Category Archives: parlee provincial park

Tuesday 20th September 2016 – BLASTED SEAGULL!

There I was today, at the supermarket buying the baguette for lunch, and when I came out, I noticed that Strider had had a visit. A passing seagull had scored a direct hit, and all over the windscreen too with an accuracy that would put Bomber Command to shame. It was certainly an impressive strike.

Talking of Bomber Command, I do recall my erstwhile neighbour back in Crewe, “Blaster” Bates, telling me that he once witnessed the RAF bombing an oil slick with thermal bombs in order to try to set it alight and disperse the pollution, and deciding that on the basis of what he had seen, if the RAF ever decided to bomb anywhere else at any time, he would flee for safety not into an air-raid shelter but into the epicentre of the target. That was where he considered the safest place to be during an RAF bombing raid.

We had the usual night, as it seems to be developing these days. Straight to sleep almost as soon as I went to bed, awake after thirty minutes or so, back to sleep until about 02:00, a restless half-hour or so and then flat out until the alarm went off at 06:00.

We had been on our travels again too – this time to Derby although it was nothing like the Derby that I know. I had to find an address (the name of the street I have now forgotten although I did know it during the night) and my wanderings took me to a street on the south side of the centre of the city where there were some really big and impressive sandstone houses of the rich Victorian period, all now used as offices. But this wasn’t at all the place where I wanted to be. I eventually found a street map and found that where I wanted to be – right across to the north-east side of the city. My route took me through the central railway station past the taxi rank, and there was an old white Hillman Imp being used as a taxi, passing up the outside of the queue. It had been stripped out inside s if it was planning to be used for the transport of luggage. Where I had to be was a street halfway up the castle mound and I had to pass under a railway line out of the station and onto a footpath that had formerly been the trackbed of an old railway line that had circled the city. The view of this particular area reminded me of the view from the Oak Street car park across to the Mill Street Bridge in Crewe.

And this was where I was when I awoke. I had a light breakfast and then came in here for a relax and ended up chatting to a friend for a few hours. When she went off to do other things, I headed off to the supermarket and my appointment with a seagull.

I made my butties and then headed for the beach. It was grey and miserable when I set off but astonishingly, as I unfurled my chair on the beach the sky dramatically cleared and we had some blue sky. That was totally unexpected.

beaubassin cap pele new brunswick canada september septembre 2016Right down at the end of the beach somewhere near Beaubassin and Cap Pele was an object that in the distance looked as if a cargo ship had run aground on the beach. As I couldn’t identify it properly I took a photo of it so that I could enlarge it at a later date.

And here it is. It’s not a ship at all but some kind of building on the shore and one day I might have a wander down there to see exactly what it is. But it won’t be today – or tomorrow either.

I wasn’t out there for all that long. The sun went in, the sky clouded over again and the wind got up. I went back to Strider and took myself down to the quayside at Pointe du Chene.

shediac bay sightseeing boat pointe du chene new brunswick canada september septembre 2016I wasn’t alone there though. We had a coach pull up to disgorge a pile of tourists and they flocked on board the sightseeing boat.

I didn’t mention it before but there is a pleasure boat that does a regular tour around the bay – one of these “three times round the lighthouse for five bob” things, and while that kind of thing doesn’t really interest me all that much, it’s certainly popular with the tourists as you can tell.

And to think that it’s out-of-season here too.

We had loads of fishermen here today as well and I did actually see two of them catch a fish each. That was something!

And there might have been more but I was … errr … having a little rest during part of the afternoon with my eyes closed to protect them from the clouds.

Back here I had a shower and then washed all of my clothes and the towels and everything. I’m supposed to wash the towels before I leave (which is tomorrow) and so I took the opportunity to stick everything else in there too.

I also attacked the food and managed to reduce all of that to manageable proportions. I’m not sure where I’ll be tomorrow and whether there will be a freezer or a fridge there.

And now I’m off to bed. An early night yet again, for tomorrow I’m hitting the road.

I’ve no idea at all where I’ll be tomorrow.

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Monday 19th September 2016 – YEEUUUCCCHHH!

That was how I felt when I awoke this morning. One look through the window to the heavy grey sky outside was quite enough for me.

