Month: August 2022

Three things were on the recommendation list for Bay of Fundy. 1. Eat seafood. 2. Hopewell Rocks and the tides 3. Cape Enrage lighthouse.

So we did walk into a downtown restaurant in Alma. The server told us she could seat us but it would be an hour to hour and a half before they could feed us due to short staffing……so we went home and had chilli instead…!!

The very first day we arrived, we drove up to Hopewell Rocks. For anyone that has not been there, the tides are an additional drama to the flowerpot rock formations here. We arrived just shortly before high tide. The park pass lasts two days so that you can return for both high and low tide.

The rocks eroding with the incessant tides is an impressive sight….and it’s a very busy spot.

Driving back to the campground, we took a side route to head over to Cape Enrage. The lighthouse being on the recommended list of things to see. The road takes you past Pebble Beach.…..another strangely beautiful phenomenon.

Scott found a guy fishing in the fog. I went back to the truck….it was cold…!!

On up the hill a bit further, to the lighthouse…….

If you find the little green light……you actually can …just…..make out the lighthouse….!!!

I have to add these two pictures from the other end of Pebble Beach. Scott….having the photography eye that he does, pulled over and leapt out of the truck when he saw this view…….and plummeted down the unseen drop off in the gravel at the side of the road almost breaking several limbs in the process…(Ouch..!!)

By the time we got back to Alma, the fog had lifted……it was an impressive thick sea fog. Reminded us of Edinburgh…!!!

So the next day trip to Hopewell Rocks was for low tide. At low tide you can walk the beach and eavesdrop a little on some of the guided tours.

The smart people had flip flops or welly boots on. We had thought to take shoes and socks off……but it is NOT a sandy beach…..mostly mud and sharp little rocks.

Its not a long walk along the beach…..in either direction. But it is a very busy touristy place.

It was pleasant afternoon out for sure….and worth seeing if you are in the area.

The next couple of pictures were taken as we were returning from the Third Vault Falls walk. As we came down the hill back in to Alma, the cloud sitting on Cape Enrage explained the thick fog we had been in….completely…!!!

All of the pictures in this post are clickable if you wish a clearer view. Also, underlined text is where I have added clickable links for further information.

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The campground at Headquarters in the Bay of Fundy NationalPark, Alma New Brunswick is a winner. Its a beautiful park, big wide pull through sites, lovely old shade trees. Immaculately clean washrooms and hot water in the showers. It’s also a fairly short walk down to the beach and/or in to town.

We picked a moderate hike fairly close to the campground to get our legs stretched out and to see what the park had to offer. Third Vault Falls promised pretty views and a moderately challenging hike.

A beautiful forest trail and the first km was gently uphill….

………….and then we started gently down, always a bit worrying early in a hike……cos you know you have to go back up at some point….!!!

Then less gently down. We met several people making their way back, looking quite exhausted……well …!!….we thought…it is a hot day..!!!

The descent gradually got steeper, and steeper……interspersed with some straight down staircases to get down some of the worst bits…!!

Then a clamber down some very, very steep stairs. At the bottom of the stairs, looking back up the gully there were little babbling streams through the green covered rocks……it was very pretty but not quite like the pictures from the trail review.

At the bottom of a couple of flights of even steeper yet stairs, the trail continued across the creek….something I had not seen before, the hiking man symbols were painted on the rocks and continued down the stream…..so we followed them…..down and down….

It was nice and cool in the gully with little streams dancing around….and so very pretty…..

Then, ahead there were some people paddling their feet in the stream whilst sitting on the rocks…..and you could just make out the sign that said…..end of trail…!!!

Once you get all the way to the sign ( that actually says ‘end of trail’ ) as you stand right in front of it and can finally see around the corner, looking up to the left this quite spectacular set of waterfalls and all becomes clear…..Its hard to tell from the pictures, but its about 60 feet high.

Then, after a rest and a look around…..its time to climb back up….!!!

…..it was one of the busiest walks we have done, we met lots of people along the way.

It was a very satisfying walk, and definitely among the prettiest we have done.

All of the pictures in this post are clickable for a clearer view. Underlined text is also clickable to links for further information.

