After a frantic search for Martin’s glasses, which turned out to simply be hiding in the sunglass case, we could leave our campground. We said goodbye to the surprised owners who had hoped we would stay a bit longer, and set out for nearby Perce Rock.

Upon arrival, we bravely walked to the rocky beach that would take us to the land bridge to the Perce Rock itself. The walk along the beach was somewhat dangerous as the cliffs above aren’t entirely stable and are known to slide occasionally. We marched along across pebbles, large rocks and slippery seaweed that had washed ashore. The tide was rising and the land bridge was already knee deep so we decided to take pictures from a safe distance instead of going across.

After seeing the rock from the bottom, we now had to see it from the top. We walked a safer trail up a hill and photographed from the top.

After two hours of hiking, we deserved an ice cream and luckily there was a small artisanal ice cream shop with delicious ice cream and sorbet. Ruth enjoyed Maple Pecan and Dark Chocolate and Martin had Maple Pecan with the most amazing Blueberry sorbet.

Exploring Perce downtown was fun with all its people, shops, cafes, restaurants, motels and traffic but we could not settle on a place to eat so we made our way back to the van, took a last look at the rock in the distance and left just before the rain began.

The drive took us through many small towns and great scenery and we made it to the municipal campground in Saint-Godefroi which is right next to the water and a small fishing harbour.

At breakfast we decided we had to go back to the beautiful beach one more time before leaving. Of course it took longer than expected because a young couple had to say hi to Pepsi. Pepsi was slightly irritated because she wanted to hunt for more seafood shells. The weather was magnificent and we vowed to go swimming in the ocean at some point, but not today.

We packed up and let our adventure begin. Where would we end up? How many kilometres would we drive? As it turned out, we made 88 kilometres because there was so much to see and do.

The next gorgeous sandy beach was not far down the road and we had to stop and devour a Haagen-Daz ice cream. Then we went to the beach and waded through the warm, sunlit, crystal clear ocean water. A school of tiny little fish provided a skin exfoliating spa treatment. Ruth swears they had tiny teeth. A crab was curious enough to crawl up to us to investigate us and then buried itself in the sand.

It was time to say goodbye to the beach and move on to the Gaspe Museum where we learned of the history of the area. A really neat exhibit had two “paintings” talking to each other (each was a computer monitor) and told the story of Jacques Cartier arriving in 1534.

A special exhibition featured Madame Bolduc, a Quebecois singer/songwriter from the Gaspe area. Most interesting was the exhibit itself with its multimedia components projecting information and video clips on the walls, floor and car.

After some grocery shopping we made it to our final destination for today. Ruth was driving around a corner and exclaimed “look at these amazing red rocks” and Martin said, “that is the campground we are looking for.” They had plenty of room for us to stay and the red rocks for us to photograph. A highlight was “Le Tete Indien”, a rock that clearly resembles the head of a person.

The legend of the origin of this head goes as follows:

It is on board a large sailing ship that a European crew came alongside St-Georges-de-Malbaie’s coasts. They dropped anchor in a little cove near Ile Plate.

Eager to find fresh water and wild berries, some of the crew members reached land. Once on dry land, they saw a young Indian princess playing with children. Obviously entranced by this young girl, the white men decided to capture her. They took her on their boat and headed back to their distant continent.

The young Indian girl’s sudden disappearance caused her lover very much grief.. Even today, the pain of the man afflicted by the loss of his loved one can still be perceived. This face inlaid into the cliff is that of a fiance endlessly waiting for his lover to return. With his back turned to the sea, the Indian is sadly waiting for the waters to bring is love back.

We had a wonderful sleep in the lighthouse parking lot. After a quick breakfast we headed to the information centre and met two very nice guides, one of whom gave us an extraordinary tour of the lighthouse, the museum with detailed information on the lighthouse keepers over the years, and the first maritime Marconi wireless station in Canada. We learned a great deal about the importance of lighthouses and the history of this particular one. It had been disassembled in 1975 after it was decommissioned and sent to Quebec City. In 1997, an effort by three women and the town was successful in returning and restoring it to its present (non-functioning) state.

