Day 100

Today we have officially been on the road for 100 days! Isn't that crazy?
We woke up after an amazing rest at 6am! I'm so glad we stayed in the hotel. We all really enjoyed ourselves! And Agnes was really glad and she felt fresh for the day (although sore, I'm sure!). We went to breakfast and had the BEST hotel breakfast ever! It wasn't a regular continental breakfast with danishes and muffins and toast. It had cinnamon rolls, scrambled eggs, ham, toast, bagels, tea/coffee, porridge, milk, boiled eggs, muffins, english muffins, cereal, need I list more? And it was buffet style so we got SO full!!!
We left the hotel and hit the road at 8:30. There were big rolling hills, but they were a low enough grade, so weren't bad! It was going to be a big, 170km day (HUGE for poor Agnes, but it needed to be done to get to Mabou tonight!). We really wanted to get to Mabou tonight for a few reasons. The lonely planet raved about it, and mentioned the "red shoe pub" which is owned by the Rankin sisters and has live music and really good food. It is also a location that will allow the next few days on the Cabot trail to be minimal (ie. 100km or less). So, we went straight through to Cape Breton Island, which was 110km away, with only a slight break in Antigonish for a washroom break.
When we crossed the cosway, we headed straight to the info centre (which we found to be a little less than informed or helpful, and who, when asked for hike recommendations in the national park, told us they aren't allowed to make recommendations. They didn't even give any information on the hikes! What a horrible info centre!).
After our long lunch break, we hit the road for the last 60km of the day to Mabou. We took the Ceildh Trail, which was really pretty, and which was fairly flat, with some rolling hills. Agnes was slower than us, which was expected, but she kept on trucking! What a trooper! Michael and I were impressed! The weather and scenery probably helped, as it was a highly enjoyable ride (with a touch of a headwind).
FInally, we made it into Mabou!!! It was just before 7pm, and we caught the tail end of the live performance in the pub! We then went for a (necessary) swim in the inlet, where we "washed" with camp suds, and then went back for dinner at the Red Shoe. We noticed, across the street, there was a Ceildh starting at 7:30. We figured it would go on all night, so ate our MUCH needed dinner before heading over. It finished before we even got there! Apparently it was only 2 hours! We were disappointed to miss it, but it really was essential to eat! So although we were gutted, we wouldn't have done anything differently! The nice gardener we met told us we could set up camp on a lawn in town, which was wicked! It took a while to figure out where to sleep, and we were so relieved when we had somewhere!