Another glorious morning for a walk along the Esplanade.
We traveled about 100 miles east along the Restigouche River all the way to the Chaleur Bay. Grande-Anse is the gateway to the Acadian Coast. This area is rich with Acadian history. In the 1600’s, peasants were recruited from the west central part of France to colonize Canada. The people settled in the Canadian Maritime provinces. In 1745, the British threatened to expel the Acadians unless they swore allegiance to England. The Acadians fought to keep their land and their ancestors live here in this region today. These people are related to the Cajun people in Louisiana. This culture has a distinct dialect and Acadians are very proud of their heritage. August 15th is National Acadian Day. Houses are decorated with red, white, and blue flags with yellow stars. Some houses have lots and lots of decorations!!
Our campsite is right on the bay.
We rode our bikes into the small town this afternoon; past the church and to the harbor.
Lots of local art!
The visitor center had maps and other information about activities along the coast.
This evening we went back to the harbor and tried the local flavors. We ate lobster rolls at the Cantine dus Quai. Several local people were playing guitars and singing by the restaurant. Everyone was happy and having fun.
This little boy found a mud puddle.
We drove aimlessly for awhile after dinner. We found a nice park and got out to walk.
What a lovely walk along the Esplanade this morning!
The skies were grey and the forecast was for rain all day. We did some errands and chores…waiting for the rain. We went to the first Walmart we have seen in a couple of weeks and stocked up on all the important stuff.
Tim did some cycling this afternoon while I cleaned.
At dinnertime, it still had not rained. We decided to take our meal and find a spot by the water to eat. With the first bite of food came the thunder. We could see lightning over the Appalachian Mountains. We ate quickly and packed up. Just as we arrived back at the RV, big splats began to fall!
The skies cleared and this was as much sunshine as we saw all day!
A short and easy walk around the campground to begin the day and then we traveled along the coast. As we finish our tour of the Gaspesie, we marvel at all we have seen and learned.
The history of the area…the Vikings were here!
The culture and the art of the people
Communicating in a language very foreign to us…we now know all kinds of bits and pieces of French
The beauty and diversity of the coast, the forest, the mountains, the rivers, the waterfalls, the meadows
The museums and the lighthouses
Fishing villages and provincial towns tucked into coves
The kindness and graciousness of people who always say Bonjour and always stop to chat and ask where you are from
The moose and the seals and the eagles and the gannets
New foods and local flavors…so much seafood!
Gorgeous blue skies and pleasant temperatures
As we cross the bridge over the Chaleur Bay, we don’t yet know which way to go…east or west or south…so many choices and opportunities to visit places that we have never been before. So very fortunate and grateful for the freedom to choose.
We are staying at the loveliest campground of our trip. We settled and then took our bikes on the Esplanade from the park into the town of Campbellton.
Very cool educational and historical exhibits in the community building at the campground.
This evening we returned to town and went to the Night Market. There were all kinds of vendors. There was one stand cooking chicken and burgers. They were asking for donations to feed the hungry.
Balloon rides…2 feet off the ground and back down again!
We went then to the restaurant at the campground, Krave Kitchen. We had burgers and salads that were surprisingly delicious!
The morning was overcast, cold, and rainy. It cleared enough that I took a short walk. I walked the path from the RV to the lighthouse.
I walked to the overlook and took one last picture of the rock.
I knew there was a 100% chance of rain and so I did a couple of loops around the campground and then quit. After walking more than 25,000 steps yesterday…my legs were tired!
We drove today to Hopetown. This is the Chaleur Bay Region. Although we passed a few fishing villages and lots of farms, it was my observation that this part of the coast was newer and had more modern stores and homes.
We had a quiet day. We did go into town, searching for a few things we have been unable to find.
We stopped at a seafood market. Most of the lobsters in the tank were normal sized but these two were ginormous. The one had a claw the size of Tim’s hand.
This evening, we walked down to the water.
Tomorrow we will complete our journey around the Gaspe Peninsula.
I began the day with an easy walk through the town.
While I was out, I purchased tickets for the ferry. When we hiked the other day to Land’s End, we met a gentleman from Nova Scotia. He had just been through Perce and he told us that we had to take the ferry ride to the island to see the birds.
We got to the wharf and stood in line with hundreds of others also waiting to board. We departed and the boat took us around Perce Rock. It really is impressive to see it close-up!
Three Sisters.