The glass fresnel lens is huge, measuring 6×8 feet and was manufactured in France. The mechanism that turned the light originally had been a clock-like mechanism involving a weight that had to be wound every few hours. This was one of the jobs of the lighthouse keeper and his family. The first lighthouse keeper and his wife had 12 children, some of whom lived their entire lives at the lighthouse.

The Marconi wireless station was another highlight. Marconi was the first person to successfully transmit messages wirelessly and the first to do so over the Atlantic. Although none of the equipment exists anymore, there was a fabulous exhibition on the life and accomplishments of this high school dropout who ended up earning a Nobel prize for his work.

After enjoying the view of the St. Laurence River we left for the Forillon National Park where we got one of the last two campsites which will be our home for the night. The campsite is designed for tents and has a fairly steep slope so we had to use our levelling blocks under the front wheels so that we are mostly level.

We enjoyed a short walk to the gravel beach with Ruth testing the waters while thunder was rumbling in the background. Lots of photographs of the amazing rock formations were taken while Pepsi hunted for seafood shells.

We had a bit of a rushed breakfast after we found out that check-out time at the campground was 11AM and not 1PM as we had assumed. A quick water and gas filling along with groceries and we were off on the next leg of our journey around Gaspe. The weather was absolutely beautiful and the scenery spectacular. We drove up and down a few mountains but most of the time directly between the St. Laurence river and walls of rock. The St. Laurence is very wide at this point and looks almost like ocean. The rock face on the other side was fascinating with its folds and different layers of rock.

Every bay we drove through had a small town with cottages and camping available. Some of them seemed to be doing really well while others were not quite as busy.

We had hoped to stay at the Forillon National Park but were sidetracked roughly 50kms away from our destination by a historic site which turned out to the be the first marine wireless telegraph station in Canada, built in 1904. The visitor centre had closed at 5PM and we decided to make good use of their parking lot and stay for the night and will take the tour tomorrow.

What a surprise! Sunshine woke us up and we felt a cool refreshing breeze. A perfect day! We used the gazebo in the park to have our breakfast with a wonderful view of the St. Laurence river. It was sad to leave this beautiful place, but we needed to get to Baie-Comeau to explore the city and catch our ferry to Matane at 5PM.

The drive to Baie-Comeau took us by the Manic-1 hydroelectric station which is far smaller than Manic-5 further upstream which we visited 7 years ago. Baie-Comeau has a large pulp and paper mill and the sweet smell of wood in the downtown area could not be missed. Martin tried to get a tour of the plant, but unfortunately, this was not possible. The paper industry in Baie-Comeau dates back to the time of Robert McCormick, the owner of the Chicago Tribune who built the plant to supply paper for his newspaper.

The city had a historical presentation on the life of the pioneers of the area which caught our eye but the building was locked for lunch and didn’t reopen until 1PM. This inspired us to go out for lunch as well and we visited the Manoir du Cafe where we had some delicious waffles with fresh local strawberries, real whipped cream and maple syrup. Delightful!

The exhibition was fascinating because it opened a window to life in the small towns and villages of the North Shore in the early 1900s. Members of the communities who had been children at the time shared their memories of family life, festivities, church, work and hardship in short paragraphs, photos and recordings.

t was now time head to the ferry dock to catch our ride across the St. Laurence to the South Shore. A newly commissioned ship squeezed in as many vehicles as possible. We had to fold in our side mirrors and crawl out through the back door of our van as we only had about 4 inches on each side. The crossing was uneventful and the spaghetti dinner was pretty good.

We left the ferry without a scratch and drove a short distance to the Camping Riviere Matane campground. What a great find! Nicely wooded sites in a real park dedicated to Elspeth Russel, the only woman pilot who flew in the Air Transport Auxiliary during the second World War and for many years after that the only female commercial pilot in Quebec.

We woke up and the weather was truly miserable. The rain was coming down pretty hard, some of the campground roads had large puddles right across them and we were so glad not to be in a tent. By the time breakfast was finished it had started to clear and we were ready to get on our way.

We continued on Hwy 138 and saw a lookout point near Les Escoumins that was right by the St. Laurence river with several other vehicles already parked. The rock formations were stunning and we both set out with our cameras to photograph them.

