Day Twenty One - 351 miles
I awoke early this morning to the BLAZING sun, beating down on my tent. My positioning by the trees hadn't been so good, or there basically wasn't enough coverage to provide shelter. I had dew drops hitting me in the face, from the ventilation part of the tent, and stifling heat - I wasn't going to have a "lie in."
Oh, did I mention...? My night didn't end as picture-perfect as I had previously made out. When I arrived back at about 2AM last night, I had some WORK to do. Luckily, I was near the office, so I could sponge off the wireless there. I was up until 3AM setting up and testing accounts for a client of mine back in Oakland. Ah...the joys of I.T. support!
So, after little sleep, I got up and began to pack things away. The blazing sun allowed me to dry the tent's flysheet on a nearby table, whilst I packed the rest of the stuff onto the bike. I made a little coffee on my camp stove, chomped down a granola bar, and I was ready for the off.
I headed by the office to "check out." Cara, who had been yawning the night before, was sitting there looking fresh-faced and rested. Apparently, she had gone home the night before, had a shower, and then promptly fallen asleep. She seemed a bit miffed that she had missed the "craic" at the Red Shoe. I was a bit miffed too, but you can't have everything, can you? (Can you?)
Anyway, it was time to hit the road. "Stop in again, on your way back, if you go to Newfoundland." "Oh, I will, " I replied. But I knew that wasn't going to happen. Time to move on. Today, I would be saying goodbye to Cape Breton, and farewell to Nova Scotia too. Gosh, I had been here for a week!
The drive to Fredericton - a town people told me was devoid of anything interesting - was itself mostly uninteresting. Apart from the little lunchtime sideshow at Truro...
Truro is at the very top of the Bay of Fundy. I would pass by it on the way. I also knew from my tide tables, that there was a "tidal bore" due in the Truro estuary of the Salmon River.
The world's highest tides at the Bay of Fundy, get magnified in river estuaries. The water of the incoming tide gets funneled up the estuary, and causes a "bore" or wave front "wall" of water, kind of like a mini-tsunami. There was one due today at 3:20PM in Truro. I pulled off the road about 3PM, and had to find the damn place. Luckily - very luckily - the gas station that I pulled into, was just around the corner from EXACTLY the right place to see the water roll in! I filled up, grabbed a Mars Bar and a can of Rock Star, and settled in with the crowd of one hundred or so other onlookers to check it out.
The water was a trickle of a river, and was probably eight to ten feet below the high water mark. I'm not sure exactly where the 3:20pm time was measured from - probably a little closer to the bay - but at about 3:23pm, I saw a "river" of water coming around the corner in the opposite direction to the flow of the river itself.
It's a pretty bizarre thing to see - a river going "backwards." The wave was about a meter high, and it swept by within a minute or so, covering perhaps a quarter of a mile. You wouldn't outrun this thing. If you didn't know it was coming, and you were walking down along the tidal flats, you would be in pretty serious trouble. There are signs around the Bay of Fundy warning you of this.
What was amazing also, was the VOLUME of water that just kept coming in, after the initial wave. The wave "front" is really the smallest part. Within about five minutes, and certainly by ten minutes, this entire area which had been almost completely devoid of water, was now completely full. And it was still coming in. Apparently this goes on for about an hour before full tide. Kind of spooky, actually!
After that, I got back on the Trans-Canada Highway, and headed for Fredericton. The drive was mostly uninteresting and inland New Brunswick. I was trying to stay awake for some of it, as the lack of sleep was taking its toll.
I passed the sign for "Springhill" before I left Nova Scotia. The highway here is called the Miners Memorial Highway. There is a song about the 1958 mining tragedy called "The Ballad of Springhill" composed by Peggy Seeger, which was made popular by U2 who sang it on the Joshua Tree Tour in 1987.
I checked into the Amsterdam Inn in Fredericton. Quite a nice place (the Inn, not Fredericton) but more expensive than I'd wanted. Still, it was nice to have a decent place, after two days camping.
I had a "Dr. Nadler" experience at a curry place down the road. My good friend David Nadler is like myself, and cannot stand restaurants posting times that they, not just don't keep to, but don't come within an ass's screech of keeping to. I had checked with this place prior to checking in, that they really stayed open until 10PM. I then went and found my hotel, and checked in about 8:30. By the time I got settled in, had a shower, and got back down to the curry place (I was REALLY looking forward to a curry!) it was closed. At 9:30pm. On a Friday night. And the wretched sign SAID 10:00PM.
Anyway, I instead crossed the mall to "Montana's," a kind of a rib place. It was OK, and I got talking to this other guy who was big into road trips, and was just wrapping one up. He did his in a Honda Civic, but still seemed to enjoy it. We swapped a few stories.
After that, I took a quick drive downtown and stood by the lighthouse and the Saint John River. Still hard to believe where I was, and all the way I had come. Other than the lighthouse/river area, Fredericton indeed looked fairly uninteresting.
I went back to the Amsterdam Inn and hit the hay.
Québec tomorrow!
Onwards!
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