Intuitive Travel on the Cabot Trail – Pendulum Style

Does all the decision-making take the fun out of travel for you? Intuitive travel can help.

With the use of a pendulum, it’s even easier. Plus, it’s a lot of fun as you embrace the mystery and follow guidance.

Intuition is playful. It invites you to be curious, wonder-ful, and yes, stretch your comfort zones by exercising trust. Once you start to play with your Team of Divine Helpers in this way, it’s amazing!

Clarity, ease of decision making, playfulness, and experiencing what’s in your Highest Good …. these are all benefits of using your intuition.

Here’s my story and a coaching video on how to use a pendulum for decision-making.

Although most of my trip to New Brunswick to be the godmother of the Atlantic Visual Arts Festival (FAVA) was straightforward and planned, my return trip through Cape Breton island was not.

I’ll start by saying that although I’ve lived intuitively for years and have learned to completely trust my guidance, it doesn’t mean that some of what happened on this trip wasn’t a stretch of my comfort zones.

I’m not a natural risk-taker… yup, a bit of a chicken, actually.  But I trust my guidance.

When I Googled places to stay in Cape Breton, here’s the map I got. Yikes! When you blow it up, a lot more places show up.

When I planned my trip, I didn’t even know if I should stay on Cape Breton Island or on mainland Nova Scotia. All I knew is that it was 7 hours away from Caraquet. But I wasn’t sure if I’d be packing up my exhibition that morning or the night before.

So instead of humming and hawing or worrying about it, I simply took out my pendulum to ask a few quick questions.

The trick is that once you get an answer, stick to it, trust it, and stand behind it. If you start to doubt and ask the same question over and over, it won’t work anymore. Your Team of Divine Helpers will stop playing with you.

So I asked:

“Is it in my Highest Good to say on Cape Breton the night of June 18th?”

Yes.

“Is it in my Highest Interest to stay on the right side of the island on this map?”

No.

“On the left side?”

No.

“Is it in my Highest Interest to stay in the centre?”

Yes.

And then I simply put my finger on each accommodation and watched as the pendulum gave me a no, no, no, no, and finally a yes!

When I checked out the listing online to make my reservation, it was perfect for me – on the outskirts of town with a view of the water!

The historic Broadwater Inn near Baddeck was the home of Alexander Graham Bell’s right hand man.

I delighted in the view and comfort after a long drive and very busy week at FAVA. My Team of Divine Helpers were right (of course). It’s just what I needed!

Over breakfast the next morning, its current owner shared entertaining stories and very useful travel tips with his houseful of guests.

For my first day on the famous Cabot Trail, I simply followed my intuition using my clairsentience (clear feeling).

This is a simple intuitive exercise of tuning into your body to sense its yes/no through feelings of expansion or contraction. I teach you how to do it in a previous blog post.

You likely do it all the time unconsciously.

I like walking through a city or driving around in this way. At every intersection, you ask which way is in your Highest Interest and feel your way to a yes, whether it’s go straight, turn left or turn right.

Then you embrace the mystery, trust, and stay hyper attentive with a sense of curiosity and play to find out why you were directed that way.

The Cabot Trail is a 297 km (185-mile) scenic loop that tourism guides recommend driving in 3-5 days. I only had 2.

Intuitive Navigation was a great way to see and do what I knew was in my Highest Interest and let go of all the wonderful things I knew existed but I didn’t have time to do.

I’d check in to spontaneously decide whether to stop at various vistas, artist studios, restaurants, hiking trails, etc.

It was great! And it was fun!

Many have asked if I mind traveling alone. Trust me. I’m never alone. None of us are! My Team of Divine Helpers are great travel companions.  They always have my Highest Interest at heart and  never complain about my hundreds of photo stops and illogical decisions – in fact, they applaud and reward them.

The skies were threatening rain and it was getting later than I was comfortable with. I didn’t know where I’d be sleeping.

I knew there’d be vacancies as we weren’t in the height of tourist season yet. But not knowing where I’m sleeping is a stretch of my comfort zone for sure!

I’m not the easy going nomadic spirit many people think I am when they look at my resume. I feel the fear, but know to follow my guidance.

In my mind, it was logical to drive to Pleasant Bay to stop for the night and maybe take a whale watching tour in the morning.

But when I got there through the heavy rain and fog, I was intuitively instructed to keep driving.

“Really?! It’s moose-hour and that fog and heavy rain are scary to drive through, especially through this section of roller-coaster hills”.

To keep going meant getting back into the nearly deserted National Park, not knowing how long it would take to reach the next patch of civilization.

But I know better than to say no to my guidance. It only leads to regret.

So, I kept going and all I could think about was “I’m glad my Dad doesn’t know I’m doing this right now“. Through the filter of my fear, it just wasn’t a smart thing to do.

