St. Martins 2, New Brunswick, Canada

I do not know if it this particular area there is some sort of bizarre Canadian vortex or whether there are super solar flares but the internet is not working well at all.  The blog is becoming harder and more difficult to manage especially adding pictures and videos.  We are at the library in Moncton, New Brunswick and the internet is very slow.  Neither the library’s WiFi nor our hot spot are performing very well at all. Back in St. Martins, where our RV is parked, last night I could not even open the blog whereas the day before it zipped right along with no problems.  So for the next little while updates might not be coming as regular as they have in the past.

After two days in St. John we returned to St. Martins – neither of us were impressed with St. John and probably will not return.  It is an old sea port and is very industrialized.  There is nothing to draw us back there.  When we got to St. Martins we went to the wharf just to check it out and to see if there were any lobsters for sale.  Well there was a guy selling live lobsters – he opened up his storage shed and he had tanks full of lobster.  I asked him the weight of the biggest one he had – he reached into the tank and pulled out an 8 pound lobster at $9.99 per lb.  I asked him how old the lobster was and he did not know but said a 5 pound lobster is about 20 years old – he said marine biologists he has talked with say that the growth rate of a lobsters is not linear.  The largest he has ever had in stock weighed 19 pounds and the largest he has seen weighed 22 pounds. So the question is – how old is a 22 pound lobster?

Right beside the wharf there is a covered bridge that goes to the beach and the caves that we can see from the RV Park.  We drove over there and it was beautiful but we were not prepared to go walking on the beach or to the caves.  We did stop at a place that advertised the “World’s Best Seafood Chowder” – we each had a bowl and it was the best seafood chowder either of us had ever tasted.  It was great with large chucks of haddock, lobster and shrimp.

We drove back to the wharf and went to the visitor center after looking through the gifts shops in the shacks along the wharf.  I visited the information center which was a non-functional 3 story light house.  From the third floor you could see two covered bridges and a couple of gazebo’s that were both being used for pictures by two pleasantly competing wedding parties.  I tried photo bombing one wedding picture but they caught me and I decided to leave the area before getting thrown in the water.  In the two photos below you can see the two covered bridges and the lighthouse – I was told by a local artist that this is the only place in North America where you can see two covered bridges and a lighthouse in the same photograph.  I could have taken a better picture but that vantage point is on private property and this was as close as I dare go.

Back at the RV we made plans to journey to Fundy National Park the next day.  It was a two hour drive to the park but we got started late so there wasn’t much time to do anything once we got there.  It turned out that there wasn’t much to do anyway because it is almost exclusively a hiking park with trails of various length a levels of difficulty.  We picked up some brochures and sat at a table in the visitors center and hatched a plan for the next two days.  We decided to go to Moncton on Tuesday and watch the tidal bore come in at 12:15 pm and then check out some of the shops in the old town area.  From there we would drive to Hopewell Rocks and stay overnight in a B&B and book a kayak trip through and around the Hopewell Rock or flower pot formations.  We locked everything in with reservations and and drove a mile into the village of Alma and had pizza for lunch.

We were on the road early and arrived in Moncton with plenty of time to spare.  We located Bore Park and decided where we wanted to be witness to the bore tide.  There were probably 40 to 50 spectators when the bore started.  It was very interesting to watch although one might think it isn’t anything spectacular.  It is caused by the tide water’s moving up the Bay of Fundy.  The bay gets narrower and shallower which compresses the water which makes the tides higher and more forceful.

We ate lunch and I spent a couple hours hanging out at the library in Moncton Public Library hoping to get caught up on the blog but their WiFi was not very good so I was spinning my wheels.

We drove to Hopewell and checked into the Hopewell Motel and Inn.  I had a lobster for dinner then we turned in.  The Hopewell Rocks park opened at 8:00 am so we were there early.  The shuttle drove us down to the stairs you descend to the ocean floor.  It was amazing to see the rocks before going down the stairs.  Once on the ocean floor we were free to roam around and explore.  At 10:30 am we walked with a park ranger who gave a 45 minute interpretive lecture on the rocks, the tides, the vegetation and the history of the park – it was extremely interesting.

