I am writing this in my hotel room at the Marriott on the waterfront in Halifax. Our journey across Canada is over. What a marvellous adventure it has been.
So, this is the last posting to Cruise across Canada, now that we have arrived in Halifax. Our day started at 9.15am when we left our hotel in Miramichi. The hotel was great and in a wonderful position on the river, with the bridge just a few hundred metres away and visible from our room.
Our drive today was about 400 kms, and because we needed to be in Halifax to see the shipping agent just after lunch to hand over Bob's car, we didn't aim to stop anywhere on the way.
The drive was on good fast roads with virtually no traffic. We saw several interesting signs on the highway. The first was this one about Bonar Law, born in New Brunswick He is the only foreign born prime minister of Britain and the shortest serving prime minister (223 days) of the 20th century.
The next sign was this one advertising an amusement park called Crystal Palace!
Wendy, who always reads up everything about our route and points of interest, noticed that a short detour off the main highway would take us along a gravel track alongside the Bay of Fundy. The bay is famous for being the place that has the highest tides in the world, reaching up to 53 feet!!
We drove for about 15 kms along the track to the bay. The tide was out and the sea was hidden by mist. All we could see was sand. The mist made the place quite eerie.
As we waited the sun started to clear the mist and we soon could see how far the sea was from the land. Apparently when the tide comes in it can rise between 6 and 8 feet in an hour!!
We were all taken in by the beauty of the place and Bob was especially pleased to be there as he remembered from his school days geography masters saying the the Bay of Fundy had the greatest tides of all.
Shortly after we left the bay we crossed the border into our eighth province, Nova Scotia, or Nova Scot according to Wendy's photo!
Our next sign was a strange one. How many people bring honey bees into Nova Scotia I wonder for this sign to be necessary??
At around 2pm we reached Halifax and crossed over one of the toll bridges to downtown Halifax and our hotel.
The hotel is on the waterfront so we have a great view of the harbour and the boats.
Bob made contact with the shipping company to arrange delivery of his car. I followed him to the shipping company's depot. The two cars will be loaded into a 40 ft container after I deliver mine on Wednesday.
Bob's car parked up at the depot.
We drove the 10 kms back to the hotel and then we all went to the Maritime Museum to see two exhibits in particular. The first recorded the terrible events of December 1917 when Halifax was virtually destroyed by the largest non-nuclear explosion ever to occur. An ammunition carrying boat, the Mont Blanc, collided with another boat in the harbour. It caught fire and then exploded. The explosion was so great it was heard over 200 miles away and more than 2,000 people were killed.
The second exhibit recorded the events of 1912, when Halifax was the receiving point for the victims of the Titanic disaster. More than 400 bodies were brought to Halifax and many are buried here. We were given a very interesting talk about it by one of the museum guides. There are many artifacts on show that were recovered by boats sent out after the sinking to recover the victims, including this Titanic deck-chair, the only one in existence.
We went back to our hotel to get ready for our farewell meal with Bob and Thelma. We booked at a restaurant next to the hotel on the waterfront. We had a great table overlooking the harbour. The meal was a fitting way to end our journey and Bob finished, as he had started, in fine style!!
The waiter took this photo of us all raising our glasses full of fine champagne. What a way to end our trip!
For those who might be interested, we covered a total distance of 8.650 kms or 5,406 miles in 29 days. If you take out the six 'rest days' the average mileage for each day of driving was 376 kms or 235 miles.
When I return to London I will do my final posting to thank all those who have helped us, those we have met and especially those who have been with us - Bob, Thelma, Kenny and DeeAnne.
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