Flarkin Bogs! - Halifax, Canada
Halifax, Canada
We woke earlier than we would have liked considering we were in such nice, private and quiet accommodation but there was alot to see and do today and we knew we were already going to be arriving into Halifax in the early hours of the evening. So we enjoyed a rushed breakfast in our small kitchenette rather than in the tranquil sun room on the ground floor and then we jumped in the car to visit our first attraction of the day, Irving Nature Park. Irving Nature Park is a 600 acre site along the Fundy coast and only minutes from the major urban centre of Saint John. The park was developed to protect this environmentally significant and endangered portion of the Southern New Brunswick coastline. Twice daily this pennisula of volcanic rock in the Bay of Fundy is swept by seawater from some of the highest tides in the world. Along one side there are mud flats and salt marshes whilst along the other side there are long sandy beaches. This area has abundant wildlife, in particular birds as it is on the flight path between the Arctic and South America and it serves as a breeding ground for many shore birds along the Atlantic coast. During migration season up to 250 species of birds can be found within the park. The unique combination of ecosystems in such a concentrated area makes this park unique and well worth preserving. During our visit to the information centre the afternoon before we were told that there were porcupine present in the park which was further confirmed with photographic evidence from the employee's iphone. We had already seen a baby porcupine but now my heart was set on seeing a big mumma one, or a male, either or...just a fully grown one. We were also told that we might see harbour seals on the rocks along the beach. With all that advice on hand it wasnt hard deciding which of the 7 walking trails we would do...The seal trail. It was 3.7km long and took an estimated 1.5hrs over easy walking paths through primarily Acadian Forest. So we tightened our hiking boots, grabbed our cups of tea and started on our way (yes we did actually have cups of tea, it was early, we were tired and it was a great pick me up). As I said the walk commenced by hiking through native woodland known as Acadian Forest which consists of tree varieties such as red spruce, balsalm fir and yellow birch. This type of forest is extremely popular along this stretch of Eastern Canada and is some of the only remaining Acadian Forest remaining in the world. As we entered the forest the light began to fade slightly and the air grew a bit cooler. We could hear the warning screeches of the squirrels and occasionally one cheeky fella scurry by, jumping and weaving between fallen logs and piles of fallen leaves. This part of the forest was actually quite bare as there was no ground vegetation. The only dash of colour you would see would be an occssional bunch of bunchberries hanging from the tree. It literally felt like walking through a forest of matchsticks. As we walked through this section of the trail we could see the salt marsh estuaries to our right. Flocks of birds would spontaneously fly in unison above the low reeds, probably spooked by the occasional horn from a truck passing on a nearby highway. This estuary is known as Saint Rest March and it has become internationally recognised as a bird staging area. The Great blue herron, the Parks symbol, or even the rare Glossy ibis have been known to be spotted amongst the cordgrass and sea lavendar of these salty marshes. I cant say what birds we saw exactly as my knowledge of birds is limited but we saw a fair few flying about which I think is a good indication of the preservation of this environment. As we continued along for another kilometer the scenery began to subtly change. The trees started to move further apart and vibrant green moss and fern like ground cover began to appear. More light was managing to make its way amongst the trees but unfortunately this change in scenery did not result in an abundance of wildlife suddenly appearing all around us. We seemed to be the only living beings (excluding plants) lurking in the forest, besides the squirrels, and we were starting to get slightly disappointed that we hadnt yet spotted a porcupine. Before too long we reached an opening and we could see an observation deck in the distance. We had reached seal rock lookout point. We bounded over towards the beachy shore and intently scanned the peaceful and seemingly liveless shoreline and rocky outcrops. Nope...no seals. Just our luck. Nevermind we thought...we had been lucky to see harbour seals already this trip. So instead of getting too down at the lack of seals at our seal lookout we spent the next 10 or so minutes just enjoying the magnificient view (wandering why a seal wouldnt want to be hanging out here when the real estate is this good). The sun kissed the surface of the water and the still water calmly lapped the brown sandy shore. It was one of those tranquil places that you conjure up when you are listening to that relaxation music in a resort spa...it was simply beautiful and relaxing. With time against us we needed to move on. We continued along the seal trail with the beach on our right. I admit to stopping several times to take an abundance of panoramic photos but despite these regular rest stops we still failed to spot any porcupine. We arrived back at the car just shy of the estimated 1.5hr mark feeling revved up for the remainder of our busy day. We headed back to our hostel to drop our car off so we could then spend sometime exploring the town of Saint John. We had received a brochure from the tourist information office the day before which included three historical and architectural self guided walks of the town. After having a brief read of the brochure I was keen to check out