What’s a Tidal Bore? 8/13/17

A rainy 2 ½ hour drive NE from Bridgetown and right at the far, skinny little tip of the Bay of Fundy, is the town of Truro. Our new parking space is just south of there in Hilden at Scotia Pines.

Touted as a really nice campground, we were surprised to learn their quiet time wasn’t until midnight. Most parks are 10pm and occasionally we find one that’s 11. And the sites here are very close together. Right next to us is a fifth-wheel with 4 kids – one who’s lot in life is to make everyone else’s life miserable. She’s about 3 or 4 and cries or emmits a sudden scream practically constantly – right up until midnight. Ugh!! In addition to that, there’s a train. It’s really close to the campground (although not nearly as close as the one we had once in Alaska!) and runs by at 4am, whistle blowing several times. It runs by at other times, too, but the 4am one is the worst! Especially when you don’t get to sleep until after midnight. . . .

I suppose you’re thinking, “Well, then, why don’t you just move?” We would love to! But we’re only here for 3 nights and there are no campgrounds available between here and our next stop. (Keep in mind – we have a 40’ motorhome. Not every campground can accommodate us.)

We found a church!!!! Hip-Hip-Horray!!!! Brookfield Baptist Church. We drove past it on Saturday on the way in and they actually have a website, so we checked for any evidence of snake-handling (although I don’t think that’s ever a Baptist thing . . .) and the service time was 10am. So we dressed up and off we went!

Our first experience was a sign of things to come. We were met in the parking lot by a former pro hockey player (now probably in his 70’s) who greeted us warmly and actually had a conversation before we even got into the church. Once inside, we were greeted warmly by several people and ‘mugged’. Hey, that’s what they called it! We were given a Tim Horton coffee mug with candy and hot chocolate in it, all wrapped up in cellophane.

The music (hymns and a couple of 80’s songs) was great and so was the message. The pastor was at the end of a series in Hebrews (just like Pastor Mike does!) and he took those last couple of verses and drew out so much! (just like Mike!) He talked about how blessed we are as Christians, with all of the grace and peace given to us and His unbreakable covenant with us, plus equipping us for His service. After church, we were invited to an after-church luncheon, which we declined. Hey, if we took them up on that, who knows where the hospitality would’ve ended?? 😊

After a brief stop at home, we headed out again to The Tidal Bore Visitor Center and then Victoria Park. Victoria is a town park in Truro and soooo nice! Walking, hiking, water, beauty, music on Sunday afternoons . . . it really is a gem. But we were actually on a time-table. We don’t watch the clock much anymore, but it was imperative that we did today because we wanted to watch the Tidal Bore come in.

View of the swimming hole from above

This is a Wishing Well
We didn’t wish for anything. We already have what we want.
So Blessed!!

This is Jacob’s Ladder. 197 steps!

If you look really close, you can just make out the path we were walking on earlier! Before “The Ladder”.

This band played all kinds of music. Great acoustics!

So here’s the skinny on the Tidal Bore. (I know. I’m probably using antiquated language, but I’m antiquated – almost – so it’s ok.) There’s a Tide Chart that tells you high and low tides and then there’s a Tidal Bore Chart that tells you when the tidal bores are estimated to arrive.

A tidal bore only happens at a river. What happens is, the huge tide of Fundy Bay comes in and actually pushes rivers backwards! When that happens at this particular spot, it causes a 2-3’wave that you can actually see! THAT’s what we wanted to experience.

So after the Park, we headed back to the Visitor’s Center to sit along the bank of the Shubenacadie River. There’s another river nearby which we’ll check out another day. The view there is supposed to be different. Our spot today shows the most obvious bore. The view at the Interpretive Center is supposedly more turbulent. People actually pay to white-water raft there.