The Roads
that Hug the Strait

Because the Northumberland Strait is shallower, with much less tidal action than the Bay of Fundy the water here has time to warm up. It gives back its summer warmth well into autumn. The Strait breathes an aura of gentleness, almost opulence, which is quite missing from the Bay of Fundy. Early settled by French Acadians, this is a land of sandy beaches, cottages, and farmland. This tour along the Strait can easily take a full day. It might take you two days, depending on how much exploring you want to do off the main roads.

Start by taking the Trans-Canada to Sackville, a pleasant university and farming town nearly surrounded by the Tantramar Marsh, the largest area of dyked salt marsh in North America. Continue on past Sackville (or through it - the drive takes you right back onto the Trans Canada) and continue to exit 550 B, to Prince Edward Island. Set your km counter at zero here, and head toward PEI.

At 20 km, turn right onto NB 970, the "old road" to Baie Verte and Port Elgin. Here, immediately in the turn, you'll see Hans Esser's European bakery, the first indication of the Strait area's concentration of recent German emigrants. Intriguing as it is, the story of how this came about is too long to tell here.

At 21.8 km, turn right onto NB 970 South. In 2 km you'll come to Werner Rosswog's Farm Distillery. Rosswog, a former bank manager from Baden, Germany, originally intended to farm. When this turned out unpromising, he began what in ten years has become a thriving artisanal distillery and farm wine shop. The shop is open at regular hours; the whole process can be seen in Sunday afternoon tours at 2 pm.

Continue on 970 to the delightful little country store at 28.3 km, then cross the main highway to view the stone arch bridge, a relic of the "Ship Railway Canal" which was used to transport ships on railcars running on a double line of track across the isthmus from the Bay of Fundy to the Strait. Note how wide the bridge is. Now go back to the "T" junction of 970 South and 970 North. Head north, through Baie Verte, an old Acadian settlement. Everything here speaks age and heritage, the old stores and churches, and houses with shrubs in front as thick as treetrunks from a hundred years of growth.

Baie Verte and Port Elgin were intimately linked to the Tantramar French Acadian settlements by the old French road connecting Fort Beausejour, Baie Verte, and Fort Gaspereau at Port Elgin where French supply ships docked en route from Louisbourg to Quebec. Fort Street in Port Elgin takes you there, albeit there's not much left to see.

NB 960, which turns right off the main highway just past Port Elgin, hugs the shore and takes you to Cape Tormentine, the former busy ferry terminal. But so does the main highway. There's a tourist bureau in the old railway station; you can walk out to the old ferry docks (at your own risk - it's not encouraged but it can be done) to fish mackeral in late summer along with the locals, there's a lovely sandy beach here too on the right side of the old ferry terminal, and a spectacular view of the bridge to PEI. At the foot of the bridge lies Cape Jourimain, the closest land point to Prince Edward Island, about to become a government nature preserve.

In Murray Corner, on NB 955 and a few km past the bridge to Prince Edward you'll come to Johnny Lake's store, as real and down to earth as the nearby little fishing wharf. Here you can buy copper tube and coffee and coconut flakes and camp fuel and door hardware, mousetraps, ice cream, bread and fishermen's gloves. This is a general store that deserves the name. There aren't many left.

And now come two highlights of this excursion. About 8 km past Johnny Lake's store, turn right down the patched, paved, road to Amos Point. Shrubs crowd close on both sides, giving it a sort of jungle feel. And there you are, at the almost utterly unknown Amos Point wharf. Here, with tide running out of the Little Shemogue estuary, you may see 30 or 40 blue heron, and bald eagles on the flats. A several kilometre stretch of sand dune lies just across the channel from the wharf. Lobster boats are tied up, and usually there's not a soul in sight in this solitary seaside world.

Back on the main road just under 2km further, a driveway through the woods takes you to the Little Shemogue Inn, an in its own way. A baby grand piano stands in the foyer, a Persian samovar rests upon a table of exotic wood which encircles a dish of hammered metal from Tanzania. The armrests of a wicker chair from Southeast Asia assume the shape of elephant trunks in draping down. Crystal wine glasses grace the table; classical music plays in the background; hummingbirds dart amid the flowers. A hidden enclave of civilization a stone's throw from the silent oasis of Amos Point, the Little Shemogue Inn is run by Klaus Sudbrack - another German emigrant who first tried farming.

Four kilometres further along the main road, turn right to loop around Johnson's Point, another solitary peninsula of farms and beaches and tidal estuaries. The Johnson's Point Road emerges just a few hundred metres from the main highway, Route 15, which carries you on to Shediac and the famous Parlee beach, home of bikinis and beach volleyball, and all that that entails. And from Shediac, in turn the next coast hugging jaunt will take you to the dunes of Bouctouche and Cap Lumière and the Pays de La Sagouine.