The captain then steered us around Bonaventure Island. This bird sanctuary is the summer nesting place for northern gannets. These are the diving birds I have been watching. There are an estimated 150,000 gannets here right now. They arrived in April, returning to the exact place where they nested last year. Each pair hatches one egg. The chicks are white fluffy things! Each bird eats 1 pound of fish each day. The chicks get so fat that they cannot fly and do not take to the skies until September.
We saw the birds soaring overhead, catching wind currents and sitting on the ledges and depressions in the cliffs. They looked like frosting drizzled on a cake.
We could see seals bobbing in the water.
Once we arrived on the island, we hiked across on the Colonies Trail. Each morning, when Tim and I walk out into the world, we have no idea what we will see.
I was totally unprepared for what greeted us. First there was the smell…it smelled like birds that eat fish. Then, there was the noise; a loud, raucous chorus of squawking. Then, there were the birds…thousands of birds. There were many coming in to land, flying low and carrying what looked like bunches of seaweed. They whizzed overhead. They have a wingspan of 3-4 feet and they are incredible to see.
This reminded me of college kids on spring break…the chaos, the multitude of them, on the beach!
I could have stood there all day…it was amazing and an experience I will never forget.
We decided to take the longer hike back to the ferry. This trail skirted the edge of the island giving us lots of opportunity to see other bunches of gannets and more seals and the beautiful coastline.
A guy hiking in front of us spotted this fox in the weeds.
There was a bunch of feathers on the path not far from that fox…
The last part of the hike was past houses…years ago, people lived on this island and subsisted on cod fishing and had small farms and grew vegetables here. In 1971 when this became a national park, the Canadian government evicted the 35 families living here.
We stopped for a snack…I had packed boiled eggs…which might have been in poor taste!
We had hiked about 5 miles and we were happy to arrive at the snack bar where we snagged a powerade and a date bar.
We met another couple as we were hiking and then met them again while we waited for the boat. They were from Montreal. They wanted to know if we were lucky enough to get reservations at La Maison Du Pecheur and we had. Apparently, it is a world class restaurant and they had really wanted to go. There are no more reservations available until late August and so they were going to miss going. Tim and I had talked about canceling our reservation but instead, we gave it to Sean and Kim…we hope that they are enjoying a spectacular dinner! We were tired and we went to a pub and ordered drinks. They brought us our order and told us that they were closed until 5 when they would reopen for dinner…darn! We went instead to the food truck and Tim got fish tacos and I got a quesadilla; both delicious and enough.
We got back to the RV at around 5 and I put some laundry into our washer. The washer broke and so we had sopping clothes and wet carpet and wet basement compartments. I am at the laundromat now waiting for clean clothes…it’s all part of the adventure!!!
We packed the Jeep for an overnight camping trip in the national park. We had planned first to hike the Sentier Les Graves. This 6.4km hike was a gradual uphill climb to the lighthouse.
If you wanted to see Land’s End, it was another 375 meters. There was no way that we were going to hike that far and not finish! The trail took us to the overlook…totally worth the effort to get there!
For many days, we have enjoyed watching these northern Gannets. They soar above the sea and plunge into the water from heights up to 100 feet. They hit the surface at 60mph. Other birds would be killed on impact but these birds have evolved and adapted and their skulls are specially reinforced to withstand the pressure. They are very quick and it is hard to get good pictures!
We hiked back to the Jeep.
We stopped at this beach area. We could see seals in the shallow water.
We headed to the campground and had a late lunch. We were both so tired, we took naps! We passed the rest of the pleasant evening with a fire and music and dinner.
The stars were stunning.
This morning, I walked about 3 miles in the park. We packed our gear and headed back to Gaspe. We stopped at this overlook for breakfast. We watched kayakkers and seals.
The water was so clear that we could watch this guy dive down and hunt among the vegetation on the sea bottom.
We stopped again at Penouille. This is a long finger of land that juts into the Gaspe Bay. We walked almost 3 miles on the easy boardwalk and paved trail all the way to the beach.
We had the bay on one side…
…and the salt marsh on the other.
We took our dinner to a park near the water. After eating, we drove on roads we hadn’t been on yet, looking at the views of the bay.
I drove to a scenic overlook by the bay and began my morning walk, taking the same path we had cycled on yesterday. I felt strong and got in my groove and easily walked more than 3 miles.
We packed our lunch and drove to the information center in Riviere-de-Renard to get maps for the national park. The girl there was well informed and spoke excellent English. She told us where we should stop and she recommended some hiking trails. From there, we went to see the tallest lighthouse in Canada. We walked a short distance on the pebble strewn beach.
We proceeded to Parc National Forillon. In the US, national parks are for the preservation of very special places. We were excited to go and see the best of Canada. We were not disappointed. We entered at the Nord Gate. The view was spectacular.
