22/06: Not My Best Day as a Tour Guide
Category: General
Posted by: The Agnew Family
Today we are driving to Truro and visiting some additional places in the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark. My abilities as a navigator and guide were put into question today. For awhile I thought I was going to be fired (more like hoped), but then no one else wanted the job so I guess I still have it. Some of my fopaux were not realizing we were at the place we were going and taking us down unfinished roads in a new development looking for the site we had been at, believing the information I found on websites and following the instructions and getting us lost, following the GPS blindly then realizing it was wrong forcing both vehicles to turnaround. I guess it wasn't really too bad as all people and vehicles survived.
We discovered an artist on the beach painting the cliff. Later when we came across another artist we found out that there was a invitation painting event going on in the area. That explained why we were seeing artists everywhere.
The Two Islands aka Two Brothers. I know it looks like there is only one island in the photo, the second one is the bump on the right side of the larger island. From other angles you could see the two islands.
The information for this area indicated that the Economy Waterfall was about 7 kilometers out of town in the hills. Since we were going to a new town we had both vehicles. John felt that his car, which is all wheel drive should be fine going up the windy, hilly gravel / dirt road. It was a bit slow going at times but we made it ... well almost. About 100 meters before the parking lot were 2 puddles that spanned the width of the road. The truck got through without any trouble but could the car? Carol watched from the back and Ed and I watched from the front. Luckily the puddle wasn't very deep and John drove his car safely to the parking lot. He got it out as well!
From the upper view point we saw small falls and rapids, from the lower view point we saw more of the falls. To really see the falls you would need to wade out into the stream, something we weren't willing to do. As expected because of the rainy weather there was lots of water going over the falls.
Coming down the road towards town we were rewarded with this beautiful view.
The information on the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark indicated that Londonderry provincial park had old mining equipment and a war memorial 10 km north of Great Village and just a few minutes north of that were old beehive coke ovens and slag piles. We found a cute little parklet but it wasn't where the GPS thought the Provincial Park should be. We stopped to talk to a man that was gardening and he told us the Provincial Park had closed because kids had thrown picnic tables in the river and he gave us an idea where to find the coke ovens. We couldn't find the coke ovens and were giving up when Ed decided to check for a geocache in the area. We were lucky that some geocacher decided to place a cache at the ovens. Tonight after a bit of googling I determined that the cute little parklet is the provincial park referred to in the directions.
Now a little history: "From 1849 to 1908, iron deposits along the Cobequid Fault fed the brick kilns of Londonderry. Fully two million tons of iron ore were mined during the heyday of Londonderry when the town was a
bustling centre of mining and steel making. 1876 was an exciting year for the mining operations as 67 experimental beehive-shaped coke ovens were added to the site to produce coke from coal. Tracks were laid across the top of the ovens, and small coal cars filled each oven through its “charging hole” on top. It took over 40 hours to produce coke from coal. By 1906, the mine had a total of 53 beehive ovens."
Finally in Truro we went to Victoria Park to see the wonderful waterfalls. I've seen photos of them and there's lots of water flowing over the falls. Well I don't know the cause as there's been a fair bit of rain but we only saw a trickle.
I'm not sure why but i hadn't planned on seeing the tidal bore in Truro ---- I think that I thought we wouldn't be there at the correct time, well it turns out we were here at the correct time. Because we are closer to the neap time then the spring tide it is a very small tidal bore but it still was impressive.
We discovered an artist on the beach painting the cliff. Later when we came across another artist we found out that there was a invitation painting event going on in the area. That explained why we were seeing artists everywhere.
The Two Islands aka Two Brothers. I know it looks like there is only one island in the photo, the second one is the bump on the right side of the larger island. From other angles you could see the two islands.
The information for this area indicated that the Economy Waterfall was about 7 kilometers out of town in the hills. Since we were going to a new town we had both vehicles. John felt that his car, which is all wheel drive should be fine going up the windy, hilly gravel / dirt road. It was a bit slow going at times but we made it ... well almost. About 100 meters before the parking lot were 2 puddles that spanned the width of the road. The truck got through without any trouble but could the car? Carol watched from the back and Ed and I watched from the front. Luckily the puddle wasn't very deep and John drove his car safely to the parking lot. He got it out as well!
From the upper view point we saw small falls and rapids, from the lower view point we saw more of the falls. To really see the falls you would need to wade out into the stream, something we weren't willing to do. As expected because of the rainy weather there was lots of water going over the falls.
Coming down the road towards town we were rewarded with this beautiful view.
The information on the Cliffs of Fundy UNESCO Global Geopark indicated that Londonderry provincial park had old mining equipment and a war memorial 10 km north of Great Village and just a few minutes north of that were old beehive coke ovens and slag piles. We found a cute little parklet but it wasn't where the GPS thought the Provincial Park should be. We stopped to talk to a man that was gardening and he told us the Provincial Park had closed because kids had thrown picnic tables in the river and he gave us an idea where to find the coke ovens. We couldn't find the coke ovens and were giving up when Ed decided to check for a geocache in the area. We were lucky that some geocacher decided to place a cache at the ovens. Tonight after a bit of googling I determined that the cute little parklet is the provincial park referred to in the directions.
Now a little history: "From 1849 to 1908, iron deposits along the Cobequid Fault fed the brick kilns of Londonderry. Fully two million tons of iron ore were mined during the heyday of Londonderry when the town was a
bustling centre of mining and steel making. 1876 was an exciting year for the mining operations as 67 experimental beehive-shaped coke ovens were added to the site to produce coke from coal. Tracks were laid across the top of the ovens, and small coal cars filled each oven through its “charging hole” on top. It took over 40 hours to produce coke from coal. By 1906, the mine had a total of 53 beehive ovens."
Finally in Truro we went to Victoria Park to see the wonderful waterfalls. I've seen photos of them and there's lots of water flowing over the falls. Well I don't know the cause as there's been a fair bit of rain but we only saw a trickle.
I'm not sure why but i hadn't planned on seeing the tidal bore in Truro ---- I think that I thought we wouldn't be there at the correct time, well it turns out we were here at the correct time. Because we are closer to the neap time then the spring tide it is a very small tidal bore but it still was impressive.