Made it! West to East

New Brunswick and the Atlantic

The Atlantic - my lovely legs are on the left

Monday August 11th and we have dipped our toes (and paws) in the Atlantic; we have made it, West Coast to East Coast!  I was musing when we last dipped our toes in the Atlantic.  It was some years ago, probably in Rock, Cornwall, in 2020.  The place where Jack first learnt to swim about nine years ago.  He's been swimming ever since.  It was just as cold this side! 

Fifty three kilometres shy of 11,000, 70 days, 28 campsites, 7 provinces (two to go) and lots of other useless statistics I haven't yet calculated.  I might leave the fuel cost until last!

Bay of Fundy, our last three night stop in New Brunswick (NB) close to Alma, is just lovely.  We were told the campground was full, but it didn't feel like it.  Another well planned campground amongst trees.   

The beach on the edge of the park had about a dozen people as we started exploring on Monday afternoon.  Though our campsite temperatures were circa 31C, the local fishing port, Alma, 5km away and facing the Atlantic was windy and only 26C.  Fred had suggested we take our swimming gear. Daft idea, it was bloody cold.  Why is the Atlantic synonymous with cold and the Pacific warm? 

Jack of course was unbothered by the cold and was in! 

Our stay was in Fundy National Park which is 207 Km2 of lakes, forest and beaches.  Every single trail in the park, in fact every trail in the whole of New Brunswick is closed, due to the risk of forest fires.  There were two burning when we arrived, so they were erring on the side of caution.  Temperatures kept rising and we were sweltering at 38C; you can imagine how easily forests can ignite. NB and NS have this week been described on the news as 'tinderboxes'.  We have not seen or smelt any sign of fires, even on a late afternoon routine vet excursion to Moncton, just a few miles south of the wildfire at Irishtown. 

Tuesday morning we went to hike to Point Wolfe Beach (one of the few trails open). We met three young women who'd flown in from Germany to hike the trails, not knowing they were all shut.  They were as disappointed as we were, though as the temperatures climbed to mid-thirties, we probably would not have done too many long hikes.

Stepping back to August 7th, our last stop in Quebec province was at the Lac Témiscouata PP Campground, some 250km on from our Quebec City stop.  We had gone from urban and suburban locations to something closer to wilderness.  I think the thing that attracted us to the Sunshine Coast is what gives us the greatest pleasure in these provincial and national parks.  Space, few people, trees and water. 

Capt Jack in the bow

Lac Témiscouata is huge at 65km2. We were set amongst a mixed pine and deciduous forest, a few yards from the lake, which Jack swum in half a dozen times.

We canoed on Friday morning spending a couple of hours paddling along the lake shore, with stops to allow Jack out and for us to paddle in the warm water.  Keen though he was to get in the canoe, he was soon straining at the leash to get back in the water.  He is a water dog.  That's Spaniels for you!

The park was rural but had superb modern facilities, which can only have been built in the last couple of years.  Just stunning.

The dampener to our Friday stay, was the news that the annual ballot from the 2020 Permanent Residents applications has been drawn, and for the sixth year running we didn't get through. There were about 70,000 applicants left from the 2020 Expressions of Interest (EoI), and they were drawing 17,600, a 1 in 4 chance.  It was hugely disappointing.  

We just hope they don't open up to new EoI's and put us back into a big pond next year.  The other risk is the prevailing Canadian attitude to immigration, which has seen numbers whittled down over the last few years, particularly for non-working/economically contributing categories, (though I beg to differ on the last point) such as the Parents and Grandparents scheme, which we are registered under. 

Saturday August 9th we crossed into New Brunswick.  A great drive down Highway 1, amazing scenery but warm at 31C.  We weren't quite sure if the poor visibility was wildfires or heat haze.  We didn't smell any smoke.

Wide open spaces - Mactaquac PP

Mactaquac Provincial Park is not only a large campground, but it also has a beautiful 18 hole golf course, if you like that sort of thing.  It's never been 'my thing', but the campground was in a lovely  manicured lawn setting.

The park has a number of trails, though the two we checked out in opposite directions at either end of the park, were closed.   After 3km getting to the trail heads we gave up and drove into Fredericton, which we only then discovered, embarrassingly, is the capital of NB.  

The town is quite attractive, though it has a serious homeless problem, centred around the government buildings and the river.  

My joy of urban driving, coupled with the one way systems, the annual FireFit Championships, (firefighters doing what firefighters do in a competition complete with Scottish pipers), plus the 2025 FredRod Custom Car Show with the associated closed roads, made driving around town a pain-in-the-arse.  Only Fred's expert navigation maintained my sanity.  

