28 On to Fundy

Canada
Québec & New Brunswick
Nova Scotia & Newfoundland
Québec & Ontario
Manitoba to the Pacific

1 Arriving in Montréal
2 Montréal
3 Olympic Village
4 Looking for a motorhome
5 To the Eastern Townships
6 Eastern Townships
7 On to Magog
8 North Hatley via USA
9 Back to Magog
10 Back to Montreal
11 The Roadtrek 170P
12 North to Beaumont
13 La Grosse Ile
14 On to Trois Pistoles
15 Still at Trois Pistoles
16 Cap Chat
17 Windmills and mooses
18 Mont Jacques Cartier
19 Mont Louis
20 Slow start to Percé
21 Percé
22 On to New Brunswick
23 Caraquet
24 Acadian Historic Village
25 South to Shediac
26 Moncton
27 Catch up in Moncton
28 On to Fundy
29 Alma, Fundy Nat Park
30 Fundy National Park
31 On to Fredericton

Canada

Moncton to Alma, New Brunswick

Wednesday 31 August 2005 (day 101)

Today we finally made it out of Moncton. We had a slow start and then headed for our final visit to Ground Zero Networks to upload the last bits of the site and to send emails. On the way we stopped to clean Mortimer who, despite the rain, is still very dirty. It was a big powerful do it yourself car wash - quite a giggle and Morty was clean at last! With little food in our little home we stopped in Moncton for brunch so it was about 3pm before we made it out on the road to Fundy.

It has been raining pretty much all morning, not heavy but continual. It looks like Stef will get the wet and soggy camping experience over the next few days and it will be interesting to see if he is still as enthusiastic when he is soggy. At the junction for the 114 down to Fundy the road was flooded, still passable but slowly. Seeing an Irving petrol station we pulled in to fill up our propane tank (the hob and fridge run off propane). This is the last "new" experience we have to go through with Mortimer (although we probably still need to sort out our waste dump as it seems to leak). I was very pleased that they do the propane for you. The lady doing it was very friendly and we chatted away. She was equally wary of propose when she first started to work at the garage and realised she would have to do it. You have to be licensed to fill up propane so it looks like we will not have to do it anywhere along the way.

Crazy formations at Hopewell Rocks

Route 114 is the Fundy Coastal Drive running along the southern shore of New Brunswick. It was a pretty dismal day for views because of the rain but we were still passing through really scenic countryside. En route, we stopped at Hopewell Cape to go down to see the Hopewell Rocks, unusual rock shapes created by erosion. The whole are is set in the middle of huge mud flats about 4km long and 2.5km wide. Seeing a small channel through the mud both of us thought of Alex, who has a reputation for beaching his boat and "getting stuck in the putty" (a technical yachting term). (Alex - we know you have a good story to reciprocate with...!)

At low tide you can walk along the beach (or the ocean floor as it is marketed) to see close up the erosion and the shapes it has left behind - caves, rocks stacks known as the flower pots because they have plants growing on top. The beach is a mixture of shale, rock and mud. As we went down a family came up the other way and their two girls were covered in mud. "It's all her fault" said one of them pointing to the girl in front to me when she saw me chuckling. The mum came next saying she was disowning both of them!

It was a similar walk to the one we had done to the Rocher Percé but without the benefit of sunshine. Time was marching on so we kept our visit short and wandered down to the beach to leave at the North Beach access point. The walk down has a small section with an incline that was slightly steep and then the steps down onto the beach. Warning signs abounded telling people to take care on the steep sections. When we bought our tickets they told us that most people walked down to the beach and then got a little shuttle back up because it was steep. The walk up would not really have been strenuous (the steps up from the beach would be the tough bit) but as the shuttle was there when we wanted to come back we hopped on. It turned a fifteen minute walk into a two minute ride and was our luxury for the day.

We followed the 114 and then the 915 towards Alma. The 915 runs right by the coast through marshlands. The fields were full of what to me looked like wild plants in picture postcard style meadows. Given the climate and the rain I suspect there are mossies galore there! At Alma we stopped at the shops to buy dinner and breakfast for tomorrow. It is a tiny town with a couple of shops, a hotel, cafe, a petrol station but it had everything we needed.

Alma is the main access point into the Fundy National Park which we plan to explore tomorrow. We stopped at the park information centre and got a very envious "you're going to Yukon, I really want to go there" from the lady behind the desk. She was very helpful and gave us information on the park and available walks. We also opted to buy a year's pass for the National Parks and Historic Sites figuring that we will easily get our money's worth.

We stayed in the Headquarters Campground next to the Information Centre. It is large but most of the sites are for tents and are separate to the small RV park. Although it was raining we opted to barbecue our meat, setting up the awning to keep Stef dry while I sorted stuff inside. It is very humid here and looks set to be the same tomorrow. People have said that it is the impact of Hurricane Katrina that is pounding New Orleans. The rain is set to stay with us until Saturday!

Prev | Up | Next

Top

Visitors:
Home \| Info \| Blog \| Travel \| Pictures \| Site map \| Search \| Guestbook	Copyright © 2001-2007 Stefan and Vanessa Aalten-Voogd