On one of our travel adventures with our dear friends, in 1998, we headed to the eastern part of Canada, hoping to visit friends in the maritime provinces. It would be our first visit to that area, and from what we were told by friends, there would be a long list of very interesting places that we could visit, if we did the 3000 mile road trip rather than take a plane. Being tha int all of us were “retired”, our travel time was not limited by responsibilities back at home.
We weren’t disappointed! We visited many places that we had only read about... my husband’s hometown in Manitoba, the nickel mines in Sudbury, Ontario, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Montreal Olympic Stadium, and Pier 21 in Halifax, where my husband’s father landed when he immigrated from England when he was 19 years old, and all alone.
A very unusual spot that we visited was the reversing falls and rapids on the Saint John River in Saint John, New Brunsewick. The rapids, or "falls", are created by a series of underwater ledges which roil the water in either direction, causing a significant navigation hazard, despite the depth of water.
I must say that we didn’t take a boat ride on the river (we could be referred to a “prairie chickens”), but it was fascinating to watch the changing flow of the river. We heard later that the tourist ride didn’t last for very many years because the boats were hard to handle when the water depths kept changing. Whitewater kayaking has now become a challenging sport on the river, but I would never consider trying that either. A seat at the edge of the river, with a great view was enough for us. I did take quite a few pictures, but the quality wasn't the best, so I scanned this picture from a postcard that I purchased when we were there.
There is a lot of information about it online, and if you are interested, get 'Google' to help you. The best way to understand how this phenomenon works, is to be there.
Here are a couple of links with information that I had saved in my photo albums.
Info on Reversing Rapids
Tags: Nature Travels
