Kouchibouguac (otherwise known as the National Park we can't pronounce)

We're deep in the heart of French-speaking Canada, having cruised up the Acadian Scenic Byway on New Brunswick's east coast since we left Prince Edward Island.

Acadians were the French settlers who tried to establish lives in Canada's maritime provinces only to be forcibly deported from one place to the next by the British.

Centuries later, they now fly their flags from every house and electricity pole they can find; a replica of the French flag save for a yellow star symbolising the Virgin Mary.

A lot of the advertising and shop signage here is written exclusively in French instead of the usual approach of putting both languages on everything.

Here at the Kouchibouguac National Park this back-story of deportation is especially charged because the creation of the Park itself involved forced evictions in the 60s.

Fisherman, farmers and their families were made to leave their homes when the Canadian Government decided to establish a National Park here.

The Visitors Centre doesn't gloss over the politics of the Park's formation and tries to represent that time with fairness and sensitivity to the feelings of the displaced families. Still, I couldn't help but feel a bit of discomfort at the idea my experience of nature was at their expense.

After finding a campsite in the South Campground we tried to hike the trail the French so eloquently term "La Tourbiere", or as we English-speakers like to call it... "Bog".

Not 100 metres into it we were attacked by more mosquitoes than we've ever seen.

Our mozzie spray was no match and we retreated to Bessie and drove down the rode to the Kelly's Beach trail.

The short boardwalk crosses a salt marsh, a lagoon, a narrow islet, more of the lagoon and then a barrier island, with the beach on the ocean-facing side of the island.

The boys had an awesome play in the surprisingly not-freezing water.

As we were leaving the beach, Indy spoke to some arriving tourists, giving a graceful wave of his hand and in his most serious voice declaring: "Welcome to the barrier island..... Enjoy!"