Sunshine was forecast and sunshine with clear blue skies it was! We work like a well oiled machine on days when we plan to get out for a full day - one of us leaps forth and gets breakfast organised, we check emails etc over a cup of tea and then organise walking kit, rucsack, camera gear and sandwiches for lunch.

We decided to head for Acadia National Park on Mount Desert Island again and given our urge for a decent walk we decided on Cadillac Mountain. This significant bump at 1530 feet is the highest point on the Atlantic coast north of Rio de Janeiro. There looked to be an excellent hike starting at the south end of the island, heading north over Eagle Crag and following the south ridge of Cadillac for about four miles to the summit, or you could just drive up! Needless to say we didn't!

Once you've paid for a week's entry pass to the National Park you can use the free shuttle buses that run around the island's main landmarks. It took a bit of figuring out where to leave the car and pick up a bus to the south starting point of our walk and this time the staff in the information offices were of no help. They didn't seem to get that if we parked our car in one place we somehow needed to include getting back to it in our plan! Anyway we worked out that we could drop our car at the north end of the trail, pick up the shuttle and ask to be dropped off at the south end, not a listed stop but on the bus route, so off we went. It seems that the bus routes confused many of the tourist passengers who kept asking the driver for stops that were not on his route!

By the time we'd dealt with the bus journey it was about 1pm as we started walking and we were hungry so the first small clearing provided a lunch stop. Then is was steadily up through woodland trails mostly walking on bare rock. We soon made the ridge where dwarf conifers became the main vegetation and Eagles Crag offered us our first views along the coast. The trail was well marked and also well used - we met more people coming down than we've seen on most days. The ridge continued with bare, rounded rock outcrops and fine views leading up towards Cadillac summit. As we approached we spotted the road, cars, coaches and crowds milling around on the relatively flat top. The only consolation of sharing the top with so many was that there were loos and a gift shop selling good coffee!

As we've seen in places such as Lands End as soon as you move 100 yards from the car park the crowds magically disappear, it was the same here and within five minutes of heading north we were again only sharing our day with the occasional hiker. Having come over the top of the mountain the view down to Bar Harbour to our east opened up and we were surprised to see two large cruise liners moored off-shore. They were as long as some of the islands nearby and for some reason these hadn't been in any of the guide book photos we'd seen! The route down was a little over two miles so was significantly steeper than our ascent. However, we continued to move briskly and back at the car recognised our legs were telling us they'd had a good work out.

Jill had spotted an appealing restaurant nearby on Trip Advisor so we'd decided to treat ourselves to a meal out but it was not to be as they were fully booked. So we headed for home and quickly knocked up lamb steak, baked potatoes and pan roasted tomatoes from our hosts' garden - delicious. And we phoned the restaurant and booked for Friday!