A Boring Time in the Bay of Fundy

We were based in Shediac on the Northumberland Strait which separates Prinbce Edward Island from the mainland. To our South West was the big town of Moncton famous for two things. We visited both on Monday . The first was Magnetic Hill.
Supposedly the the third biggest tourist attraction in Canada (which I doubt) the hill there supposedly has a magnetic attraction that makes cars roll up hill. So we paid our five bucks and gave it a go.

Rolling Uphill without Power at Magnetic Hill

Its hard to see the phenomenon as it is a gentle hill but when you are there you can see that it is a real slope. The engine was going in the video but the car was in neutral.  Convinced?
Nah.  Apparently the whole of the countryside is tilted in that region and whilst locally it looks like a gentle hill when viewed from a greater distance, the wider tilt kicks in and you can see it is a downhill slope. Well that was one attraction to score a 2/5. What about the famous tidal bore on the Petitcodiac River in downtown Moncton. It is caused by the shape of the Bay of Fundy into which it flows. The world’s biggest tides occur in the bay, and have reached 18 metres when the wind is assisting the tide as it flows up the ever narrowing Bay of Fundy and into the rivers that empty into the Bay. At times the bore can be a metre high but when we videoed it was about a foot but still very impressive.

Tidal Bore at Moncton

What is equally impressive is that the tide goes from low to high in the space of one hour and in Moncton that is about 7.5 metres. And it happens twice a day every day with the biggest bores dependent on the phase of the moon and the perigee of the moon’s orbit.
The next day we left New Brunswick and drove to Nova Scotia and stayed the night at Truro where we could see another tidal bore on the Salmon River. But while it was a bore it was only a few inches high as we were around the Neap Tide phase of the month.
Then we drove south along the Bay of Fundy to Annapolis Royal near to the bottom of Nova Scotia. It has a lot of history in the area. It is the site of the second oldest settlement in the Americas (St Augustine founded by the Spanish in Florida was the first). It was built in 1605 by the explorer Samuel de Champlain who also founded Quebec City. In the shape of a square with an enclosed courtyard it yielded a very interesting perspective on early life in Canada.

We were experiencing the longest run of fine weather since NZ, with 2.5 lovely days of sunshine. (As I write this we are in a storm at present!)
We also visited the British Fort at Annapolis Royal as the area changed hands several times between the English and the French. There is no much left of the fort except the officer’s quarters and the defence works.

We called in at the tidal power station that is the only place in North America to use tidal power to generate electricity. We had a long char with Bruce who had visited NZ 5 times in the past 20 years and had relatives in Waipu Cove where Nova Scotians had come in 1850 for a warmer climate.
Then it was a drive down the coast to Digby which boats the biggest scallop fleet in the world and has what are reputed to be the biggest, the juiciest and the tastiest scallops in the world.

They Bay of Fundy with its surging tides whips up all the plankton which the scallops feed on making them big and succulent. We had lunch at the Fish Market and the scallops were sensational. We bought some home for a scallop salad that evening.
Then the fine weather stopped and the rain returned as we drove across the island to just outside Halifax, the capitol. In a gap in the weather we drove to the picturesque village of Peggy’s Cove set in a narrow inlet on the granite coast that covers the northern part of Nova Scotia.

Quaint fishing villages dot the coast and there are myriads of small coves and islands everywhere.
We are here for a few days and if the weather eases will visit the world’s second largest natural harbour at Halifax.