We spent Friday at Hopewell Rocks, another great place to experience the dramatic tides of the Bay of Fundy.

So what's the deal with the tides at the Bay of Fundy anyway? All the awesome fun along the coastline there is caused by tidal resonance, which anyone who took a bath as a kid probably has first hand experience of. Remember sloshing back and forth in the tub, and getting the timing down just right so that you got the water splashing way up the sides?

[I'm sorry Bill Watterson, I know you hate people using Calvin and Hobbes without permission, but it's just so perfect]

Well, in the above analogy, the sides of the tub are New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and Calvin is the Moon. Now the timing required to get the sloshing effect depends on the geometry of the tub (or Bay). For the Bay of Fundy this timing happens to coincide quite nicely with how often the Moon passes overhead (exerting an little tug on the water with its gravity).

We walked around the on the floor of the Bay amongst the cliffs and "flowerpot" rocks at low-tide, and then kayaked from mid-tide approaching high-tide. When we got into our sea kayak on the beach, the water was just lapping the front tip. By the time the guides had given their little safety spiel, the water had risen so that it was already splashing back behind the rudder.

Of course, the best predictor of thunderstorms in New Brunswick is me having booked a kayaking excursion, so the guides had to cut the tour a little short. But we had a wonderful day all in all.

"Alright everyone, hug the shore and head back to the beach!"

Inukshuk:

It was great to do some camping over the last few days at Fundy National Park. It was nice to sit by the campfire in the evenings sipping tea and munching on sunflower seeds.

Stoking the fire

It was also fun to do some hiking. My favourite trail was "Matthew's Head," where there are some breaks in the forest with stunning views down along the coast (the last two shots of the previous post were taken on that hike).

Dickson Falls

We had beautifully clear nights both Tuesday and Wednesday, which were great for stargazing. In fact, on Wednesday night we saw an impressive meteor streak just above the tree line on the horizon. It looked much larger than your typical shooting star and its brightness rivaled that of a lightning strike. It left a trail across the sky that continued to glow for a couple seconds.

Some more shots of the Fundy coastline; from the kayak, from the road, and from the hiking trail:

On Tuesday we took a drive on the Fundy Trail Parkway, which winds along the coast just outside St. Martins, NB, with plenty of scenic lookout points along the way.

The road stops in a dead end after 16 km, so the visit is by necessity a there-and-back trip. As we were on our way back out, I asked Monika to punch in our next stop, Alma, NB, into the GPS. For some reason, it kept telling us to turn back around yet again. We were utterly confused, so Monika suggested we stop back in to the visitor's info at St. Martins.

Looking at the map at the counter, I asked "So the quickest way to Alma and Fundy National Park is by the 114 and through Sussex, is that right?"

"Yep, that's the way to go for sure."

"Ok, cause our GPS kept telling us to just drive through the barricade at the end of the Fundy Trail Parkway."

"Oh man, New Brunswick is a GPS's worst nightmare."

Fair enough. New Brunswick: 1. GPS: 0.

As we pulled into Sussex a little later, Monika was fiddling with the GPS again. "I'm really craving some Tim Horton's. It's surprising how few of them there seem to be around. The closest one isn't for 30 miles." She finished saying this and looked up just as I pulled into the Timmy's parking lot.

New Brunswick: 2. GPS: 0.

This morning we went kayaking. This afternoon we went hiking. We did both in the exact same spot, which was pretty unique.

Today we got our first taste of the extreme tides in the Bay of Fundy. The water level can change upwards of 10 m in just 6 hours, transforming inlets into canyons. The following pairs of photos are taken around noon and 6pm, respectively.

Kayaking around St. Martins, NB, was great fun. After exploring the caves (the ones in the photos above), we headed out to a secluded little rocky beach where our guides, Rhonda and Josh, treated us to a lunch of biscuits with jam, as well as dulce (more on that in a future post).

“What a great day so far. It’s actually very rarely this nice, sunny, and calm.” Rhonda commented as we relaxed and ate. “But weather here can change really quickly.”

As if to prove her right, the water started to turn choppy just as we began heading back. In the end, it was a race to shore to make sure we were on land before the thunderstorm rolled through. The clouds had something to prove; they could transform things even quicker than the tides.

We'll be traveling around New Brunswick and Nova Scotia for the next 2 weeks, and I'll try to post updates from our adventures whenever we're not camping and I have wifi connectivity. A few photos from Saint John, NB, to get us started:

Irving Nature Park 

Saint John Market 

More of the Nature Park