The drive from my home in Halifax to Sydney, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia is roughly 400kms, taking most Nova Scotians about four and a half hours. Even if I limit myself to only two bathroom breaks, I can’t seem to make the journey under 5 hours, but that’s a 7-hour improvement from my first trip. No dear reader, I didn’t get lost, nor was I involved in a car accident or any sort of emergency. I merely got sidetracked! Signs for scenic lookout points, nature trails with the promise of waterfalls, restaurants advertising the “best” chowder… over 12 hours, I stopped for it all.
I believe that time is one of the most lavish luxuries when travelling solo. It’s your own time to use however you wish and to prioritize what you value the most. I create my itinerary with the full intention to see it through, but I will also indulge any whimsy in getting sidetracked. I may have been less inclined to get sidetracked if I, like Karl, was riding a bicycle when travelling, but that’s not the case. Consequently, “Sidetracked” will become a regular feature of the Karl Chronicles, as I anticipate there will be lots of sidetracks on this adventure, starting now, in New Brunswick.
In Karl Chronicles Post #19 Horsepower and Megawatts, I shared an excerpt from the Truro Daily News where Karl described a construction project at Grand Falls attributed to a company that included Sir William Van Horne, President of the Canadian Pacific Railway (C.P.R). Mr. Van Horne was a big deal back in the day. By the age of 14, he started working on railroads, then advancing his career in various positions until being appointed general manager of the C.P.R and then becoming its president in 1888.
During that time, the Canadian government contracted C.P.R. to construct the transcontinental railway, and Van Horne was instrumental in the oversight of this construction, completing it six years ahead of schedule. After that, he was recognized as quite the astute businessman and expanded the business of C.P.R. into sea transport then luxury hotels helping to personally design the Chateau Frontenac in Quebec City and Chateau Lake Louise in Alberta.
It was his experience in the design of luxury hotels that he then applied to his estate. In 1889 Sir William bought a house on Minister’s Island — a 500-acre tidal island accessible at low tide along a sandbar road of the ocean floor near St. Andrews, New Brunswick. Over the years that followed, Van Horne transformed the house into a sprawling summer estate for his wife and three children, for which he named “Covenhoven.”
Van Horne extended the original house, then expanded again until Covenhoven was an expansive 10,000 square foot mansion with 50 rooms. The exterior of the summer home utilized red sandstone quarried from the island. As a result of the different stages of the construction, there were various unique features, including connecting rooms, multi-levelled attics, and many staircases. Van Horne was an avid antiquity collector and decorated the house lavishly with over eighty works of art, many completed by Van Horne — a skilled landscape painter inspired by the local island scenery.
The grounds of the property are equally as impressive.
A large, beautiful, chateau-like barn — one of the largest in the Maritimes — was used for breading prize-winning Clydesdale horses and specialty cattle. Other outbuildings included a creamery, smaller barns, living quarters for the workers, a windmill, a gas house, a carriage house, and a gardener's cottage. But I think the most spectacular is the two-level bathhouse Van Horne constructed at the Minister’s Island’s southern tip. The lower level allowed for access to the beach, contained the changing rooms, and the in-ground tidal swimming pool, while the upper level was for sitting and admiring a panoramic view.
All of this amidst beautiful gardens, greenhouses, walking paths and orchards attracting many dignitaries during Van Horne’s life and subsequently many tourists after being designated a National Historic Site of Canada in 1996.
So if you have the time or are willing to take the time, get yourself to Minister’s Island, an official GlobeTrotter sanctioned sidetrack.