Nova Scotia, PEI and the Maritimes Holiday

[UKCraig]

Getting the show on the road: Montreal to Nova Scotia

Fundy National Park proved to be an interesting experience. Initially I was quite disappointed to find that it was yet to reopen for the season but - despite the visitor centre being closed and no park literature available (I presume this is a seasonal thing?) - I soon realised that it was far from being a problem. In fact it turned out to be a very big bonus indeed as I had pretty much had the place to myself and it was wonderful to be able to explore a number of trails without the usual hoards of loud Americans . I enjoyed my visit enormously and, as I left to head to the Hopewell Rocks, I could feel that I was starting to relax at last.

I probably shouldn't have been surprised to turn in to the Hopewell Rocks site to be greeted by the now familiar ‘Ferme' sign. However I wasn't going to let that out me off so I climbed over the barrier and made my way down on to the beach regardless. Apparently there have been numerous occurrences of people getting caught out by the huge tides here and getting swept out to sea so I kept a close eye on the rising water as I wandered around the rocks but I've got to believe you have to be pretty stupid to get caught out as it really doesn't come in that quickly.

I was tempted to stay at the hotel next to the rocks for the night but I really wanted to reach Moncton so that I could witness the tidal bore and I pressed on once again. Moncton itself surprised me a little, I have to say, for it was a really lively little place; something that I'd not been expecting. I saw the tidal bore this morning and, although I was a little underwhelmed, it's kinda cool to have seen it, I guess.

In fact, if closed had been the story of the past couple of days, underwhelming really must have been the word of the day today for the whole day was taken up with a decidedly average drive down into Nova Scotia. There was nothing actually wrong, you understand, I'd just hoped for rugged rocky coastline and exciting landscapes. What I got was endless views of muddy rivers and numerous opportunities to stop and hear stories about the tides.

Earlier in the day I had been planning on heading to Kejmkujik National Park and finding a place to camp there but, worn down a little by the constant pushing on, I decided to call it a day and followed a sign from the main road to a motel. I seem to have lucked out with a fantastic little motel in the town of Annapolis Royal - in fact I seem to be its only resident tonight! It seems that there's quite a lot of things to do in the immediate area so I'm gonna go have a look for myself tomorrow morning. One of the attractions is a tour of North America's only tidal (yeah, yeah, I know!) power generating station which could be worth a visit. If it's open, of course!

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