Friday, October 2, 2015 - The Lighthouse on Cape d'Or

I booked my two night stay for the Lighthouse on Cape d'Or nearly nine months before my trip.  It was one of the things in doing my research on lighthouses in Nova Scotia that immediately caught my eye.  Fearing getting locked out on the specific dates I needed for my travel schedule, I paid in advance to secure my lodging plans.  My time spent there did not disappoint me.  In fact, it exceeded my expectations in almost every way.

If only someone could have removed the curtain of clouds and let the sun shine through brightly.  But in retrospect, I have to say, much of the ambiance of staying at the lighthouse, in the former keeper's family home, was created out of the less than ideal weather conditions.  So all in all, I guess I wouldn't have changed a thing!

I arrived to the hill top entrance right as scheduled . . . a little before 5:00pm local time.  Darcy (the owner) met me shortly after my arrival.  He felt confident that my "AWD truck" would be fine to make the trip down the gravel path in spite of having been washed out by the rains the night before.  ARGH!  He had me follow behind him as he carefully rode his mountain bike down the steep grade.  At the point of the washout, he directed me to hug the hillside in order to avoid loose control and heading over the side of the road (where there was no longer a guardrail).

Making it to the bottom of the hill without so much as a scratch, I thought "that wasn't all that big a deal!"   Words I would come to eat.

Darcy took me to the keeper's house that is low a guesthouse.  The other keeper's house on the grounds was the location for his very nice seasonal restaurant.  Open during the summer months to others, in the shoulder season he provides gourmet meals (breakfast and dinner) to overnight guests.

A little about his guesthouse set up.  The entire house is set up for guests, as he lives off property and tends to his other businesses during the day . . . after breakfast and before dinner.  There are four bedrooms, two that share a bathroom at the end of the hall, adjacent to the rooms.  The other two bedrooms are connected to a master suite bathroom and is a perfect set up for a family with children.

There was also a nice common area set up as a living room with a small refrigerator, microwave, hot beverage station and sink.  During my two night stay, there was a couple staying each of the two nights, so it was just three of us in the house at night.  It was very nice to have the entire place to myself after the first couple left Friday morning, before the second arrived that evening.

One of the best things about travel is getting to meet other people from different parts of the world.  I have been given the gift of being extroverted, so there is no such thing as a stranger when I'm traveling.  During my two days at the Lighthouse on Cape d'Or I enjoyed the time meeting and chatting with my new friends as much as I enjoyed the peace and quite solitude of having the entire place to myself for over six hours on Friday.

It was easy to sit and image what it might have been like as a lighthouse keeper's family, living at Cape d'Or  Two families lived here until the light was destaffed in 1989.  It is still an active navigational light with a foghorn to warn ships of the shallow reef beneath the dory rips and the sheer cliffs of the shoreline.
During the day on Friday I enjoyed the solitude of being there by myself.  I set up my laptop in the living room in order to enjoy the view while writing for what would become my blog entries for my first several days of my journey. I also used the time to go through some 500+ photos from those six days. There was no WiFi or internet connection; no TV only a radio and my Springsteen DVDs for music.  I couldn't have asked for anything better!


At night, I slept with my curtains open allowing the light beacon to flash on my bedroom walls.  As I drifted to sleep, I thought about what it was like to have been one of the children living there.  It was an amazing experience.

While Darcy had originally taken on the operation of the guesthouse and restaurant with his wife back in 2000, he is now divorced and running the things on his own.  He is a delightful man and a wonderful host.  Said to have not been professionally trained as a chef, I can say he really knows his way around the kitchen, making gourmet meals for his guests.

About the meals at the Lighthouse on Cape d'Or . . . the rate you pay to stay at the Lighthouse is just for the overnight accommodations.  For my room with a double bed, the rate was $90 CDN per night (or roughly $68 USD). 

Both breakfast and dinner are additional, but do not allow that to dissuade you from dining there too!  I can assure you, there is no better value for the meal you will be treated to, that what Darcy prepares in his cafe.  The price for breakfast was $8 CDN and dinner was $32 CDN.  With the exchange rate to USD, that worked out to $30 per day, or just under $100/night total including meals . . . an outstanding value in my opinion. 

My first night he started with a Caesar's Salad that could have been the entire meal itself.  Not "just" salad, but a blend of taste sensations that included a spicy sausage atop the freshly prepared Caesar's dressing.  The dry roasted tomato bruschetta was the perfect accompaniment. 

Dinner was a seafood lasagna that had huge chucks of salmon and shrimp inside the cream laden pasta.  Added were asparagus spears and Swiss chard for veggies.  No gourmet meal would be complete without dessert.  Darcy prepared a nice berry cobbler served with vanilla bean ice cream.

When I got up from the table, it was nice to have a short walk back to the guesthouse.  What a wonderful dining experience!

The next morning Darcy prepared French toast and bacon which was very nice.  That evening he was again serving the seafood lasagna, but since I had been with him the night before, he prepared a special broiled salmon entree for me.  Like the night before, it was simply perfect.  I opted for a "half portion" salad however, knowing that I didn't want to overeat two nights in a row.

Breakfast my last morning there was a traditional fried eggs breakfast with Canadian bacon and roasted potatoes.  I have to say, I thought I was going to put on five pounds just from my two days there.

Originally my plan for Friday was to go out and explore the Cape Chignecto Park, but to be honest, I got concerned about my ability to navigate back up that huge hill in what I later realized was my NON-AWD truck!  I was so worried about the drive back up, that at breakfast Saturday morning, I told Darcy I had a favor to ask of him.  With a wry smile, he said "Sure, what can I do for you?"  He knew exactly what I was going to ask.  What he didn't realize, until he was behind the wheel of my vehicle was that we didn't have all wheel drive.

After the first attempt, and realizing that fact, he said that this would require a different approach since the wheels were not getting the traction necessary to make it to the top.  In his best Top Gun voice he said "What we have here, is a need for speed."  He rolled all the way back down to the lighthouse itself . . . and gunned it.  With my eyes closed, I sighed with relief at the top!

My time at the Lighthouse on Cape d'Or will forever be etched in my memory.  It is right up there with some of my other favorite vacation experiences including seeing the northern lights dancing in the skies or watching a momma grizzly nurse her two first year cubs.

Miles driving . . . ZERO!