Down the road from Ft Petrie is the Marconi National Historic Site. In 1901, Guglielmo Marconi sent the first transatlantic transmission from St John's Newfoundland - just a simple morse code letter "S." In 1902, here at Table Head, Cape Breton, he sent the first transatlantic wireless message. Later he moved his radio station to nearby Port Moriem and he began providing a regular commercial overseas wireless service.

There is little to see at this site. There's a reception center with a few displays, but little else. Only the foundations of the original buildings remain - no trace of the original four wooden antenna towers exist. But here's G. Marconi hisself - although in stony silence.

The weather turned - a nice sunny day but a little windy and cool. I took off for the ride around the Cabot Trail - (Map here) - 185 miles around the northwestern most part of Cape Breton. Of all the roads I've been on, this ranks right in the top five for most scenic. I went around the trail in the clockwise direction from Baddeck. This is part of the coast.

This is Grand-Etang, a small harbor between Margaree and Chéticamp on the Gulf of St Lawrence.

Here's another shot of Grand-Etang Harbor.

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And this is where some of your snow crab comes from! It ain't much fresher than this!! At this point you can get it for $5 a pound!

More of the Cabot Trail. The Cape Breton Highlands National Park stretches across the tip of northern Cape Breton from the Gulf of St Lawrence to the Atlantic. The scenery is barren highland plateau with a habitat similar to Alaskan tundra.This is in the park - get ready for a ride, as the roads are like a roller-coaster. You can go from sea-level to 1500 feet in less than a mile - and then back down again!!

Hiking is one of the big attractions of the park - I hiked the Skyline Trail, one of the most popular. The trail starts like this and after about 2.5 miles you end at a point overlooking the Gulf of St Lawrence some 1500 feet up. You can return on the same trail, or you can take a loop trail that's a bit longer and quite a bit rougher. On the way out, I saw people pushing baby strollers. On the way back I took the hard way - no baby strollers there!!

Once you get to the point, there's a boardwalk stairway that drops some 400 feet and takes you all the way to the end of the headland. The boardwalk was put in to protect the fragile ecosystem. Although the day (and the hike) started out sunny and bright, the clouds are moving in.

A shot from the end of the boardwalk back towards the road into the park.

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"Natives who beat drums to drive off evil spirits are objects of scorn to smart Americans who blow horns to break up traffic jams."
- Mary Ellen Kelly

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