We had been watching the weather while on Cape Breton, and knew we had a short window of opportunity to get over to the Bay of Fundy to enjoy at least one good weather day. And so, with sad hearts, we left Cape Breton and drove all day up to Moncton and then back down to the Bay of Fundy on the New Brunswick side. We knew of several places to go on this side, thanks to Cathy, and so chose to drive further in order to experience as much as we could in the short time we had allowed ourselves. It was a long drive, but we finally arrived at Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park late in the afternoon. For those of you who don’t know the Bay of Fundy, it has some of most extreme tides in the world and is one of those places I had long dreamed of visiting. When we arrived it was just past low tide and so we were able to walk down around the rock formations (they are called The Flowerpot Rocks, for obvious reasons) and way down the beach. We took many pictures both down on the beach and from above, the plan being to come back tomorrow at high tide to compare them. It was a lot of fun seeing the amazing power of water to transform rock over time.

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When we finished, it was getting late and we needed to get some gas. We knew of a gas station that we had passed along the way out, so rather than pressing on to Bay of Fundy National Park and an uncertain ability to fill up our gas tank, we drove back, picking up something for dinner after gassing up and headed to the little community of Hillsborough where we knew we could park for the night.

In the morning, we headed back towards Hopewell, but knowing we had some time before high tide, we went further, up to Cape Enrage, where we were able to stop and enjoy the sight of the lighthouse there before the coming rain moved in and obscured the view. It was plenty blustery up there and it was their first day open since the hurricane blew through and shut their power off. We enjoyed climbing down their steep stairway to what little beach was available, checking out the amazing rock formations as we went.

Our exploration of Cape Enrage finished, we drove back down to Hopewell Rocks. You have to pay for admission to this park, but they make it for 2 days so that you can come back and see the water at both tide levels. It was pretty impressive to see the difference! What yesterday had looked like a Mars-scape, with the red red sand exposed in interesting pattern was now completely covered. Down at the Flowerpot rocks it was really amazing to see how far the tide had risen – and this is not even a particularly high/low tide time.

The weather was quickly deteriorating as we left Hopewell Rocks and headed towards Moncton and the warmth of Cathy’s house for another night. It is sure nice to have friends on dreary rainy days like this!

On our final morning in New Brunswick, we stopped at the Magnetic Hill, which is a short drive from Cathy’s house. This is an optical illusion, although you could have fooled me! You drive in, pay your $6.00 and then drive up a little hill where you start. From here, you drive down to the bottom, moving to the left hand side of the road as you do. At the bottom, you put your car in neutral and then, when you take your foot off the brake, your car coasts back up the hill, picking up a lot of speed as it does!!!! It was really weird and we did it twice, just to be sure. I know there is a good scientific explanation for this phenomenon and that it is, truly, an optical illusion, but hey! Why take the magic out of everything? It was really really fun just to enjoy the ride – literally!!!

From here, we will head back to Quebec and then on to Ontario, stopping to see family and friends along the way before we finally take the plunge and head into the States at the end of the month. Hopefully I will get one more blog entry in before then.