The Grand Canadian/
American Adventure
Day Six The Bay
of Fundy
We’re on the road again. This morning we visited the Reversing
Falls in Saint John. This is the point where the Atlantic Ocean meets the 450
mile long Saint John river, and twice a day a waterfall effect is created as the
tide either moves in or out of the mouth of the river. The flow over the waterfall changes direction depending on what tide it is. We got there at low tide
as the water was rushing downstream and created whirlpools where it hit the
Atlantic. To give you an idea of the amount of water that flows into the river
from the ocean at high tide, the fresh water is pushed back up the river 60
miles. It’s certainly a spectacular sight, one which set us up for later in the
day.
Leaving Saint John we took the Coastal route up along the
Bay of Fundy. Travelling through Fundy National Park, we kept an eye out for
moose as they are plentiful in this area. Unfortunately we didn’t see a single
one. But the animal we did see more than made up for it. We saw our very first
black bear as he crossed the road a few hundred metres in front of us. Unfortunately by the time we reached the spot where we had seen him, he was off
in the bush, however we did hear him growling.
With that bit of excitement over we then hit the cost and
saw the most amazing fog bank roll in. Further down the coast we stopped to
take in the view from the tops of the cliffs at a restored light house but of
course the fog put an end to that. Once again, the scenery and villages along the
coast were very similar to what we have already seen driving through Maine,
that doesn’t mean we have got bored of it though.
Mid afternoon we hit our other designated highlight for the
day, Hopewell Rocks. Just as we were heading down to the rocks, we ran into the
Dickson family who were just leaving. Geoff, Julie and their 6 kids are from Colo
Heights and have been over here in Canada since July last year, they are about
to return to Australia via Europe in seven days and were on their last road
trip before they leave. After chatting to them for a while we walked down to
the shore, where you can walk around on the ocean floor before the tide comes
rushing back in. The special thing about the Bay of Fundy is, because of its
shape it funnels the Atlantic Ocean and thereby creates some of the highest
tides on the planet. The tides here rise as much as 11 metres, with the record
being 17 metres. In the photos you will see an arch on one of the flower pot
islands. Today’s tide was expected to lap at the underside of the arch. In the
hour we were there the tide must have risen nearly two metres, you certainly
wouldn’t want to get caught on one of the numerous exposed rocks that dot the
coast.
From Hopewell Rocks we then pushed on through to Prince
Edward Island, crossing over from the mainland to the island via the 13
kilometre long Confederation Bridge. We solved the problem of why we haven’t
seen so many PEI number plates. It’s because the toll on the bridge is
$43.00!!!! No one on PEI can afford to drive across to the mainland. Lol
Tonight we are in a farm stay
in a city called Summerside, mind you after driving around looking for a place
to eat, I think the place should be reclassified as a mid size town, a nice
place but not very big.