But my night wasn’t as bad as I expected. I was out pretty quickly but soon awoke. But not for all that long. And once I’d gone, I’d gone and that was how I stayed until 05:10. And having been for a walk on the parapet I was out once more until the alarm went off at 06:00

I’d been on my travels too – back to my days in Brussels. I was living with someone, but I can’t remember who the girl was and we were sharing a room with one of my former colleagues from those days as well as someone who used to hang around Pionsat football club. And who should turn up to see us but Anne-Marie, one of the girls with whom I worked and with whom I was quite friendly. This was followed by being back in Crewe and I had bumped into a couple whom I know who live on the Wirral but the husband comes originally from Crewe. They were living down at the end of a very tight cul-de-sac in Crewe that was crowded with cars. We were talking about house repairs and they were having to dig a trench six feet deep at the side of their house to shore up the foundations. I mentioned that I had a digger that they could borrow and although they said that they had already borrowed one, I could see the woman’s eyes light up when I mentioned it. They asked where it was because when they had been around to my house it wasn’t there. It suddenly flashed into my mind that Terry had borrowed it to take to Normandy, but that was not what I was worrying about. What was concerning me was how I was going to pull the trailer and digger through the maze of cars that were parked so tightly in the cul-de-sac.

There was no point in being in too much of a rush to be out of bed, and so I wasn’t. It was another bit of a lie-in. But when I did finally leave the comfort and safety of my stinking pit and had breakfast, I just sat on the comfy sofa and that was that.

About 10:00 the weather showed no sign of improvement and so I decided to go for a drive. Moncton and its shops were beckoning me and I may as well go this morning instead of on the way home. Who knows? The weather might be different by the time I come back.

It was an uneventful drive down there. The Salvation Army c&me up with a couple of books, for which I received a 10% pensioners’ discount. I must be looking my age. Value Village came up with a few more (but it’s not Pensioners’ Day there until tomorrow), and Princess Autos supplied a few more toys to take back home with me.

But at Home Depot, Ryobi came up trumps. They have a new design of portable Ryobi Plus One portable air compressor and I can find some use for that back home. That will suit me.

vegan chicken burgers sobeys shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016On the way back home, I called at Sobeys for some more shopping. It costs a fortune to do your shopping here.

But I did have some good luck there – they had some vegan burgers (complete with bread) that tasted like chicken. Not that the taste meant anything to me, but it was a change from my usual diet and it just goes to show the range of vegan food now on offer here in Canada.

I was right about the weather too. It had changed, just as I predicted, but changed for the worse. It was now absolutely streaming down. I had my butties right here in my room.

It might have looked better a little later and so after I’d had a bit of a crash-out, I went to the beach and sat under my shelter there, where I ended up chatting to a fellow traveller from the Motel. But I wasn’t out long. The weather opened up again and even under my shelter I started to become even more wet than I usually am.And so back to the hotel I headed.

I tried these new burgers with my beans and chips, and they weren’t too bad at all. I’ve had much worse than this.

So now let’s see what tomorrow brings me. That’s my last day because on Wednesday morning I have to leave. I have a choice of places to go, a choice of directions to take.

I just hope that I have another decent night tonight.

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Sunday 18th September 2016 – HERE ARE SOME MORE …

canoeing northumberland strait shediac bay parlee provincial park pointe du chene new brunswick canada september septembre 2016… heroes. They are out there canoeing and surfboard swimming and although one or two of them are wearing wetsuits, the others are not.

And that wasn’t all either because about ab hour later, two old people turned up and went for a swim in the water.

I was so impressed with all of this because you would not have enticed me into the water for all the tea in China.

You’ve probably noticed that the weather has changed. Thick grey miserable clouds. The sun has gone. But it was even worse this morning. When I awoke (at 05:50 this morning) there was a torrential downpour going on and that was the kind of thing that made me reluctant to leave my bed. In fact, it was 09:30 when I finally crawled out of my stinking pit.

I had good reason to too. I was in bed early, as you know, and it didn’t take me too long to drop off. But I was soon awake again and had endless trouble dropping off again. It was long after midnight (Atlantic Time) and I was still awake.

