5.10.18 Off to New Brunswick!

By 9:30 am, we are in the car, have washed up and tidied up and are now heading south. In Port Hastings, we stop at the Visitor Center and the Souvenir Shop, which actually makes a profit from me.

Armed with a road map of New Brunswick, we are now driving to the mainland. Although we have about 550 km to drive today, we want to use this opportunity to see some beautiful places and interesting things. So we first head north towards Tatamagouche on a side road parallel to the coast. The places we pass through offer nothing - especially not the charm of small fishing villages that we expected. After Tatamagouche, we head towards Amherst Head, a bit inland. Somewhere in the middle of nowhere, we find a Subway where we only use the toilet and eat some tomatoes and bananas from our own supplies in the parking lot. All the other stores we passed by are closed. And it's Friday afternoon. While refueling, we get a life-sustaining coffee at Tim Hortons next door and now head to Moncton on Hwy 4.

We want to go to Magnetic Hill, a natural phenomenon, rather an optical illusion. Here, cars (and other vehicles) seem to roll uphill without engine power. We are curious. For some reason, you have to position yourself on this road (admission $6 per car) so that you roll backwards. You release the handbrake and foot brake, put the lever on N, and off you go. You actually have the impression of rolling backwards uphill for the next 200m, while the car also speeds up.

The trick is rather an optical illusion. You can't see the horizon and the changed perspective deceives the eye in such a way that you feel like you're driving uphill, while the road actually goes downhill.

We roll back and forth here 2 or 3 times. The weather is fantastic and the trees on this short stretch are in the most colorful shades against a blue sky. Next door is the Magnetic Hill Wharf, a small collection of shops (some already 'closed for the season' or 'closed') that surround a small duck pond. Bright colors, sun - perfect.

We only have about 100km left to Alma, our 'home' for the next 3 nights. Located on the Bay of Fundy and the Fundy National Park. We drive along the Fundy coast on Route 114 to get there. The foliage along the route is breathtaking.

Shortly after 5:00 pm - and about 500km since we left Baddeck at 9:30 am - we reach Alma. A place with a population of 230 and a Main Street where some restaurants are still open, although some have already closed for the next few months. Alma is an ideal base for visiting Fundy National Park and also for seeing the tidal changes on the Bay of Fundy. The Vista Ridge Cottages are located a bit above the town and have a wonderful view to the small fishing harbor and the national park behind it. Our cottage is completely covered with pine wood on the inside. There is an open gallery upstairs with two sleeping areas. On the ground floor, there is a closed bedroom, a small kitchen, and the bathroom. The facilities are good, the heating and the electric fireplace work, and we let both run when we go into town to find something to eat.

You can eat at the Boathouse Restaurant until 8:00 pm and we are once again under a bit of time pressure. The friendly waitress explains that they still let guests in until 8:00 pm, but at the same time the grill closes. So maybe there's only soup left? I enjoy an extremely delicious seafood chowder and a lobster roll, buy a beer glass for my collection, and shortly after 8:00 pm we are already outside again, in deep darkness at 7°C. It's a good thing we have a car. The path up to our cabin is pitch black.

Our place is really warm. The internet is a disaster, making it difficult to process the hotel reservation in Lunenburg without the network cutting out. Endless attempts, interruptions, new logins. Very annoying.

Since the bathroom is downstairs and I sleep upstairs on the gallery, we leave a small table lamp on so that I don't fall down the wooden stairs at night. Cozy light seeps upstairs and I drift off gently.