we are more interested in the world famous maple sirup. What does it take to get the sap out of the tree? How do you treat the sap so you get the sirup? We find the answers on the Sugar Moon Farm. Besides a great restaurant with lots of sweet treats they offer a little tour through their production hall.
At the beginning of the season, approx. in late february, the trees are tapped. Every tree gets a new drilled hole and a thin pipe it set in place. 2500 of these pipes are lined up and lead to a main pipeline which brings the sap down the mountain to a big tank on the farm. No machines, simple gravity.
On the farm they heat up bit by bit in a big wood fired oven, the sap boils up, the water leaves and what is left behind is maple sirup. After filtering it gets bottled and sold. Unspectacular but highly interesting to us.
We leave most of the sweet treats behind and head for the wild north of Nova Scotia. On Cape Breton we find beautiful coastline, magnificent sunsets, spectacular roads and quiet fishing towns. In one night we even hear the wales spout out in the sea.
But this magic has it’s price: we have to share the road and trails with many other tourists.
On a rainy morning we visit the Alexander Graham Bell Museum – the inventor of the telephone. (Unfortunately) this invention is only a small part of the museum, because Mr. Bell did a lot of research on other things too.
Now it is time for us to visit the last state on our trip. On Sunday we leave on the ferry for Newfoundland. If we see whales there?
written by Nick