Issue link: https://digital.copcomm.com/i/1151132
22 wholelifetimes.com we visited Saint-Pierre and Miquelon, a tiny overseas French archipelago. Things can even change mid-activity. One day I was in a small group kayaking off Cape Breton Island when our guide heard that a nearby gannet colony was very active. So, we jumped into a Zodiac, attaching our kayaks to form a yellow and orange tail behind us, and zipped over to watch more than 100 of the huge seabirds swirling through the air and dive-bombing for fish. I especially enjoyed mingling with the locals as I learned about the area's culture, an interesting stew of Gaelic, French Acadian, British, and Mi'kmaq. Living can be tough in this beautiful land. My guide at the Inverness Coal Miners Museum grew up in a company house with her nine siblings. She remembers playing around the old coal trains and scrounging chunks of coal to take home to heat their houses. She demonstrated the terrible wind-up siren that signified an accident in the mine. During her childhood, the sound brought the whole town to a standstill as they held their breath and prayed. On a tour of Iles aux Marins, or Sailors' Island, off Saint-Pierre, I learned about another hard life: that of cod fishers. Now a ghost town island, this former fishing village peaked at about 700 inhabitants. Since the island was too windy to grow trees, residents recycled shipwrecks to build their houses. At least 675 ships have wrecked on these windy shores since 1817. The heavily French Catholic island even has a reproduction of the famous Lourdes shrine, the ending point for an annual procession from the church during the Sailors' Mass. When I look back over my week with One Ocean Expeditions, I have so many highlights: the beauty of the area, the fun of exploring with all those adventurous women, the opportunity to learn about the diverse cultures. This was the kind of trip that made me hungry for more travel — both to visit more parts of eastern Canada, and to go more places on the Resolute. For more information about Canadian and other cruises, visit www.oneoceanexpeditions.com. Exploring Atlantic Canada Continued from previous page From top: Wild horse on Sable Island; Sailor's Island; Hiking the Franey Trail. Photos: Teresa Bergen