Maritime Magnifique or Nothing Like Lobster
Campbellton is not only fogged in when we’re ready to leave, there has also been heavy rain overnight and some residual drizzle remains which means rain gear again! Our rain gear, literally and figuratively, is a protective shield we hate bearing and not just because it makes us look and feel like inflated dummies! Bad weather takes all the glamour out of riding; bad weather means tense, uncomfortable riding. We believe that road sense is the better part of safe riding and this morning our road sense dictates that the fog shrouded winding coastal road around beautiful Chaleur Bay we’d hoped to ride is out and we opt for the limited access of inland Highway 11 to foggy Bathurst.
There is still too much fog to ride the shoreline road of the Acadian Peninsula so at Bathurst we again opt for the safer inland Highway 8. The fog dissipates very slowly over the next 100 kms and by the time we stop in Richibucto for lunch most of the fog has blown by, revealing an overcast sky. The goods news is that there has been no rain, only drizzle and road splash, and neither have we seen any of the moose this highway is famous for. Moose and motorcycles don’t mix well and we avoid riding early in the morning and in the evening to reduce our chances of meeting any kind of wildlife.
We stop in the lovely coastal town of Bouctouche because the sky has lightened and we’re very hot in all our gear. Since Ontario there has been a lot of standing water all along our route as the east has had a very wet summer so far. Standing water means humidity and bugs! We strip the rain gear off and not 15 minutes later down the highway we’re hit by a downpour! We manage to struggle back into the raingear and ride on a few kilometres but then stop under an overpass until the worst of the shower has passed. By the time we ride into Shediac the rain has stopped but we’re done and decide to call it a day if we can get accommodation. Shediac is a resort destination but the bad weather is in our favour and we find a vacancy at the Four Seas Motel.
There are many motorcycles already parked at the motel and many travellers sitting outside their units enjoying a cool drink because even though it’s overcast the temperature is about 30C and that’s without the humidity factor. The east coast of New Brunswick has many French-speaking residents and many visitors from Quebec who are no doubt very comfortable here as everyone we deal with in the service industry in New Brunswick is fluently bi-lingual. This was not the case in Quebec where we observed very few out-of-province or American license plates, even at the major tourist attractions, although there were certainly many international visitors in Quebec City.
The Four Seas has a restaurant where we splurge on a lobster feast as Shediac claims to be the lobster capital of the world. We enjoy a wonderful fresh lobster and assorted other seafoods meal followed by our first toe-dipping in the Atlantic Ocean at beautiful Parlee Beach, reputed to have the warmest water north of Virginia. The sun makes its appearance just before setting and suddenly the beach is so glorious and we feel so good stuffed with lobster, we agree the less-than-stellar ride was worth it!