My Canadian
JOURNEY
Minister’s Island, a 500-acre tidal island that is a national historic site. From the late 1800s on it was the home of William Van Horne, the founder of Canadian Pacific, which built the country’s transcontinental railways and also many of the now-famous hotels that are today Fairmont properties, such as the Banff Springs and Château Frontenac. Visitors can see parts of Van Horne's, grand house, tidal swimming pool and the gigantic livestock barn which was once home to his thoroughbred horses and herd of Dutch Belted Cattle. To reach the island you have to drive
In the Hall of Great Whales is a part-
skeleton-part-life-size model of a North American Right Whale. It’s a nod to the marine and maritime history of the province and reminder that a whale- watching tour is a highlight of a visit to the Canadian Maritimes. Between June and October humpback, minke and finbacks arrive to feed on sardines and herrings, but August and September are the optimum months to see Right Whales in the Bay of Fundy.
REVERSING FALLS Leaving Saint John we drive past the Moosehead brewery and across an iron bridge to the city’s old North End and Fallsview Park, an elevated viewpoint with a look-out over the Reversing Falls. This is where the seawater of the bay and the freshwater of the Saint John River collide, causing a ‘reverse flow’ – the result is a series of dramatic waves, chutes, whirlpools and mini-falls. It’s a place where you really
appreciate the power of the high waves – no more so than on a jetboat ride at high or low tide. Also in St John you can dip into a billion years of earth’s history at
"as i touch the rough rocky striations, with names like 'Mother-in-law', 'eT' and 'dinosaur' dozens of sandpipers fly by and high above a bald eagle drifts on a thermal"
Stonehammer Geopark (
stonehammergeopark.com).
ST. ANDREWS A new highway speeds us from Saint John to St Andrews (standrewsbythesea. ca), a quaint and popular seaside town. On the way we see signs on the road
for ‘salmon smokies’. The town is a centre for whale-watching, on a variety of vessels from high-speed zodiacs to catamarans to motor boats. One company, Fundy Tide Runners Whale Watching and Nature Tours (
fundytiderunners.com) is a CTC Signature Experience and operates high-speed Zodiac Hurricanes. But we sail, and occasionally motor, the waters of the West Isles archipelago with Island Quest (islandquestmarine. com). On our way to the whales’ feeding grounds our guide points out dolphins and harbour seals, bald eagles and northern gannets, and we get a close up look at several salmon farms, but the whales, but for a distant finback, prove elusive.
Clockwise: St. Andrews is a designated National Historic District; Exploring Hopewell Rocks at low tide; Rossmount Inn, St. Andrews, offers fine dining and great views of Passamaquoddy Bay; The Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival
28 SUMMER 2014 • Selling Canada Dinner and accommodation this
evening is at the Rossmount Inn (
rossmountinn.com), a three-storey
manor house set on an 87-acre estate between the forest and the sea. Just a few minutes up the hill from
St Andrews, it has one of the finest restaurants in town and I feast on locally-farmed salmon and vegetables from its organic garden before retiring to a room with a four-poster bed, claw-foot bath, antiques and a maple- wood floor. The following morning I walk a trail at the back of Rossmount Inn to Chamcook Mountain and enjoy views over Passamaquoddy Bay and the coast of Maine, USA.
Our last stop in St Andrews is at
across the ocean floor (or ‘the bar’) at low tide – and make sure you depart before the water flows back in. Before leaving St Andrews, we stop at the newly-reopened Algonquin Resort (
algonquinresort.com). An iconic New Brunswick Hotel since 1889, it is Canada’s first Marriott Autograph Collection property. I end my trip in Fredericton – and my visit coincides with another Canadian Signature Experience and one of Canada’s best-known music festivals: the Harvest Jazz and Blues Festival (
harvestjazzandblues.com). Atlantic Canada’s largest music event attracts star names and world-class performers who appear on stages, large and small, scattered around Fredericton’s historic downtown area. Despite the weather – the rain is
unrelenting on the first couple of days – the whole city gets behind the event and it seems that most of Fredericton is rocking to the sound of dreadnought guitars, harmonicas and trumpets. This year’s ‘Harvest’ takes place from September 9-14. For information on tourism in New
Brunswick contact:
tourismnewbrunswick.ca.
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