WEDNESDAY 13 July (edited on 17 July)
Today was the beginning of our 5th week on the road and our last night at Bouctouche Baie Chalets & Camping in Saint-Edouard-de-Kent, New Brunswick. The campground is mostly occupied by “seasonal” campers whose RVs never leave, but has been a fine base of operations for exploring the area. The cellular service here has been marginal, but the Wi-Fi has been quite usable.
The Irving Eco-Centre buildings and initial stretch of the Le Dune de Bouctouche boardwalk.
Before heading back to Kouchibouguac National Park (with Nancy and Paul this time) we headed south on Route 475 to the “Irving Eco-Centre, La Dune de Bouctouche.” We have seen Irving gas stations throughout our Canadian travels, but were unfamiliar with the company previously. From the web “Irving Oil operates Canada’s largest refinery and Ireland’s only refinery, along with more than 900 gas stations and a network of distribution terminals spanning Eastern Canada and New England.” Based on our visit to the Eco-Centre, they are a company that has put some money back into the communities they serve.
The bay (baie) side of the Dune. The seascapes are a palette of greens.
ABIR, the Eco-Centre was established in the late 1990’s to protect the 12km long Bouctouche Dune while providing access and education. The dune and beach are accessed via an 800m long elevated boardwalk going south from the main center complex. As a special bonus, we were able to see wind turbines on the horizon located on Prince Edward Island on the other side of the Northumberland Strait.
A display in the information center of the modern oyster farming gear (two floats on a wire cage).
From the Eco-Centre we continued south on Route 475. Paul and Nancy had driven this stretch previously, and wanted us to the see the extensive oyster farming operations. The furthest extent of our travels was the town of Bouctouche. From what we saw driving through the town, this was a larger town that is doing well with nice public park spaces. We picked up NB-134 and headed north through the countryside to Kouchibouguac National Park. (BTW: the park name is pronounced “koo-she-boo-qwak” with no separation between the syllables and only a slight emphasis on the last one. It comes from the Mi’gmaq language, native to this area, and means “river of the long tides.” The main body of water in the park is the Kouchibouguacis.)
We had selected several shorter/loop hikes and started with the Mi’gmaq Cedar trail. It was mostly in a cedar swamp, but emerged near fresh water. It was warmer than yesterday, with more direct sun and less wind, and we found the mosquitoes to be a bit much, even with insect repellent. We decided to forego the other woodland hikes and headed to Kellys Beach. After a brief stop for a bite to eat, we all headed out the boardwalk to the Northumberland Strait (Gulf of St. Lawrence). To complete our visit to this wonderful park, we drove to the end of the road, stopping at the South Kouchibouguac campground area (we didn’t drive into the actual campground) and the La Source picnic area.
By this point in the day, we were all ready to return to camp. Having taken the slower trip on NB-134 several times now, we opted for a quicker return via Hwy-11. Tomorrow would be another repositioning, so Linda gathered up our laundry and took it to Paul and Nancy’s rig while I went ahead and positioned the truck for easy hook-up to the trailer in the morning.
While I was fiddling with the truck, one of the other campers stopped to chat. He was out walking his Golden Retriever / Yellow Lab mix and our Airstream had caught his eye. He was one of the seasonal “residents” and had already been here for 8 weeks, even though they only live 30 minutes away. But 30 minutes to west is very much “inland” whereas here they are “at the coast” which, no doubt, has some influence on weather as well as well as things to do. And there’s a swimming pool. I enjoyed this interaction as seasonal campers, here as most everywhere, form a community, and transient visitors are not part of it. If wave as we walk the park roads folks usually wave back, but they are not interested in talking to us. We did get a lot of folks walking past the rear end of the trailer and stopping to stare at it. We weren’t sure if it was the first time they had ever seen an Airstream travel trailer (unlikely) or were surprised to see a Michigan license plate. Either way, it was fun to watch them.
For dinner, Nancy made two salads—macaroni and bulgur—both served chilled, with slices of a baguette and a little butter (vegan). We opened a bottle of Bodacious (brand) Smooth Red wine and enjoyed a nice, cool meal on a warm evening.
While Linda was finishing our Laundry and Nancy was finishing the dinner preparations, I looked at the motor brake switch for their bedroom slide-out. The brake switch is located behind a small panel on the foot end of their bed platform, retained by four screws. It is currently in the disengaged position and needs to be put in the engaged position. Paul had documentation on the location of the switch and release lever that was supposed to allow the main switch to change position. I could see the mechanism, although reaching it was awkward (of course, it’s an RV). He had not been able to find the release, however, and neither was I. Hopefully another call to their factory contact will yield the needed additional information to allow us to take care of this.
Back at our rig, I transferred photos from my camera to my laptop computer, went through them, and selected/edited a few for this post, all from the Irving Eco-Centre. Tomorrow, we head to Prince Edward Island.
…