So we left PEI on Friday 13^th June and headed into our 3^rd Canadian Province. Still not exactly racing across the country but at least sort of moving in the right direction.

We left PEI via the Confederation Bridge. At 13km long it is the longest bridge in North America. Unfortunately it was a rainy foggy day so the view wasn’t up to much, but the crosswinds were fairly exhilarating!

Had read about Fundy Bay and the worlds highest tides so we headed there.

Drove through the town of Moncton where last week 3 police men were shot dead. The city is very obviously in mourning with signs everywhere and piles of flowers and tributes outside RCMP Headquarters in town.

Found a campsite claiming to be the nearest to Hopewell Rocks where we planned to witness these ‘incredible tides’. Another great site, with us situated next to a lake alongside the estuary. Few more people on this campsite but still very quiet. (Apparently schools break up here this weekend so we think we may find our quiet time is coming to an end – the kids will be pleased even if we’re not at the prospect of some other mates!).

Our intention was to bike or walk the ‘2km’ to Hopewell Rocks the next day to witness low tide up till 11.30 then high tide from 2.30pm. Absolutely pouring with rain when we woke up but as my mum always says ‘we aren’t made of sugar, we won’t melt!’. So we headed off by foot up the hill to the Rock.

Spotted a police car at the brow of the hill and as we got closer realised there was a huge animal sat in the middle of the road. We got alongside it and it was a moose!!!

It had run out into the road and a lady had hit it in her car. It was sat there eyes closed obviously in pain but not making a sound. What an amazing creature. Horrible that it was injured but incredible for us to be able to see one up close.

The chap there said it was a tiddler – a female at approximately 400 lbs and that the males get up to 1600 lbs. Apparently very common for them to run out in front of cars and huge amounts of human fatalities every year from these accidents. It must be like driving into an elephant!

Hopewell Rocks and the tide there were truly breathtaking – once Charlie had got over his disappointment that there wasn’t going to be a massive wave and that it was in fact just the ‘level’ of the tide we were there to witness!

So we walked on the ‘beach’ amongst the crazy rock formations, chatted to the guide there who gave us the background on the tide. Apparently 160 billion gallons of water come in every day. The mouth of the estuary is 100km wide and by the time it gets down to Hopewell Rocks the ‘river’ is only 3km wide so all that water can only go ‘up’.

2 hours and a very soggy picnic later we walked back down to the same beach and the level of the water up the rocks was truly incredible – approximately 30’ up. Amazing.

So 2 quiet nights spent there with the plan to head down the coast to Saint John for a day trip before finally ‘hitting the road’ and trying to get up to Quebec.