Our visit to Moncton is to see the tidal bore. The Bay of Fundy has the highest tides in the entire world. They often exceed 30 feet. When the tide starts to rise one cannot out run the incoming tide so one must be aware of the tide times and when it starts to come in. This is only important if you are out exploring the exposed tidal flats.
Along the riverfront in Moncton the tidal bore surges up river as a wave of water. The city has a small park for viewing this phenomenon, aptly named Bore Park. Tides occur twice a day with the cycle from low tide to high tide of roughly 6 ½ hours. Thus if high tide is at noon today there’s another high tide around 12:30 AM tomorrow and another around 1 PM tomorrow. There are approximately sixty factors at determine tidal frequency and magnitude with the largest factor being the moon.
The tidal bore prediction for today is at 10:11 AM and it can vary by up to 20 minutes before or after. We check in at the office and they are still not sure if they will have a space for us tonight but checkout is not until 1 PM so we decide to head to the riverfront see the bore and return to the campground. There we can either move the camper or check out.
We head to Tidal Bore Park arriving a bit past 9:30. There’s a view area overlooking the river. What we witness is exposed mud banks with chocolate water the same color as the mud. The crowd grows until the railing has people shoulder to shoulder ready watch. On the river there are two surfers paddling down river towards where the bore will come. They disappear around the riverbend now more than a mile from us.
The time is 10:11 and soon someone yells out here it comes. It’s a wave of chocolate water maybe three feet high with the two surfers riding the wave. One of the surfers wipes out. It’s a bummer for the surfer because the next wave will not come along until roughly 11 PM tonight. The other one hangs on. As he surfs past the viewing area he has a big wave and flashes a huge smile for the crowd.
We walk around downtown Moncton for a bit then head back to the campground. They have a new spot for us so we move the trailer and set up camp again. We contact our Facebook Friend, Sybil, the photographer who has been feeding us valuable information on sandpipers and tidal bores. We plan to meet with Sybil and Peter for coffee at 2 PM about 45 minutes down the coast from Moncton. This is the same photographer that Wells has admired for five years and has never met.
They suggest Cinnamon Soul Café. We arrive a bit early and realize we’ve eaten here before on our return from Newfoundland two years ago. Sybil and Peter arrive and we are at total ease with them. Our planned meeting of maybe a cup of coffee morphs into a three hour enjoyable and interesting meeting. Hopefully our paths will cross in the future.
Seeing North America 