Tidal Bore, Dunes, and Flower Pots

Trip Odometer: 194 km
Anna-Lee has now seen 40 different state and province license plates. 

I (Anna-Lee) think people do some silly things. We went to the tidal bore (where the tide comes into a narrow area fast). We were told that surfers from California, Paris and Canada were going to try to surf the bore today. 

At first we didn't know these were the ones, but they were the surfers waiting for the tidal bore to come.

We watched as they got into position with their surfboards. They each had a paddle too. There was a kayak that came down too. There were hundreds of people there watching - even lots of locals today to watch the surfers.

Everyone got so excited as the tidal bore arrived and the first surfer caught the wave. The full moon made it a really good one.

 

The tidal bore going past.

We went to a 12 km sand dune today too. 
 

At the Interpretive Centre they had animal prints you could press into the sand to see the kind of tracks these animals would make on the dune - gull, fox, bear, deer, raccoon...

The Centre also gave out booklets with questions that could be answered by reading the signs posted along the boardwalk. Anna-Lee took on that responsibility.

The neat thing was that on one side was sand and the other side was the grassy dune. We could wade and swim on the sand side. It was in the Northumberland Strait. There were a lot of shells and we found a  huge crab shell too.

The water was pretty nice but not a consistent temperature.

 

Anna-Lee loved jumping the waves.

Dad and I went wading and I got the bottom of my sundress soaked. It was fun. The funniest part though was that (after I changed),  I held my wet dress out the window to dry as we drove. People's expressions as we drove by were hilarious! Monica and I laughed so hard!
 

The infamous dress hanging out the window. Cause for many giggles in the backseat.

We also went to the Flowerpots (Hopewell Rocks). Low tide was in the evening today. The ocean floor had hard rocks and a bit mucky. 

They are a very long way down there!

We tried to find a spot to get Monica down but there were 98 steps! There was another spot where there were only 22 steps but they were really steep. Dad and I went and Mom stayed with Monica.

98 steps

On the ocean floor. It may look mucky but it's actually quite hard.

 

Pretty impressive

Hard on the feet. Dave ended up carrying Anna-Lee for part of it.

 

Dave and Anna-Lee are actually in this picture.

 

In need of a good clean up.

 I (Monica) liked the boardwalk out at Bouctouche. It was built by the Irving family to help the environment and was totally wheelchair accessible. The boardwalk is about 1 km long but was 2 km until a winter storm destroyed the second km of it last year.

A beautifully built boardwalk to protect the dune.

There were lots of signs informing us of different things about the dunes including the salt water marsh, birds, fish, and animals. I learned that jelly fish can be very big! There is one called the lion's mane that is 2 1/2 metres in diameter that comes in there! There is also a bird that is endagered called the piping plover that nests there.

 The 12 km dune changes shape after every storm.

We came across something new to us today. An oyster farm. Each of these black cages is to grow oysters! It went on and on and on! This was in Bouctouche.

Anna-Lee enjoys pushing me in my manual  chair which I have had to use quite a few times. Today I used it for the Flowerpots but I still couldn't get down to the bottom. Dad had to push me about 1 km of laneway to get to the top of the steps (downhill there, and uphill on the way back)! We all laughed that it wasn't going to be like the Skyline Trail on the Cabot Trail, but.... Dad thinks it was even steeper just not as long.

Even though she couldn't make it down, she had a pretty good view.

The weatherman calls for  100% chance of 20 mm of rain tomorrow but it sure was a nice red sunset.

Red at night.... Goodnight from Moncton NB.