Saturday, May 10, 2014

Bay of Fundy - Moncton and Joggins

We spent a pleasant night at the Super-8 in Moncton, which turned out to be the nicest Super-8 we have ever seen, complete with indoor pool and hot tub.  Also a shout-out to two awesome places to eat - Big Tide Brewing in St John and Calactus in Moncton.


Two quick stops in Moncton for a rainy morning:

1) Magnetic Hill, where apparently it seems like your car will roll uphill.  The road wasn't open to drive on (part of a large touristy complex), so we took a short walk and tried to figure it out.  At least we didn't pay money for this... but maybe in the right circumstances it could be pretty cool.


2) More exciting to us, we were lucky enough to be in Moncton when a tidal bore came barreling up the river through town.  There is a posted schedule and a viewing platform, and we got a huge kick out of watching this tidal surge make its way upstream from the bay.

Here is the river while we were waiting:


The bore is coming!


One big wave coming upstream:


It's not the most obvious phenomenon to capture in a photo, so I tried to get a video of it, posted here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-y83VGpEKk

That pretty much made our day!

Our next stop was neat as well - the Joggins Fossil Cliffs, with an excellent little visitor center where we learned a lot about the fossil discoveries.  When the tide receded enough, we went for a walk on the beach to test what we had learned.

Part of a long section of beach around Joggins:


Taking Renee fossil hunting:


The diagonal bands of rocks from progressively older eras:


A vein of coal:


Fossils!  Once we started looking closely along the beach, we found a bunch of different kinds.  With the tide going in and out twice a day, new ones get uncovered all the time.


Checking out the cliff bands:


Fossils among gorgeous rocks:


Part of a "standing tree" that had been covered and filled with sediment a long time ago, now embedded in the cliff:


John found a little limb as well:


Quite a fun day on our way to Advocate Harbour!

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