Left Digby in the pouring rain and arrived in St John with some fog added into the equation. At just after midnight there was little traffic all the way to Rock Harbour, except for the odd deer - then I waited for the 07:30 ferry to Grand Manan (Island) and was glad I had a cot in the back of the van. The tide heights that I've experienced in Fundy so far are awesome - 28+feet makes for interesting ferry loading at low tide on a wet steel ramp.

Morning light has settled the weather somewhat and as we debark the sun is shining on the island -- a good omen, me thinks (sounds somewhat like Gollum) . I booked four nights at the Anchorage Provincial Park which adjoins a National migratory bird sanctuary -- any additional nights I stay are free since they stop collecting money this Sunday, closing day. Baby and I explored the southside of the island and we navigated some "roads" that no cars could negotiate. The wind on this island is astounding, especially when trying to take pictures on the edge of cliffs. Ran out of steam early today, Wednesday, after not having much sleep last night - off to bed after a walk on the beach at low tide. My shell collection is slowly increasing but no great ones yet.

Spent most of the day on White Head Island; a free ferry runs from Grand Harbour on Grand Manan but if you time it right at low tide, you can walk from Grand Maran to Ross Island to Cheney Island then hop onto White Head -- all the locals say they have done it at one time in their life but I wouldn't bet baby on trying this trip. Up at Gull Cove, I helped spread seaweed (Dulse which is a good salt substitute and high in iodine @ $5 lb and Norri used in making sushi) on nets to dry while talking to a local about life on the island - I am envious . Although they work hard physically and don't have tons of money, they sure enjoy life and will go out of their way to lend a helping hand to anyone -- even mainlanders :). Still living on lots of seafood and you can buy it at their fish-factories for a song. Back on Grand Manan for low tide, I successfully tested out the walk to Ross Island -- a piece of cake and it was funny to take the poisoned shellfish sign picture on the uninhabited side of the channel so as not to scare tourists.

Had a relaxing day; visited the Grand Manan museum which has one of the best stuffed bird collections I have ever seen, rode the remaining roads on the island (and a couple of more non-roads) and read for the afternoon on the beach while taking some timed exposures of the tide - Fundy Park should be better. The radio weather forecast is predicting that heaven may be getting rain late Saturday :( -- still have lots of rainy day activities though will likely reload bike into the van tomorrow . Almost time to start using my good old down mummy bag as well, since the temperatures are starting to be single digits here at night.

Heaven is ahead of St John - rain came just after 08:00 breakfast but I already had baby loaded into the van (but she sure needs a wash soon) - there was no sunrise to view from my bedroom window :(. On rainy days it is best to go hiking and shopping. The Castalia salt marsh has lots of birds that you can get reasonably close to on a rainy day -- in general I have found that birds, except Sanderlings, are afraid of people. I also have my most memorable pictures of the trip -- Hole in the Wall; I hiked through pouring rain across 1km of rocky beach then 2km along the edge of cliffs where the trails were mainly small streams and got thoroughly soaked (of course it stopped raining when I returned to the van).

Posting this at dinner time today cause I'm likely catching the 07:30 ferry to the mainland tomorrow on my way to Fundy Park .

Tidbits:
- Grand Manan is known as the Queen of the Fundy islands and has about 3,000 inhabitants.
- The weirs did well this year -- millions of herring harvested equated to many new pickup trucks on the island.
- Locals build cottages around the ponds on the island, the ocean is for work :).
- Cedar shakes were the original house/cottage siding -- it's a shame that all the rooves (roofs?) now use ashphalt shingles or tin (originally was cedar shake).
- Each lighthouse in an area has distinctive sounds for their fog horns so that local fishermen know where they are based on the sound.
- Going bare foot in Crocs is a great hiking idea in rain/water; they have great traction (on rock and wood) and they self-drain when you slog through water.
- Buttle luck or perhaps the guy in the sky likes me; dropped into a second hand store and found a top of the line Levi jean jacket with just a few salt stains for five dollars -- I'm sure I will quickly add more marks. Also ironic that it has an Atlantic Salmon picture plus label "Ross Island Salmon" when nobody lives on the island :).