20060716 - Canada

7/10 Today we took a Whale Cruiser out of Cheticamp Harbour
to see whales in the area east of Cape Breton Island. From the boat we saw many views of the Cabot Trail and coastline. I am going to put some of those photos in with the photos of the coastline from the road.







There is a trail you can walk from the road down to the beach. As we were boating by, we could see the walkers on the trail.















We also saw many sea birds including a Bald Eagle. And we did see whales; at one point our boat was in the middle of a pod of pilot whales.










There was even a mother and baby













It was a beautiful day for a boat ride; lots of sun, not too cold. After we returned to the rig, I took the laptop up to the campground office to see if the manager could help me set up for WIFI. The campground has WIFI but since he does not have a big antenna they do not charge for it, and since he is just now putting it in, and he wants to learn everything he offered to help us. As it turned out between what I know about our machine and what he knew about WIFI we were able to get us turned on. There is a switch in the machine that enables (or disables) WIFI. First you have to get that set right then you can turn it on or off. I still have to be outside or at the laundry to get the service (he does not have his big antenna, but we get WIFI. Yeah!

7/11 Today we drove around the Cabot Trail. The Cabot Trail runs around the Cape Breton Highland National Park on the northern portion of Cape Breton Island. It was a beautiful drive. We started the drive in Baddeck (a small town on Lake Bras dOr) which is near our campground. Then we drove counter clockwise around the Trail. We stopped at a Celtic College to listen to a bag pipe player and picked up a brochure of Artisans on St Ann’s Bay, so of course we had to stop at several. There were a total of 12 shops listed in the brochure. I especially enjoyed Shape Shift Pottery where the potter makes Raku masks. At Piper Pewter, they had amazing pewter Celtic knots. I want to get a book of these knots. The Glass Artisans Studio had awesome garden fixtures; Komodo Dragons, bugs, birds, and frogs with metal and glass bodies. They also had some very beautiful hand blown vases. Wildlife Pottery had small pottery geckos, frogs, sheep, puffin, and hedgehogs. When I arrived the owner was practicing her fiddle to the radio. It was cool. And finally Sew Inclined had wonderful hats and other one of a kind clothing.






After we left St Ann’s Bay we began to get wonderful vistas of the coastline. The drive took us from 9:30am to 5:30pm. To the left are some of the vistas from the drive:










And here are some photos of the coast from the whale watching trip. It is a beautiful area.




















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7/12 Today we took a day off from lots of sight seeing. We did some grocery shopping and house cleaning in preparation for moving on tomorrow. I did go into Baddeck for some tourist shopping and took some photos of the town and of the Lake. It’s a huge lake but I don’t think you can tell from my photos. There is even a lighthouse on the lake.




7/13 Today we drove from Baddeck to Truro. We are on our way to Quebec. We will be traveling for the next 4 days to get there. When we left Parkers Cove and the Bay of Fundy I was disappointed that we never saw the tide changing. The Bay of Fundy is particularly noted for its extremely high tides, the highest in the world, and for its tidal bores. So when we were leaving Baddeck I wanted to return to Truro and Rich did not. He said we could go if I would find out where and when we could see the bore. I got on the internet and found both the directions and the time for the Bore (1 hour off the Minus Basin). Then Rich said in order to be there at that time we would have to leave by 6:00am. When my alarm went off at 4:15am, Rich said to change the alarm for an hour later, we really did not have to leave at 6:00am. Then he woke me at 6:00am and later said we did not have to leave until 8:00am - 8:30am. That ‘turkey’ was trying to get me to say I couldn’t do it. We left at 8:05am. Well, long story short we made it. I had made an error in the time, I subtracted the hour when I should have added it. We arrived at the local campground, spoke to the manager (who gave us better information), set up the RV, had lunch, did the dishes, and still had time to relax before driving out to the viewing site.

It was very interesting. While we lived in Alaska I never saw the tidal bore that occasionally was seen on Turnagain Arm. That tidal bore was created by a strong wing blowing against the incoming tide. Here in the Bay of Fundy, the bore is created by the tide coming into a V shaped bay where the tide enters in the broad end and the water piles up as it moves up the bay. Additionally, in the Bay of Fundy the natural period of oscillation is very close to the tidal period so the water sloshes back and forth. At the very head of the bay this advancing tide becomes a wave and this wave continues up the rivers which empty into the bay. This makes the tidal bore pretty predictable unlike the bore in Alaska. The site we went to was along the Salmon River. We were standing near a bend in the river with a very wide sandy area across from us. These photos show the wave coming around the bend, passing us, and heading up river. What you cannot see in these photos is the volume of water that just kept on coming up river or the noise of the wave as it passed us. We could easily see and hear the bore as it moved toward us. And then after the wave the water just kept coming and coming and rising along the shoreline. It was a tremendous inrush of water.


Over the course of a few minutes the water completely covered rocks in the center of the river, the shore line on both sides, and the pipe a little way upstream. I watched trees and bushes flowing upstream. These photos show the difference in water levels after only a few minutes.

















7/14 Today we drove to Woodstock, New Brunswick. We are still on our way to Quebec. We spent the night in Yogi Bear’s Jellystone Park. It’s Friday and the rigs just keep pouring in. It’s like a camp with a loudspeaker announcing activities at various times during the day and loads of kids. They had battleship shooting, little cars, and all kinds of kiddy rides.

7/15 Today we drove to Abbot Village, Maine. We are still on our way to Quebec. We decided to spend 1 night in Maine as a shortcut from Woodstock to Quebec and so we can do some things we need to do in the US, like get prescriptions filled, and make some phone calls. This campground was full when we arrived but they let us stay in an area near the rec room. At first it did not have enough power to run our AC but they brought in some guys and set it up for us. Thank goodness! It was so hot in the RV, and so buggy outside.

7/16 Today we drove the rest of the way to Quebec. That means we crossed the border again. And again the Canadians thoroughly searched the truck and the fifth-wheel; opening cabinets and drawers. They even found, and made Rich open, the safe. We think they were looking for weapons. This last three day trip has been beautiful; trees, rivers, lakes, houses with wide grass lawns.