The riverbed is uneven, with deeper and shallower places. You clamber back onto the raft and watch, fascinated, because the swallowing of the sand bar reminds you of renderings of water encroachment due to polar ice melt. Kim-the-guide tells you it will be under 20 feet of water within 3 hours. You do it so many times you lose count as the water moves up onto the sandbar. You move back to the edge again, and the water follows. You walk around the sandbar for a bit, then you notice the rapid water beginning at the end of the sandbar, so you go stand at the edge of the water near your raft. It's made of the same red, staining clay that all of Prince Edward Island is made of, and has fascinating black striations through it. Get out and explore it, you're told, so you do. The raft is driven a few hundred meters into the river to a very large sandbar. All of this happens shortly after the tide has turned. You are taught to hold tightly to the rope which runs along the edge of the boat and to lean forward at all times, so if you fall off the round rubber edge of the raft, you will fall IN instead of OUT. The guide, Kim, positions you sitting along the edges of the boat. You walk out to water just above your knees and do an ungainly glorp over the edge of the raft. You will have a "guide" (ours was KIM) who drives your raft. The inflation of the raft keeps it afloat, not lack of holes. They're designed to take on water and have two holes in the back near the motor to let it out. The "rafts" do not look like the flexible orange things that one imagines in whitewater mountain rafting, they are sleek and black, pointed at the front, inflated to the point of solidity, and with a four-stroke motor on the back. and walk across some river rocks, and you walk some more across mud and river rocks. You walk down a long boardwalk to the edge of the Shubenacadie River. More than one person will check this garment to make sure it is snugly fitted. As they outfit you for the ride, you are offered yellow rubber rain gear, which is optional, and a life jacket, which is not. You take a Gravol, because you get motion-sick. You have a set of dry clothes and your shower supplies and a towel or two. You're prepared as the website has warned you to be: no cotton or white/light clothes, shoes that will stay on your feet with non-slip soles. You get to the lovely blue house that serves as HQ for River Runners, and you sign a waiver. Though, not really rivers, because it's sea water, or brackish, anyway, a mix of river water and sea water. At high tide, these are picturesque lazy blue rivers. These are the tidal bores, and it is low tide. So here's whar it is.Īs you're driving through this incredibly picturesque countryside, you're struck by the awful, deep, red muddy gashes through the land. There is no other place on the planet where the tides come in so fast and in such a manner that you can raft the tidal bore. They said the highest regular tide measured on the Shubenacadie River in that area is over 58 feet. I'm pretty sure it's a function of the shape of the land and the influx of part of the Gulf Stream that does it. This is right in the very end of the Bay of Fundy, known for having the highest tides in the world. So my friend and I went tidal bore rafting yesterday in Maitland, Nova Scotia.
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