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Still in Miramichi, and another day of hikes in Kouchibouguac National Park . After a foot blistering day on Kelly’s beach, we needed an easier, shorter walk to move our legs.

The trail of choice was Osprey trail, the photographer was highly amused by the French translation of this trail…and I fear Ospreys may forever have had their names translated to French in our household.

It was not a difficult trail…the trailhead started from the Fabien campground of Koubouchguac. (I had tried to get a campsite in the park when we crossed to the coast…but National Park campsites are hard to come by..!! ) Fabien is an unserviced campground, but the sites are lovely, and it backs onto the shore.

Peeking through the trees we could see these cool yurt things on stilts.

As we prepared to head out on the trail, there were a couple of hikers that set off as we were donning boots. Before we left, they returned and began liberal application of bug spray……….taking that cue…we followed suit. It was definitely a walk where slowing down and/or stopping was not really an option without becoming bug lunch. It was very pretty tho..!!

The outer part of the loop opened out to the shoreline.

It was not a challenging walk in terms of elevation. It was also a very well marked trail.

But absolutely no sign of any Ospreys, Osprey nests……or anywhere that looked like maybe Ospreys had been….!!!

There truly is something very soothing about breathing ocean air…….and its always a treat to be looking at beautiful views on a beautiful day.

….and as if to make up for the lack of Balbuzards……we found some funny little fun guys on the way back around….!!

As I said, a short pretty walk, punctuated by biting beasties……..

This one was a request……its how we usually do roast potatoes….back from the days when we used to have a house (LOL)

Start with potatoes..!!! Preferably nice new ones…there are some great local choices available right now….

If they are small you can just leave them whole, but otherwise cut them in half or quarter to get to about the size of small new potatoes..!!

Make sure they are completely dry…if you have cut them then pat them dry with a clean tea towel, or paper towel.

In a bowl add 4 to 5 tablespoons of oil (olive, avocado, coconut…whatever you prefer. Avocado oil or coconut oil will make your roast potatoes taste creamier)

Add fresh ground pepper and a tablespoon of salt

1 tablespoon of sugar…we used Maple sugar cos we just bought some at the Lion’s Head farmers market. (we don’t usually add sugar…but this stuff seemed special…..and it added a really nice “crunch” to the finished potatoes.)

….and a teaspoon of chili powder..( Chili 3000 from Penzeys spices )

Slice up some onions, these delicious little babies came from the organic vegetable guy at the farmers market

Add the onions and some garlic (see the preserving garlic post )

mix it all up….and transfer it to a foil lined baking dish or tray……or a cast iron skillet.

Oven or barbeque at 325 C…..for 45 minutes (25 minutes with foil covering and 20 minutes uncovered.

Hot crunchy and delicious….mind your fingers and have a cold drink on hand…..cos you are going to start eating these things before they are really cool enough…..how can anyone resist….!!!!

Recipe

• Two pints of new potatoes cut and dried
• Two small sweet onions
• Two to three teaspoons of garlic in olive oil
• 4 to 5 tablespoons avocado oil
• 1 tsp ground peppercorns
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon Maple sugar
• 1 teaspoon chili powder

This general method works with any kind of potatoes…if they are bigger or more mature….they just need more cuts to get them to size.

The garlic in oil is done like this which was a previous blog on preserving garlic.

You can use any type of cooking oil you like…or have to hand.

Maple sugar was added only because we had just purchased it at the farmers market….we would not normally add sugar as potatoes are sweet enough ( in my opinion..)

The chili is from Penzeys ( https://www.penzeys.com/ ) we love this store and their stuff is also available online.

We had a recommendation from a friend who was born and brought up in New Brunswick. The suggestion was to go to Koubouchiguac National Park, which is close to Miramichi on the east coast of New Brunswick. We follow recommendations so the route was plotted , the campground booked , and the journey embarked upon..!!

