The 3rd annual Bert Miller Memorial Fall Colours Tour is named after a great man and one of the founding fathers of the BCCCB. I am sure Bert's spirit was with us on this tour, being both the protector for us from the weather, and being the kind of guy who loves a laugh, gave us a wind and rain storm on Sunday. There was a bad weather forecast for the weekend... Les Suetes wind were forecasted for Cheticamp and there were a few question if we should make a few changes to avoid this weather phenomenon but I thought.. "What the hell, lets stick to the plan" and we did. I predicted a roof down kind of day..... and it was. It was a little damp in Sydney when we gathered but by the time we reached the Bras D'or View restaurant, were we had meet up with Ricky and Sharon, the sun was out. 13 or 14 degrees I think, one still need to dress warm but there was no rain all day. I know... Some of you are wondering what Les Suetes Wind is. I know what they are but I was unaware of why they are. Well after reading an email from Barc I felt it best to look it up. This is what I have come up with.

Les Suêtes Wind Warning is issued for winds 65 km/h with gusts to 90. These winds occur over a specific area of the western Cape Breton highlands during certain unique meteorological conditions. Les Suêtes is an Acadian phrase used to describe very strong southeast winds that occur in an area along the western coast of Cape Breton Island. Local fisherman report that this wind can extend out to 15 to 25 kilometres offshore.       And then there is this one....

On the western shores of Nova Scotia's Cape Breton Island, damaging local winds are known as Les Suetes, derived from the word for southeast: sud est. These southeasterlies are created when a frontal inversion causes a funnelling effect over the Cape Breton mountains. As the winds rush down the side of the highlands, strong gusts develop which have been recorded to exceed 150km/h (94 mph).

We had heard reports that there was very little colour this year around the trail but that wasn't going to stop us. Over the years we noticed that the leaves are always brighter after the Thanksgiving weekend, the normal time for our tour, so this year we opted out for the following weekend and as you can see by the first photo below, the trees were alive with colour. The first pic was in Big Bras D'or where we had to pick up my wife, Paula. From there we set out on our two day journey around the Cabot Trail and Cape Breton, one of the first signs that we weren't going to be disappointed in the colours this year, was Kellys Mountain. The side of the mountain was covered in a blanket of colour.

Due to some delaying construction on the route around the St. Anns Bay. we decided to go over the ferry at Englishtown, The Torquil MacLean. I took the time to talk to one of the workers concerning being out of service the day before. A cable change he said, it takes about 5 hours if everything runs smooth. He told me of the process and it was far more complicated that I had thought. I asked if there was ever a break in the cable, his reply was yes. Oh man, What happens then? I asked if there was a cable brake to hold the ferry to it's tether, no was the reply, we just drop the anchors. He went on to say that there is no propellers, nothing to bring the ferry back to the ramp. Well! There's a tidbit of info for you. To put your mind at ease, the cables are inspected regularly and if there is a reason to change out the cable, it is done, normally the cables are changed out every 5 months, need or not.. Safety first, I told him our motto was Safety Fast. Leaving the ferry, we pulled over so we could all hit the trail together and the first picture I took on the trail as of Carol and Craig in their beautiful Healey surrounded by colour.

Lee and Sheila took the lead to look for a road with cabins or something and as we rounded a corner, a very large tree, laden with red leaves appeared and a great photo opportunity presented itself. Our first stop was the Wreck Cove General Store. A quick leg stretch and a treat and away we went on our way. Standing in the parking lot of the General Store, we could hear the waves crashing on the shore 100s of feet away, hidden by the trees, so we knew the surf was up. Heading towards Smokey Mountain, there were a few spots where you could see the shore and sure enough... the surf was up.

It's difficult to get the shot you want while you are driving with you hand out over the roof but sometimes you get exactly the shot you see in the rear view mirror. Carol and Craig's Healey looks like it's living up to it's heritage as a sports car as it tears around the sharp corners of the trail and the colour surrounding the car adds so much to the scene. While in Ingonish we had to purchase some refreshments for tonight as ...of course it's my fault... our little bottle was left behind on the bar at home.

What the heck is this? Haven't they completed this yet? A couple of months ago we were here and the construction was going on then, I was hoping they would be finished by now. Guess not and wouldn't you know, we hade to drive about 3 kilometres on a hard packed dirt road with about an inch of slippery wet muck on the surface. What a mess. All of us enjoy a clean car and especially when we are on tour but for this trip, the first foot or so up the side of your car, of clean shiny paint, will be covered  with MUD.  Just look at the meat hooks that hold the road on Paul and Estelle's Lotus, boy they sure became mud slingers for a while. Thank goodness Paul wasn't in a playful mood, with a little shot of gas he could have slung mud over everyone.

