News and Views

Previously when traveling internationally we have had to get SIM cards for our phones in each country we visited. Typically it goes like this: You arrive in the country and unless you find open WiFi, your phone is pretty much useless. As soon as possible, hopefully within a day, you find a phone store and […]

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We arrived in Taiwan after an unpleasant flight from Sydney. The flights were OK, but the 5-hour layover in Singapore and the 5:30 am arrival were not. And we couldn’t check into the hotel until 2 pm. So we were just hanging out at street markets, until Devon told us he was recording a TV […]

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We visited 4 islands, Isle of Pines, Mare, Lifou and the main New Caledonia island. All of the islands belong politically to New Caledonia. Each was larger than the last from the roughly 5 x 7 mile Isle of Pines to the 200 mile-long New Caledonia. I think Isle of Pines was my favorite, unfortunately […]

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We departed Sydney on Monday evening. It’s now Wednesday afternoon, and we are still sailing north-east on our way to New Caledonia and neighboring islands. We should arrive at the Isle of Pines tomorrow morning, an island named by the famous Captain James Cook because of the pine forests that grow in the islands. There […]

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I’ve posted several times about the trip, but here are a few more tidbits. First, here’s a map showing our route and stops along the way. We started and finished on the far right at St. John’s, Newfoundland (not to be confused with Saint John, New Brunswick). Our direction of travel is generally counter-clockwise, starting […]

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We are in the south-west coastal area of Nova Scotia now, slowly making our way to the east where we will catch a ferry to Newfoundland on Friday. Nova Scotia is Latin for “New Scotland”. I don’t know for sure where the name came from, but in parts of the province road signs are in […]

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Yesterday, passing through the town of Annapolis, I saw a sign for a Tidal Power station, so we stopped in to take a look. It is one of only 5 tidal power stations in the world, according to the interpreter at the center. It consists of a one-way turbine, and only generates power as the […]

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We went back to the same point in the Bay of Fundy this morning to see what it was like with the tide out. As a reminder, here’s a picture with the tide in. Here’s what the same location looked like this morning with the tide out. Here’s another scene down the beach a ways. […]

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We camped last night in the Fundy National Park, but we didn’t get out to see the Bay until today. The Bay of Fundy is famous for having the highest tides in the world due to a fortuitous combination of bay shape and size. Tides can have up to 50 feet difference from low to […]

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The bridge connecting Prince Edward Island with New Brunswick about 14 km long, or about 9 miles. Here’s a picture of it taken from the NB end. We drove over from PEI yesterday. The bridge is only 2 lanes, one in each direction, no passing the whole way. On the NB end, as you see […]

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