The Fundy Trail, Alma to St. Martins

The sun was beaming in the room at 7 am.  I can’t believe it is 7 am and I just woke up.  OK I am not going back to sleep, but still I made it to 7 am.  Must be the sea air.  I am so ready to go.  OK Jim maybe not.  I took my hot water, camera and computer and went and sat outside.  There is the Bay of Fundy in front of me and the tide is heading out.  I am infatuated with tides.  Every time we are near an ocean, is the tide out, I think the tide is coming in.  If you want to see a tide at work you have to come to the Bay of Fundy.  40 freaking feet the water goes up and down twice a day in the Bay of Funday.  Oops Funday on the Bay of Fundy.  Today we are heading down the Fundy Trail to St. Martins.  A 2 hour drive of twisty windy roads up and down hills with some amazing views. 

First stop the Octopus Garden in Alma for a latte and a date square, when travelling you have to get your priorities right.  A busy little café with what looked like an amazing breakfast, our banana, yogurt and cheese will have to do us until lunch, we were on a mission.

The drive takes you through Fundy National Park, the last time I was here was in 1995 with the kids, who weren’t quite as enamored with the tides and scenery as I was J.   There is a great viewing stop of the coast as soon as you go into the park.  The cliffs are surrounded by fog and the tide is out, like way out.  These 2 shots show the morning tide out and the afternoon tide in.  WOW. 

 

Today we are heading down to St. Martins to see the sea caves.  It’s amazing to think that the water/waves/tides can make these huge caves in the cliffs.  We had 45 minutes to check them out before the tide started back in again.

The whole river bed was rocks, a bed of little rocks, a bed of medium rocks and a bed of large rocks.  Walking was a wee bit difficult, no sand anywhere, lots of seaweed but well worth the risk.  The tide started moving in, it is a very slow process, but you could see how easy it would be to get trapped around a corner or in a cave, luckily the water was warm and you could at least swim out if you had too.  By the time we left the caves were filled with kayakers.  Pretty cool how the walkers own the low tide and the boats come out to enjoy the high tide. 

St. Martins was a huge ship building harbour in the 1800s and today is still a thriving fishing port.  It felt like a true seaside resort, lots of little cafes, artisan stores and I gather the most book stores in New Brunswick.  There was even a little mailbox type box on the main street, all painted and decorated up with a sign that said, “take a book, leave a book”.  I could picture spending a week here with a few good books. 

There are also 2 covered bridges and 1 lighthouse, all within 500 yards of each other.  It was fun trying to get a picture without a car in it. 

Just love the colours of the houses down east. 

 Time for lunch and time to retrace our steps.  There was no loop to do, one road in, one road out J

You have to just love the things you think of as you are sitting in a car.  Jim and my bffs can attest to some of the things I have talked them into over the years.  Jim and I have now spent 3 days in the car alone driving up and down coasts and are starting to run out of things to talk about and I remember our trip in 1995 and I have a little esp moment remembering our trip to this beautiful New Brunswick cover bridge.  I thought Jim and the kids were going to kill me as we go up and down another windy road to find this bridge.  And here we are in 2016 and oh my goodness I started crying because there is the exact same bridge.  What are the chances of finding the same bridge.  Family memories totally flood over me and tears are rolling, as I also kill myself laughing.  

After an hour of driving back through the windy hills, we we stopped for a wee hike down the East Cariboo trail in Fundy Park.  At times it was so dark with tree coverage you felt like you needed a flashlight.  We had the whole trail to ourselves, we felt so alone there was no way we were leaving the trail or we might never be found.





A great day, but boy could we use a beer.  A quick stop in Alma which is right beside the Fundy Park before we head off for dinner.