My money says that this is the dirtiest time that this beautiful Lotus Esprit has ever been. I have only seen this car a few time and I have never seen as much as the dust spec on it, and now! All in good fun. I asked the staff at the Coastal Waters Restaurant if there was a hose connected outside but there wasn't, we had to endure dirty cars for the rest of the day.  So be it, we went inside for lunch. OK, mark this one on your "where to eat" list. We were well taken care of here and we may not have to eat the rest of the day...  but we did. We can't help it, this is what we do... drive, eat and sip.

Every plate that was ordered was full and some had room for desert. I did hear someone say.... " I can't finish this" there you go, we were full. From here we drove on through Ingonish, there was to be no stopping at the Celtic Lodge this year, as you would have to turn off halfway through the construction zone and then wait again for the stop sign to be turned to slow, before we could continue our journey, so we past by the Celtic and all it's colours. Our next stop was Black Brook. It sure was a sight watching the waves crash against the shores along our drive to Black Brook, and when we got there, we surely weren't disappointed.

I am not sure if it's just us who are at awe by the power of the sea, or is everyone? The sounds of the waves crashing was drowning out all other sounds, to speak one had to raise their voice. Off in the distance, the once tranquil waterfalls had the water shooting out from the top. I took a few pictures but the blanket of fog blocked my camera from getting a great photo. Paula and I tried to get closer but the waves and a thick layer of sea foam blocked us from getting any closer from where we were standing. We stayed and chatted for a while and we watched the sea's fury. Paul had pointed out the when the waves withdrew from the shoreline, the rocks tumbling towards the sea could be heard, thunderous. When we left, at the top of the road before you turned towards the Cabot Trail, there is a very steep path that leads to the top of the falls, Paula and I took the path and witnessed the enormous amount of water that was shooting through the falls. What a sight!

We weren't finished with the sea just yet. At the Chowder House in Neil's Harbour, we stood along the fence and watched the waves crash on the rocks below and rocks that were a few feet off shore. God it's nice living on the coast and being able to see this stuff. The fog was our arch enemy today as it plagued us all day. Here at Neil's Harbour, the beautiful Light House was hard to see let alone get a decent picture of. That's alright, the fog is much better then the rain.

Whenever  I am driving with the club I always seek out my next shot, either through my rear view mirror, or, I know when I pass something, it will look nice when another car passes. Below Craig and Don passed over the bridge at the end of town, in Neil's Harbour and even with the thick blanket of fog, the pic came out beautiful. Our next stop was White Point. White Point is a beautiful, secluded little village, that I for one, never knew existed until a few years ago. Now if this tour had people that seen the place before, we may not have stopped but this time we had Helen, Paul and Estelle with us and they never seen this place before, so a stop is a must. I have researched a little on White Point and came up with this. ** White Point has what seems to be classic alpine tundra and meadow that you'd see on a B.C. mountain peak, only you are 100 feet off the ocean floor where waves crash through sea stacks (towers of rock), and, the hills run one after another until you reach the grave of the unknown sailor. Above it, a white cross. Beyond it, several unreachable Islands of a small archipaelego (The Tiddles). Washed up sailors from ship-wrecks were buried here, in simple graves adorned by unmarked granite stones, which somehow fit perfectly with the natural setting. ** Perhaps one day a hike through this trail would be in order.

Again we did battle with the fog and the fog blocked out many good scenes yet again but what the fog didn't obscure made up for the loss. I am not sure what was going on with the boats below, my first question is, why is one inside the other? And look at the names.. How Come and What Ever. The owner must have been wondering what to name them and used the first words from his kids in the morning as the boats names,,, Sounds familiar to me. White Point is a nice little harbour protected from the Atlantic, we spoke of how calm it is here while just a few kilometres away the shores were being pounded by high surf. The old British cars coming up the windy steep incline, surrounded by fog sure looks nice, my guess is that these old beauties feel very much at home in these conditions.

Our next stop was Dingwall, to the Markland Resort to be exact, just for a look. Why not, we aren't on much of a time schedule and our motel isn't that far from here, so up for a peek we went. I for one wasn't impressed. Now mind you the place is beautiful and to hear the waves crashing could really set the mood as a place to relax but it is a little out of the way and I was expecting something that would make me want to travel all the way out here for a place to stay. I didn't take my camera out of the car here so there are no pictures but I do have to say that there is a beach just below the cabins of the Markland that looks spectacular, again no pictures. From here we drove to Cape North. There was a little distance between the cars now and some of us made the left turn, continuing along the Cabot Trail but one or two continued straight. We turned around but soon met them coming our way. We made another U turn to get back on track and where we made this U turn, there was a mock grave at the entrance to a construction yard, too funny. Along the road to North Mountain there is a beautiful farm that I always though look nice, so this time I took a photo. Old barns always look appealing and one has to wonder... what's inside. An old British car perhaps. We may never know.