some of the listed buildings and to simply wander the streets to get a feel of the town and its past. So that is what we did.....what better place to start than our own accommodation which apparently held significance in Saint John's history. The Chipman Hill Suites at 71 Sydney St was also known as the White House as it was owned by Lt. Colonel Dr. White from the time of its construction in 1891 until his death at 89 in 1952. Perhaps another reason for its reference as the White house was due to the fact that Lt Colonel Dr White had been mayor of Saint John from 1902 to 1906, and again from 1930 to 1935. From our accommodation we proceded down Princess Street until we reached number 85. This building was and still is the premises of Hayward and Warwick, retailers of fine china since 1855. The nationally renowned china company moved to this precise location in 1877 and continue to hold the title of the oldest family owned business in Saint John. Further down the street at number 79 we stumbled upon the former Power's funeral home. New Brunswick's first professional, full time undertaker Mark Needham Power started his business in 1846 and requested this building be constructed in 1878. Mr Power operated his undertaking business until his death in 1892. The company is also known for having the first glass hearse in Saint John which was often seen going through the carriageway beside the house to and from the stables which were behind the shop (the gates for the carriageway are still present today). Across the street on the corner of Princess and Germain St we caught a glimpse of the Union Club, a gentlemans club founded in May 1884 to allow groups of businessmen to gather for companionship and to exchange ideas. I guess you could say its the equivalent to a modern day cricket or footy club. From its opening, the Union Club has welcomed the most prominent visitors to Saint John, including women after 1936. We strolled down Germain street and saw Saint John's first high rise apartment building, The McArthur apartments at an outrageous 7 stories high but I guess for the 1920s this was considered quite high. We skipped a few buildings on our tour and made our way directly to Prince William Street where some prominent businesses and public buildings were located. One building we found interesting was the Palatine building at 124 Prince William Street. This building was origjnally designed for the Bank of Nova Scotia but when it acquired the Bank of New Brunswick in 1913, the Bank of Nova Scotia moved out and the Palatine Insurance Company moved in. The building's facade is richly decorated with fruit and flower motifs as well as gargoyles. Furthermore, if you look closely at the top right of the entranceway you can spot a carving of a stone face spitting out coins. Other buildings we admired along Prince William Street included the former City Hall (#116), the old post office (#113), a building known as Chubb's corner which has a series of carved stone faces (similiar to those on Pont Neuf in Paris) along the facade at the level of the 3rd floor, and the building which use to be home of McMillan Press. The detail in these buildings was remarkable, you can definately see a sense of pride when designing and developing these buildings. Their purpose was never to simply house some company or person, they were also developed to be admired and to also inspire. At the end of Prince William Street we came to St Andrew's Bicentennial Green which is also the location of Barbour's General Store. This small building which is now a small general store, museum and tearoom (primarily for tourists) was once located 80 miles upstream from its current location. In 1967 the building was sent down on a barge to where it is located today, close to the site where the company originally went into business, and it has been restored to its former glory. Inside you can find old cash registers as well as lots of antique tins, boxes and bottles lining the old wooden shelves. It really feels like you have stepped back into the 19th century when you walk through the doors. Just outside the general store in the courtyard there is a public art display which consists of several life sized cartoon people standing or sitting on a park bench, it appears waiting for a bus. This artwork was really cool and I had read there were some quirky features that the artist had included to encourage people to interact and appreciate his artwork more thoroughly such as spotting his self portrait or finding the character with 3 arms. I loved it..like a pig in mud when it comes to those sorts of things. After finding all the quirky bits we moved on to briefly check out the new market square, which is built by the old Market slip (spot where the loyalist first arrived in 1783 and where merchant ships use to unload their goods to the nearby warehouses) as well as some other cool street art. Time was nudging us along so we decided to finish up our exploration of the town of Saint John by heading to the Old City Market on 47 Charlotte Street. The old City Market building has been in continuous use since 1876 and is believed to be the oldest common law market in Canada (whatever it means by common law market). The interior roof supports of the building have been designed to represent a ships hull, honouring the sea side heritage of the town. The market is small with some stores built into the shell of the building around the sides and there are a few make shift stalls in the middle. There are only a handful of stores with the majority of them selling food such as butchers, grocers and bakers. We managed to grab some fresh veggies for our dinner later that evening, along with another cuppa for the road. We headed straight from the market back to our accommodation, packed the car and we were on the road...again. The destination