For our final day in NS, we started early as we had a lot planned. First, we took the ferry across the “Little Narrows” to the town of Iona.
Our first stop was at the town of Grand Narrows across this bridge from Iona, where there was a local car club show going on. We saw a lot of old cars (in great condition) throughout NS and we decided to stop and check it out. Part of the show was dedicated to VW campers. I have not seen these in a while and there were several types in attendance.
After spending some time here, and getting our truck pretty muddy while exploring the back roads, we headed to the historic Bailenan Gaidheal Highland Village. This was a partially recreated representation of Scottish culture and history of their migration from Scotland during the 18th century.
This is the view walking to the first “exhibit”, a AnTaigh Dubh, a typical dwelling as found in the Highlands of Scotland.
We did pass through a burl-infested forest and I immediately thought of Kim Kardashion?
This is an original “small house”. This was typical living quarters until they could erect more substantial homes. It was an improvement over what they had in their homeland, as there was no food, no game, no fish, no trees and no future there. The local Scottish manned these exhibits and were very good at speaking in first person in the period they represented. We were a little confused at first when they would recommend I check with Mrs. “MacGoogle” for more information.
Once established, they used materials found in the Acadian forest to build more substantial homes, sometimes taking several years to build something similar to this An Taigh-logaichean, or log house.
As the years progressed, they were able to upgrade to a Taigh an t-Simileir, or center chimney house. (Central heat, and a vegetable garden).
Walking through one of the An Sabhals, or barns, I saw this and had to try it. It actually lifted the carriage with very little effort, very handy for repairing a wheel.
An Eaglais or church. This building is still used periodically for weddings. It was very simple inside, but had some really neat oil lamps for lighting, with matching sconces on the side walls.
This is a typical sliegh for winter travel with the horsepower in the background.
We met this blacksmith and had a good conversation. He showed us how he could “weld” iron using borax, how he made horseshoes, both winter (studded) and summer, how he could fashion tableware, and just about any metal object that could be of use in early times. Before we left, he made a square nail for Jason.
A travelling Bgpipe band was performing for three of us at the Gaelic Village:
We stopped at the Gaelic College, just north of Baddeck and walked the campus. There was a fiddler’s convention going on in the building behind Cathy. It was late in the agenda so we did not go in but did talk with a lady for a while in the craft shop about the purpose of the college; to preserve the culture, music, language, arts, crafts, customs and traditions of immigrants from the Highlands of Scotland. In this area, signage is in both English and Gaelic.
The Great Hall of the Clans displays the various patterns of plaid (tartans) used by the different Scottish clans. There are 265 different official clans represented and each may have a unique tartan. Overall there are over 7,000 different tartans in the “official” tartan registry.
Gotta love those Scottish names, here on a dormitory at the college.
Back in Baddeck, we took one last run through the town, stopped for the sunset then returned to our camp to hook up the truck, and prepare the MH for travel in the morning.
In the morning, we left fairly early and drove about 600 km from NS to Quebec, passing through Moncton, Miramichi and Bathurst in New Brunswick before entering Quebec in Campbelton, where we pulled in for the evening.
Travelling with the Schinglers 