It took us 10 mins and $20 to go back over the Confederation Bridge to start our final Canadian leg of our adventure. We entered New Brunswick in the rain and headed to Shediac for a quick stop – of course, we had to take a photo of the large lobster, complete with witches hat!
Then on to Moncton for 2 nights. We visited the Hopewell Rocks Provincial Park, where you can walk on the ocean floor and admire the massive sea stacks and then 6 hours later see just how high the tide rises (between 48 and 56 feet depending on the moon tides). We were lucky enough to be able to do both of these things – it was amazing to witness.
We then drove along to Alma, via the Cape Enrage (another lighthouse), along tiny roads lined with stunningly coloured autumn trees. The leaves are certainly turning here – reds, oranges and yellows.
Sadly, photos don’t do them justice. We also came across our first covered bridge – in the 20th century, it seems there were over 1000 of these in New Brunswick! They were covered to prevent the timbers from rotting in the weather.
We ended our wonderful day with one of the best Laksas we’ve had since leaving Borneo and a craft beer and good live music in the Happy Craft Brewery – aptly named!
From Moncton we drove to Saint John (not to be confused with St John’s of Newfoundland), via Fundy National Park – the trees are looking gorgeous all through here and the railway museum at Hillsborough (it was closed!!).
We spent a few days in Saint John just chilling. We took a drive out on the Fundy Coastal Drive to the pretty town of St Andrew’s on a gloriously sunny day. It is a lovely town to wander around, visit the historic Blockhouse
and lighthouse
or just sit and watch the boats in the bay.
Easy to see why it’s been voted one of the best in New Brunswick.
Saint John is an industrial city that is also a popular port for cruise ships – 3 at a time during our visit so it got busy! Not a huge amount to see but there’s a historic area to explore, the reversing falls to observe (a phenomenom caused by the high tides hitting the Saint John river), a container village of local stalls to wander around,
visit the City Market,
find the 3 sisters (a street lamp of 3 lights coloured red on one side and white on the other – lots of theories as to why it’s called the 3 sisters), which looks out to Partridge Island where immigrants in the 1800’s were quarantined on arrival to North America, with many dying during the typhus epidemic in 1847. The island is now a National Historic Site.
We popped into the Stone Church – beautifully symmetrical exterior sitting on the top of a hill – it’s now a multi use space as well as a church. The huge window came from the UK, packed in molasses to prevent breakages. However, when it was assembled, they mistakenly mixed up the bodies of Mark and Luke and there is also a 3 footed angel on a different window!!
We also took a wander up to Rockwood Park, walking around Lily’s Lake, enjoying a delicious lunch at Lilys restaurant and watching the deer in peoples’ gardens!!
Our next stop was Fredericton, capital of New Brunswick. But first, we had to do a long detour to Hartland – to see, and drive across, the longest covered bridge in the world – a mere 390.75 metres long!!!! It was built in 1921 and uses the Howe truss (iron tension rods) to support the wooden trusses, and it crosses the St John River.
We then drove down the riverside on the River Valley Scenic Drive, through quite agricultural countryside, to Fredericton. The colours of the trees were beautiful.
Next day was Saturday and the best thing to do here is visit the Saturday market – wow, so many lovely stalls of local producers, farmers and crafters and where you can still buy apples by the bushel or peck (4 peck equals 1 bushel). We then continued our walk around town, over the Bill Thorpe walking bridge (the old railway bridge and part of the Trans Canada trail)
and along the lovely north riverfront trail to a good spot for tacos and local beer – Picaroons Brewery! Fredericton has a great many breweries but we were good and only tried two and one of those (Grimross Brewing) was opposite our hotel!!During our walk we also came across the Watermark sculpture by Gerald Beaulieu – Flood levels markers at Fredericton. The shortest is the official level for flood definition for the Saint John River (6.5 metres above sea level). The highest is 8.75 metres, and in 2008, the levels reached 8.36m.
After Fredericton and with the temperature soaring again, we headed across New Brunswick, up the Mirimichi River Route to Mirimichi. Driving through forests of autumn colours was beautiful but sadly not quite as picturesque as we’d hoped, as some minor roads were closed with construction works, so we had to stick to the main highways. We spied lots of fly fishermen in the river, catching the last few days of the salmon fishing season here, and then in Mirimichi, they were fishing for striped bass. We didn’t do a great deal as it was so hot but did visit Middle Island. This is where the ship Looshtauk docked in 1847 with Irish immigrants onboard with typhoid. The island became a quarantine area. Now, it has lovely trails and interesting history boards and a memorial to those who did not survive.
We then visited Newcastle across the river for lunch (joined by a cheeky red squirrel) and learnt about how the logs were floated to the port on the river down to the ship builders. We also had 2 stunning sunsets in Mirimichi.
From Mirimichi we headed up on the Arcadian Coastal Trail to Bathurst; arriving in 29 degree heat and enjoying a craft beer in the 13 barrels brewery overlooking the bay, and leaving 2 days later in a rain storm. We then drove around the coast to Campbellton, where you can see the stunning mountains on the Gaspe Penninsula, and then cross country on the Appalacian Trail to Edmundston, where we had our first frost of the season (-3 which was a bit of a shock to the system!). Here, the scenery changed to pine forests, logging trucks and paper mills. From Edmundston, we took a trip to Grand- Falls – a town divided by a huge gorge carved out by the Saint John river.
There are usually waterfalls here, too, but they have had so little rain over the last few months they were simply a trickle. They must look very dramatic in the spring after the snow melt. Then we headed out of New Brunswick into the Quebec region and up to the banks of the St. Lawrence River and drove along the Navigators Route. We passed through pretty little villages, all dominated by huge silver roofed churches (compared to the white washed ones in Nova Scotia),
and through flat farming land – lots of maize harvesting going on at the moment, and all the while we had wonderful views across the river – oh and everything is now in French.
And so ends our Canadian leg of this adventure. We’ve travelled 3240 miles in 5 weeks since Halifax, driven through lovely scenary, met super friendly people, seen stunning autumn colours and amazing feats of nature, eaten a lot of chowder, sampled way too many craft beers, oh, and we might have overdone the lighthouse spotting!!!!! The Canadian Maritimes are well worth a visit if you get a chance.
Next stop, all being well, New York.
Places We Stayed
Moncton – Residence Inn
Saint John – Chateau Saint John by Wyndham
Fredericton – Quality Inn
Mirimichi – The Rodd
Bathurst – Best Western Plus
Edmundston – Four Points by Sheraton
Gentilly – Motel Becancour
Brossard – Courtyard by Marriott
Montreal YUL Airport – Aloft hotel