The upside was finding a lovely restaurant that allowed dogs on the patio, called The Lighthouse by 540, on the banks of the St John River.  

In fact it's not a real lighthouse.  It was built in 1989 as a faux lighthouse (a folly?) and has never shone a light.  Still, it was a good venue, the food was good, even if it was a tad warm.  

Another discovery that we hadn't clocked when we entered NB was that we are now in yet another time zone.  We had in our mind that Canada had four.  It in fact has six.   Pacific (where we live) UTC - 8Hrs; Mountain UTC -7Hrs; Central UTC -6Hrs; Central daylight saving GMT -5Hrs (it doesn't change); Atlantic (Eastern) UTC -4Hrs and Newfoundland UTC -3.30 Hrs.  Confusing, but we're just going with the flow.  Fortunately our watches and Apple technology update automatically.  It does explain why our drive to Mactaquac, which was scheduled to take 3 hours, showed us arriving after 4 hours!  Doh!

While we have been driving, we have suffered and continual knocking sound, like metal on plastic when we have been driving along on the bumpier roads, and there are quite a few. I've emptied the storage under the rear seats and repacked it, emptied and repacked the centre console, moved cans and water bottles out of drinks holders, all to no avail.  Then in a lightbulb moment I decided to look at the rear seatbelt buckles.  Eureka. Seat belts clipped in and noise stopped.   

Driving into some of the provincial parks often highlights the scale of the parks and land given over to the parks system.  Driving into Fundy PP we had a 30km drive through deserted forest roads to get to the entrance to the park, and then a further 30km to get to our campground, Chignecto. Fred had managed to book us a large secluded corner plot.  Apart from a couple of trailers on opposite sides of the track, the only other incumbents were the numerous red squirrels and a pet rock.  Shark? 

Some wag had drawn in eyes and a nose!

We booked lunch at Tipsy Tails in Alma for the following day, a dock side restaurant that allows dog on the patio.  

Surrounded by the fishing boats whose main catch is lobster, we decided we should check it out for lunch.   Be rude not to really.

We could not quite believe how quiet Alma was compared another of our occasional seaside seafood haunts, until it got too busy, 'Padstein' in Cornwall.

The video below was taken from the dock and looks back to the restaurant.

Wednesday 13th we drove up to Hopewell Rocks, a much visited set of Stack formations about 45 minutes up the coast.  Best viewed at low tide when it is possible to wander amongst the towering edifices/stacks along (as the marketing blurb describes) 'the ocean floor'.  The tidal range at Hopewell is huge, with a maximum of 16 metres on the King (Spring) tides.   On the day we were there at low tide the range was 8m.  Caused, we are told by the, unique funnel shape and depth of the bay.  We learnt that in some parts of the bay it is impossible to outrun the incoming tide.  We didn't test it out.

It is worth a visit, but be prepared for the crowds.  The car park was a third full when we arrived early morning and full by the time we left.    

Flowerpot rocks

The rocks,  'also known as the Flowerpot Rocks, are a unique geological formation, shaped by millions of
years of erosion from the powerful tides in the Bay of Fundy. The formations are made of red/brown 

sedimentary conglomerate, sandstone, and some mudstone, originally deposited as layers of sediment that were later compressed into rock. The constant ebb and flow of the world's highest tides (up to 16 meters or 52 feet) sculpts the formations, creating the distinctive "flowerpot" shapes .

Thursday 14th we drove to Prince Edward Island PEI, leaving Nova Scotia to explore from Monday August 18th through to the 25th, after which we head home.  

Getting on to PEI is via the Confederation Bridge, which at 12.8 kms (8 miles), is the 'longest bridge over ice-covered water' and takes ten minutes to cross at a steady 80kmh.  It was quite impressive, though due to bridge works it probably took us nearer twenty minutes.

Some more pics of the last week.

Capt Jack

A classic north American covered bridge - Fundy National Park

Inner harbour - Alma

Our quiet corner pitch in Fundy NP

Confederation Bridge - looks high!!!!

Can't yet see the other side 

And then it gets even higher!

Every trail entrance barred

Currently unidentified! - Ralph?

Also unidentified

American Redstart

Black & White Warbler

Returning Red Setter to Spaniel colours after a dip in the Bay of Fundy

Hopewell Rocks 'Ocean Floor' and red sea

Our last few stops on the grand tour!

A short walk checking out our PEI campsite after our arrival and we came across a couple of fox cubs.