8/11/25
We left Valleyview Provincal Park and headed north to our next campground Wild Nature Campground; a private park. The drive through the "Valley" was interesting and mostly farmland. We stopped at Barreling Tide Distillary and stocked up on whiskey and gin. Then it was onto a winery (Lightfoot &Wolfville) where we had a tasting and a snack of almonds, olives, and oysters. Then we went on a quest for our Ann Arbor area hockey friends. We went to Long Pond in Windsor (Nova Scotia not Ontario). This site claims to be the birth place of Ice Hockey. The pond is located next to a college. The Town of Windsor asserts that students at King's College invented ice hockey c. 1800 on Long Pond which was adjacent to the campus. Interestly the pond's oval shape resembles that of a common hockey rink. Since the the drought conditions the pond was low and had a lot of ducks. Then it was more country road traveling to the campground. Once at the campground we discovered the heat wave had caught up to us; 90+ degrees.
Lightfoot &Wolfville with a view of the cliffs over look this inlet of Fundy Bay
Long Pond
Interesting signs in the grocery store
Pond at the campground
8/12/25
Today we were Tidal Bore chasing. A tidal bore is a wave created by the incoming tide against the out flowing river. We started at Dawson Dowell Park which is at the mouth of the Shubenacadie River. To say the least the bore was not very impressive here. We then moved up stream to the Fundy Tidal Interpretive Center where the river is now much more narrow. Here the bore was more interesting, but only a foot or so high. Moving further upstream to Caddell Rapids Look off Provcincial Park (really just a small picnic roadside park), we set up a little cheese and crackers lunch to watch the incoming bore. This was by far the most impressive viewing of the bore. For the hour+ we stayed here the bore came in and the following tide filled the river valley with several feet of water.
Dawson Dowell Park view
L and Z back at camp
8/13/25
Today we moved on to our next distination Parelle Beach Provincial Park. On the way we stopped at
Jost Winery for a tasting and lunch. Then moving on we came to another winery/distillary;
Winegarden Estates. A interesting place found by German immigrates that found no grapes in the area so they started making fruit wine until they could get they vineyard started. Then we made it to our campground for the night. This campground has ~200 sites pack together like sardines. Apparently the beach is the big attraction here as it has the warmest saltwater in Canada.
On to Kouchibouguac National Park (Say that three times as fast as you can). This was a short ~1 hour drive along the coast road. First we drove to Shediac to see the gaint lobster; a vary tourist thing to do. We made a lunch stop at a funky roadside ( La Vue du cap Canteen) chowder house where I had clam strips poutine and Lynn had the best lobster roll of the trip. And then onto Kouchibouguac National Park. We had planned to rent bikes here to ride, but with the provincial wide fire ban trail closure they did not have bike rental.
The gaint Lobster
Only in Canada can you find a shop for Ice Cream, Lobster Rolls and Beer
My favorite Acadian Flag so far
Interesting sculpture at the Kouchibouguac visitors center
Since most everything is closed due to the fire ban we took a drive up the coast almost to Miramichi (just north of here is where there are active wildfires). Then we went a part of the park that has a boardwalk to the sand dune barrier island which has the park's' beach.
Within the park is an active fishery operation. I took this picture because Brossard is a common name from my mother's home town of Abbeville, LA
Got to love Ketchup patoto chips
Sand dune barrier island
8/16/25This was a rest day for us as the fire ban has closed most of the activities we wanted to do. We took a 3.5 mile hike in the park along the shore. This was on a gravel road between access points in the park that was still open for walking/biking. (sorry no pictures today.
