Thursday, July 16, 2009

Day 25 (7/16/09) - Hopewell Cape, NB to Truro, NS

Our journey continued this morning at 8:50 (58°). We drove the last leg of the uncomfortably rough roads of NB and arrived in Nova Scotia at 10:20. Finally, paradise, but guess what the girl at the welcome center said? "Our roads aren't much better!" However, our selection of roads today were considerably better than NB.

We did receive a lot of good information at the center that should help us in Halifax when visiting the tall ships.

While having our picture taken at the "welcome" sign, we talked to a family from the NW Territory - so, others have come a long way, too.

Our first stop was the Joggins Fossil Cliffs (http://jogginsfossilcliffs.net/). This area is renowned for it's extensive deposits of 300 million year old fossils. The visitor center is newly opened and displays an extensive collection of both plant and animal fossils. It was kind of strange finding it at the end of a country road in a very small town. We walked on the beach along the cliff and tried to find "new" fossils, but were not successful.

Next was Cape d'Or Lighthouse at the end of a hilly (steep at times) dirt road. Interestingly, none of the information, either printed or displayed along the road, mentioned anything about the access. Larger motorhomes and trailers would have had a very difficult time getting there. It is at the base of a sheer cliff rising 492'. It was established in 1922 and manned until 1989. It now serves as a restaurant and bed and breakfast.

After driving through numorous little villages, we stopped at Parrsboro to view the warf area at which some of the highest tides in the world are experienced. Along this shore, tides rise and fall as much as 50', and twice a day they completly drain the town harbor, leaving boats resting on the sea floor. The incoming tides lift the dockside fishing boats as much a 2" a minute.

We're now at a nice and quiet campground in Truro. After many days, we visited our first Canadian Wal-mart this evening. We saw something being sold there that we've never seen in Arizona's stores - hockey sticks and pucks!

Driving distance: 242 miles (387 km)
Driving time: 6.9 hours (lots of slow driving)
MPG: 38.6 Km/gal
Fuel: $42.33 C (46.7l at $0.91 per liter)
Camping: $32.54 C



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