World Canada New Brunswick Hopewell Cape

Madolyn and Dimitri 2008 Keys 2 Canada

A day of extremes Jul 21, 2008

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From Rage to Hope on the Bay of Fundy - Monday, July 21

Highlights today are two more locales on the New Brunswick side of the Bay of Fundy - Cape Enrage, and the rocks at Hopewell Cape.

We left Fundy National Park on a wet, soggy morning. After raining most of the night, it was still raining when we finally got on the road. We drove through Alma and turned our RV toward the famous Hopewell Rocks, but as usual, Madolyn spotted a side road that we just had to explore on the way. It was the road to Cape Enrage.

The road was a narrow winding roller coaster, pockmarked with holes into which we did not want to fall. I was sure I didn’t like the road, but just as sure that I had to see Cape Enrage. The name called to me.

How did it get a name like that? Who (or what) was enraged? Was it the British who were enraged? Or the Indians? (The French are always enraged, but who cares?) Maybe all three were enraged at the Americans. That sounded more like it. I had to know.

So we bumped along over hill and dale until we finally reached the bay again, and there was a sign with the unlikely greeting, “Welcome to Cape Enrage”. Another long climb and there we were - perched on a hilltop looking down at a lighthouse and a couple of clean painted buildings. A smiling college girl greeted us with another “Welcome to Cape Enrage” and she told us where to park.

In the small gift shop and visitor center I learned from a couple of other kids (Cape Enrage restoration is a student project) that the cape was named by the French who thought the turbulent water that swirled around the rocks sometimes looked ‘enraged’.

Despite my disappointment in the history of the name, we spent a good hour or more visiting the lighthouse and talking to the students. The lighthouse was scheduled to be torn down in the early ‘90’s but six students and a teacher saved it. Since then students in the Provincial high schools and colleges have taken on the restoration and have kept it going. What a good and hopeful sign for the future!

From there we drove to Hopewell Cape, home of the famous Hopewell Rocks and scene of some of the world’s highest tides. High tide today was scheduled for 2:54 in the afternoon and we got there just in time to see it. Today’s tide was about 40 feet, which is a little low for the area where tides can run as high as 46 feet. (On the Cumberland bay in Nova Scotia tides are the highest in the world and can run from 48 to 52 feet!)

We took pictures of the rocks so we will have something to compare to the ones we take tomorrow, when low tide is scheduled for 9:48 in the morning. Until we have those, the ones we took today don’t mean much. They are just rocks sticking out of muddy water. But knowing what lies beneath the surface, and what we will see tomorrow makes it exciting, and well worth the trip that brought us (and you at home) here to see it.