Our goal for today was to reach Baie-Comeau because tomorrow we will be taking the ferry from there to Matane, QC on the south side of the St. Laurence. As we were driving we were thinking about where we would like to stay for the evening – would it be Walmart, a campground or something else? Right then and there we found the perfect solution – a lovely municipal park right on the water with a boat launch and free camping spaces. We didn’t launch our kayak, but the clouds along the shore were a sight to see and photograph.

The rain returned and many of the visitors to the park vanished leaving us all to ourselves briefly, but soon after two more campers arrived and set up next to us for the night.

Dinner was three course affair, complete with the rest of the wine from the night before.

After refuelling and buying groceries, we set off towards Tadoussac. The roads at times were pretty rough but the government seems to have a plan to jazz them up a bit by repainting the yellow and white lines so that they are nice and crisp. Highway 138 and 362 took us through some lovely towns and other areas that seem to be struggling a bit as evidenced by a number of buildings for sale or rent.

Hwy 138 climbs up to about 700 meters above the river, with lush forests and beautiful views of the St. Laurence. The area around Charlevoix is particularly interesting because of an asteroid strike there millions of years ago that left a crater 45kms in diameter. The information centre gave a lot of information of the history, accommodations and attractions in the area.

We stopped at the fromagerie St. Fidele for an ice cream and bought some wine and cheese. The same bottle of wine is significantly cheaper in Quebec compared to Ontario.

Just before Tadoussac, Hwy 138 requires a short ferry trip across the Saguenay River. Two ferries continuously service this segment of the route and we didn’t have to wait long to board this free ferry.

After getting off the ferry we chose option one of the nearby campgrounds and what a good choice it was. Gorgeous views, treed sites and nice people and beautiful dogs. We liked Daisy, the small Yorkie best. She was a great and willing model.

The stop signs in the campground aren’t your typical Quebec Arret signs. They have an Innu twist.

Dinner was three courses accompanied by our newly acquired red wine.

Our exciting intentions for today were to visit Trois-Rivieres and learn about the paper industry, but this was not to be.

The cabin air fan had stopped working and with it went the cool air that it blows around while driving. With the temperatures being what they are, this makes things a bit uncomfortable. Fortunately we were in a city with a Chevrolet dealer so all would be fine, or so we thought. The dealer in Trois-Rivieres that we stopped at said they were all booked up and there was nothing they could do for us until Monday at the earliest. We left and drove to a shopping centre parking lot and called Sean at Any Transmission back home who looks after the maintenance of our van and he walked us through some steps to try and diagnose the problem. He suggested replacing a resistor pack so we walked back to the dealership to get the part. They didn’t have it in stock, but referred us to the Nicolet dealer (11kms away) who had two of the parts in stock.

We took the bridge across the St. Laurence and arrived at this dealership only to find it virtually abandoned because it was lunchtime. We decided to have our own lunch while waiting and then Martin decided to try disconnecting and reconnecting the main battery. Hurray! The fan started working again and off we went, happy as clams. That success was not to last and soon afterwards the cool air vanished again.

We agreed to abandon Trois-Rivieres for now and drive to Quebec City where there were multiple dealers. We arrived at a large and impressive new looking dealership with many service bays and thought that for sure they would be able to help us. Alas, they only had two technicians on this Friday afternoon and couldn’t look at our van either. They did, however, refer us to Auto Diagno-Centre which is a small and highly competent diagnostic and repair shop. The technician proceed to measure voltages at various points in the fan circuit, removed the dash panels to get to the control and then needed to loosen the driver’s seat to get to a fuse box located there. The issue, it turned out, was a faulty relay, likely damaged by the vibrations of the many bumpy roads we’ve been on. An hour of labour ($89) and a $24 relay later, cool air was once again caressing our faces. Pepsi could also stop panting.

After all this adventure we were ready to settle somewhere for an early evening. We found a lovely municipal campground just outside of Quebec City and fired up the generator to warm some leftovers, but no electricity was available at the microwave. More manual consultation and a circuit breaker on the generator underneath the van was found to be the problem. Once it was reset, we once again had power.