Bay of Fundy

Hello again and welcome to the story of our day out with Debbie and George, our great friends and neighbours who took us to visit The Bay of Fundy National Park and Hopewell Rocks

The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the world where the sea levels rise on average between 4 to 6ft an hour, with some 100 billion tonnes of water flowing in and out twice a day. To see more on the Bay of Fundy National Park please have a look at www.pc.gc.ca/fundy

On the way to the Nationl Park we spent some time visiting Hopewell Rocks where one can see the rise and fall of the tide at a rate of 32 to 46 feet. To see more of Hopewell Rocks please have a look at http://www.hopewellrocks.ca/

We enjoyed lunch in the National Park and we were introduced to the 'famous sticky buns' at Alma, a small fishing Village located on the Bay of Fundy. This area is known for its delicious lobsters and scallops.

The websites provided will give you a much better story than we can tell so we will sign off until next time. So enjoy the read and stay happy and well.

Love Bev and Ross

Ministers Island

Welcome back to our continuing ventures around this lovely country. A few weeks ago we had the opportunity to visit Ministers Island Historic Site. This Island is about a 2 hour drive from Fredericton and is located near St Andrews. It was the summer home of Sir William Van Horne who was the driving force in the construction of the Canadian Pacific Railway from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Consequently he became a very rich man and was well placed to spend up big on what in its day would have been a grand estate. Unfortunately while it is an asset of the New Brunswick Province there is no allocation of funds to maintain this property which requires an urgent injection of funds to preserve this gracious property for future generations to see and appreciate.

Before we go any further we need to say that as we were walking around the island we came across two cyclists and after saying hullo and passing we realised that it was Michael Smith and his wife Rachael. Michael is known world wide for his cooking shows including "Chef at Home" that is shown in Australia. In a mad scramble for the camera we only managed to get a shot of them as they disappeared into the mist. (I promise that it is him in the white tee shirt).

You will see from the two photos below what a magnificent home this is. The property is very large and features tennis courts, a very large bath house which leads to a man made seawater pool and lots of other buildings. To see more of this great estate please log onto http://www.ministersisland.org/ which will provide you with more photos of this estate.

We travelled to the island with our very friendly neighbours and you will see us all enjoying the sun. You will have see a photo of Debbie and George before but may we introduce to Kathy and Doug. Kathy is sitting on the table and Doug is standing on the right of Ross. We travelled in Kathy and Doug's van and we picnicked at a local park and stopped for fish and chips on the way home. A good time was had by all.

You can drive or walk over the ocean floor crossing 'the bar' at low tide to get to the island. Please see the following photo, we opted to walk.

We had a great day thanks to our friends.

Until next update stay happy, safe and well.

Best wishes,

Bev and Ross

Newfoundland

It has been some time since our last update so to bring you up to date from 15 to 24 July we had the opportunity to travel to Newfoundland (NFLD), a rather big Island. We only had time to travel up the West Coast and we intend to return to the East Coast at some later date. Over this period we travelled some 3,500 kms and spent 45 hours in the car. So our story of this trip will be divided into segments as we are limited to the number of photos we will be able to place on the blog. Up front we want to tell you that we saw 7 Moose, two silver fox and several ice bergs. We meet friendly people, saw great scenery and ate very tasty food. We hope that you will enjoy the few words that will follow and in particular the great scenery.




Our first over night stay on our way to NFLD was at Antigonish. This is a very pretty town and very Scottish. Every window was decorated in the tartan of their city. We stayed here again on our way home and enjoyed the stop over at the Victoria Inn and ate at Gabrioux Bistro where we enjoyed a delightful meal.

We then travelled to Sydney (Nova Scotia) where we departed by ferry for Port Aux Basques to begin our travels up the Westen side of NFLD. The ferry was 4 hours late in departing from North Sydney so the 2 1/2 hours drive north to Corner Brook saw us arriving at 9 pm. After booking into the Glymmill Inn we found our way to the Wine Cellar, a charming restaurant which served great NZ lamb. While staying at Corner Brook we took the opportunity to spend 3 days on the way up and overnight on our return trip. We wanted to make the most of our time in this area and embarked on day trips which took us to the Big Falls where we saw salmon returning to their birth place to spawn. It is truly an amazing sight to see these salmon fighting to get up the overwhelming waterfalls to return to their birth place. We will let the photos display the wonder of this area and if you look closely you will see (maybe - but it is there) a salmon fighting to return home.

From Corner Brook we travelled further north to St Anthony where we stayed at the Grenfell Inn. The name Grenfell is held in high regard in the area as the Dr Grenfell did so much for the community. To read more about this extraordinary man please go to http://www.grenfell-properties.com/

Just as we were entering St Anthony we saw our first iceberg. We were so excited to see this marvelous wonder that we took a detour and took the first of our many photos of "our iceberg".

From St Anthony we travelled another 50 kms to see the Viking Village. To learn more of this amazing find please go to http://www.norstead.com/ . In the National Park where the village is situated we saw the first of the Moose family. Over that day we were to see several more as we drove to different areas along the trail.

The West coast of NFLD is best described as rugged beauty and the terrain is forever changing. One passes through many small fishing hamlets and quaint villages where folks seem very content and happy with their lot.

On our return to Port Aux Basques we stayed at St Christopher's Hotel which is located on a hill that provides a great view of the town. We took the opportunity here to visit the Board Walk where we enjoyed the local fish and chips.

Our ferry trip home which takes 5 hours was on time and on returning to Nova Scotia we had on overnight stay at Antigonish and arrived home the next day.

More to follow over the next few days.

Stay safe

Ross and Bev