"On the Trail"
Tuesday, August 14, 2001: Scarecrows and BORING Bores! - Cape Breton Island to Truro, Nova Scotia, Canada
Frank here…
TIDAL BORES! Sheesh! Here's the story…
Tidal bores are a very interesting oceanic phenomena, and Nova Scotia is very well known for these "twice daily" occurrences. When I found out about tidal bores, I convinced Louise that we should witness one in action. Tides are very normal natural occurrences; however, tidal bores which coincide with tides are only seen in a relatively few areas on the earth.
A tidal bore occurs in rivers where the leading edge of the rising tide (from the ocean) is actually like a wall of water. Nova Scotia's famous Bay of Fundy has the biggest change from low to high tide in the world - sometimes over 53 feet (16 meters). Tides tend to slow down when they reach the shallower waters of rivers, hence the water piles up and can often be seen moving up the river, in some places at speeds of more than fifteen kilometres per hour! The Bay of Fundy's depth, length, funnel shape, and the way it slope upwards from its mouth makes the conditions perfect for very high tides. So when these waters begin to rise and enter a river channel that narrows, a bore is formed - sometimes over 1.5 metres in height! I've even heard that some people have surfed on these bores. I wanted to see one of those bores.
Have I written enough to intrigue you to seek out a bore? I sure was intrigued and so the research began. Brochures and phone calls told us that we would be able to see a tidal bore in the Salmon River in Truro, Nova Scotia at 8:59 that night. And, it was not far off our route to New Brunswick! There are many lists of tidal bore times in brochures, tourist information buildings, etc. We found out about another spot to view the bore at a much earlier time - 6:15 pm in Maitland which was not too far from Truro on the Shubenacadie (Shubie) River.
Off to Maitland we ventured. We got there at 4:30 so we were very early. The young man at tourist information was very helpful in showing us the place to view the tidal bore. We bought some munchies, took out two lawn chairs, refreshments and mosquito repellant. Off to the river mouth pier we went. We were ready! As time went by, others came to see this spectacle. In fact a graduate class and professors from John Hopkins University who were studying bores showed up as well. Wow, a small crowd was gathering.
About ˝ hour before the anticipated arrival of the bore, several groups of people donning life jackets, got onto these rubber boats that were going to ride with the tidal bore… Anticipation built.
We watched the water of the wide Shubie River mouth slowly rise, but we did not see any type of bore. Apparently, the bores do not always occur on schedule; they could be up to an hour ahead or behind, so we waited. In the meantime, the profs were explaining the bores to the students. I found the discussion very interesting and requested the opportunity to ask a question. I ended up asking most of the questions. Ha ha! Anyway we continued to wait.. and wait... and wait. Slowly the people started to leave. It was only Louise and I and the John Hopkins class remaining.
At 7:15 we gave up and headed back towards Truro. On the way back we had to cross the Schubie River upstream. A couple of women were on the bridge looking over. We asked them if they saw the bore and they said "Yes, it was about this high" - they showed a depth of water up to their thighs. Holy Cow! We missed it! If only we went upstream earlier. We figured that the bore must have grown as the river narrowed and that it had not been detectable at the mouth. Bummer!
But wait. We then remembered that there was going to be an occurrence in Truro. The search continued. We got to the site on the Salmon River only 5 minutes before the bore was to arrive. There were at least 50 others waiting. This place even had lights mounted to witness the event in the dark. Guess what? We waited, and waited. People started to leave. At a certain point we saw the water change direction from upstream to downstream. Well, another exciting bore missed. I guess sometimes it comes in more pronounced than other times. We simply were not at the right place at the right time, or maybe they do not really exist. I promised myself that I will see a tidal bore sometime in my life!
And all this time we could have gone to the famous Peggy's cove as Louise would have liked. Sorry Louise. It looks as though we will have to come here again.
Earlier that day, as Louise and I were still travelling on Cape Breton Island, I gave up one of my well traveled PeaceBike t-shirts. It bothered me to let it go, but I felt that it would do a better job at promoting our cause than I could. We stopped at Joe's café which was (and still is) famous for it's scarecrows. There are at least 100 of them in all different garb. It was hilarious. Then I saw one on a bicycle and asked the proprietors if I could put a PeaceBike shirt on it. They agreed. Wow! My guess is that they get at least 500 tourists a day!
I had a great chat with a fella named Dan who was almost finished with his cross Canada cycling trip of 3 months and 6800 km so far. He will total about 8000 km after crossing NFLD. He remembered Thunder Bay fondly especially for the great bicycle service he got from Petrie's Cycle and Sport. Way to go guys.
-Two hearts are better than one.
-Frank Pollari
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