Today, Kaye’s Cabot Trail road trip takes her to the Northumberland Coast, where she’s visiting Pictou – a landing place for Scottish settlers in 1773 and, more recently, Syrian refugee Abdul. Today, Kaye shares his tale.
Doug is our host for the evening in the old Customs House Inn in Pictou, on the Northumberland Coast of Nova Scotia.
Pictou was the landing place in 1773 for 170 Scottish settlers, fleeing highland clearances, who braved the Atlantic Ocean in the tiny vessel Hector, now restored and tied up at the town wharf.
So, there’s plenty of tartan and Gaelic heritage in this tiny seaside town.
The Customs House Inn is an imposing stone edifice with extensive polished timber trim, high ceilings and graciously proportioned rooms. Doug is a little left-of-centre, at first taciturn, but over breakfast he is slightly more forthcoming about the town and its inhabitants. He does, however, endorse the food at the Alladin café de wheels, run by Pictou’s only Syrian immigrants, Abdul, his wife and children.
So, it’s there we head on a rainy morning for a top-up of coffee and falafel. And what a delightful family story we uncover. They only fled Syria 16 months ago, arriving in Pictou three months ago and opening their tiny café within six weeks.
Abdul LOVES Canada, the local people and the chance he has been given to raise their two (soon to be three) children in a peaceful and supportive community. While we eat and chat, many locals make their way to the caravan where Abdul’s wife serves them, despite her lack of English.
Sometimes a smile is all you need.
How did we get to Pictou?
We had a long drive from Pleasant Bay to Pictou, down the Cabot Trail and back onto the main cross-province highway, before turning north to the Northumberland Strait. Sensible travellers would not go this far in a day, so aren’t you glad we did it so we could suggest you break your journey in Antigonish.
#handyhint
Nova Scotian wine is a mighty fine drop. Don’t hesitate to try the local whites or reds. At $7 to $8 (a glass not a bottle) they are very inexpensive for a very generous serve. The Jost Vineyard has terrific dry whites and also offers something they named, in honour of Canada’s 150th birthday anniversary, the ‘Great Big Frigging Red’. It is exactly that – five stars!
