Our time wasting exercise turned out to be a good call. We find a lighthouse, old boat building wharf, birds on the mud as the tide comes in that are disturbed by a merlin, bald eagles soaring, marshland and a trail with a beach and more birds at the end. Plus the sun is shining and there's no-one else here until we hit the beach, and then the numbers soar to five (including us).
Eric say 'Anchors Away'
We couldn't walk on this boat as it was too dangerous. There was an interpretative panel about the former use of the wharf for boat building.
Gloriously peaceful.
Some of those birds in the mud.
And some more.
Turkey Vultures are us.
Bald Eagle
That dangerous boat again.
Travelling back towards our next stop we also spot two different woodpecker, well one is called a Northern Flicker, but it's in the same family.
A very bad picture of the Flicker - car came past and disturbed it just as we were taking the photo.
Back to Hopewell Rocks in time for high tide for some 'spot the difference' pictures.
On the main. Deck at high tide the interpretation guide explains how the moon and sun alignment affects the tides and the water. He then goes on to say that since humans are composed of 80% water they are going to be affected by the sun and moon's gravity. This he demonstrates by asking everyone to raise their arms and feel the pull of gravity of the Sun.
Not sure if the physics of this makes complete sense but they all are having a laugh so that has to be good. We make a quiet exit before being pressured into joining the dance that follows as proof of the power of the moon.
Find some good fungi in the forest.
We were told there is also a very large owl in the woods, but we don't get to see that.
Our next adventure is truly weird, when we get to Magic Mountain at Moncton, and it's not just because of the alliteration. After paying the princely sum of $6 we drive along a stretch of road to the bottom of a hill, stop by a white marker post and put the car in neutral with the handbrake off. The car then sets off back up the hill at quite a speed coming to a gentle halt at the top. We have a video of the whole thing for the sceptical amongst you but still images will have to do here.
For wildlife , outside of the bird and whale scene our mammal count has been low with simply the deer at Bar Harbor to report. We were told we could be seeing moose, caribou and maybe even bear on the next section of our trip. However in anticipation of them, here's a picture of porcupine number 14.
As the eagle eyed among you will spot it's actually quite still or dead to give it the technical term. Our roadkill list to date is 2 racoon, 1 grey squirrel, 1 skunk and 16 porcupine. The porcupine obviously share the habitat niche occupied in Britain by the hedgehog, namely relaxing on a stretch of Tarmac.
Thankfully I can assure you none of them were accounted for by us though we are probably responsible for the demise of a number of hawker dragonfly.
The Acadian Scenic Trail now takes us on the road to Bouctouche (this is north of where we are staying and we intended to do this in the morning, but as it is such a beautiful day we decide to fit it in this evening. Once again the route takes us down those little roads, but this time we are very close to the coast. Only problem is that it is lined with real estate - they seem to think ribbon development is the way to go here. They have shown a little sensitivity to the needs of us tourists by only having single storey dwellings and gaps between them. A side road to a pier brings us some good views in terms of both scenery and birds. It is a working wharf and there are fisherman standing around chatting, but we have no idea what language they are speaking as it wasn't English or any French that we recognised. Of course we are in the old French part of Canada now, so perhaps it is some Acadian dialect.
Another unusual bit of church architecture
After returning to Shediac, along a very straight route 11, about 30km without barely a twitch of the steering wheel, we park up at the hotel and take a stroll over the river to the towns welcoming sign
which is accompanied by an enormous lobster. Shediac is marketed as the lobster capital of the world.
Can you spot Eric in the claws?
Coming back over the bridge we are pleased to see some semipalmated plover (below) and lesser yellowlegs. Good to know that all the shorebirds birds have not left yet.
There is also a tableau on the side of the Lobster Shop
We had decided to eat at the hotel this evening. We had seen the menu earlier and we're looking forward to what we had already chosen. Turned out to be a bad move as that was the lunch menu, and for dinner it's a much grander selection. When the dinner party includes a vegetarian that doesn't like vegetables in the centre of a lobster based universe, you have a problem 😱. After discussing with the waitress the lack of possible options they kindly offer to reinstate the lunch menu just for us. End result is eventually an excellent meal.
And so to blog.