coastal marshes

Day Three: Miramichi to Amherst

This is going to be in a couple of parts as I’m just burning a little time until we head out for Day Four. I could get up and be on my way at any second! (-:

Leaving the town of Miramichi, we took the main highway down to Port Elgin, in search of some coastal marsh trails. Taking a wrong turn, we ended up at Baie Verte, a bay which runs inland from the Northumberland Strait at a point just west of the New Brunswick – Nova Scotia border. Prince Edward Island lies just to the north across the strait. The new Confederation Bridge linking PEI to the mainland is located just a little to the northwest. The TransCanada hiking trail passes through Baie Verte as well. So, this sleepy little village could be thought of as a sort of confluence of many places. The largest landmark is probably the carpenter Gothic church — and yes, I’ve digitally PS’d this image to remove all of the usual hydro and telephone lines that so frequently cut across in front of the buildings that I like to photograph. It’s a nice example of a wooden interpretation of Gothic church architecture, including the buttressing on the tower part of the structure.

At the edge of the village, there’s a small park that overlooks the coastal marsh of Baie Verte proper. I wandered along the thin strip of beach that was exposed at high tide, to where there was a sign posted saying, “Caution – Glass”. No kidding! There was what seemed to be the remnants of an old midden and glass and crockery bits of all kinds were strewn on the beach. I stopped to shoot a few photos. Much of it looked quite old as there were bits of bottle necks and pieces of amethyst and cobalt-coloured glass that looked antique.

Well, it appears we’re ready to contine our adventures for today, so I’ll cut this short and post the rest upon our return. Today, we will probably visit the Joggins Fossil Cliffs and spend some time at the Maccan Tidal conservation area looking for dragonflies and waiting for the tidal bore to come in. Back soon!

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2 Responses to “coastal marshes”

  1. robin andrea Says:

    That’s a beautiful church and marsh.

    I’m curious about the glass, is there enough sand and tidal activity to smooth the edges? One of the beaches we like to explore during low tides has a lot of very smooth glass. I have started collecting some, and hope to use it some day in a mosaic backsplash in the kitchen. The pieces in your picture don’t look quite smooth enough yet.

    Can’t wait to see what you’ve seen at the Fossil Cliffs.

  2. burning silo Says:

    Robin – We enjoy looking at architecture wherever we travel, but the Atlantic Provinces are especially nice as much of the architecture is very old. A large percentage of houses are over a century old (and many much older).
    Regarding the glass – yes, much of it was still quite sharp. The sand in that area of the coast is so soft and fine that I guess it doesn’t result in much abrasion. Also, it seems as though the glass is being slowly exposed from the earth in that spot, so it’s probably relatively freshly unearthed. There sure was a lot of it though. I didn’t walk far along the path as it was still quite wet from the recent tides, but I could see glass all over the place. This afternoon, we walked the beaches at the Joggins Fossil Cliffs and I picked up several pieces of worn glass. The area of the fossil cliffs is on the Bay of Fundy side of Nova Scotia and the tidal activity, violence of the waves, etc.. is such that the glass is worn very smooth. I love beach-worn glass so your idea of using it in a mosaic backsplash sounds very appealing.