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MARTINS, NEW BRUNSWICK JULY 8

We arrived in St. Martin’s on Friday. Our RV site is on the Bay of Fundy. It was interesting to see the dramatic differences in high and low tide just 200 yards from our trailer.

From our site, we could see the “sea caves.” From the beach at low tide you can walk into the sea caves which we did one afternoon. Afterwards, we had excellent fish and chips at a seaside café.

We had two overnight excursions while in St. Martins. The first one was to St. John (see previous blog). The next was Hopewell Rocks.

From our RV site, we took a day trip to Moncton I enjoyed this city. Here we saw the Tidal Bore. This is a tidal phenomenon in which the leading edge of an incoming tide forms a standing wave of water that travels upstream, against the current of a river or narrow bay. The tidal bore in Moncton is caused when the unparalleled tides in the Bay of Fundy begin to make their way up the historic Petitcodiac River. We watched the tidal bore from Bore Park in Moncton. This occurs twice a day. Sometimes with a particularly high tide, someone surfs it.

I managed to get an appointment for a mani-pedi while in Moncton. (Color turquoise of course.)  Not only did Josée do a great job, she was a lot of fun.  She is Acadian and as you know I am quite interested in this culture. I learned lots of information from her regarding Acadian games and food. I learned about Washer Toss.  Some folks at the RV Park where we were staying were playing this game. Another one is “Flying Testicles” played with golf balls.

She told me about some Acadian foods such as Acadian Poutine which is different from other poutines which we have tried. She showed me a picture of it. I guess it is an acquired taste. Another traditional Acadian dish is “fricot” which is a stew with chicken and vegetables. The word fricot has its origins in 18^th century France where it was used to mean feast. Evidently Fricot is such an important part of Acadian food culture that the call to eat in Acadian French is “Au fricot”! Some products popular in this part of the world are ketchup potato chips and Maple Cream (fudge.)

The next overnight excursion we took was to Hopewell Rocks. This was definitely a highlight of our Canadian trip.  We spent the night at a motel only a few minutes away from the Hopewell Rocks Park.  Peter had his last lobster in the province of New Brunswick at the motel’s restaurant.

Hopewell Rocks is such an iconic site in New Brunswick that we bought a photo to commemorate our visit there. The photograph shows the Hopewell Rocks at low tide and high tide. In the morning we visited the park at low tide. We took pics walking around the famous rocks on the ocean floor and had an interpretive tour by a park guide. It was so informative and interesting. The park is very careful to make sure that the beach is cleared before high tide begins. There can be up to a 47 foot difference between low and high tides. The park has erected an emergency platform if someone does not have the foresight to leave before it’s too late.

Our next activity at the park was kayaking around the rocks. This allowed us to experience Hopewell Rocks from two different perspectives. This time we kayaked around the famous rocks we had walked around in the morning.  There was a film crew filming when we were kayaking. Of course there were people from around the world joining us for this activity.

We arrived yesterday (Thursday, 7/14) to the province of lovely Nova Scotia. We are staying approximately two weeks in the RV Park – Wayside Camping Park in Peggy’s Cove. We will be in Nova Scotia for approximately 3 weeks. Peggy’s Cove is so incredibly picturesque. For the next two weeks we will be exploring the area, the city of Halifax and southern Nova Scotia.

Our goal for today is to get caught up with the blog. It’s been next to impossible to work on the blog in the past two weeks. We were hoping that it would be easier here at the RV Park in Peggy’s Cove.  However that has not been the case. Consequently we started our catch up work at breakfast in a restaurant overlooking the cove and lighthouse. Then excursions from cruise ships arrived and we were asked to leave. Now we are at a cute coffee house with WIFI finishing up.

The next blog will cover our first couple of weeks in Nova Scotia. After our time at this particular site we will spend time driving around the northern coast of the province. After that we will be taking the ferry (without the travel trailer) to Newfoundland for about a week. We will staying in Airbnb’s while in Newfoundland.  JY