Gaspesie Peninsula

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September 4, 2013

It was so humid in Riviere-du-Loup that the clothes we hand washed last night and hung outside didn't dry one bit. Spent a boring half hour in the early morning in a laundromat drinking Tim Horton Coffee (good) and watching the dryer go round because all the magazines there were in French. There was an IKEA catalogue in English but it was from 2003.

Did I mention we are paying over $5 (US) a gallon for gas now? We need to quit complaining about the USA prices.

The route we are taking (132) takes us all the way around the Gaspesie Peninsula and we are seeing many small pretty fishing villages, each neat as can be with no litter in sight or junk near any homes. There are also a lot of vacation homes. Clouds, rain, wind, sun...the weather followed this pattern all day today. Temps were around 70 so it's not cold. As we travel into the peninsula, not as many people speak English so we are having a little more difficulty buying things and getting recommendations. People don't seem as outwardly friendly as the other places we've been. At first we thought it was because of the language barrier, but they don't wave or smile as much as we do.

First stop was in the town of L'Isle Verte at a fish smokehouse to pick up some salmon. Near Rimouski, we stopped for a few minutes at one area of Bic National Park and it looks like a fun place to kayak and hike. We saw weird sculptures in the St. Lawrence Seaway at St. Flavie and also shared a lobster poutine at a cute cafe there. It was pouring rain at this time so it was a good place to hang out for awhile.

Our big event today was time spent in Gaspe National Park. There are a lot of trees, small streams, and mountains, it's nothing spectacular but nice. We didn't put in many hiking miles, the weather was just too unpredictable.

Joe says to tell all his birding friends that he got a life bird but it was a boring one, the black duck. He thinks he must be the only birder with a life list as long as his that didn't have a black duck. It looks a lot like a female mallard so, in my opinion, it has ho hum looks to match its ho hum name. He also saw lots of common eiders.

We are spending the night in Sainte-Anne-des-Monts near the park with another great view of the St. Laurent.

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Photos

Near Ramouski, Quebec
Beautiful spot for a vacation cottage.

Smokehouses
We bought some good smoked salmon here in

Homes on the St. Laurent
We saw so many sweet vacation homes today. Here are a couple of them.

Bic NP
I looked up "Bic" on the Google translator French to English. It said Bic= ball point.

Oh, the POUTINE!
We ordered the small Lobster Poutine and shared it. First lobster of the trip, so good. We ate it separately, didn't make sense to mix it with fries, gravy, and cheese curds.

Cafe in St. Flavie
Friendly people here.

St. Flavie Sculptures
So very eerie.

St. Flavie Sculptures
Less tide in this photo.

Cap-Chat Homes for Rent
Isn't Cap-Chat a cool name for a town?

Eole near Cap-Chat
This is the tallest vertical wind mill in the world. You can pay to climb up in it.

Gaspe NP Lodge
Didn't stay here.

Gaspe NP
This was the only type of moose we saw today, but we saw a lot of them.

Sainte-Anne-des-Monts
This is the view from our motel tonight. Not many people here tonight.

Comments

[Tom Swan]

Simply Great
Hey Judy, I'm really enjoying viewing your blog each. Some of your photos are wonderful, and all of them are interesting. Thanks for including me in updates of your blog. Tom

[J J]

Thanks, Tom.
Photos in Canada aren't nearly as fun as other places. Mostly trees and water, but this is an area of the continent we've never been to before so it is interesting to us.

[Donna]

Windmill
Surely you didn't climb it!

[J J]

Windmill
No, we didn't climb it. It was expensive but don't think I would have if it had been free.

[Da Banks]

Gaspesie
We can't tell you how much we have been enjoying your blogs and photos. What a fabulous time you are having . Thanks so much for sharing your journey with us. Will be anxious to hear more. Save trip.

[J J]

Thanks, Da Banks.
Nice words, we miss our Prescott friends.