Anderson Hollow Lighthouse

It seems kind of inevitable, doesn't it? As adolescence fades in the rear view mirror, life has a way of curbing our youthful spirit, and we all tend to settle down into our lives as adults. Unfortunately, "settle" seems to be the operative word. Many of us end up settling for something that's less than ideal in one or more of the challenges of career, relationships, location or lifestyle. 

Like many people, the older I got, the more I looked back on my youth and wondered where all the adventure had gone. I was stuck in a job I no longer loved, my kids were grown and off doing their own thing, and my relationship had passed its best-before date. It seemed like everything I was doing on a daily basis was because of obligation, not desire. Then when COVID hit, my health-related work got even busier and I felt even more trapped - something had to change...

Funnily enough, one of the silver linings of the pandemic for me was the isolation. With most services shut down, there really wasn't a lot to do except work (remotely) and go for hikes in the wilderness, which I did daily. These hikes rekindled my love for nature and solitude, and of course a camera was a constant companion; but you can only cover the same trails so many times before the wanderlust kicks in. So when my contract fortuitously ended (no, really!) in 2021, I packed up my teardrop trailer and set off to do something I'd always wanted to do: drive across the entire country of Canada.

I have many beautiful photos from that trip in my gallery, but one of the most memorable locations I visited was the Anderson Hollow Lighthouse in New Brunswick. The Lighthouse is situated in an odd location. It's beside a dam on a small waterway called Crooked Creek, but is quite removed from the open ocean. The creek has steep eroded banks due to the extremely high tides in the bay of Fundy, and is totally unnavigable by ships due to the small dam. Why put a lighthouse in this location? Well, it turns out it's not functional at all - it was moved here from its original location in Waterside, NB as a tourist attraction. Still a curious choice, as it's on a very small road seemingly in the middle of nowhere..

The day had been by turns foggy and overcast as I drove up the New Brunswick coast from Black Beach near St. John, heading towards Prince Edward Island primarily by smaller back roads. By early evening, after numerous adventures (including a close encounter with a skunk where I retreated to the roof of my trailer!), I was trying to find a secluded spot to stop for the night. While the area seemed quiet enough (I hadn't seen a single car for hours), the tidal flats on one side and the impenetrable forest on the other meant there was nowhere suitable. Just as I was considering turning around to backtrack towards St. John, the lighthouse appeared on the horizon.

Pulling into the small gravel parking lot to take some photos, I saw a young woman posing for selfies with the lighthouse in the background. By the number of photos she was taking, I assumed she was a social media influencer, or at least an aficionado, which I later found out to be true. Luckily, the location has a number of interesting views, so I made productive use of the time until she was done with the lighthouse itself, as you can see from the other images here.

After we had both finished the dance of trying to get our photographs while avoiding being in each other's shots, I said hello and got to experience first-hand the legendary East Coast hospitality. Not only was she perfectly happy to chat with a complete stranger in the middle of nowhere, but she accepted my offer to stay for a beer and share some insights into life in New Brunswick. As the sun went down and the bugs came out, we said goodbye and went our separate ways. As it was dark by this point, I retreated into my trailer and spent the night right there in the parking lot.

Ship of Fools

I have no idea whether this was a real sea-faring vessel or merely a decorative embellishment, but it evokes a wonderful sense of adventure and imagination - was it run aground by pirates trying to escape? Was it abandoned by settlers who fell in love with the area they discovered? Or was it simply built to lure in unsuspecting lookie-loos like me? Maybe we'll never know...!