177 kms……thats how long the drive is on New Brunswick highway 108……Highway 108NB is tree lined avenue………for those 177kms.. A car passes about every 10km…..and the occasional sign indicating bumps in the road coming up….which is actually some kind of joke…b/c the whole 177 kms is a series of bumps…!! We followed a big 5th wheel trailer…one of those 11ft high ones…it was terrifying watching that thing sway from side to side on the uneven road surface……not convinced that it was not going to just tip over sideways…mixed with us hitting the same bumps immediately after.

In Miramichi, we started the day with a drive down to the JD Irving Eco Centre, but stopping in at the Visitor Centre at Koubouchiguac National Park to see if we could purchase a Discovery Pass (annual pass for all Canadian National Parks) we were successful and once in to the park, a drive up to Kelly’s beach to check it out was in order.

Sea water. Not our first time paddling in the Atlantic, but the first time on this side of it….!!!! (Scotland is just over there…….. 👉 !!!!!)

Satisfied with what we were finding, we carried on down to Bouctouche. The origins of the Irving dynasty are in Bouctouche NB. The JD Irving Eco Centre was our intended destination for a wander out to the sandbar reclamation project, and a walk down to the arboretum.

The beaches were beautiful, and , considering it was a long weekend, not that busy..!!

We were planning a walk down to the Irving Arboretum per Alltrails…but the mosquitos thought we were an all you can eat buffet, could have been the shirts with…Take all you want but eat all you take……so while we still had enough of the red stuff in our arteries to be able to walk…we scurried back to the truck…yeuch….

The day topped off with a stop at a local craft brewer for some sustenance (recuperation from the vicious mosquito attack…!!)

………. and fish and chips straight from the ocean from Andrews Fish and Chips. (It was pretty good….. 👍..!!)

There was a bit of indecision in the house, as to the trail to follow today. Kouchibouguac has lots of little short trails, and some longer ones that are more suitable for biking. Its not the kind of place to try to go off trail……the tree cover is simply too dense. (and it turns out that the bug life is pretty tenacious too..!!)

What sealed the deal (lol) was the mention of a Grey Seal colony down towards the end of the sandbar that is Kellys Beach.

The sand bar changes with every storm…Alltrails had it as a 12km trail (out and back) and a previous user logged it as 14km…….Alltrails spent the last km telling me I was off route…we measured it as 8 km on the dot…and hilariously the map shows us as out in the middle of the channel.

At one point, for the blog….brave photographer guy decided to follow a little path up onto the dune……..prehistoric, mega sized mosquitodactyls live up there…..it took us a couple of kms of fast pace walking to shake them off the scent…..!!!

It was a bit of a birding extravaganza……big birds and little birds….plucky little plovers to hungry baby terns….lots of entertainment to make up for 16kms in the baking sun.

The other cool inhabitant is a colony of blue herons…….as we walked…suddenly there were about 15 that we could count lifted aloft…….very cool sight. Neither of us had ever witnessed more than two of them together…….

It was a breathtaking sight for sure. On the ocean side we were starting to see the odd seal head peeking up….

The seawater was incredibly clear, and not a lot of wave action even tho there was a stiff breeze (thank goodness…..otherwise we may have expired from the heat)…but the tide was going out……low tide was 3.37pm that day.

The beach itself was surprisingly clear of shells or debris of any kind ……there was the odd bit of rope and ginormous tree trunk type driftwood.

As we reached the end of the sandbar, which has apparently extended by another kilometer……we could see about 40 to 50 seals on the next sandbar out…about 50 to 100 feet offshore…..all peeking up and watching us…!!

On the other side of the sandbar, we could see the channel and some of the fishing boats heading out….

The seals were quite hilarious. As we turned around to head back…again the seals followed us…swimming along for a bit and then all the little heads bobbing up and looking over at us….it was highly entertaining. (for us anyway….lol)

There was always one ‘sentry’ seal….a bit closer to shore….keeping an eye on us….!! If you enlarge the pictures you can actually see the flies landing on him (her?)

There was more entertainment to be had with the various little birds…..

The boots came off on the way back…and I have to say….as much as we like the lakes…there is just something about the sea……it really feels like where humans are supposed to be…….I just couldn’t get enough of wading through the briny water……it was about 15 Celsius tho…so nether of us got much past our knees…it was bone chilling….but lovely….