The foot of North Mountain was fog free. Have we left it behind? Not a chance! Maybe we should have stopped to get some pictures of this fall's foliage before ascending up the mountain, because halfway up, the fog claimed the colourful scenery yet again. We stopped at a look-off but the wow factor wasn't there, just a layer of fog obscuring the view. That's alright, Lone Shielding is just on the other side and there is always great colourful photo opportunities there, and this year would be no different

The cars always look great here under the canopy of colour. The leaves were a tad green but still, the pictures look great. Below Paul and Estelle's Lotus as well as Paula's B looks amazing in this peaceful spot. Barc, as well as Ricky and Sharon, along with Don and Helen took this opportunity for a stroll in the woods along the path. This place is a must to stop at for any who travel the trail.

   Onward to MacKenzie Mountain we drove. By now we kissed the fog goodbye and the views from this particular look-off is always amazing. There is always a fantastic view of Pleasant Bay here but there was a car parked where the best pictures are taken, so we used this end of the look-off. This is a great spot to stretch your legs and sink in the view. I was hoping to see whales and there was a lot of disturbance in the water far below but nothing breaking the water, schools of mackerel perhaps, who knows.  Don did scan the waters with his binoculars but he came up with nothing either. The air, believe it or not is warm. When driving with the roof down in can get cool but when stopped you warm up quickly. I think the ladies are ready to get checked in at the motel because they were anxious to get rolling again. Here the girls got Paula to light a fire under me to get the troops rolling.

On the Cheticamp side of French Mountain there are many places to take outstanding pictures. At this spot, we pulled over to capture a picture of the Cabot trail running along the coast with our cars in the foreground. What great shots. Not sure of the time the day it is now but our motel gets closer with every passing kilometre. Saying  that, this days driving is coming to and end, a day that should have wind and rain and yet the roofs are down on four of the seven cars, We were spared the forecasted wind and and rain today, lets see what tomorrow brings, shall we.

We crossed over the plateau from MacKenzie Mountain to French Mountain rather slowly, I was watching for moose. A few times we seen them eating grass just beside the highway and sometimes we seen them in the lake at the top of French mountain but today there were none.  Thinking that we weren't going to see a moose, just before the park exit Paula yelled out "A Moose" ... "two, two moose". I quickly pulled over and the rest just drove by not noticing the moose. Don was the only other to stop. Paula and I passed the spot where the moose were but Don and Helen were stopped almost beside the moose. I had to walk back to to get the photos of the moose and the car. In my haste to get a picture of the two moose, I didn't take the time to try and fit the two of them in the photo, so you only get to see one. No rack, it was a mama moose and her young one.

Just look at the rest of the cars of the BCCCB parked up the road from the moose. As I found out later, they were wondering what the heck we were doing, Taking pictures of moose I said and passed the camera around. I so wanted to get a BCCCB car in the photo with the moose and Don moved his car into position. I walked from Paula's car to Don's car passing by the moose by only feet having just the guardrail between us. Helen was a tad nervous being so close because she had been chased away on the Skyline Trail once before by one. This moose didn't appear to be concerned at all by our presence, she never flinched at all.

The last couple of kilometres of the trail are now behind us as we exit the park and what great photos. We spent the whole day touring the trail and still we passed by many stops. It's hard to believe that you can do the trail in a day, and we did just that, many times. Next year, hopefully we will do the same, a two day tour. We passed by places like, the Celtic, Little River Wharf, Meat Cove and many other's. The fog and construction robbed us of a few great sights but it was still a beautiful a fun day. So mark your calendar for next year, weather permitting, we are not going to pass by one single stop. That being said, our next stop is Laurie's Motel in Cheticamp.

We pretty much had the entire front of the Motel Booked.  The cars offered up an interesting sight parked here ,as we watched many cars slowdown as they passed by in front of the motel to have a peek at these beautiful cars. It was an interesting few minutes here as we tried to get settled in. I booked two rooms, one for Ricky and Sharon and Paula and I. I registered first and got my key and Sharon after me and I was thinking all rooms were the same. We got in ours and visited Ricky and Sharon and Paula freaked... Laughing and yelling at the same time she said their room is bigger then ours! A big Screen TV, a couch and plenty of floor space. I told her they had a Jacuzzi tub and she freaked even more ... there was no Jacuzzi tub.. I was just turning the screws a little tighter.. lol. Here, in Sharon and Ricky's room we had a little sip or two and some treats before supper. I could have waited a few more hours after the great lunch we had but it was getting late, so we all ventured to the restaurant at Laurie's. I called ahead to warn them of 13 hungry troopers were on the way and they had no problem looking after us. Great service, great food and great laughs. I have to say, it sure was interesting listening to Craig telling stories of his career as a chef.

