Wel(l)come to New Brunswick

Slowly Raghu’s time on the east coast was coming to an end. His flight back to Calgary was leaving from Saint John in New Brunswick. We said farewell to the island and took the impressive 13 km “Confederation Bridge” that connects Prince Edward Island to the mainland. We continued on the main highway and arrived in Moncton, where we had heard about the “Magnetic Hill”. This is an optical illusion, where cars can defy gravity and go uphill in neutral gear.

The “Confederation Bridge” connects Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick
“Magnetic Hill” is an optical illusion, where cars can defy gravity

After this short but amusing stopover we changed direction and drove down to the coast. This is where the “Hopewell Rocks” are located at the Bay of Fundy. And this time I had looked up the right tide tables, which was important as we wanted to witness the highest tides in the world. We arrived exactly at high tide and hustled to get a good view of the famous cliffs. But except for a few people in kayaks there was not much to see. And the tall rock columns looked more like their nickname – “Flower pots”.

High tide at the “Hopewell Rocks” is popular for kayaking

Since the tides are about six hours apart, the tickets are valid for re-entering during the next two days. So we decided to leave the muddy brown waters behind to look for a nice lunch spot. We followed the coastline and found a picture perfect calm bay at “Cape Enrage”. With the sun shining from the bright blue sky and a happy stomach it was difficult to get going again. But we had to hurry up, if we wanted to set up our tent at the “Fundy National Park” and return to the “Hopewell Rocks” on time for the low tide.

“Cape Enrage” was a lot less crowded than the “Hopewell Rocks”
The bay was a perfect spot for our picnic

And once again luck was on our side and we managed to get the last spot at the campground in the national park. Once we had set up our tent it was time to head back. We parked our car in what seemed to be the same parking lot, but when we got to the viewing platforms, we couldn’t believe our eyes – there was hardly any ocean in sight! The water had retreated quite far, leaving behind a red and muddy landscape, scattered with deep channels.

The sea as we had seen it a few hours before…
… had turned into a muddy landscape with deep channels

Where there had been kayakers just hours ago there were now dozens of people walking and exploring the ocean floor. Of course we also headed down the stairs to have a look. Soon we realized that we had to take off our shoes in order to get a closer look, there was just no way of avoiding the more than ankle deep mud. It was definitely a cool experience and quite puzzling to think about the fact that this had been covered by more than ten meters of water the last time we had been here.

Now we were able to explore the sea floor
It was impossible to avoid the mud, so we just took off our shoes

After this hands-on, or rather feets-on experience we were happy to find a cleaning station at the top of the cliffs, where we could wash off the mud with high pressure hoses. By then we had decided to go back to the bay at “Cape Enrage” for what we thought would be a suitable location for an awesome farewell dinner. But the slight wind that had been there during lunch time had died down, giving hundreds mosquitoes the chance to take over the beach. Somehow we managed to cook, but eventually we retreated to car for dining in peace.

The cleaning station on top of the cliffs was well in use
The mosquitoes had turned our perfect spot into a little nightmare

For the next day we had looked up a nice hike in the “Fundy National Park”, but there was a lot of construction going on and we couldn’t reach our chosen trailhead. Instead we changed our plans and went on a short hike through the woods around “Bennett Lake” and “Tracey Lake”. It was nothing spectacular, but it was nice and quiet and a good place to calm down after everything we had seen the last few days.

The family version of the typical red chairs at “Bennett Lake”
After a short hike through the woods it was time to say goodbye to Raghu

From here it was not far anymore to Saint John, where I had to say goodbye to Raghu. And while he was heading back to Calgary, I was resting some more to get my diary up to date before returning to Halifax to pick up my friend Eiko.

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