It was a thoroughly satisfying day all in all. Probably the highlight of New Brunswick so far……..

As ever….all of the photographs are clickable for a clearer view, and additional information will be clickable as underlined text.

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Edmundston was a spot on the map that seemed like a reasonable place stop for a bit. Initially we were booked for a couple of nights….but…having decided that there was not much to do around here….and that we needed a few days of a break…we extended that to five days. Edmundston, New Brunswick is a quiet little town…..right on the border with the US. It’s one of those places that if you take a wrong turn you end up in the US…we did not do that…this time…!!!( I’m not sure if I admitted to the almost accidental border crossing in Osoyoos)

It was a quite lovely little campground…a young couple with a newly renovated campground…would highly recommend it to anyone out there on the road looking for a nice place to stop. ( Just off the Trans Canada )

There were an abundance of Ontario plates in the campground. We ended up chatting round a campfire with a bunch of Ontario people. (Hi Jim and Sharon..!! 😀)

Some wandering around the town was in order….and a quick visit to a little bit of the history of the area. There are a bunch of these little forts along the border here.

Feeling the need for something more active….I picked out a trail 9 minutes drive from the campground…Mont Farlagne…..seemed appropriate to me…LOL…..

So the Iroquois trail was the choice…….lovely forest walk, nicely laid out trails….not entirely flat and not too challenging.

We met up with some of my favourite guys almost immediately.

Did I mention there are a lot of trees here…..and not a lot of elevation…so it was a very pretty forest walk through avenues of trees. That put our focus more to the forest floor.

At about the halfway point we found this little guy sitting…..closer inspection revealed a whole heaping bunch of tadpoles……

Not sure what the deal is with porcupines……but this trail was apparently affected…!!!

The return path per Alltrails was following the outbound route. We opted for the St Jean trail back….a little further but a different vista. Turned out to be a good move…we found ourselves trekking through a Maple Grove, with all the tubing in place for sap harvest. It was quite an impressive operation.

What we also found was a whole different set of fun guys…….cool alien looking things…!!!

…and another cheeky little chap that seemed to want his picture taken…!!

A good day out. A bit of leg stretching happened with some interesting sights along the way. ……..and a short drive home……

All of the photographs are clickable if you wish a clearer view. Additional information is added in clickable links indicated by underlined text.

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After wandering the streets of Old Quebec city we were ready for something a bit more out in the wild. Jaques Cartier National Park seemed very handy with some interesting looking hikes popping up on Alltrails….and at less than an hour drive to get there….oft we jolly well went…!!

Once outside the city and its spaghetti of highways and junctions….there really is not much of anything in northern Quebec but trees and wilderness. Much like the rest of Canada, its surprising how big and empty it really is, when you go look at the map…!!!

Having made it to the park, and up the winding road to the visitor centre, it was a busy little place. Most of the visitors were there with kayaks, stand up paddle boards, and mountain bikes.

We were bound for the Escarpment loop ( as the one that seemed to promise views..) The next picture is of the viewing platform from the parking lot…!!!

Walking the route anticlockwise gave us the steeper climb initially and the gentle downhill after….(it’s always harder going down the steep slopes)

It was well treed so mostly in shade, and a punishing uphill after such a gap from our last hike. I don’t know if it was a result of recent storms, or if its a feature of the area…….but the trail was humid, often with water running down the path (and rife with gigantic mosquitos) even at the peak of the elevation. It is odd being that high up and it was still peaty and boggy.

At the top….from the lookout platform…you can see the truck…!!

The path down resulted in larger hordes of pestilence. It was so humid, I was not sure if they were landing on me to bite me , or mistaking me for a handy puddle.

My hat came off (because it was shaded) to become a handy bug swatter…….or it gave me some sense of keeping them away from my face at least…!!!

It did not seem like the down slope was much easier than the up…….not to the legs that were doing it….regardless of what the map said…!!

The last few kms were level and along the road….by which time we were just simply tired out…..it would seem we have lost a little fitness…!!!

There was an abundance of our favourite fun guys along the way….