this time was Fundy National Park. We arrived at Fundy not long after lunch and made our first stop at Wolfe Lake. According to the signs, moose were suppose to frequent this lake on occasion but do you think we could spot any moose...no. I mean the fine print did stipulate that these sightings were often at dawn or dusk but seriously... It was overcast, it looked dusky plus we did the dawn dusk thing once before and nothing...i reckon they are just teasing the tourists sometimes. Anyway, refocus....so we settled down at a picnic bench in this peaceful and uninhabited rest stop and enjoyed another serving of our lovely, home made, gourmet bread roll lunch. Despite having no wildlife to watch we were still lucky enough to have a magnificent view of the Lake with the surrounding forest where the leaves were slowly starting to change into their beautiful autumn tones. There were light sprinkles of bright yellows, warm oranges and firey reds. This is one thing we had been looking forward to when we decided to venture over to this side Canada. It was a perfect substitute to a moose...ok maybe not perfect but a great alternative considering. After lunch we drove further into the park to find the walking trail we had selected to do... The Caribou plain walking trail. This easy 3km walk was due take just over an hour and a half to complete and was suppose to be a great introduction to the local terrain. The walk would take us along a beaver pond, over a raised peat bog via a boardwalk and through temperate rainforest. It sounded like the perfect walk to fit into our tight schedule. This trail got its name from the herds of caribou that use to inhabit this region up until 1907. Unfortunately no caribou remain in the National Park as they were ran off or eaten by the large number of wolves. Consequently, when the caribou died the wolves had no food left so they also died off or moved out of the area. Although no caribou or wolves were roaming the area we were informed to still keep our eyes peeled for moose (yeah right..funny). We walked under a small archway and onto a boardwalk to commence our walk. From the moment we stepped foot on the boardwalk we knew we were in for a treat. The forest was simply stunning. This evergreen forest consisting of spruce and fir trees was filled with an unimaginable number of shades of green. There was evidence of some leaves undergoing their autumn colour transition and there were a handful of leaves scattered over the boardwalk crunching under our feet as we walked by. There would be an occasional squirrel screech or a tiny flutter of bird wings but otherwise the forest was peacefully quiet. The forest parted slightly and we followed the boardwalk into an exposed area which followed the edge of the lake. A low hum could be heard as we took a moment to appreciate the lake, which turned out to be a vibrant and quite large red dragonfly. The boardwalk branched off again and took us back into the forest on the way to the raised peat bog. The forest began to subtly change as we continued along the path. More autumn colours began to creep into the trees and different ground shrubbery began to appear. Mushrooms and other tree growing fungi began to make an appearance and we started to notice a difference in the trees. The constantly evolving scenery kept the walk intersesting and made time speed by. Before we knew it we had reached the famous raised peat bog, which we accessed via another specially constructed boardwalk. Now what is a bog you ask? No its not a pile of poo as some of you might think but rather a giant mound of sodden peat (type of mossy plant). At this particular site the bog is in fact 4 meters deep. Sometimes the peat can decompose and create rotten spots known as flarks. These flarks are like quicksand and have been known to swallow moose whole. There are two known incidences of mooses being swallowed up by a flark at this particular bog...fortunately one of the moose survived the experience. There were a number of different interpretive plaques explaining how bogs develop and the different flora and fauna you can find in this environment. One plaque mentioned that there was a plant known as a bog cranberry and i was quite chuffed with myself when a managed to find one as there are particularly tiny amongst alot of reeds. We searched hard for moose but they were no where to be found so we proceded back into the forest and on our way. I do remember thinking that the guy who conjured up the name bog and then combined it with flark must be the same funny fella putting up those bloody moose sighting signs. Anyway, for the remainder of our walk we wandered through hardwood forest with birch, beech and maple trees. What this meant visually was that we got to experience more colour amongst the leaves and there was more of a woodsy like feel rather than forest and fern type environment. We finished the walk within an hour and a half and were back in the car and on our way again before we could blink an eye. We were so happy we stopped to do this walk. It lived up to all the recommendations and truely was a great snapshot of the vast variety of environments in this one park. We werent satisfied to leave Fundy after only doing one walk so we decided to squeeze in the short 30min walk to Dickson Falls as recommended by the Ranger at the entry gate...besides, waterfalls were kinda becoming our thing. Now on our drive to Dickson falls we happened to pass by the only golf course within the confines of the National Park. This beautiful 9 hole golf course designed by renowned golf course architect Stanley Thompson, was nestled in the Dickson Brook Valley and at times within good view of the road. Ro ooo'd and ahhhh'd as we drove by (now at some ridiculous snails pace) and vowed to himself that he would definately have to do a golfing holiday around