Once I finally did manage to drop off it wasn’t a peaceful night either. I was up at least once for a trip down the corridor and when I did eventually wake up, I was all bunged up and it was really uncomfortable. I just can’t seem to shake off this streaming cold.

During the morning I went and liberated the guitar from Strider and had a little play around. The idea was that it would give me something to do this afternoon given the state of the weather. It also goes without saying that given the night that I had had, I was away with the fairies too for a good part of the morning. THis is a lovely and comfortable sofa.

After lunch, the weather eased slightly and so I decided that despite everything I would hit the beach. At first I was the only person out there, which was hardly surprising given the clouds, and when it started to rain a little there were even fewer people. I headed to a shelter where I could see the beach and the sea, and watch the surfers and swimmers when they turned up.

When I finished my book I headed back to Strider to find that it was only 16:40. But never mind – I headed back here anyway and prepared my pizza for tea.

And here’s something that I haven’t done for several years, and that was to watch the gridiron. The Colts versus the Broncos. It’s been along time since I’ve done that.

But the adverts on US television are hilarious. Never mind the disclaimers in the adverts, that are often quite longer than the meat of the adverts, there are two makes of motor vehicle that you will never find in Europe, namely a Knee-sonne and a Hunday.

And not only that, going on from something that we discussed the other day, I learnt that Bell offer you the best satellite TV coverage at the cottage. Any British person who had gone to the cottage wouldn’t have gone there to watch television, although back in the old days going to the cottage might have meant that you were hoping to find a 17-inch Murphy.

And so I’ll be having another early night. But my nose is streaming already so I imagine that this is going to be a very long night.

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Saturday 17th September 2016 – NOW THIS IS WHAT …

parlee beack pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016… I call “courageous”.

The weather looks really beautiful in this photo, but in fact there was a cold wind blowing and you could certainly feel it. So much so that I had my fleece on while I was sitting out there.

There was certainly no way that I was going to go for a dip in the Northumberland Strait and so hats off to those (and there were quite a few people in the water today) who had braved the sea.

And so last night, having finally dozed off to sleep, I only had to leave the bed once during the night. And then, there I was, gone, right up to when the alarm went off at 06:00. That was a good sleep.

And once more, I’d been away with the fairies during the night. I’d had a really exciting time although I forgot most of it as soon as I awoke. What I do remember though is that I was on the docks at Liverpool, climbing over a wire fence into an area where there was a line of half a dozen or so derelict steam locomotives parked in a parallel fashion on railway sidings, with an overhead traversing crane carrying a large, heavy object, passing overhead.

For an hour or so I caught up with a few things that I needed to do and then I left the comfort of my stinking pit to go for breakfast.

Once breakfast was out of the way I had things to do and they took up my time for a while. Subesequently, with it being Saturday, I was following the football results on the internet. It was a fairly good day for the results except for Bangor City who struggled for a hard-earned draw out at Carmarthen in the Welsh Premier League.

I made my butties and then headed for the beach, having an interesting encounter down at the entrance to the park. It’s one of these four-way stops where everyone has to stop when they arrive, and depart in the order in which they arrived. And I arrived at the same time as a taxi, so we both stopped at the same time – both started at the same time and so both had to stop again. In the end, to avoid any misunderstanding, I waved him on.

At the car park I gathered up my coolbox with the butties and drink in it, my bag with my books and camers and my folding chair, and hit the beach.

It was much busier than yesterday and there were dozens of kids there, all of them having a really good time which was really nice to see. It was hard for me to concentrate on my book in fact, watching some kids of about three or four running round chasing the seagulls. I was exhausted just watching them.

By the time that 17:30 came around, I was ready to leave. The wind was getting me down and it was clouding over.

parlee beack pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016I went for a walk down to the far end of the park, which wasn’t as far as I was expecting it to be. There were still quite a few people out on the beach having a good time.

For me though, I went a-looking for the gentleman’s restroom and found one in a complex of buildings down at the far end but, as you might expect at this time of the year, was closed.

But there were also some public showers and changing rooms too, and that can’t be bad for the people who visit the beach.


parlee beack pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016There was also a cantine, which, presumably, as Canadian for a fritkot. And as you might expect at this time of the year, this was closed for the out-of-season too. I really wasn’t having much luck.

