Hopewell & Kouchibougouac

We were curious why magnetic hill is called magnetic hill, and find there is a local curiosity in the form of an illusion that means there is a section of road where if you park at a specified spot and put your car in neutral it appears to roll uphill.  

We gave it a go - bit of fun! What was more fun was the little but excellent zoo next door which had lots of big cats and we had the place pretty much to ourselves the black jaguar and tiger came so close! Alex loved watching the 2 river otters playing joyfully and seeing the tortoise with a custom fitted wheelchair!

We had to dash onwards pretty quickly as tide and time waits for no man (or autistic child that’s desperate to stay for 5 more minutes!) and we had a date with the legendary hopewell rocks.  These rocks in the bay of fundy have wonderful shapes and show the massive tidal range we’ve talked about in our other blogs really well and have been carved by the weather and tide from the rock.  We planned to arrive around high tide and see the rocks covered and then come back nearer low tide and walk out amongst the rocks.  We got there but the park was closed so we managed to find a spot to park and went round a few barriers (as do the locals) to check out the rocks from a couple of viewing points and plan where to come back to access the beach later.

You don’t get the sense of scale from the viewing platforms, but we certainly did when we came back after a couple of lobster rolls at a local and very old fashioned family restaurant. 

We got down to the squidgy beach mud and walk amongst the rocks and they were simply stunning! The weather was fab too with a moody sky and some sun which lit the rocks beautifully.  The rocks range from “flowerpots” and "elephant" and "mother in laws face" and are 40-70ft high.  Alex loved squishing through the red mud.  

There are boot washing stations to de-grunge after coming off the beach we were grateful for and then we headed off to kouchibougouac national park, having decided to go directly there and stay 2 nights to have a bit of a rest rather than explore New Brunswick further. Moving on every day and setting up and packing down can be a little tiring and we wanted a day of chill!

Kouchibougouac national park is the first park we’ve been to that’s officially open and opened the day we arrived, so we managed to get a spot on an unserviced pitch amongst the trees and with showers close by (woo!) and importantly a fire ring.  Alex has been nagging us to set a fire! Pulling our firewood back to our site we spot a tiny brown snake wiggling into the woods and catch it on camera.  

This is also our first proper campsite as so far we’ve “boondocked” or stayed at harvest hosts or boondockers welcome sites and we’re pleasantly surprised by the lovely pitches and park and amenities for the princely sum of $23 a night.

Guy de- muddies our clothes from our hopewell adventure and we settle in for the night.  Guy is woken up by a woodpecker pecking nearby but when we wake we feel refreshed and pleased not to be moving on and looking forward to long warm showers! This is the only luxury you don’t really have living in a van and needing to be economical with water!

We pack up our picnic and get out on the bikes heading towards Kelly’s beach past lagoons.  Until Guy’s pedal comes loose and we are worried it’s going to break like mine did in the Uk - clearly a fault with how the pedals have been installed on our otherwise fabulous Eovolt electric bikes! Luckily park Canada staff pass us in a ubiquitous pickup truck and kindly give Guy and bike a lift back to our pitch where he fixes it and is back with us after Alex and I have found a few big hairy moth caterpillars.

We cycle to Kelly’s beach and the boardwalk to the dunes is stunning, a land we find a massive white empty sandy beach covered in giant clam shells.  We spot terns and heron and then carry on our 25km loop past beaches and through the forest seeing hardly anyone else as we go except for a few black and purple butterflies - Beautiful - haven't found them in the insect book yet (thanks Rebecca and Dave). And we love the bikes!! We choose to pedal unassisted by the electric motor a lot of the time but great to have the boost when heading into wind, going uphill or towards the end of a long ride, or to race and get your other half to eat dust!

When we get back to Wendy Alex is desperate to make the fire so we cook dinner tacos on it (Guy was determined to cook on the fire!) and we finish our moth lane beer.  We head to the play park for a while to see if Alex can find some little friends which he does (Jack from Kelowna BC) and we chat to jack’s parents Lisa and Jeremy who are lovely and embarking on their own road trip from BC to Nova Scotia and give us lots of tips! We head back to the fire and try blueberry fruitsecco whilst Alex plays with the magic flames on the fire  and makes little films.   He is definitely turning into a pyromaniac moviemaker.

After a solid rest we have our first lie in and wake up just after 10 and head to the play park as Alex is hoping to find his little friend Jack.   We’re keen to make sure we build in fun things for Alex and contact with kids his own age when we can.  Great for us to see Lisa and Jeremy again  and see their cool moho which is much bigger and more luxurious than ours! We hope to see them again in Kelowna.

Reluctant to leave the relaxing park we head off towards Quebec on our way to Gaspe and Stop at an amazing peninsula Pointe Bourg outside Carleton sur-mer (def in French speaking territory now) .  We gain an hour going into the Quebec time zone and are getting more comfortable ignoring the no camping signs in parking spaces whilst it's off season and many campsites are closed!

The beaches here are full of wood after recent storms so a fire has to be done, and Alex and I make homemade lemonade to accompany our beach cooked burgers.  

The boys can't resist messing about with the fire and I curl up and watch them happily.

Emma