We hiked a very steep trail, only .6km, but that was enough. We elected not to continue to the observation tower which was another 1.6km straight up!
We drove to the waterfall trail and hiked down lots of steps. It was a pretty little fall with water splashing over the moss covered rocks.
The red chairs sit in Canadian National Parks in places with particularly pretty views. I had to sit in this one!
We drove through dense forest to the south entrance. We parked at the end of pavement and sat watching the water, looking for seals and whales.
These little beetles or green immigrant leaf weevils are everywhere!
It was really a lovely day. We are looking forward to going back to the park tomorrow. We have a campsite reserved for the Jeep and the roof top tent. We also have a hike planned to the end of the point at land’s end “where the Appalachian Mountains plunge into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence.”
We went into town this eveing and had a simple dinner at Cafe des Artistes.
The Canadian people have found eyecatching ways to remind you to slow down and watch for children.
Grande-Vallee is the beginning of the region known as La Pointe or Land’s End; the translation of the name given to this land by First Nation People; Gespeg. We were traveling around the end of the peninsula. There are crashing waves here as we approach open water. We stopped at a scenic viewpoint for breakfast.
We arrived at Fort Ramsay Campground in Gaspe around noon. We will stay here for 4 nights. Today, we went with the Jeep to explore the town. We took the bikes and rode on the bike path on the Bay of Gaspe.
We stopped to see a naval exhibit. During WWII, German submarines patrolled the Saint Lawrence and attacked and sunk many ships. The Canadian goverment decided that if the Germans tried to overtake Gaspe, the land and village would be sacrificed. They had decided to burn the town, detroy the wharfs, and blow up anything that might be useful so that if the Germans came. there would be nothing here for them.
This is a giant game of Battleship on the boardwalk.
Always interesting sculpture…lots of testosterone here.
At the end of the path there is a set of steps that leads to the Musee de la Gespesie. We decided to go into the museum. Here we learned a lot about the history and culture of Gaspe.
The Chic Choc mountains are the beginning of the Appalachian Mountains; one of the oldest mountain chains in the world. These mountains were formed 450 million years ago. In 9,000 BC this area was first inhabited by the native people. Eventually the Eastern Algonquin Indians merged with the Plano People and the Mi’gmaq culture was formed. These people of the sea subsisted on walrus, whales, porpoises, and seals.
Early history of this region involves Vikings, pirates, shipwrecks, whaling, fishing, and industry.
In 1534, Jacques Cartier, sailing for the King of France, erected a 30 foot cross in the mouth of the bay and named this Canada.
There was another exhibit dedicated to the artwork of Yves Gonthier, a local artist. These are two of my favorite pieces. The first is his interpretation of raspberry bushes.
The second is a sort of seascape…where the waves meet the shore, the colorful rocks visible through the clear water.
Other interesting art.
We were glad we took the time to visit the museum and we learned a lot.
This evening, we drove back into town and had dinner at Bistro-Bar La Brise-Bise. Tim got a salmon poke bowl and I had a lobster club sandwich…delicious!
We heard the couple next to us speaking English and we asked where they were from. Bonnie and Wendell live in New Brunswick and are in Gaspe for the first time on vacation. We really enjoyed talking with them about travel and life!
When we got back to the RV, a neighbor here in the campground approached Tim and spoke with him about traveling. People are amazed and in awe of the way we live and the things we get to do…we really do know how fortunate we are and we are grateful every day!
I took a walk from the campground all the way through town to the fish market.
Each of these villages has a huge church in the center.
Wild beach roses
When I returned from my walk, Tim was ready to move.
We stopped on our way to admire the view and to have breakfast.
Black guillemot. This bird has bright a red mouth, feet, and legs in the summertime.
We needed to have a clean windshield before we could preceed!
Grande-Valle from the scenic overlook above town.
Red elderberry.
We had light rain showers on and off today. We did wander through the grocery stores. It seems to be our entertainment, looking for new things to try.
We walked on the rocks near the fishing pier.
Tim took a bike ride this afternoon and I met him with the Jeep down by the river. He took this picture from the church.
The covered bridge.
We had seen signs in town for a live show in the next town. We got excited and went to see the venue. We got the brochure. Before buying our tickets online, I googled the band, Ayrad from Montreal. Their sound is a contemporary version of Moroccan music. We listened to bits of songs and we decided that we didn’t care for the music.
Instead, we packed spiced smoked salmon and smoked crab dip and fresh bread and caprese salad and strawberries and had our dinner by the river.