And so in the end I walked back to Strider where I noticed, with dismay, that somehow, presumably on the car park last night, someone had put a dent in the driver’s side door with their door. And judging by the height, it was the door of a full-size pick-up.

Back in Strider, I went down to Sobey’s for more sandwich stuff, bottled water and the like for the next few days. And I found some grated vegan mozzarella cheese. Yes, now I can have pizza tomorrow night. But somewhere along the line I seem to have lost the hummus that I bought. No idea how I managed to do that.

Tea was oven chips with Heinz beans and burgers followed by the ice cream stuff and fruit salad.

Now I’m off to bed – early again, but I’m going to make the most of it. This bed here is really comfortable.

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Friday 16th September 2016 – TONIGHT’S TEA …

… was even nicer.

On my way back home this evening I went down into town for tomorrow’s bread and while i was there i noticed that they were selling loose potatoes by the pound. So even though I have plenty of oven chips left, I succumbed and bought a pound of spuds. Here in this room I have a microwave and an oven, and so I had a vegan burger, some more Heinz beans, and some baked potatoes done in the oven and finished off in the microwave.

Add to that the ice cream stuff and fruit salad and we had yet another tea fit for a King.

I’d had a reasonable night’s sleep last night with the odd trip down the corridor, and I was wide awake by 05:50. I’d been on my travels too, a long complicated ramble that had taken me to all kinds of places and all trace of which had disappeared completely the moment I awoke.

Being awake like that gave me plenty of time to get on with stuff before breakfast, which once more consisted of vegan granola, orange juice, coffee and a blueberry bagel with strawberry jam.

And then I could carry on with some more stuff up until lunch time, having the odd doze here and there (something that I’m finding to be rather depressing these days).

At lunchtime I made my butty and then cleared off into the sunshine.

parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016Just down the road from here is the place that I have come here to Shediac visit.

This is Parlee Provincial Park at Pointe du Chene, just down the road from where I’m staying. It’s a typical Canadian Provincial Park in that it costs an arm and a leg to come here to visit for a day, but in news that will surprise almost every regular reader of this rubbish, my motel room includes a free pass to the park, and I intend to take full advantage.


parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016The claim to fame of Parlee Park is that it is said to have the most beautiful beach in New Brunswick. It’s certainly the most popular beach in the Province, with 400,000 visitors every year. On one day, it registered as many as 16,000 visitors.

This year of course it will be having 400,001 visitors because I’ve come here, and this is where I intend to stay for a while.


parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016There weren’t 16,000 visitors on the beach here today and that’s not really a surprise because although it was a really beautiful day, there was a cold wind a-blowing.

I started off by lying on a blanket on the sand but it was rather too windy for that and so I grabbed the folding chair out of Strider and settled down with my butties and a couple of really good books. As the legendary Marechal MacMahon once famously said, “J’y suis, j’y reste“.


parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016One of the things for which the beach is famous is the temperature of the water. It’s said to have the warmest water in Canada, and although some people might be willing to test it, it wasn’t for me.

And that wasn’t just because of the wind either. I’d heard that there was a water pollution warning in existence at the moment, having been posted in August, and I bet that that did wonders for the tourist trade this year


parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016As the evening approached and the temperature cooled down I headed off for a walk around the park to see what I could see.

There’s plenty of evidence of the former commercial nature of the area around the park, and here from the steps of the restaurant (which is on stilts) there’s a good view over what looks suspiciously like a canal to me.

We even have what looks like a kind of lighthouse here – presumably to guide vessels along the canal.


parlee beach provincial park pointe du chene shediac new brunswick canada september septembre 2016There are quite a lot of facilities here, which is hardly a surprise when you consider how much you have to pay to come here for a day.

But it has more facilities than you might imagine too. If you carefully read the publicity that the Park authorities put out, you’ll find that “The popularity of Parlee Beach since the 1800s has created a cottaging area for the city of Moncton” – a statement that will have most British people, or those knowing a good deal of British slang, rolling in the aisles.

I wonder if the Parlee Beach authorities really mean it like that.

So having read that, I buggered off back to civilisation via the petrol station and the supermarket.

After tea I was thoroughly exhausted and went for an early night. But I managed about half an hour before I was wide awake again, and then I found it difficult to go back to sleep.

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