Another Mile Another Destination Blog: Saint Martin, New Brunswick, Canada

“If you want to build a ship, don’t drum up people to collect wood and don’t assign them tasks and work, but rather teach them to long for the endless immensity of the sea.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupery

Joe and I booked an excursion with Cruise Compete that included the Saint John Reversing Rapids, city tour of Saint John, and Saint Martin, New Brunswick, Canada. This blog is on the Saint Martin part of the trip.

Farm house in the country

Views on the way to Saint Martin

Local home

Split Rock

After touring the Saint John Reversing Rapids, we headed north up the coast of New Brunswick towards the town of St. Martin. Along the way we stopped to view split rock – a unique rock formation out over the ocean. We were told there is a beautiful 8 mile trail you can walk that takes you all along this coast and takes you out to this area. Looks like a beautiful place to hike. I will put that on my bucket list. The ride to Saint Martin was a beautiful one along the coast with lots of amazing scenery to view. New Brunswick, Canada has some beautiful countryside to see.

Seafood Chowder

Lobster roll and cup of seafood chowder

Our next stop was the Saint Martin Sea Caves and restaurant. Our guide recommended the seafood chowder so that is exactly what I ordered. Joe ordered their lobster roll which was loaded with lobster. Both were good but I think I loved the chowder more. It was rich and creamy and just heavenly. They knew what they were doing making such a fine chowder. It was delicious and perfect for a cool day.

Sea Caves

These are the pebbles that were on the beach

walking on the ocean floor

We ate our lunch out on the deck overlooking the caverns at low tide. Amazing to think that in a few hours that sea bottom we were seeing now would be covered high in water. The tide rises and falls here every six hours and 13 minutes. After our amazing lunch, we headed down to be beach and headed towards the caves. The caves were huge. There were loads of people everywhere. The beach was nothing but rock and pebbles. I would have loved to stay to see it fill up and nearly cover the sea caves.

Boats high and dry at low tide

Lobster pots

Look at the sea wall behind the boats to see how high the water gets at high tide.

The tide coming into the harbor.

From their we are off the St Martin which is a tiny fishing village, with only a land mass of 0.91 square mile, on the Bay of Fundy. The population for the whole town is 276. It was originally founded as Quaco (meaning haunt of the hooded seal) in 1783 by disbanded loyalist Kings Orange Rangers. It was incorporated in 1967. This was the third most productive shipbuilding town in the Maritime producing over 500 ships. Shipbuilding declined after the 1870’s. Now this town makes its money off of tourism.

When we pulled into town and were let out, the first place I went was the lighthouse. There are super steep stairs that you can climb to get to the top. It was built in 1983 to display the lantern room from the 1883 Quaco Head lighthouse and is now a visitor center. You get good views of the bay and the twin bridges from there but it is not used as a lighthouse.

Vaughan Creek Bridge

Hardscrabble Bridge

From there it was to check out my other love, the twin covered bridges. The Vaughan Creek Bridge, the one closest the faux lighthouse was built in 1935 and is still open but needs repairs. It’s twin bridge is called the Hardscrabble Bridge and was built in 1946. They span the Irish River and are only 100 meters from each other.

The little town is cute with an ice cream shop, and many gifts shops right up on the harbor. We walked to where the fishing boats were sitting in the mud of the harbor since it is still low tide. It was hard to believe that in a few hours these boats would be floating high in the water. We were amazed with all the beautiful flowers and how well kept it and picturesque this town is to see. What a lovely area that I wish once again for more time here. All the residents we met were super friendly.