Can you see Newfoundland from Cape Breton? Online photo sparks debate
CBC
A photograph taken from a rugged mountaintop in the Cape Breton Highlands that shows the ocean, a small island and a shadowy mass has sparked lively debate about whether Newfoundland can be seen from Nova Scotia.
Hiker Wayne McKay of Sydney, N.S., snapped the much-discussed picture on a clear, sunny day in October.
He and his 16-year-old daughter had headed to Meat Cove Mountain Trail for a short but steep hike to enjoy the splendour of the area’s fall colours.
On top of the mountain, McKay said, he took in a panoramic view looking out on nearby St. Paul Island and beyond it to what he asserts is Newfoundland in the distance.
“Immediately I thought it was Newfoundland because of the direction that I was standing,” he said.
“It couldn't be anything else. There's no other land mass behind St. Paul Island in that direction.”
McKay photographed the ocean vista and posted it on social media, igniting what he called a “firestorm” of comments that were split almost evenly between people who agreed with him and those who insisted he was wrong.
Among the more than 750 responses were some that read: "Wish I had that good of eyesight" and "Stop believing nonsense" and "Proof that the earth is flat.”
However, others came to McKay's defence, saying they’ve spotted the Rock from other vantage points on Cape Breton Island.
“I've seen Newfoundland myself at the top of Money Point, which is Cape North,” said 81-year-old Hamilton Carter, a longtime sailor who lives in Dingwall, N.S.
“You could see little white dots, which were houses that you couldn't make out. You're looking at Cape Ray, basically, and the mountains in back.”
Carter said anyone leaving Dingwall and heading toward Port aux Basques by boat would also see Newfoundland from several kilometres off the coast of Cape Breton.
Tim Webster is a geomatics researcher at Nova Scotia Community College who specializes in the study of maps and measurements of the Earth.
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