Fundy Sunday

The ferry thing worked! Just off St. John, New Brunswick, the wifi speed increased to a speed where I could upload the Blog and a few pictures. There was just enough time to get that done, pack the computer away, and jump in the car to get off. The ferry, although leaving on time, had to wait outside St. John Harbour for a while for an outbound cruiseship, so we arrived a bit late - just as the sun was setting. That made finding our campground interesting, as we don't know our way around the town at all. The campsite is in the city itself, on a hill and beside a lake, overlooking the city. Quite picturesque. They don't take reservations- not that we were in the habit of making them, but for a Saturday night, we were a bit concerned about finding a vacant spot. No problem.....we found the place, and set up (it took a bit longer, as we'd reconfigured our car for the ferry crossing and put the Thule car-carrier inside, due to overheight costs). But we'd eaten our sandwiches on the ship, so had lots of time. It turned out to be a fine campground, with all the amenities one could wish for, and a view, for 30% less than the previous evening. We didn't spend a lot of time in St. John, however, as the Reversing Falls struck us as a version of several of the tidal bores we have on the West Coast, and to time the reversal from the tide, we'd have to spend half a day there, waiting.....otherwise it would just be water flowing one way or the other.

St. John






The other sights of the town would not be available on a Sunday, so we headed out of town, bound for the Fundy National Park. On the way, we passed the village of St Martin, with sea caves gouged out of the red sandstone cliffs.




St. Martin Shoreline








We also passed our first covered bridge, something the area has lots of. We walked the shore at low tide, and viewed the caves from the seabed we were walking on.


A covered bridge, and low tide for the boats










Then, a short time later, we were passing the town of Sussex, which has over 16 covered bridges in the county (more than half within a 12 kilometre radius of the town). We stopped here for a bite of lunch at (you guessed it....Tim Horton's), and then a grocery store for tonight's dinner feast. Sussex also claims to be the place where Ice Cream Cones were invented, accidentally, when a bad batch of dough turned to hard, crispy pastry and baker Walter Donelly went next door to the ice cream parlour. Being a hard-core ice-cream lover, I was determined to find an ode to this event, but couldn't.....until, a short time out of town, we came across a sign advertising home-made ice cream. I had to stop and check it out, and discovered the best ice cream I've ever tasted, albeit a bit expensive ($5.00 for a single scoop cone). Mr McCabe, who made the ice cream, was an interesting fellow in his own right, as he chatted to us about politics and history. He had email attestations to his ice cream from all over the world, as well as interesting pictures of mummies and photos of reliefs from the ruins of Persepolis (ancient Iran). When I commented about one of the relief characters looking like the Gnome from Travelocity, he gave us a very interesting and educational lecture on the lost tribes of Israel, and how the reliefs shows historic proof of the actual nature of the people called "Scythians" . The ice cream was well worth the price, and the rest of the visit was worth much more!





We must be in New Brunswick....another covered bridge!










Following this entertaining stop, we continued on our route, ending up at Fundy National Park, setting up camp for the evening, and then hiking along several of the area trails. The views from the park are very panoramic and inspiring.

View from Point Wolfe Campground in Fundy Park









We took a short drive to the village of Alma, where we found we could get wifi, so on the way out tomorrow,we will upload this next segment of the Blog on our way to Hopewell Rocks, which are sandstone sculptures and islands which become accessible from the seabed at low tide. Then we will leave Fundy, travelling inland to visit with our friend Glen, AKA Ambi. We are running out of time for our committments in Ontario, so following that, the plan is to start leaping westward into Ontario to visit family and friends, and attend a wedding in Pt. Colborne.