New Brunswick

Hartland is the site of the world’s longest covered bridge. It was built in 1901. At the tourist information we discovered the nearest camp-ground was twenty kilometers away.

“Isn’t it worth staying here?” Jim asked.

Twenty kilometers is too far when you want to be there to photograph sunrise and sunset. I noticed the Church parking lot next door had a sign ‘No Overnight Parking November till March’. In our minds September was just fine. We drove our trailer down by the river at the very back of the lot and tried to position it as discreetly as possible. Before bed we went for walk down by the bridge. Hot, bright, white floodlights shone from the back of the church – essentially spotlighting our little rig.

“Yes, we really picked an inconspicuous spot, didn’t we?” Jim asked.

The bridge is 370 meters long and is roofed and walled with grey planks of wood. We sat by the town side entrance and watched the goings on. This is a one-way bridge –with only a stop sign at each entry (no traffic light).

“How do they know whose turn it is?” I asked Jim.

We sat and watched the traffic. It all appeared to work smoothly. It seemed people drove up and looked. If they saw no headlights – away they went. The tricky part came when they saw taillights. We decided it must be like a red flag to a bull. This was the signal for the local drivers to speed up and see if they could catch them in the length of the bridge. The stop signs became decoration.

New Brunswick is part of the Maritimes but … Nova Scotia is our destination. We can almost smell the sea air…………..