Beyond Saint John

Well, we spent most of the day en route to Sackville in the “clouds”, as it were. Little actual rain but lots of fog and mist and temperatures no higher than 9 C. But in spite of the weather it was an excellent day!

(Click on any photo so see a larger version)

The first leg of the days drive included a small detour of about 15 Kilometres to the community of Kingston to pick up some food for our dog, Kita. She is on a raw food diet so finding sources along the way and keeping it cold has been an interesting challenge of the trip. This short side trip turned out to be of special interest. First, it involved an unexpected ferry ride - little waiting time as the trip is short and there are two small craft constantly moving back and forth carrying up to about 15 vehicles - depending on size. The drive to the meat source took us on some interesting roads and past equally interesting houses. Our GPS guided us to the address and en route we found ourselves on Shampers Bluff Road.

To most this likely means nothing but others might know that the internationally known Canadian photographer, Freeman Patterson, lives on Shampers Bluff! In 2009, when I attended a Freeman Patterson workshop in St. Martins, New Brunswick, I spent a day at Freeman’s place which is on a very high piece of land with some amazing views of the water and land below.

After picking up Kita’s 5 days supply of food we drove past Freeman’s place, but decided not to pay him a visit. This photo from the road is a view of the area near his place. It is worth noting at this point that photos of places like this - which look quite spectacular - rarely do any justice to what the eye and brain perceive.

Back to the ferry and on toward our destination for the day, Sackville, New Brunswick, a drive of around 200 Kilometres. About two thirds of the way we decided to leave the highway and travel down to the Bay of Fundy coast along a secondary road thinking we would be very close to the water, and we were but only glimpsed it at infrequent intervals. The drive took us through Fundy National Park which is quite spectacular though we saw it only from the road as everything is closed until mid May. Even so, we past some very interesting terrain and places of interest, like

Overlook in Fundy National Park

some unusual colourful hillsides and the small village of Alma, which is just outside the National park and right on the water’s edge. 

Village of Alma

The tide was out so any boats at the dock were left stranded on the ground waiting for the next high tide. And Ruth found a general store where she picked up some stamps and engaged in a characteristically “Maritime friendly” conversation with the clerk, or possibly the proprietor. From Alma we continued along the coast, catching glimpses of the salt water mud flats, visible at low tide. Some of the areas visible were covered with low vegetation interrupted at intervals by “channels” of water running perpendicular to the bay coast.  Not sure of the origin or significance of these.

Well past Alma we came to a small winery! - Waterside Farms Cottage Winery proved to be an interesting surprise and offered more “Maritime friendly” conversation. They make a variety of fruit “wines” including blueberry “wine” aged in oak, which is quite tasty, as well as a blackberry “port”, also surprisingly good. Bought a bottle of each.

Path to the Rocks

Closer to Moncton we arrived at the Hopewell Rocks, a cluster of unique rock formations, some mesa-like, referred to as “Flower Pot Rocks”, which have been carved out by the powerful tides of the Bay of Fundy   We had hoped to see these but the whole area is highly “organized” as a tourist attraction and pretty tightly closed until later in the season. 

We did manage to circumvent the gates and walk to the area near the rocks where we gained a limited view. The paths to the rocks are quite lovely, winding through quiet, almost cathedral like forest. When the area is open one can arrange a beach level walk but not at this time. The need for caution is pretty clear as the area is rocky and no doubt slippery when wet and it is subject to very high tides which come in extremely rapidly.  All things considered, potentially very dangerous.

Diamond Rock

The Diamond Rock photo was made from a point on the path that was "semi-legal" but in order to see the Flower Pot Rocks (below) I had to make one further transgression though not to a point that was at all risky.

When we left the Rocks it was getting late and we still had about 70 Km to go to Sackville so we pushed on to Moncton, navigated the maze of roads there and arrived in Sackville about 6 pm,

Got our collection of stuff into the motel, had a bite of supper, enjoyed our blueberry wine, booked our motel in Port Hawkesbury, Nova Scotia and watched the Jays roll over the Texas Rangers!

Flower Pot Rocks

In the morning (Friday), surprise! It was 3 C, densely overcast and pouring rain! So we decided to slip on down the road to Amherst, NS to the nearest pet store for another leash (one was damaged when Kita broke free) and we passed a “ghostly” field of wind turbines spinning in the mist - I say spinning because there was a serious wind which was great for the turbines but not for driving! 

Got the leash, visited the Information Centre to get information about the tidal bore, and found some interesting buildings in the village of Amherst.

First Baptist Church, Amherst

Back at the motel we had some lunch and hunkered down waiting for the rain to stop - which it did around 2 pm. But even when it is not raining water tends to gather on one’s glasses and camera. After the rain stopped we went for walk in the nearby Waterfowl Park. What a great place to walk!

Tonight there will be more organizing and getting ready to leave early tomorrow morning en route to Truro to try to catch the tidal bore then on to our next stop at Port Hawkesbury, N.S. 

Just to show what the driving was like on this trip for most of the day, below is a photo Ruth took with her iPad.