Gaspe

Yet another bright and sunny day greeted us. Not that we hadn't slept well earlier, but we found that we had both slept better this night, and concluded that the sound of the lapping waves from the St. Lawrence had induced this effect. It was certainly better than the traffic noise we had learned to ignore, while in Quebec City. Our wi-fi connection was a bit iffy, so after breakfast, we drove down into the town, and picked up a better signal from a local home, where we were able to get our emails and update our digital information. Then it was on to new adventures, as we were now at the far reaches of the St. Lawrence River itself, and setting into the Gaspe Peninsula, which opens out onto the Gulf of St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the river. Although it was quite sunny and clear on the land, a fog bank lay off on the water, in a similar fashion to the type of weather which had contributed to the Empress of Ireland's demise almost 100 years ago. The fog actually started to penetrate into the land, with wispy tendrils of mist drifting across the highway as we approache Matane. Here we stopped to pick up groceries, and a tarp.....the weather forecast is for rain and thundershowers over the next few days, and the tarp may come in handy. Then we treated ourselves to a Tim Horton's coffee and muffin, and continued along the highway, with the fog starting to lift, or at least to drift back out to seaward. Apparently there are many different kinds of whales (8?) whih migrate or live along this shore, so we were constantly watching for a blow - but none were sighted. We stopped for a short visit, at Cap Chat (named for the shape of the Cape which looks like a crouching cat), to view the largest windmill in the world. It is a vertical type of windmill, and produces some 4 MegaWatts of power. It is surrounded by hundreds of other, more traditional (3-bladed) power generating windmills.



Typical Gaspe Shoreline Scenery








As we continued eastbound, the nature of the scenery changed to one reminiscent of the north shore of Lake Superior - winding, hilly (almost mountainous) terrain, with the water on one side and spruce, pine and birch trees on the other. The main difference was the close proximity of villages and towns along the highway, all spaced about 15 km apart. Some, or many of them, are fishing villages, and most are becoming more tourist-driven. We did enjoy the scenery, however, and by late afternoon found ourselves at the far east end of the Peninsula, and at the very end of the St. Lawrence River.








The biggest windmill (Gasp!) in the world










We passed the Coast Guard MCTS station at Riviere-au-Renard, and I was tempted to drop in for a visit, being a retired MCTS person.....but I AM retired, and the day was wearing on.....so we continued a few kilometres further, to the tallest lighthouse in Canada, a full meter higher than the one we'd visited yesterday at Pointe-au-Pere. Here, the fog had again drifted in, and the light was operating. I was a bit mystified, however, that the foghorn was not on, even though it was evident on the property, and visibility was less than 1/4 mile, and obviously more like zero just offshore. The Parks Canada people operating the information booth were unable to understand my question in broken french, and in english, and my hooting like a foghorn only mystified them more.....so perhaps I'll never know - or perhaps the foghorn has been decommissioned. Only a few more kilometres more took us through the National Park de Forillon, where we found a campsite at Petit-Gaspe nestled under some pine trees in case the forecast is correct. We hiked down to the beach, and along a trail, then back to camp in time for a BBQ'd steak dinner. From the beach we could look across the Bay (Gaspe Bay) to the town of Gaspe, which we will visit tomorrow.
The forecast turned out to be wrong, thankfully, and we had a quiet, rainless night, waking up to another lovely sunny day. We left our camp at Petit-Gaspe, and drove along the bay into the town of Gaspe. This was where Jacques Cartier first landed in N. America, and founded a settlement here, in 1534. We've been told that the French spoken here sounds "funny" to the other Quebecois, because it was mainly populated by the Basque French in the early days, and still speak with a different accent. As we proceeded past Gaspe, the fog started to drift in again, from the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and we were soon driving in very limited visibility. By the time we reached Perce Rock, the fog was lying just along the coastline, but not on the roadway. The town of Perce is very touristy, with a lot of hype about the rock with a hole through it. Unfortunately, we could not see the rock (we did catch a quick peek-a-boo glimpse of the top of the rock momentarily) due to the fog, and after about an hour of walking about town, we decided to continue. I was a bit mystified by the boatloads of tourists heading out into the pea-soup fog to go whalewatching, though, and wondered if they would be able to find any sealife at all in that soup.





These people are even more optimistic than I.....they are disappearing into a pea-soup fog to
look for whales.







The fog started to lift a bit as we continued, but the rainshowers were now becoming evident. The water on our south side was the Bay of Chaleur, with New Brunswick on the other side. We drove to the end of the Gaspe Peninsula in on and off rainshowers, and crossed over into Campbellton, New Brunswick, and Atlantic TimeZone. That made our early afternoon an hour later, so we drove a few kilometers east along the scenic shore road, stopping at a camping area at Eel River, Charlo. Gas has dropped in price from 109.4 on the Quebec side to 101.4 / liter on the New Brunswick side. It's hard to believe I now consider gas at $1.00 a liter as reasonable! We set up camp with our new tarp laid out over our tent, because the radio stations all warn of more rainshowers, with a thunderstorm warning included, for the next few days. The wifi was coming in very strong, but unfortunately the camp was having a problem with it, and no-one could connect. Following our dinner, we could hear the sounds of a group singing Beatles songs, old Rock and Roll, and some C&W tunes. Apparently it was Dance Night in the campgrounds. We wandered over toward the music, and found a roaring bonfire with many of the campers standing and sitting (on provided picnic tables) in front of a stage set up for this duo. They were very talented, and we enjoyed the tunes. Linda didn't much feel like dancing, even though it would have been our first dancing date in a very long time....I could really picture our friend Janet rocking to this atmosphere! The bugs started dancing around us, though, so eventually we buzzed back to our tent for the evening, lulled to sleep by the tunes still playing.