I woke to quiet, no more raindrops bouncing. A clear blue sky decorated a somewhat chilly morning, but chilly is much preferred over wet. It stayed dry all day, although the blue did share space with gray (and occasionally white) clouds.
Another morning, another great breakfast. Today's started with a dish of fresh fruit, including blueberries, bananas, peaches, strawberries, apples, and... I continued with Elaine's homemade granola, which was absolutely awesome. Alan made eggs to order, so I had to have an egg to go with his wonderful homemade bread. Then I just had to have one of Elaine's cinnamon rolls. Happy...
I headed in to Hopewell Rocks just before 9. The low tide was at 9:20, and it's safe to walk on the ocean floor for three hours on either side of low tide, so I had a nice amount of time to wander. I walked from the shorter set of stairs by North Beach (only 20 wooden steps as opposed to the 90 metal steps by the Flower Pot Rocks) to the stairs marked 'do not use, emergency exit only', and back again. My first instinct was to follow Elaine and Alan's advice to continue walking as far as Demoiselles Beach, but clambering over a pile of rocks intermixed with seaweed didn't really appeal. Yes, you're right, that type of surface makes me a bit nervous, and I'd really prefer not to fall.
As I walked back, I saw what I thought would be an interesting vantage point for a photograph (what else!). I started walking out through sticky land, and discovered that it wasn't just sticky - it was deep soft mud. Yikes! My feet sunk in, and when I tried to pull each foot out to back up - or even to take another step forward - it felt like they just went in deeper. Pulling a little more forcefully did work, and then I found a safer path back to more solid ground. My feet we covered in so much mud at that point to they felt heavier than usual. After I found my way back to more solid ground I followed a better path right into the water. I really needed to wash my feet, and I didn't think I could tromp back up those 90 stairs - which were still quite a ways off - to wash my feet at the official hose site. Luckily, the water of the Bay of Fundy isn't to cold.
I'm so glad I chose to ride with the extra camera lenses today instead of tromping in the mud with Denise. I prefer to keep my bright red paws clean! I did stick my head out regularly to exchange barks with the dogs walking on the muddy floor of the Bay of Fundy. Some of them had pretty muddy paws. While at times I thought that taking a mud bath might be fun, I really appreciated my ride today!As I was walking back to the stairs, my ultimate exit point from the floor of the bay, I saw a mass of low-flying birds. It was a long line of birds, a multi-layered line, birds and birds and birds, flying just above the surface of the water, floating, soaring. Most of them (apparently) were semipalmated sandpipers, with some plovers through in for diversty. They stop here in New Brunswick on their annual migration from the Arctic to South America. This is one of their eating spots. They spend up to a couple of weeks here eating, doubling their weight before they continue their journey to the south. At high tide, they congregate on the beach to the north and east of the area of the Flower Pot Rocks. I walked as far as I could (humans are not allowed to disturb these birds) to look at the birds o the beach. From afar, they really looked like rocks on the beach. It was amazing to watch the flight of these birds.
...a little side note from Rover
But - back to the tides... I stayed on the floor of the bay as long as I could, watching the water replace the mud, flowing in at an amazing rate of speed. As the water lapped up to the bottom of the stairs it was time to ascend.
And it was time for a food break. I was a bit chilled, so I headed back to the visitor center for a nice hot bowl of soup. And then... back to watch the water for a bit longer at it edged toward high tide. By some odd piece of luck I was here on one of the very high tide days, where low tide was at a depth of 3.6 feet (1.1 meters) and high tide was 42.3 feet (12.9 meters). It's just amazing to be able to see the difference by watching the water levels on the Flower Pot Rocks.
After many hours watching the water, it was time to find my home for the next two nights. I'm at Barb's B&B in Waterside, about 7 miles from Fundy National Park where I plan to play tomorrow.