the world one day and perhaps he would just have to return to this particular course. Eventually the golf course ended and we picked up speed and made it to the Dickson Falls parking lot. At the parking lot there was an observation deck which offered a panoramic view over the Bay of Fundy. It was slightly foggy but the view was still completely evident to the naked eye which was all that mattered. The Dickson Falls trail was 1 to 1.5km in total (depending if you took the long or short route) and between 15 to 30 mins in duration. According to the interpretive sign, the temperature at the falls was a few degrees lower than the temperature at the car park, and they had provided some temperature gauges so you could witness it for yourself. We started the walk by descending a number of stairs down into the Dickson Brook Valley. The vegetation became more and more lush and vibrant green as we began to approach the sound of the running water. The stairs ended and we walked onto a small wooden bridge where we caught our first glimpses of the stunning falls. On the opposite side of the valley we noticed that the vegetation was much more dull in appearance and the rocky walls of the valley were quite bare. We read that apparently this stark contrast between each side of the waterfall is due to the different amounts of sunshine being received on either rock face. Due to thd orientation of the brook as well as the sun during the day, apparently the left side (if facing the falls) of the falls receives much less sun and therefore is not as lush and dense as the right side. We followed the boardwalk along the flow of the waterfall and gradually began to climb back up the valley again. With each turn there was a picture perfect scene taking our breath away. We took the full 30 minutes to complete the walk despite not doing the longest route as we spent alot of time perfecting our photographic skills with the tricky lighting and running water. It was tough to leave as the tranquil sounds of the running water were enticing us to sit back and relax a little while longer but we had to press on as we had one more stop we needed to do before dark and before our arrival into Halifax. We left Fundy National Park impressed but slightly disappointed we didnt have more time to explore. This was becoming a common feeling as we had visited some truely amazing places but we knew that realistically we couldnt see everything in one trip and we were grateful to have just been able to visit at all. We continued along the coast for another hour or so before we reached our final stop of the day, Hopewell Rocks aka the flower pots. The 'flower pots' are a series of strange rock formations and caverns along 2 kms of beach which have developed over a long period of time due to the unique tides. As I mentioned before this stretch of coast has the worlds largest change in tides ( range from low to high tide is remarkable). At low tide you can walk along the beach and amongst the flower pots and caverns but obviously this is only within a selected period of time. We would never have made it to Hopewell Rocks at low tide since we were travelling from Saint John, even if we hadnt stopped by Fundy, but that didnt matter, we just wanted to see the 'flower pots' and take in views of the amazing coastline. When we arrived it was close to closing time yet the park was not yet officially closed. Since there were no services still open and you could no longer walk amongst the 'flower pots' they were not charging an entrance fee... Awesome. From memory we saved ourselves $15. We walked along a trail to the 'flower pot' observation deck and to our surprise we managed to see the 'pots' not surrounded by water. There was a small stretch of exposed beach including around the 'pots' so we were able to experience the pots as they would be at low tide. Granted we couldnt walk for miles out to sea but we wouldnt have had time anyway so this was perfect, exactly what we had hoped for. We took our pictures and admired the coastline before making the long walk back to the car. We leaped into the car with alot less excitement as this last stretch of our drive was going to be long and there was nothing in particular to look forward to...except maybe our hostel bed. We cranked the tunes and sang our way to Halifax. We made a brief stop at Oxford, the apparent blueberry capital of Canada (which included having a large cartoon statue of a blueberry on the side of the road as you entered the town) to refuel and at a supermarket to grab meat for dinner, but otherwise it was non stop driving to Halifax. We witnessed an amazing sunset from the car whilst listening to phil collins so i guess all and all the drive wasnt that bad. We pulled into Halifax around 7pm and as we had been warned we struggled to find a car park. After some crafty stalking and me standing in car spaces whilst Ro spun the car around so no one could steal our golden car spot, we were parked and ready to check in. The check in process was seamless but the setting up of our beds was awkward as a roommate of ours had already gone to bed at 8pm. We decided to fumble around for our stuff later, first we needed dinner. We went to the kitchen and cooked up steamed veggies and pork in our thankfully uncrowded and reasonably well stocked kitchen (except no veggie steamer so i made a makeshift one). It was delicious, healthy and a nice change from sandwiches and chips...we really didnt care that we had to find the energy to make it ourselves after such a long day. After we filled our bellies we went and showered and then gratefully crawled into bed. I dont think we could have squeezed one more thing into our day but despite the busy schedule which wasnt ideal, I wouldnt have changed a minute of that day. As Bon Jovi once said....ill live while im alive and sleep when im dead.