The Bay of Fundy lies between the Canadian provinces
of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, and touches the state of Maine. It’s famous for its extremely high tides. The
most famous spot to visit is at Hopewell Rocks where you can see the
eroded “flowerpot” formations stand in water or on dry land.
|
Called "flowerpot" because of erosion on bottom and foliage on top! |
But let me not get ahead of what we did before going to see
the Flowerpots. Our campsite for the
next 4 nights was in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia at the Cove
Oceanfront Campground. We scored a
great site on the water with a huge yard, perfect for circling around our
campfire in the evening. It was a foggy day and our first experience with how
the tides rise and fall so much.
|
We had beautiful sunsets! |
|
Low tide |
|
High tide of same boat |
The next day we drove over to the town of Digby. We
had lunch with Nancy K. and Connie on the boardwalk. We then drove down Digby
Neck. Wasn’t too eventful as you couldn’t see the ocean, just trees. We did
make a stop at the Sandy Cove Beach.
We ended our evening with a fish fry for our friend June’s birthday. And
then the rain started gently falling.
|
Balanced Rock |
|
Foggy Sandy Beach |
|
The old fish shacks are quite beautiful! |
|
Digby Harbor |
Although the rain continued through the night and the next
day, we had a scheduled bus tour to the Port Royal National Historical Site. This is a reconstruction of a 17th
century French compound, one of the earliest European settlements in North
America. In the spring of 1605 explorer Samuel de Champlainmade a
recommendation to settle at the beautiful, sheltered harbour of Port
Royal. The habitation was rebuilt in
1939. It was very well done and we had
an awesome docent explaining the history to us.
|
Nancy, our friend |
Next stop was Fort Anne National Historic Site. And it started really raining here. This is the location of one of the most
contested places in North America. It has always been Mi’kmaw territory. Both
the French and the British held military control here at times and fought for
it at other times.
|
Many of the Acadians were loaded on ships here and sent elsewhere. |
We had a great lunch at the German Restaurant in
town. We backed out of going to the
historical gardens due to the rain.
|
Yummy apple strudel from the bakery, still warm. |
Our last day here found us buying more scallops from the
fish warehouse by our campground. It was
a beautiful day, so we decided to go back to town and re-explore what we
attempted to do in the rain yesterday.
Enjoyed lunch at a wine bar before driving down the coast toward Port
George, where we went looking for seals but unfortunately the tide was in and
they like the rocks when the tide is out.
|
Fort Anne Cemetery |
|
Made it to the historic gardens, which were beautiful |
|
Even caught some live music! |
|
Nice wine bar! |
The next day we went to the Elm River campground in Elm
River, Nova Scotia. That afternoon
we went to see the Bay of Fundy tidal bore. It’s cool to watch the wave of water start
appearing in the river, but due to the moon’s location I don’t think we saw
what that tide is capable of. In other
words, not too exciting!
|
A little game playing in the evening |
|
Pictures got out of order. This is the river once it filled with the tide. |
|
Tide rolling in |
|
The beginning of the surge. Some guy is out there trying to ride the wave! |
Our next campground was Ponderosa Pines Campground in
Hopewell Cape, New Brunswick. It
was a rainy drive over. Campground was nice. While here we got to walk on the
ocean floor of the Bay of Fundy, looking at the Flowerpot Rocks. Our park ranger was very good! We didn’t get all the way down as the tide
started coming in. You don’t really want
to be stranded down here if that happens!
|
Tide in! |
|
Walking on the ocean floor! |
|
M + R = 43 years come September 15! |
|
Tide is starting to roll in! |
|
Fun to walk on the ocean floor! |
|
The captain is showing how high the tide gets! |
|
Betsy is the moon, Nancy is the sun, and the interpreter is explaining tides. |
|
Lover's Arch |
|
Showing off our Xtra Tuff rainboots! |
|
Tide in! |
Next campground is Rockwood Campground at Saint
John, New Brunswick. This is located
in the industrial town of Saint John, and we’re warned everywhere to make sure
and lock everything up. We spent half a
day touring the town. One of the best stops was at the Old City Market. It
was cool. We snacked on some Lebanese food which was great (and
different).
|
View from our campground |
|
Have never seen a memorial like this! |
|
Me and Lucy! |
|
Ron and Panda |
|
Panda is the sweetest! |
The Reversing Falls was pretty cool. We saw them at
low tide and then again at high tide. So
at low tide the river empties into the bay causing a series of rapids and
whirlpools. When tides rise they slow the river current for a brief period called
slack tide. The bay’s tides continue to
rise, gradually reversing the flow of the river. The rapids form again, peaking
at high tide.
|
Reversing Falls at high tide |
|
Low tide |
|
Low tide, and boats can make it out |
|
Seal |
|
Driving through at low tide |
We also stopped to see the Carleton Martello Tower. It’s perched high on a rocky cliff
overlooking Saint John. It dates from the War of 1812. It played in conflicts up to World War
II.
Our last campground on this tour was at the Kiwanis
Oceanfront Campground in St. Andrews, New Brunswick. We have a great view of the Bay of Fundy from
our site. It’s a short walk into the
pretty town. There was a view of the Pendlebury Lighthouse on
Passamaquoddy Bay.
|
Made from plastic bottles |
This time we got to DRIVE on the ocean floor! When the tide is right – meaning the road isn’t
covered with 14’ of water, you can drive over to Ministers Island. You can access the island for about 5 hours
during low tide. It is now a historical
site managed by the historic Van Horne estate.
|
And there's the spit of land to drive over |
|
There we go! |
|
The barn |
|
Water cistern |
|
Front of house |
|
Looking up in the bath house |
|
The road back to the mainland. |
We enjoyed a farewell dinner at the Algonquin Resort,
super nice. Everyone dressed up and
enjoyed adult beverages and a nice dinner.
|
The Algonquin Resort |
|
Connie and Nancy |
|
Wendy, me and Becky |
|
Annie and Ron |
|
Ron and Nancy |
|
Bill, June and Mark |
|
Nancy and Connie trying to hitch a ride! |
|
Final campfire |
|
The Ugly Sticks |
|
Barbara, me and Dorothy |
|
Andi, Kristina, me and Nancy D. |
|
Mark, Ron and Bill |
We ended our time together with another campfire. Super
nice! It’s been a great 61 day Canadian
Maritime adventure with folks that started out as strangers and ended up being
your friend at the end!
We have decided to make it back home in 9 days, which allows
us to get home before Labor Day. We will have a few adventures along the way!
No comments:
Post a Comment