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Published: November 7th 2011
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We were stunned at the absolute beauty of Quebec when we woke up the first day in the hills behind Gatineau, paid our over-priced camping fee and followed our first scenic drive along the Ottawa River from Hull towards Montreal. We were also stunned by the chill in the air, but told ourselves to suck it up and enjoy the sunshine! My uncle Phil had loaned us a ‘Scenic Drives in Canada’ book, which gives a little bit of history along the way. Armed with this, we followed the Ottawa River and farmland from Thurso all along highway 148, then 344 to Oka.
The agriculture in this area was absolutely beautiful! Totally reminiscent of France! We arrived in teh village of Oka (the point where the Ottawa River meets the St Laurence) and tried out our (very) rusty French language skills on the lady in the tourist office. She replied in English, I guess it’s easier on the ear than our poor language skills. We headed off in search of the famous OKA cheese, originally made in a monastery just outside the village; upon reaching the cheese, we discovered the cheese is now made in a factory just out of
town. A slight let down, we continued following our stomachs with apple cider in mind. It was apple season afterall.
We ended up at a cidery just outside of Saint-Joseph-du-Lac, sipping freshly pressed apple cider, then the alcoholic type! Up the road I begged Brad to stop so we could pick some apples from Verger Du Boise U-pick, how romantic right? We did our bad-French-broken-English then full translation with the owner via a friend and negotiated a half bag price and the best trees to pick from. MMMmmmmm so delicious! We grabbed an almost full bag of Honey-Crisp, definitely my new favourite. As we were getting in the car to leave, Brad changed his mind and popped back to ask the owner if we could possibly camp in their picnic area overnight (by this stage, they had asked about our travels).
Success - a free camp night in an apple orchard! We headed up to a treed knoll to cook our supper, sipping on cider looking over the orchard. Just as dinner was coming along, the owner popped up to ask us if we wanted some work picking apples for a couple of weeks (he had miraculously made
the transition from non-English speaker to English speaker... a miraculous talent held and used by 50% of Quebecois!). We told him we would think about it. Well it was either the romance of the full moon rising over the orchard, the lights of Montreal in the distance, the apple crisp treat the owners daughter brought up for us for dessert... or the dwindling funds in our bank account; we voted yes for the apple picking and started the next day.
Romantic. Yes. Tasty apples to snack on as you work. Yes. Hard work. YES! By the end of the first day we’d picked 6 bins worth of apples between the two of us ($180 cash in hand). That night the skies opened up, a huge storm! Generously the owner of the orchard let us camp out in the little apartment above his barn, hot showers, equipped kitchen. No complaints there, well except for the aching arms, legs and backs! Complete with an espresso from the machine before work the next day. The next day at work, we honed in on the bad-French-bad-English sign language and struck up a conversation in the lunch room with the other workers. Turns out
our 6 bins created quite stir... it was more than anyone else (the pros) had picked!
By the end of the day, with our eyes set back on hitting the road towards the east coast, we decided we’d had enough. We collected our pay, had a long chat with the owner, thanked him many many times over and headed on our merry way.
That night we camped in a carpark overlooking the St Laurence River in Saint-Eustache, just outside of Montreal. Buggered from the hard work, we passed out straight away, despite of the traffic on the main road! We were awoken at 2am by a knock on the door. Opening the van door grudgingly, a friendly young policeman asked us if we were from Bristish Columbia (BC plates on the car). Half asleep we managed to get out something along the lines of ‘Australia, British Columbia, Yes’. He asked where we were going. Our confused reply was ‘Nova Scotia, Montreal, New Brunswick’. He then asked if we were staying in the carpark overnight. ‘Uhhh... is that ok? We’re uhh, heading to.... uhhh...ummm New Brunswick and were tired?’. He said ‘I just wanted to know if you’d be here
all night. Good night!’.
Confused but relieved we fell back asleep in our comfy van, wondering what tomorrow would bring.
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