Into Canada and Crossing New Brunswick

The Province of New Brunswick in Canada was a transition state in all our plans, enabling us to get from the USA into the Atlantic Provinces of Prince Edward Island in the north and Nova Scotia in the east, and then back to Quebec in the west. We are sure NB is a great Province in its own right, but it wasn't a 'destination' for us on this trip. However, it gave us a great exposure to the quality of Canadian roads.

Memorial to skilled immigrant, cotton mill workers, just on the Candian side of border at St Stephens.

We first entered NB at an old and narrow border crossing in St Stephens, and were first impressed at the brisk efficiency and helpfulness of the Canadian official, quite a different story to the previous time (10 years ago) we arrived at Canada by car. Soon, we realised that there was not only a time change but also a return to more familiar metric units on the roads and in the weather. Fiddling with the settings on the Jeep's fully digital control system, we discovered that we could convert all instrumentation over to litres, km and degrees C. Even the odometer converted. And we switched our Garmin navigator over too, so now we can enjoy consistent units from all sources, a significant convenience. It makes sense to us to have all the instrumentation reading the same units as the local signage and radio.

The next pleasant surprise was the quality of the freeway running from the border to our overnight stay at Saint John. This road, quite new, has been built to the most modern standards of surface, alignment, access etc. and was an absolute pleasure to drive on, at the limit of 110km/hr. Virtually no traffic too, quite a change from the US interstates. This road runs alongside the Bay of Fundy with its incredible tides, so we suppose it is much busier "in the season".

This good experience extended into the next day when we left Saint John for Prince Edward Island. That freeway was of the same high quality and still very quiet. Well past Moncton, where we grabbed a coffee, in a cute downtown cafe mentioned in Lonely Planet, the freeway became a two lane highway for a while where we noticed how many trucks actually drive this road.

What wasn't good was the weather. It had warmed up radically, from -20C and mostly sunny in Maine to +5C and raining heavily in New Brunswick for our first crossing of the Province. The rain was dangerous - other vehicles, especially trucks, threw up tremendous blinding spray, and huge puddles on the excellent surface led to (unrealised) fears of aquaplaning. The Jeep handled the conditions admirably, but the weather conditions made driving on otherwise good roads rather stressful.

Heavy rain doesn't bother our navigator and dash-cam as we traverse New Brunswick.

We saw almost nothing of Saint John itself, so bad was the weather. It seems to be the centre of the Irving industrial empire, whose factories and branding are everywhere. We did see the famous Reversing Falls (really rapids) which are right in town. Here the huge Fundy tides rush into and out of a narrow inlet and a momentary break in the downpour meant we were lucky enough to see them swirling violently and spectacularly under a bridge.

Swirling waters of the Bay of Fundy courses in & out at the Reversing Falls in Saint John.

The highlight of our first passage across New Brunswick was the bridge at the end of it. The Confederation Bridge is 13km long! It joins northern NB to Prince Edward Island, and is named to commemorate Charlottetown's role in the formation of Canada as a nation. Prior to the bridge, about 20 years ago, the only access to PEI was by boat or aeroplane. The Confed Bridge is an engineering marvel (it cost a billion dollars) and a treat to drive along. It's one lane in each direction, 80km/hr limit, and wide and dangerous loads are forbidden. The toll is $45 return, collected on departure from PEI, which certainly discourages casual traffic. Locals and frequent users apparently don't get a discount, so it turns PEI into a giant and beautiful island prison. The bridge promotes itself as a discounted way to get to the island - this is true, the carry ferry is much more expensive!

The 1997 Confederation Bridge joined Prince Edward Island to the mainland for the first time. An awesome experience to drive over the mostly frozen Northumberland Strait of the Gulf of St Lawrence.

The $45 toll discourages heavy traffic on the Confederation Bridge, but it's much cheaper than the car ferry, which doesn't run in winter anyway!