I was not-so-patiently waiting for the tidal bore and mused, “It would be nice if at least the eagles were here to entertain us while we wait”. Tada, first one then two and ultimately five eagles appeared in the sky just over us and magnificently rose through the thermals until they were out of sight. I suppose it was actually timed with the coming of the tide but I like to think that they came there just then for me!
Just a short hike from camp is a look-off (as they call it here) over the Shubenacadie River just a few miles upriver from Fundy. The tidal bore gave a pretty good show here too. There wasn’t a vertical wall of water just lots of foamy swirling current. We watched about 20 zodiacs ride the tidal bore induced rapids swirling around each other like bumblebees as they each tried to maximize their time in the roughest water. It’s a really popular thing…it did look like fun.
A little one-woman bake shop (Fraser’s Pastry Shop) that makes some pretty amazing looking sweets. We chose cookie bars. Kent and I agree the butterscotch one is to die for. The cherry coconut isn’t bad either. I plan to wait until tomorrow to sample the chocolate. A sign read that fresh bread (a different variety depending on the day of the week) was available every day too. That was long gone by the time of our late-morning stop.
Just so I remember
I have been enjoying some great custom roast coffee from Coffee by Design, Brazil Cerrado, expresso roast. It is wonderful. I splurged on a pound of fresh roasted beans and just ground the last of it this evening. It is a bit too extravagant for everyday but fun to indulge in now and again.
There is a fry truck here in camp. We just had to try the local fires….french fries with stuffing piled on top and all of it smothered in gravy. It looked a little gloppy but was mighty tasty. They served a bunch of other fired stuff too but we managed to resist everything else.
A stroll alongside a quiet creek with a couple little waterfalls was a nice diversion this afternoon.
Tree sculptures. Just like the Gulf Coast folks who commissioned artists to carve the hurricane killed live oaks, inTruro they have 20 wonderful sculptures cut from elm trees. Dutch elm disease struck Canada just as in the US and they have lost essentially all of their elms. The artists melded local history with natural beauty to create some enjoyable work. I think I like the eagles best but the lumberjack is fun too. There is a nod to the Canadian First Nations People and Girl Guides too (their Girl Scouts).
The Salmon River meanders, chocolaty brown between sharp edged banks and around low flat bars before it disappears around the bend out into Cabequid Bay to the Bay of Fundy. 20 or 30 people stand around waiting and watching. Splooshes randomly get our attention as sections of the unstable silt banks dry and collapse. Gulls and a few shore birds hang out in the still shallows. It is a tranquil scene.
The tidal bore appears. A wall of churning, silty, salt water is pushing upstream and creates a wall about a foot tall that spans the river. The bore moves at about 8 miles and hour they say and currents collide and rejoin creating transient patches of whitewater and calm as it passes. The event ends with the river 7 feet deeper and slowing upstream. We wandered on to check out other things but the process just maintained its rhythm…quiet tranquil river heading out to sea alternating with churning chocolate colored rapids carrying life and sediment far back upriver. We are going to check it out again tomorrow.
These folks are pretty serious about their multi lingual, all pictorial signs. They have pictographs for everything. It’s sort of like a puzzle as we are driving. They are not all intuitively obvious, at least not to me. I had to look up what a white skeleton key on a blue background is. It is a museum of course. Tomorrow we see the tidal bore on Fundy.
The can of bear spray complicated Kent’s border crossing. We pointed both car and rig into New Brunswick today. So, everything crossed, including the bear spray. It is allowed but it results in a mandatory stop to chat with a special agent. I think I could hear many bears laughing.