Charlottetown to North Sydney

Well, the schedule has been sorta up in the air. The only thing really concrete is that we have to get back to Fredericton for April 14 or so. And as I think we're gonna attempt to hitchhike across Newfoundland and back, we should give ourselves as much time as possible. So we're heading there first, and then we can hit Nova Scotia on the way back.

I was a bit torn over whether or not to take the overnight ferry to Port-aux-Basques, but I really want to get some footage of the trip, so we've found a bed and breakfast in North Sydney. The bus dropped us off outside a hotel overlooking the ferry terminal and the downtown, and it was quite pretty with the sun going down. Yeah, another long day on the bus. I had thought that once we got to the Maritimes the rides would get shorter, cause the cities are closer together. It's not working out that way so far, there's just not enough time to stop everywhere I'd hoped.

The b&b was only a 20 minute walk - if that - but I had hardly eaten all day, so it seemed a lot farther. I gotta remember to eat when I get the chance, cause when I wait, I never seem to get another chance til I feel like I'm on my last legs. And even though we dumped stuff off in Fredericton, these packs are still too heavy. We've got summer clothes, and winter clothes, cause St. John's just had a huge dump of snow. Very strange weather in this country.

We'd planned to take the ferry out this morning - we'd even packed before heading down for breakfast, but exhaustion was setting in again, and it wasn't too hard for us to convince ourselves to stay an extra night, let Newfoundland warm up a bit, enjoy the ocean view from the Heritage Home B&B, wander the docks, maybe get a few interviews. We mentioned the project to Juana, the woman who runs the b&b. She made a few phone calls and half an hour later she gave us a list of about 10 people we should go speak to. One guy was already waiting for us. So we grabbed the gear and were running out the door and it was another day of filming.

It turned out to be awesome, we were interviewing people until the sun was setting, and a couple were especially outstanding. Thanks again, Juana! One thing I learned about Cape Breton Island is that cancer is really, really prevalent. It seemed everyone we asked could name family and friends who had suffered from it, or recount their own stories, and most people blamed the tar ponds. These are basically pools of leftover toxic waste from the steel mill. I'd never heard of these - probably cause I don't read the papers like I should, but check out these links for a bit of a background: http://www.agrnews.org/issues/124/environment.html http://www.cbc.ca/news/background/tarponds/
http://www.safecleanup.com/jag/timeline.htm

We were in Sydney (about 30 min from North Sydney) to change buses, but didn't see the tar ponds. We'll have to try to get there on the way back. I wouldn't have thought something like this could exist in Canada.