Kouchibouguae National Park

Between Bouctouche and Mirimichi on New Brunswick’s east coast was Kouchibouguae National Park. I arrived late in the afternoon after travelling from Hopewell Cape and touring Bouctouche first, so I only took two short hikes. A boardwalk stretched over Little Gully to sand dunes at Kellys Beach. This was home to shore birds such as the endangered piping plover, osprey, blue herons, and the common tern. From the midway point, a tern kept hovering above the water before it dived-bombed into the sea catching small fish. In fact, Canada’s largest tern colony nested within the national park. Birds like sandpipers and sanderlings combed the mudflats and beaches searching for food.

Bouctouche

In the late 1700s French Acadians settled in the area which explains why so many street names were in French, as well, it was the most common language spoken in the small town located by New Brunswick’s Bouctouche River. (featured image) And as one of the town’s locals told me, the British may have burnt their villages and expelled them centuries earlier, but they had survived and thrived.