St. Andrews-by-the-sea, NB

We crossed the border at Calais, ME (prounounced Ka'-less), in to St. Stephen.  At the visitor center, Pat gave us a stack of literature and maps, along with highlighted notes to get us started in New Brunswick.  And we thought we'd just blow through this province!  We wandered down the peninsula just north of Campobello Island  to St. Andrews, a turn-of-the-century resort town.  Today, a small fishing village, with the huge campground occupying the prime location:  right on the point.

We hopped on our bikes, after setting up on site 50, and pedaled into the small village to see the sights.  First stop, of course, was to photograph the Pendelbury Light.















St. Andrews is slightly tucked into another small bay, off the Bay of Fundy, but the tides here are terrifically high.    This was taken at the edge of our cg, at high tide.









...and at low tide.












We drove to the small penninsula just to the east of St. Andrews, down to Letete and Back Bay, so see a couple of lighthouses.  Sparsely populated, mountains of firewood stacked, sometimes neatly and sometimes in free-form piles, this is a fishing community.  Farm fishing salmon is big industry here, and the smoking warehouses are  surrounded by parking lots filled with dust covered trucks.  Back Bay is home of the worlds largest sardine business, too.  In spite of all this, we couldn't buy a fresh fish here.  We did find a small lobster pound on the docks in St. Andrews, where we bought a couple of chickens.  $5.25/pound.  How do the fishermen survive on this?  How do the lobster numbers maintain themselves?





This ferry was headed to Deer Island, and the ramp onto the ferry was pretty steep at low tide.











 On the other side of the ferry slip, we watched two boats coming in, loaded with seaweed.  They are just visible in the lower left of this photo.  Of course, we asked about the process!  They harvest while standing in a wide, flat boat, using a rake that cuts off the seaweed leaving about 8 inches, which quickly grows back.  When I asked if they sold it by the pound, the younger of the two men laughed and corrected me, "by the TON!".  They were coming back to the dock from the low-tide harvest session, and would come back at high tide to off-load the harvest into a bin on the dock.  The seaweed is used in many foods as a thickening agent, in cosmetics and who knows what else, and one of the largest processors in the world is here.





These little shellfish are called periwinkles, and are casually harvested on the rocks at low tide.   I think you have to find a lot to make a meal.

Continuing on to the tip of the penninsula, we found a lighthouse shrouded in fog, the fog horn continuously sounding.  To get to the lighthouse rock, we hiked across the ocean floor during the low tide.  Look closely, you'll see Stuart crossing.




















 When the tide goes out, leaving boats of all sizes high and dry, it's called, "on the hard".  This commerical fishing boat was on the hard.















Another lighthouse at Back Bay.  The fog had moved out, and the temps rose slightly.  The walk to this lighthouse, about half mile, and the remoteness make these lighthouses rarely visited places.












A few days later, we found the locally-famous delicacy, "dulce".  Dried seaweed.  We bought a bag, and decided it is definately a taste we'd have to work at to like!  Tastes, like salty, low tide.