Anthem of the Seas arrived in Saint John, New Brunswick on Thursday around noon, so we didn't have to wake up early. We had a buffet lunch in the Windjammer Marketplace.
I reserved a rental car a month and a half in advance, at
Avis down the street, as we wanted to be able to see
St. Martins Sea Caves at both low and high tide, as well as visit the
Fundy Trail at leisure. The rate was excellent, costing only about $37 CAD for the day, not including gas...beats going on a ship's excursion for three people. Of course, you should be comfortable with driving, know where you're going and plan well to be back aboard on time. Since I didn't have data service for Canada, it helped immensely to download offline maps for the area in advance onto my iPhone with
these instructions on Google Maps for use in the app for GPS, and also having a
car charger.
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| Anthem docked in Saint John, NB |
First stop was
Reversing Falls, a short driving distance from the dock. The Bay of Fundy tides are so high that it pushes ocean water back into the St. John river, causing a "reversal". Since it was around high tide, we could see the water moving from right to left.
12-second video of water "reversing" into the St. John river (normally empties from left to right into the ocean):
Then we drove an hour to see
St. Martins Sea Caves at mid-high tide. The way there was beautiful, with the most color I had seen so far on the trip. I was driving so couldn't take any pictures.
The water was still too high to access the caves, so after taking a few pictures, we continued on to the
Fundy Trail.
360 photo of St. Martins Sea Caves at mid-high tide, taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
St Martins Sea Caves at mid-high tide - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
An
admission fee was collected by a park ranger at the beginning of the Fundy Trail, credit cards accepted. There weren't a lot of cars at 2pm on a weekday. I decided to drive all the way to the end at Long Beach and work our way backwards. (Fundy Trail map
PDF)
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| cute toilets |
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| Long Beach |
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360 photo of Long Beach, taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
Long Beach on Fundy Trail - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
360 photo of Big Salmon River Lookout, taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
Big Salmon River Lookout on Fundy Trail - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
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| Big Salmon River Lookout |
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| Suspension Foot Bridge |
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360 photo of the suspension bridge, taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
Suspension Bridge on Fundy Trail - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
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| Fundy Footpath parallels the parkway |
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| way to Fuller Falls |
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| Fuller Falls |
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| cable stairs are a bit steep |
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Afterwards, we drove back to the sea caves around low tide. You had to be careful walking around the area due to the wet rocks and slimy seaweed. Water shoes are recommended if you want to really explore, hiking sticks if you are unsteady among slippery rocks and slopes. We were adventurous and climbed beds of seaweed to reach the area behind the caves you could see on the beach. If the tide came in, you wouldn't be able to get out unless you were strong enough to pull yourself up the rock wall with a rope that some thoughtful soul (perhaps with prior experience) installed a while back.
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| the caves at low tide... |
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| ...contrasted with high tide a few hours ago |
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| crossing a shallow flowing stream |
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| at the back of the large cave |
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| hiked this wet slippery seaweed to get to the back |
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| a cave in the back area |
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| interesting rock layers |
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| emergency rope if the tide comes in |
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360 photo of the back sea cave area at low tide (don't want to be stuck here at high tide), taken with the
Ricoh Theta S:
St. Martins Sea Caves in Saint John, NB - Spherical Image - RICOH THETA
After exploring, we had an evening snack of clam chowder and biscuit at the
Caves restaurant. There was free wi-fi there.
We drove back to town and returned the rental car by parking in a designated area, dropping the keys in an after-hours lock box as it was past business hours. I took pictures of the mileage and gas level just in case.
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| Anthem at sunset |
Tonight's dinner was back at the Grande restaurant. I actually didn't order lobster this time. (does lobster bisque count?)
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| seafood vol-au-vent |
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| lobster bisque |
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| osso buco |
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| Grand Marnier souffle was not the best |
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| towel monkey tonight |
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Tomorrow is our last day on the cruise, a sea day with indoor skydiving scheduled...stay tuned!
(Missed any of the previous days? Use the Trip Index at the top of this page to read the others)
***
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