Our ole buddy Rickster took a very bad back spasm at the restaurant and had to leave. We finished our supper and retreated back to his room to party.... well, have a drink or two that is, while Ricky laid flat on the bed in pain. So there you go, for Christ sakes never die while on a BCCCB outing, we'll just prop you up in a chair until the festivities end, then we'll call the E.M.S. There was no Austin Ambulance this time to take anyone to the hospital, Ricky wouldn't go anyway, he just endured the pain. Thank heavens for Estelle, she is a physiotherapist and suggested to Ricky a few positions to lay to ease the pain and from what I understand, he had a good nights sleep. Estelle was a godsend for sure, she even gave me a few tips that made a hell of a lot on sense to help ease the weird sensation in my arm and shoulder. A working weekend for sure for Estelle.... Just send the bill into Francis, the BCCCB accountant...LOL. It rained all night and we were greeted the next morning by a beautiful Rainbow, sorry, my picture didn't come out. The sun was out but there were some menacing looking clouds around. Our first stop was Flora's for a little peek, here we hooked up with Bobby and Anita. At this point, Ricky and Sharon pulled the plug and went home, a good decision seeing whereas he was in so much pain. Our numbers are still the same as two had left and two have joined us, lets continue our Journey shall we.

Time for Bert's little prank. The weather deteriorated soon after we pulled away from Flora's, the high wind and heavy rain followed us all day. We drove through Margaree Harbour and Whale cove and yet again, the seas were crashing along the shore but it was to rainy to stop and sink in the sights so we pressed on towards Inverness and Mabou. Once again a picture of the Red Shoe Pub graces a story of the BCCCB. Here you see that Craig has his headlights on, what does that tell you, it's only 11 am. Man the weather was bad. Stopping and getting out would have been a bad thing today so we pressed on further hoping to drive out of this weather system.

We turned into Port Hood in search of the Galloping Cow, we heard this is a great place for a stop and some tea but we couldn't find it. Instead, for a pit stop we stopped at Sara's gift shop. This isn't an ordinary gift shop, this place is huge and a very wide range of gifts and collectables. The rain still poured outside but being one of our stops, I had to take a photo or two as it is now a part of our story. Leaving Port Hood I took a route off the beaten path, Shore Road, hoping to get some more scenes of the waves crashing on the shore. We did pass a very nice harbour but we weren't close enough to the shore to see the sea's fury. 

Continuing along the Ceilidh Trail we drove and still no break in the weather. Sharon called to say they made it home safely and said the weather in Sydney Mines was fine, not here. It's after noon now and time for some lunch... man we ate a lot.. China King Restaurant where they offer up a great all you can eat buffet for 10.99... why not, at the very least a great place to chat. Where in the heck did we put the food? Hollow legs I guess. Here we decided to change our return home route. Originally the plan was the #4 highway and then due to construction delays we changed to the Fleur-de-lis Trail but yet again, due to road conditions, we decided on the route through Iona. Regardless of the route or the fact that it rained, Cape Breton still offered up some of the most beautiful scenery in the world and we all enjoyed every mile. Below, coming through Orangedale, the scenes were beautiful, you just have to love it here in Cape Breton.

Barc sent along this photo on the route through Iona. Paul and Estelle is in front of Barc and you can't see him, it rained s hard. I could only shoot picture with the lens facing towards the rear because the rain would have obstructed the lens, i don't think the rain let up all day. The next photo is of Don and Helen crossing the Little Narrows Bridge followed close behind by Bobby and Anita, with the church in the background.

We said our good-byes on the Christmas Island Highway as it was quicker for some to take the Eskasoni route while Paula and I along with Don and Helen headed towards Barrachois Mountain and home. Below you see Don just passing the Barrachois River Bridge with a lot of colour surrounding the area.

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There you go, the run that closes the 2010 driving season for the BCCCB and what a way to go. 2010 was an amazing year full of road trips, car shows, and good times. This years presented a few challenges for the BCCCB with Jennifer cracking a head and just recently Julian losing the rear-end of his spitfire but 2010 also brought into our club some great people, Members such as Norm and Joan, Paul and Estelle, Ron and Lynne as well as Alf and Donna. As the club grows, so will the challenges. As for this trip, some said we stopped to much and others, not enough. This will always be but at the end of the day the stories of fun and good times are all that is talked about, because this is what the bottom line of the British Car Club of Cape Breton is all about.. Enjoy your great looking British car. Keep spinning a wrench to keep it in top notch condition and the stories of fun and good time will forever continue. So what if we miss a turnoff or a gift shop, or god forbid, a restaurant, they will be there when we pass that way again. Well folks.... If you weren't there you missed it. I have wood to split and coal to shovel but it will get done before the snow flies but to miss a outing such as this with the BCCCB.. It's not going to happen.

Until next time

Photo contributions---- Barc Cunningham