Km 7,289 - Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island

Now that we are in the Maritimes, we have kind of changed gears. With not as much ground to cover on a daily basis (things being closer together), we have been seeing a bit more and doing a bit less driving. We have even got the bikes out a few times.

After a lazy morning in St. Andrews on Sunday, we headed north east along the New Brunswick coast through Saint John. It is quite a neat city with some great old buildings. Unfortunately, it was a Sunday so it was a little dead. We enjoyed a nice walk through downtown anyway. We also checked out a tidal occurrence known as the reversing falls. New Brunswick is home to the highest tides in the world. In some areas, the water level changes up to 17 metres. What happens at the reversing falls is that the incoming tide actually overpowers the St. John River and forms rapids that travel upstream.

From here, we kept going through Fundy National Park and camped just outside of the Hopewell Rocks, New Brunswick's signature postcard stop. We checked it out in the morning and were impressed. The interpretive centre and lookouts give a very visual display of the immensity of the tides.

We did stop in Moncton for a grocery top before heading for PEI. We crossed the Confederation Bridge and seemed to cover a quarter of the island before finding a campground. We set up camp with the intent of staying in the same spot for 3 nights. This is a nice change from having to pack up each morning (tent goes up, tent comes down, repeat). We had a great day yesterday driving through the eastern half of the country (this province was made for the afternoon drive). It is a very calming place with very gentle features. Also, the island is covered with agricultural pursuits. It resembles Saskatchewan in many ways with similar landscapes. We spent some time on a beach on the Eastern coast which was a nice break. For supper, we went to one of PEI's famous church lobster suppers. Melissa said it was in the top ten of her list of best meals.

Today, we are in Charlottetown just relaxing. I am sitting in a Laundromat as I type this as we are catching up on some much needed laundry (I'm wearing my last pair of clean undies). I'm not sure where the rest of the day will take us, but I know it will be relaxing. Tomorrow, we are heading for Halifax via the Wood Island Ferry, to spend the long weekend there before heading to Cape Breton.