In the Gaspe Peninsula

August 4, 2004

 

This morning we left Alouette near Montreal to begin our journey to the Gaspe Peninsula.  We said good-bye to our Canadian friends Real and Nicole Savard.  We hope to visit them in their Florida winter site in early January.  For the first time, we are beginning to see road signs that say Moose crossing.

 

August 5, 2004

 

We stayed the night in a lovely campsite in Montmagy called Camping Parc Sirois La Baleine.  It had about 105 sites with about 25 for long-term residents.  Their sites were beautifully landscaped with flowers, fencing, and waterfalls in a garden setting. 

 

On the day we departed, we had decided to leave several chocks behind for some other camper, as these chocks were too small for our big rig.  They were hardly used, and we hated to throw them out.  After we were traveling about 20 minutes, a van pulled in front of us signaling us to pull off the road.  We figured something was wrong with our rig, and they were trying to warn us.  Walter got out and immediately started checking the rig, but could not find anything obvious.  He started waking toward the van when the driver stepped outside, and I recognized him as our neighbor at the last campground.  He thought we left our chocks behind and was hoping to find us to return them to us.  He spoke only French and when he tried to give us the chocks back, Walter motioned to keep them; we do not need them.   After going back and forth over who should have the chocks, finally the neighbor kept them, and Walter and he shook hands.  The neighbor had a unit in which he could really use these chocks.  I can not imagine anyone trying to catch up with an RV to return something they left behind.  For one thing he did not know if we were going west to Montreal or east to Gaspe.  He guessed and guessed right.  It was a great moment when we were all smiling at each other and shaking hands, people from different cultures and different homelands, but really all one.

August 6, 2004

 

Today we left Matane for the final 5 hours drive to Perce and Camping Tete D Indien where our home for the next 25 days will be.  Across the street from our campground in Matane, we could walk the beach of the Sea of St. Lawrence.  It was so interesting.  It looks, smells, and acts like the ocean, and from this point, it is so wide that you cannot see the other shore which is 90 or so miles away.  The beach has black and white fine sand and the mixture makes it look dark charcoal.  There are very few shells, but many river rocks from about a few ounces to a few pounds in size.  The interesting thing is that they were many colors like mauve, green, gray, white, etc, but they were all smooth from the pounding of the surf.  When the surf pulled away from the shore, you hear a clack, clack, clacking sound of the rocks hitting against each other. 

 

Leaving Matane, we are really in the Gaspe Peninsula and this is one wild and beautiful place.  The road we are on follows the St. Lawrence shoreline on our left and on our right is the end of the Appalachian Mountains.  What you see are high, steep mountains coming down to the sea, the mountains meet the road.

and then there is a final cliff drop to the sea.  It is spectacular.  The road becomes very hilly with road grades as steep as 11% to 15%.  The effect is, you go up a steep hill and as you get to the top you see sky or just sea.  It looks like the road ends and you just drop off to the sea, but then you descend such steep grades that it gives your stomach a little jolt.  It is the same feeling as getting to the top of a roller coaster and then the sudden decent.

 

We passed many beautiful villages and small towns.  Looks like people farm and fish basically.  We also crossed over many salmon streams, and we saw ridge after ridge with windmills generating electricity from the wind.  Almost every town has a beautiful church in the old world tradition with outstanding steeples.  The landscape is large and sweeping.  Your eyes can almost not take it all in.

 

Mid afternoon we reach Tete D Indien.  This is a gorgeous place.  We have the greatest campsite.  We are on a cliff overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  Out our living room windows, we see the Gulf of St. Lawrence and out the dining room side we see a ridge of pine trees and out our kitchen side windows we see cascades of flowers.

September 7,2004

Tete D Indien  -  Today it is raining.  The sea is wild with white caps and high winds.  Temperature in the low 60s.  Before the rain began in earnest, we walk along the cliffs overlooking the sea.  It was so great.  The landscape is varied with cliffs with pine trees a top of them, and then abundant flowers right where the path drops down to the sea.  There are seagulls flying overhead and gannets which are sea birds much larger than seagulls with large wingspan.  They have an all white body with black edging along their wings, and they swoop down into the sea to catch their prey.

 

August 8, 2004

 

Tete D Indien - Today we went to Ferme Chimo (Goat Cheese Farm) a few miles from the campground.  It was a small farm with the homey kind of house, white with red trim and shutters.  It had a red metal roof.  Metal roofs are very common in Quebec.  They are in bright colors of red, green, blue, white, and sometimes black.  This farmhouse had the big front porch with roof over it that was somewhat in need of fresh paint.  The store was in a building next to the house.  A couple in their 50s owned the farm and ran the shop.  The women had graying hair and soft blue eyes.  She was so friendly as she explained the different cheeses to us and telling us they had 97 goats.  These people are so friendly asking where we were from and wishing us a very good stay in Gaspe.  The cheese was good.