June 23rd: Grand Manan and Fundy

The adventure continues!  We awoke Friday morning and had a relaxing leisurely morning because we knew we couldn’t catch the ferry to Grand Manan until 1:30.  It was nice to slow things down after all the driving we had already done! We boarded our ferry and an hour and a half later, arrived at our accommodation for the evening at "Hole in the Wall Campground"…

Not bad huh?  Here's the view looking in each direction...

  

Carl and I both agree that this is probably the most beautiful spot we have ever camped at.  We quickly set up our tent and went to explore the island!  We did about an hour hike to the lighthouse we could see from our campsite.  The trail was slightly treacherous, ducking under trees, walking through long grass and almost running into a deer but we made it!  The reason the campground is called "Hole in the Wall" is because of this...

Afterwards we did a short drive to the town of Gran Manan only to discover that there isn’t much of a town!  But we did end up getting this shot when the tide was low.  You can see that fishing boat in almost no water.

From then on, it was time for more relaxing!  We had dinner and a fire and enjoyed our cliff top ocean view.  

The following morning (Saturday) we had to get up early to catch the 7:30am ferry!  If we wanted to stay on schedule, we had to keep moving.  Just as we were getting up it started to rain so we shoved our wet tent into the car and headed to the ferry.  We drove to Saint John’s, NB and hopped out for a few hours to explore.  We stopped in at a local market, checked out an old store where we bought the first ever chocolate bar (yum!) and tried a town favourite, Dulse (basically seaweed that's used for a snack, as an extra spice or to add salt to something without using salt).  

Houses in downtown Saint John's

Apparently the first Canadian chocolate bar made in the 1920's

We were lucky enough to see Saint John’s in the sun because the rest of our day was wet!  But that didn't stop us from stopping to check out the scenery!  Covered bridges are a big thing in New Brunswick, they are everywhere!  I'm not sure what the big deal is about them but it's on my list of things to read up on!

  

We continued on to St.Martin’s where we saw some sea caves.  Unfortunately the tide was in so we didn’t get to close.  

From there we went to The Fundy Trail Parkway which some people (or maybe just the brochure I read) claims that it is "the only remaining coastal wilderness between Florida and Newfoundland.  We stopped for a short hike which actually ended up being longer than than we anticipated.  On the way back up the hill we had hiked down, Carl had to assist me but pushing me part of the way to give me a bit of a boost!  If the weather was nicer or if we could hike or bike the Fundy Trail I think we would have enjoyed it more.  But the weather was lousy and the fog blocked our view so we ended up turning back early and heading on towards Fundy National Park.  When we arrived it was pouring rain so we decided to get our tarp up and go for a walk  to see if the rain would subside before we put our already tent up.  

On our walk, the tide was out so we got to walk along the ocean floor

During our walk to the beach the rain did subside…But not for long!  By the time we were back at our site, it again was pouring and hasn’t let up since.  It’s now 10pm and we are sitting in the car, me on the computer typing and Carl is reading.  It’s now dark and still pouring and the tent isn’t up yet….Guess we better get this party started its gonna be a wet one!