……as well as some other flora……goodness only knows what they are called…but they were pretty..!!

.and some not so timid wildlife…!!! This guy sat quite patiently waiting for me to carry on my way…!!!

All the pictures in this post are clickable if you wish a clearer view. Also any additional information is included in clickable links which appear as underlined text.

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Back in Ontario, parked at our special little spot behind the barn (courtesy of our good friends..!!) we had an opportunity to make some changes to the trailer. Having lived in it for a year now….there were a couple of things we wanted to do. For those of you who knew us in our house owning days you will not be surprised to see us making the wee tin house a little more our own.

No. 1 was the shower. It had never made sense to us…the glass door in a travel trailer (it’s heavy…and breakable..!!) and from early on the spacer at the bottom had failed, necessitating that one lift the door before opening or closing…..it was just awkward…!! It must have heard us grumbling about it. The day after we got back, we had just measured the gap to go and buy a tension rod for the space……when it quite literally …just fell off…!!! we were very lucky that this did not happen on the road, or when someone was standing beside it.

So….Scott set to stripping out the rest of the frame and the metal around the edge of the opening. I should probably have taken some pictures of that process….but I mostly just stayed out of the way…!!! ( Editor. That was, as usual, the smart play. It was not easy with ungentlemanly language or high volume being of no help )

The next step was to rethink the tension rod. We did not like the idea of that outward pressure on the shower walls…..so the solution to that was to install brackets, like you would use in a closet, to slot the rod in to.

…and the reno was completed with the new shower curtain….and removing that useless towel rail in there and replacing it/covering the screw holes with some bathroom specific command hooks. Waaaaay more useful…!!!

Next…to continue with the bathroom theme…..that blooming blinking big mirror in the bathroom…..!!! Its big, heavy, breakable…and the edge of it sits on the counter level…which means it tracks water up behind it and destroys the edge of the mirror. The photo of the mirror below shows a couple of layers of tape covering the surface. Amazingly it came out in one piece but if it hadn’t……

Solution, Ikea kids acrylic mirrors x 4, and once they were in…I alien taped a small magnifier between them…et voila..!!!

While we are pulling things off the wall……the television and its cumbersome articulating wall mount just had to go. We just don’t watch it…too much other stuff to do it would seem..!!! That and my work station spot is right there……and its sooo uncomfortable behind your head…….much better replaced with a pegboard. If we do feel the need for a movie on a rainy day there’s always the laptop which will blue tooth to the trailer sound system or our digital projector which will do the same thing.

The dinette cushions had their fabric replaced with a cool Sunbrella fabric in the winter. (Scott the seamster again..!!). We also took the opportunity to replace the High Density foam in all the seat cushions. It was really beginning to show its age and had lost any desire to be comfortable.

Next….the tabletop in the dinette. The before was this bland, off white arborite.

The after…..this very beautiful piece of elm sourced by good friend Bruce of Dunks custom log sawing.

Scott chopped the corners and varnished the underside…..for any of you looking replace the table please either lose the corners or radius them. You’ll know why the first time you catch your hip on it if you don’t.

Then the scary bit……our first attempt at epoxy resin. Its supposed to be the equivalent of 75 coats of varnish….so it seemed like the trick….!!

Once you pour it on, you have to heat out the little bubbles that form over the next 45 minutes…!!!

Then the hardware from the original table was swapped over…..Mr engineer made fancy little templates to get the screws in the right place.

….and the finished article. Turned out pretty well we think…..!!!

But now the other kitchen counter needs done…….and the curtains…!!!

Our last big problem to solve was creating some airflow under the mattress. A subject of many of the online forums for prolonged stays in RV’s…the accumulation of condensation under the mattress. Our short term solution has been to prop it up and air it out every two to three days…not particularly convenient…but effective.

We had been debating this one since the winter, and it was part of the plan for the Ontario stop, to build a slat frame under the mattress. (Another job for Scott…!!) Build it in situ, it won’t fit through the door.

It does make the underbed storage a little less handy to get in to….but it works a treat on letting the mattress breathe.

So much for any kind of break back in Ontario……but we got a lot done…..!!!