Gaspe Peninsula

As I sit at a picnic table to write this, I can see Perce Rock in the evening light.  More on it later.  First, I will say we have put on more than 8000 km so far this trip - obviously not in a straight line or we would be further east than we now are!  The truck has been very comfortable for driving, although most days we do not cover very many kilometres.  It has held up well - a new battery in Toronto.  The trailer has felt a few bumps - shelf holders have broken so Shon has rigged them to hold the shelves again, a valance ripped out of the wall - not needed.  Overall, we are pleased with both the truck and trailer - oops, I probably just jinxed our trip so will retract that statement!

The weather gods have been good to us, too.  Most days have been sunny. Lots of humidity lately and the Gaspe Peninsula has been very windy.  A couple of nights the wind has howled loudly and the trailer has rocked and groaned against its force.  No damage except for lack of sleep.

We have been eating well - many bbqs and Shon does a great job of barbecuing!  Many salads and fresh veggies, especially earlier in QB where we saw lots of fruit and veggie stands.  Now we are in seafood country so had cod last night and shrimp tonight.  Yesterday, we went out for lunch in the town of Gaspe and had wraps with shrimp, mango, avocado, onion and tomato - superb!!

We are still surrounded by Francophones but are noticing more bilingual people here than on the  north shore of the Gaspe Peninsula.  I will miss hearing French when we return to English Canada!

Many (most) of the farms along the St. Lawrence are linear with small river frontages. This is a result of the original seigneurial system where the seigneur gave his tenant farmers linear farms with access to the water (when it was the sole transportation method) then collected tithes (taxes) in the form of grains or cereals or other crops.  The agricultural landscape here looks much different than the square sections in the prairie provinces.  Another observation from rural Quebec is the many tidy, massive stacks of firewood beside many of the houses - must be chilly here in the winter!

Now to recount what we have done and what we have seen lately.  After leaving Tadoussac area, we took the ferry from St. Simeon to Riviere du Loup (the south shore of St. Lawrence).  We stopped at a huge antiques barn in Cacouna and, like in Battleford, Sask, Shon was surprised to see an apple box from a Vernon/Kelowna packing house.  The barn itself held my interest as we had seen many of these old barns along the way, most still in operation with a grassy ramp for the cows to walk up into the barn.

Our first scenic park stop in the  Lower St. Lawrence area was in Park du Bic, a beautiful provincial park .  We stopped there for dinner by our trailer and a short walk along the shore of a bay.  We then decided to drive until we got tired and ended up driving in to see the Pointe au Pere lighthouse - and lucked into an empty grass parking lot with many other RVs set up for a night of free camping. Second bit of luck was a stunning sunset - talking to a pro photographer capturing it, he said that National Geographic had named the spot as one of the best in the world for sunsets. Our photos probably don't rival his but you can get the idea.  Our luck then ran out as we realized Shon had left his binoculars in the men's room at Park du Bic.  We phoned, with the photographer's help to decipher the phone choices, but they had not been turned in - now we are sharing binocs!

The next  morning, upon someone's recommendation, we stopped in the tiny seaside town of Sainte-Luce - a lovely 1800s church, a seaside graveyard and a seaside promenade lined with sculptures all added to its charm.  That night we were at St. Pierre on the north coast of Gaspe Penin. and enjoyed another wonderful sunset as well as the town's fireworks display for whatever the Quebecois celebrate when we have BC Day. Whatever it was, we loved the fireworks across a small bay.   I also chatted with a Nanaimo couple doing the same trip as we are - left home 3 days before we did, following the same route.

I fell in love with Forillon National Park at the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula - a 'real' campground (wooded, private spots), incredible seascape views, history and all!  It was first settled by cod fishermen, many from Jersey.  The salted, dried cod from there was prized in Europe, especially Italy and Spain. The lower quality stuff was shipped to the West Indies as food for the slaves there.  The restored 1880s homestead in Forillon taught me a lot about how the fishing/farming families lived - and how the storekeeper kept them in debt to him by extending credit that they couldn't repay unless they had an exceptional year!  We enjoyed a windy, chilly evening walk on the rocky beach near our campsite - intriguing natural sculptures in the rock formations, some sticking up through the sand, were mixed in with creative human sculptures of driftwood, seaweed, shells and stones.  The next morning, starting in the rain and ending in the steaming sunshine, we hiked 1.8 km up, up, up to an observation tower for 360 degree views of the park and surrounding area.  Amazing!!!  Back down at Cap Bon Ami (actually from an English fisherman named Bonamy, not 'good friend' in French!), we spotted a cormorant nesting colony on the cliffs and seals in the ocean (I know it is the Gulf of St. Lawrence but it is so mcuh like an ocean here).  A warm, sticky day - I had a shower before and after the hike!!!

And now we are in Perce, the small tourist town which is famous for Perce Rock, a gigantic rock just offshore.  A little further out, Ile Bonaventure (an island for all anglophones) is home to the largest Northern Gannet colony in North America. Over 100,000 of the birds nest on the island as well as two types of gulls, kittiwakes, black guillemots (with delightful red legs and feet), a few puffins, razorbills, common murres and two types of cormorant.  We took a boat cruise today which toured us around Perce Rock then around the island so we could see the colonies (and some seals) from the sea before disembarking on the island. About 35 cod fishing families colonized the island originally but it is now a provincial park.  We hiked across the island (more up and down) to see the gannet colony - the viewing area is just a couple of metres from the birds so we got to smell, hear and see them (and millions of pesky flies) close up. They are beautiful with their piercing blue eyes, creamy yellow head, long necks and white bodies with black wing tips.  They dance their 'couple dance' every time one adult returns from fishing - a delight of nature for sure!  We also saw their fluffy white chicks who have ugly black beaks which they stick right down their parent's throat to eat the fish slush that the parent regurgitates for them.  Sadly, we also saw many dead chicks - only 40 % survive the first year and many don't even make it to the point where they are ready to migrate when the colony leaves. 

After our boat tour, we browsed the town and ended up for happy hour on the outside deck of a bar.  Both yesterday and today, they had live entertainment - toe-tapping French Canadian folk music.  A nice way to end the afternoon before coming back here for laundry, dinner and the evening.

Now, how about emails from all of you reading this so we can catch up on your summers!