We also enjoyed paddling in Lunenburg Harbour, past the famous schooner, Bluenose II, and in front of the bright red, waterfront buildings. Evidently in the early days, sailors realized that red was the best colour for assisting ships in foggy weather. For more information visit www.eastcoastoutfitters.net and www.town.lunenburg.ns.ca HOPEWELL ROCKS, NEW BRUNSWICK One of the keystone attractions in New Brunswick is the famous high tide in the Bay of Fundy. And the best place to experience the huge range of tides is at Cape Hopewell. This area is known to have some of the highest tides in the world (up to 16 metres). Normally a huge tidal range is not a bonus when sea kayaking, since it can mean inconvenient portages across mud flats and worse. For your first trip you might want to do what we did last summer—join a tour. Just before high tide we accompanied Baymount Outdoor Adventures for a two-hour paddle through amazing arches and past sea stacks and “flower pot” rocks. These impressive seascapes have been carved into the conglomerate bedrock over the millennia by tides, waves and frost. The water was a reddish brown as we pushed off the beach. Our guide, Richard Faulkner, explained that the constant churning of the water over the extensive mud flats surrounding Cape Hopewell produces this brownish water. Soon we paddled along the cliff faces that make the Hopewell Rocks world renowned. “These unusual rock formations are the result of 100 billion tons of water sluicing back and forth each day. The ‘Flower Pot’ rocks take their name from the sea stacks that are capped with windswept spruce trees and shrubs, hence looking like giant flower pots,” said Richard. On our return paddle, the tide was even higher, so we could explore some of the passages that were too shallow just an hour before. However, some care is needed as we discovered when we blindly paddled up on a submerged rock. The water is so full of fine mud that you can’t see your paddle blade in the water, let alone any rocks that lurk below the surface. It’s a wonder anything can live in this sediment laden environment, but just as we neared the take-out, Richard pointed out the thousands of semipalmated plovers as they flew as a synchronized group, all banking and swooping in unison. They come here in the summer to dine on small shrimp that live in the mud flats before they head off for South America in the late summer. The tides, sea stacks, arches and sea birds—it is all very impressive and it is no wonder New Brunswick uses Hopewell Rocks as one of its flagship tourism draws. It is truly one of the marine wonders of the world. For more information visit www.baymountadventures.com and www.thehopewellrocks.ca BRUDENELL RIVER, PEI Islands make great sea kayaking destinations. For instance, in Prince Edward Island you are never more than 30 kilometres from the ocean, and it has 1300 kilometres of coastline. Although still in its infancy, sea kayaking is growing in PEI and is an activity that the province is keen to promote. We found that paddling in PEI is different than in the other Atlantic Provinces. <strong>Paddling</strong> here tends to be tamer, with farms and fields as a backdrop instead of large rugged cliffs, numerous offshore islands or large tides to contend with. Last summer we decided to paddle with Outside Expeditions at Brudenell River Provincial Park. We quickly realized that in PEI the use of the word “river” often means “drowned river” since we were actually paddling in an estuary. We paddled past cormorants and gulls sitting on floats which supported extensive commercial mussel operations. Terns flitted overhead and our guide, Renee Montgomery, said we should keep on the lookout for bald eagles. Our intended destination was a seal haulout around the next point but our trip was cut short by the forecast of high winds in the afternoon. So at Renee’s suggestion, we decided to drive to North Rustico, near Prince Edward Island National Park, to join Outside Expeditions for an afternoon paddle down the North Rustico River. Here we saw fishing boats coming to shore, including one that had caught an 363 kg tuna. Our guide, Randy Campbell, said that this single tuna might fetch up to $100,000 and would be shipped half way around the world to Japan to end up in sushi bars and restaurants. For more information visit www.gov.pe.ca/visitorsguide/index. php3 and www.getoutside.com Keith and Heather Nicol are avid paddlers who live in Corner Brook, NL. Keith has a popular sea kayaking web site at www.swgc.mun.ca/~knicol. Click on sea kayaking in Atlantic Canada. 42 WAVELENGTH MAGAZINE SUMMER 2007
“We know our stuff” getting you out there since 1981 A Proud “on water” Delta Kayaks dealer 1824 STORE STREET VICTORIA, BC. PH 250.381.4233 • TOLL FREE 1 800 909 4233 WWW.OCEANRIVER.COM Come paddle with us! For more tours, check out www.albernioutpost.com 1 866 760 0011 SUMMER 2007 WAVELENGTH MAGAZINE 43
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