Issue link: http://read.canadatravelguides.ca/i/651528
TRAVEL GUIDE TO CANADA • WHALE TALES: NEW BRUNSWICK The Bay of Fundy has Earth's highest tides. Twice daily they rush in with suffi cient force to sculpt rock formations and, as evidenced in Saint John's Reversing Rapids and Moncton's Tidal Bore, push rivers backward. All that motion also stirs up a moveable feast for whales. In fact, New Brunswick's Fundy Isles area attracts up to 15 types in summer. Rare North Atlantic rights, fi nbacks, minkes and more come to dine on plankton and other dietary mainstays. Fittingly, Mi'kmaq legend contends it was a splashing whale tale that created Fundy's tides in the fi rst place ( www.tourismnewbrunswick.ca). • ROCK OF AGES: NOVA SCOTIA Studied by Charles Lyell, the "Father of Modern Geology," and cited by Charles Darwin in The Origin of Species, the Joggins Fossil Cliffs clearly deserve their UNESCO designation. Looming above Chignecto Bay, this 15-km (9.3-mi.) stretch of layered, tide-washed rock provides an unparalleled look at what life was like 300 million years ago during the Carboniferous Period or Coal Age. The 200-odd species of fossilized plants and animals discovered on-site include Hylonomus lyelli, the earliest known reptile and the fi rst known vertebrate able to live entirely on land ( www.jogginsfossilcliffs.net). • AWESOME OYSTERS: PRINCE EDWARD ISLAND P.E.I. isn't just famous for that ubiquitous red-headed orphan. Shellfi sh connoisseurs know that the province also produces internationally-acclaimed oysters. After all, it's home to the Malpeque, a prized variety named for the shallow bay from which many of them are still harvested by hand. These oysters have been setting the global gold standard since they won the "best in show" title at the 1900 Paris World's Fair. Yet the discovery of Aboriginal shell mounds suggests that Islanders have been enthusiastically slurping these magnifi cent mollusks for centuries ( www. tourismpei. com/pei-oysters). • VIKING ADVENTURES: NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR If you think Columbus sailed the ocean blue to "discover" North America in 1492, L'Anse aux Meadows—which is both a National Historic Site and a UNESCO World Heritage Site—offers a necessary corrective. Poised on the tip of Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula, it marks the spot where Leif Eriksson and his Norse crew landed in 1000 AD. June through early October, you can visit reconstructed sod huts occupied by "Vinland Vikings," peruse exhibits in the interpretation centre and participate in Viking-themed programs ( www.pc.gc.ca/ eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx). PiLot WHaLeS, nS • SHUtterStoCK/CHefMD oYSterS, Pe • toUriSM Pei/StePHen DeSroCHeS JoGGinS foSSiL CLiffS, nS • SHUtterStoCK/V.J. MattHeW L'anSe aUX MeaDoWS, nL • ParKS CanaDa/DaLe WiLSon CANADA ROCKS