After leaving Bathurst, we decided to continue heading east onto the Acadian Peninsula. We were impressed with the size of backyard woodpiles that we saw along the way and the laid back fishing villages dotting the coast. We soon found that we were still very much in French-speaking territory and people seemed much more surprised to talk to English-speaking tourists than in Quebec. We guessed that the main bloc of tourists for this area would probably come from Quebec rather than English speaking parts of Canada.
We settled for the night at the Maison Toristique Dugas which had a rambling campground behind the inn. We ventured into Caraquet for supper and ate overlooking the fishing pier. We were amazed at how this area felt like an extremely mellow version of Cape Cod - if they spoke French.
The next morning, the sky threatened rain but we started the day with a bike ride on the Caraquet Bike Path. It meandered along the shore before turning away into some neighborhoods. The weather was cool and we were bundled up.
After the bike trip, we packed our belongings and headed to the Acadian Village - a living museum of Acadian life from the eighteenth through twentieth centuries. The museum was excellent and featured many buildings moved to the site from around New Brunswick. Most buildings had an interpreter dressed in period clothing and making food over the fire! We enjoyed fresh baked sourdough bread and a traditional Acadian meal of roast-beef with turnip and mashed potatoes (together). Dessert was blueberry cake - yum! We even met a great pianist at the hotel and shared songs and stories.
We tore ourselves away from the museum before we tried to pitch a tent and stay there for the rest of the trip and continued following the coastal route around the Acadian Peninsula. After some spitting rain, we found ourselves at Kouchibouguac National Park, on the coast. It seemed like a nice place to spend the night and we bought a "Discovery Pass" which will provide access to Canada's National Parks and Historic Sites for two years.
We set up camp - and slept away a rainy night followed by a fairly lazy morning. When we finally rolled out of bed, we made some oatmeal with a generous portion of maple syrup - it honestly tasted like candy. The bike path went right by our campsite so we hopped on for a loop. We followed the river and walked along the sand dunes on the shore. We were particularly impressed at how wooded this coastline is - quite unusual compared to coastlines in the Eastern United States. We grabbed some lunch at the snack stand at Kelly's beach: poutine, cheeseburgers and chicken fingers...health food.
After a short nap back at our campsite, we walked to the shore to rent a canoe. We got the red Old-Town that I had my eye on earlier that morning and followed the Kouchibouguac River inland for two miles. We watched the diving birds and even had a few fish splash our boats on the way. It was an idyllic way to spend the afternoon.
The next morning we packed camp and finished our candied oatmeal before biking the northerly path along the river. We enjoyed the scenery but kept moving to stay ahead of the deer flies. We now find ourselves heading south towards Prince Edward Island.
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