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Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Coast to Coast | Pedalling Around | Cradled on waves | Coaching Ways | Easy Riding | Media Stars | Ties that Bind | Rev Up the RV | Making a Quick Getaway | Sitting on the Dock of the Bay

Having disembarked from the Princess of Acadia, the car ferry that bridges the 45 ocean miles between Digby, NS, and Saint John, NB, it's time to experience the Bay of Fundy close up and become absorbed in the spectacle of the highest tides in the world.

The tides rise and fall on a 6-hour-and-13-minute cycle, moving about an inch every minute. The water reaches a maximum of 28 feet at Saint John and 60 feet where the Fundy terminates at Chignecto Bay, where a peninsula links Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The tides are a result of some 100 billion tons of water that enter the bay from the Gulf of Maine and are squeezed by the narrowing of both the sides of the bay by mainland Nova Scotia on the south and New Brunswick on the north. That, and the upward tilt of the floor of the bay.

A good place to experience it in Saint John is at the Reversing Falls, where the massive tides actually turn back the waters of the 450-mile-long St. John River and create rips and whirlpools that seem to defy passage. The brave challenge the rips via jet boat rides and kayaking offers a thrilling experience.

The nearby Irving Nature Park has thickly wooded trails skirting 7½ miles of coast, thus offering a mini-experience of the Fundy shoreline. Ocean vistas in the park are reminiscent of the long-famous flowerpot rocks at Hopewell Cape, and the lesser known 200-foot cliffs at Cape Enrage in Chignecto Bay. They give hints of the secluded beaches and cliff-hugging trails recently opened at Fundy Parkway, making for 10 miles of driving and walking experience in mid-bay. And there are no lack of places in the park where the quiet beauty reminiscent of the 365 islands in the mouth of the bay, between Maine and New Brunswick, can be enjoyed.

For those with time and interest, detours of an hour or two from Route One and Two (which run up and down the coast) will reveal whirlpools, weirs and lobster pounds, rustic wharf villages, and lighthouses galore. Free ferries chug across island-studded channels where whales and horsehead seals cavort. Shore restaurants offer lobster rolls and chowders, and touch-and-feel aquariums will add to your experience of the Bay of Fundy and its tides.