“…watching the tide roll away…” is part of the lyrics from Sittin’ On The Dock of the Bay. You get the feeling the person is whiling the time away doing nothing. Sort of like watching grass grow, and that can be somewhat boring. A tidal bore in the Bay of Fundy, however, is anything but boring. We camped near one of the premier viewing sites for this phenomenon and this morning we made our way to an old railroad bridge, turned viewing station, on the Shubenacadie River in Nova Scotia. Today was the full moon, so we were assured of a very large tidal range. We arrived an hour early for the change of tide event and it was a little boring watching the muddy brown river streaming past our station on the way to the sea. The river level probably dropped an additional four inches while we waited. Finally we saw this huge wall of water surging up river from around the bend, a mile down stream. It was ten…maybe even twelve…inches high. It slowly advanced up the river and as it swept past our station we could watch the turbulence as the returning tide swept up and over the downstream current of the river. Before the tidal bore arrived the downstream current was perhaps five knots and the river channel was very shallow and sand bars were everywhere. Within about ten minutes the upstream current was probably double that and all of the sand bars were submerged. In eighteen minutes, while we watched the river level rose by about four feet.

Yesterday we left Prince Edward Island. We drove to the ferry and practically straight onto the ferry. After arriving in Nova Scotia we stopped at the first Information Center that we found and loaded up on all kinds of maps and literature. We then toured the little town of Pitctou. We checked out the replica ship, the Hector, toured a knife factory and the Northumberland Fisheries Museum. We now know how to tell girl lobsters from boy lobsters. (They wear frills.) Did you know that lobster traps have a kitchen and a parlor? No, we are not dining on lobster every day. They are rather expensive here. We need to have someone back home check this out. We think the lobster here are more expensive than they are in the stores in Oregon. We paid about $8.00 a pound (US) for already cooked lobster.

We are headed south and west to the tip of Nova Scotia over the next few days. We will get as close as 100 miles from Bar Harbor, Main, before we start back to the north and east toward Halifax. We are driving one day and then exploring one day, so it will take us most of a month to see the perimeter of Nova Scotia.

We will say goodbye for now and send our love to all. Gary and Judy.