Another campsite with poor internet, so — again — no photos for this post, which is too bad, as we have seen some lovely scenery. I will edit these posts with photos when I am able to do so.

During our stay in Ingonish, we did several lovely day hikes affording excellent views of the coastline. We also played the Highland Links Golf Course, ranked fifth among Canadian golf courses, twice — although on the second day, having already done a long hike in the morning, we opted for riding a golf cart, and the course didn’t have enough carts for all their patrons. Consequently, we had to wait for people to finish with a cart on the eighteenth hole so we could use it; this resulted in an hour-long delay, and so darkness fell before we could finish the round. But it was a tremendous course, with well-defended greens so sloping that a straight putt could not be found. This was, for us, a very difficult course and I did not play it well. But the scenery was fabulous and I will post photos from there as soon as I can.

Above can be seen the intrepid explorers on the signature hole of Highland Links, the sixteenth if memory serves. You can see Middle Head off in the distance. Today we drove from Ingonish on the east side of Cape Breton Island, to Inverness on the west side, stopping along the way to hike the famous Skyline Trail. This trail traverses the top of a ridge and concludes with spectacular ocean and mountain views, as the mountains here march right into the sea. Apparently earlier generations so tramped down this ridge that the alpine growth was almost eradicated, and so the Canadian national park service built an extensive boardwalk here with platforms extending right to the edge of the cliffs. I have awesome photos here which I will post someday (update: see below), but you can also refer to my earlier post from eight years ago. Robin and I did not walk all the way down the boardwalk to the bottom, but Steve and I elected to do so today. 273 steps, if memory serves! Here’s a view of the boardwalk looking up from near the bottom.

The views from the top of the ridge are nothing short of spectacular and the photos don’t really do them justice. Tomorrow we are scheduled to play Cabot Cliffs, supposedly the premier golf course in all of Canada. Very pricey, hopefully it will be worth it; this course is reputed to be Canada’s Pebble Beach. We booked a tee time for Tuesday as well, at a less prestigious course in Cheticamp called “Le Portage”. No plans yet for Wednesday; if we like “Le Portage” we will probably play it again. Thursday we plan to travel back west into Nova Scotia for a four-day stay, and more golf, near Tatamagouche. There is apparently a Walmart near the Canso Causeway (the gateway to Cape Breton Island), where we hope to re-supply for the remainder of our trip.

So far, we are doing well, and both the truck and the trailer are performing admirably. I will post again before we leave Inverness, but probably not every day. Thanks for following!