SYDNEY, N.S. — The busy autumn cruise ship season is in full swing and the Sydney waterfront is hopping with visitors.
Yet something is missing.
Noticeably absent is the strange blue and green, amphibious tour bus that delighted tourists and locals alike when it made its inaugural Cape Breton appearance just two years ago. It was back last year and again turned heads as it negotiated city streets and plied the waters of Sydney harbour.
But now, the Harbour Hopper is nowhere to be found.
Where is the touring bus/watercraft that this writer once described as the platypus of the transportation world?
The answer lies with Dennis Campbell, president and chief executive officer of Halifax-based Ambassatours Gray Line, the company that operates the Harbour Hopper experience.
According to Campbell, the unique touring initiative that has been operating in Halifax for the past 20 years may have been ahead of its time in Sydney.
“It was a trial to try to give us a feel if it would work in the short or long term – we gave it two years and after that we realized we may have been a bit premature in the market place,” he said.
“Part of the issue is that Sydney already has a lot of great features – you have Louisbourg, Baddeck, Iona, the Cabot Trail, so we found that the bulk of the people that wanted to go on tour really wanted to get to some of those places that Cape Breton is so well known.”
The hour-long Harbour Hopper tour started and ended at the Sydney waterfront and included 40 minutes on land and about 15-20 minutes on the water.
The amphibious vehicle was originally built for the United States military and was used to shuttle supplies from ship to shore during the Vietnam War. Initially called a LARC-V (Lighter, Amphibious, Resupply, Cargo), the 35-foot craft was later utilized by armed forces in Australia, Philippines, Argentina, Singapore and Iceland. About 1,000 of the hybrid vehicles were manufactured and an estimated half of those were scuttled during the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam. Over the years, a few have found their way into the hands of tour operators.
Although plans to put the Harbour Hopper back into action in Sydney are presently on the shelf, Campbell said he’s hopeful the unique touring vehicle will someday be back in Cape Breton.
“As we all know, Cape Breton is not known for its Harbour Hoppers, but we do hope that someday it will be,” said the Ambassatours CEO.
“We feel very confident that we will be back with Harbour Hoppers on a more permanent basis sometime down the road – we just don’t know when at this point.
“We’re waiting and watching with the thought that we’ll jump back in at the right time and I think that time will come. There’s already investment in a new cruise berth which we’re elated about, so we want to see the effects of the new berth and we’ll make a decision from there.”
The $20-million second cruise berth is expected to be completed by the end of 2019.
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