Having crossed the Thorung La we are now in another drainage, that of the Kali Gandaki. It is much dryer than the Marsyangdi valley that we were in before the pass. It also seems much more prosperous. The Kali Gandaki is a broader valley so the road construction has been more successful in producing a reasonably good road. Fortunately, the Annapurna circuit trail often leaves ...
Gordon, Doris, Herman, Marie Anne and HervéRuth: After seven lobster meals in five days we are stumbling onto our flight home in a lobster haze. Nothing to complain about, but I do look forward to eating some vegetables and perhaps toning down the gluttony just a wee bit. We have had a lovely visit in Moncton reconnecting with Gord's mom's sister and two brothers. There is ...
Ruth: We are staying at the house of Gord's aunt and uncle in Dieppe, New Brunswick (near Moncton). Tonight Gord's Uncle Hervé cooked us a lobster feast. The plate above is just the leftovers! We offered to make a salad, but were told quite firmly that vegetables are unnecessary with lobster. I can't say I missed them. Hervé and Marie-Anne moved into an assisted living place six ...
Ruth: It's wild blueberry season in Parrsboro.Parrsboro is located on the Nova Scotian side of the Bay of Fundy. It is the town where my Great Aunt Betty was born and grew up. When I was 16 my Great Aunt and Uncle brought me here for a wonderful summer vacation. I can still hear my Uncle Archie's stories as Gord and I wander through the ...
Gordon: When I was growing up I was told that my great-grandfather had died in the mines at Springhill. I had heard of the "Springhill disaster" (there were actually three), but I was told that his death occurred in one of the smaller explosions. My grandmother was the youngest of 7 or 9 children. She was only 2 or 3 years old when my great-grandfather ...
Gordon: Much of our communication in the past 6 weeks has been in French. While neither of us is fluent, we both have an intermediate knowledge and can comfortably travel in French. We have, however, struggled with the accents in Quebec and New Brunswick (which are not the same.). But today we truly were out of our depth when we encountered Chiac at an outdoor ...
Ruth: The ride from Miramichi to Kouchibouguac National Park was a straight flat road through scrubby forest, but without a headwind it was fast and fine. We are staying two nights in a cabin just outside the entrance to the park. Eastern national parks seem much more civilized than their western cousins, with more infrastructure and greater accessibility. The roads that once led to a number ...
Ruth: It became clear that Gord was underfed when he spent last night in Neguac researching the location and hours for the all you can eat Chinese restaurants in Miramichi. Even with a ferocious head wind we were able to make it to the Great Wok just as the food troughs were being filled. Oh my! Three plates later we were both feeling very full. ...
Ruth: Today is the Fête Nationale d'Acadie and we are spending it in Caraquet, often described as the heart of Acadian culture in New Brunswick. In the morning we hopped on our bikes and road to the nearby Acadian Historical Village. It has a fantastic collection of historic buildings that have been relocated from all over the province. Each of them has an actor in ...
Gordon: On our last day in Quebec (we spent almost four weeks in the province) we visited Miguasha Provincial Park. It exists to protect an area in which a remarkable collection of fossils, mostly of fish, have been unearthed. The 380 million year old fossils show the evolution of lobe finned fishes that were the ancestors of the first terrestrial vertebrates. The fossil collection was ...