But the moose were kept away and without any other cars on the road, I could drive as slowly as I wanted through the sheets of rain and blankets of fog.

At one point, I passed a hostel with cheap rooms – sounded good. But I got a strong “no” when I spotted the long lines of construction crew vehicles pulled up for the night. So I kept going.

Finally, I got to Chéticamp, an Acadian town I thought for sure would be my final destination. It was nearly 8pm and I’d been driving for more than 10 hours.

But as I stopped in the parking of all the B & Bs, hotels, and roadside cabins to use my pendulum (because I was unable to tune in to my body’s senses as well through the mild panic mixed with trust and tiredness), I kept getting a “no”.

Once I got to the other end of town, I was concerned yet still willing to play. “OK”, I said, “Now where?”.

And soon after that, I got the message to turn right. I was now driving on Chéticamp Island and spotted a bright yellow sign  “Camping & Chalet”” ahead.

My whole being vibrated when I saw that sign. It was a clear “Yes” and the joy welled up inside.

My first relief was that the Plage St. Pierre Campground office hadn’t yet closed for the night. My biggest relief, however, is that they had 1 cottage. And it was available!

Better than that, it was the only beach-front lot in the place. Everything else was behind the sand dunes in the trees.

Wow! What a view! It felt like wilderness luxury – with 2 bedrooms, living room, modern bathroom, full kitchen, and outdoor deck for the same price as my first night’s B & B ($120 Cdn).

I couldn’t believe my luck! But I should have. There’s a reason I trust my intuition. Look where it brought me.

I was woken up the next morning at 4:44am (one of my 2 angel numbers) just in time for the sunrise. Then, after a very welcomed hot shower, I walked the deserted beach for 3 hours in the company of my new iPhone X camera and was in total bliss.

There’s no way I would have enjoyed a hotel or in-town stay as much as I did this time to be in Nature stretching my legs with water all around.

After taking my time to leave the campground and then exploring the bumpy road to the lighthouse on the other end of the island, I headed out of Acadian Country.

When I stopped at the Dancing Goat Café & Bakery (recommended by my Broadwater Inn host), I got a definite sign that there was more fun ahead.

First, I was given the order number 44 for my table. Then my bill came out to $11.44 (11 is my other angel number).  I was being congratulated and reminded that the game was still on.

So after a healthy lunch, I took the road with a sense of curiosity and wonder. It didn’t take long to figure out what was in store for me.

I was only about 1.5 hours from North Sydney, where I needed to be at 9:30 pm that night to line up for the overnight ferry back to Newfoundland. That gave me all afternoon to explore in the warm sunshine.

So I asked myself, “What would you most like to do?” and kayaking came to heart. I love being on the water and it had been more than a year since I’d been in a kayak. It was still way too cold in Newfoundland, so now was my chance.

I knew my loop would take me back to Baddeck, where I slept on my first night. I’d seen a marina and thought perhaps they’d have kayaks there. It was only half an hour away.

But not 2 minutes after having had that inner planning conversation, I see a sign for The Lakes Campground with go-karts and kayak rentals. For $13, I could take a plastic kayak out onto the pristine lake for an hour.

I had it all to myself, but once again, I was far from being alone.

Within the first 5 minutes I spotted an eagle at the top of a tree and crossed the lake to sing to it. Then I simply relished being on the water (definitely my element), embraced by the forest, and taking in the saturation of colours & abundance of life-giving fresh air.

A red-tailed hawk flew right above me, chased by some angry little bird. The sun through its tail feathers filled me with gratitude as I reconnected to one of my first totem animals from childhood.

While looking up, I also spotted a rainbow-coloured halo around the sun that took my breath away. The contrails added to what felt like a sacred geometry show in the heavens above.

I felt so very blessed and grateful ! I couldn’t ask for a better leisurely kayaking space. I was in bliss!!!

Then, just as my hour was up, the eagle left its perch across the lake, swooped half way down the expanse of water and pulled up a big fish with its powerful talons. Then it let it go and flew away over the distant mountains. It was as if it was simply giving me a show as I’d asked it to do an hour before. Sorry little fish…

I ended my Cabot Trail tour walking through Baddeck. I’m not a shopper by nature, but something compelled me to enter a clothing store. There, I found the perfect necklace to add to my small collection – a very long string of spirals in a hypoallergenic zinc alloy from Turkey – it felt like I’d been looking for it for years.

So I said “Yes!” and “Thank You!” embracing the circulation of abundance on this day.

I then felt completely satiated, so headed to North Sydney early to eat, line-up for my overnight ferry, and start editing the thousands of photographs from my trip.

Intuitive travel is fun. Enjoy trying it out – whether it’s for a couple of hours downtown or weeks on the road.

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