We found the roads in Québec that we travelled on today to be terrible, and some may say that is the result of the roads after winter, and my comment is that had winters for hundreds of years it’s about time they sorted out some think that will withstand their climate
We found the Abbey, found it had been turned into a hotel or something similar, it made a very nice photograph and then we were on our way towards Montréal where we found a car Park for the night and are enjoying the rain on the roof of our motorhome.
Tuesday, June 14
During the night we had occasion to use the headlights and realised something was not quite right in this morning we found out that the dash lights and the tail lights were not working. We then had the decision to make how we would get these fixed and with my experiences in Québec to this moment I realised that I may have a problem communicating to an auto electrician, if I could find one, and if he had time to look at things today.
I decided to drive the 400 km back to Syracuse and return to Ted’s auto service to allow them to fix the problem, I telephoned them and they suggested it’s much more practical for me to have it fixed in Montréal but I told him I’d be there by tonight.
I programmed the GPS to travel on motorways and we headed south at 60 to 65 miles an hour crossing back into the USA after travelling through Ontario and observing the road signs in both English and French and realising just how French Québec is. We arrived back at Ted’s at about 3:30 p.m. and went into the office to proudly announce our arrival, it was decided that they would start on the RV at 8 a.m. in the morning, the comment was made well you are here, so we have to fix it. So was a good decision to drive south.
Wednesday, June 15
8 a.m. they drove the motorhome into the garage and by about 9 a.m. they had found the problem, one of the illuminated reflectors on the roof was shorting out so it was an easy decision to tell them to cut the wire and sealer up and we were ready to drive north again having had the repair done under perhaps warranty!
We decided we would go North up through the Adirondack Mountains on route 8 travelling through the village of Oregon, Poland, and Russia stopping for the night at Speculator in the small state Park of that village.
Thursday, June 16
Another beautiful fine day as we wind our way through the 6.1 million acre Adirondack Mountain Park with 10,000 beautiful Lakes, 30,000 rivers, 102 towns on a permanent population of 132,000. We pass through the villages of Severance, North Hudson, Westport, finally stopping at Chezy at a rest area on Highway 87.
Friday, June 17
We were early on the Road and early across the border into Canada, only one lane was open and just one car in front of us so was an easy border crossing, it is interesting you can take all the food into Canada that you want that bring it back into America and they will confiscate it I wonder what deadly diseases that are in Canada?
We are all very aware of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police and it looks like the province of Québec as well as having their own language have their own police force, that must create some interesting situations.
We carried on to a very large state Park called La Mauricie National Park where they have lot of walks, a lot of forest, a lot of small biting flying insects, Bears, Moose and anything else IF you can see them, however you have no trouble seeing the mosquitoes.
Saturday, June 18
We carried on round the National Park stopping at various walking tracks and seeing where they lead and what sort of photography was able to be achieved. When we felt we had finished we headed south back to the main Highway and found a parking spot along with several other motorhomes for the night. The one thing we are noticing as we drive through the province of Québec is that every vehicle we see has a Québec number plate, perhaps were just sensitive to this because of all the road signs in French but it will be interesting as we go on through Québec if this pattern firms up.
Sunday, June 19
Today we did the short drive to Québec city and after driving around the city for about 30 minutes we found a car Park where we could park our motorhome, we took up 2 spaces so therefore had to pay double the fee of a car, no problems with that, we wanted one hour which should have been $5 per car Park but the young attendant said we had to pay $12 per car Park and tried to explain to me why in French, so that it comes a time when you just have to smile shrug your shoulders, know you’re a tourist and carry on with your life, I did tell him in English that I felt I was being screwed, he of course did not know what that meant and reached for is iPhone to do a translation and as we left I checked with him to see if he knew what it meant, he didn’t and wanted me to repeat the word and I told the spelling so hopefully that’s one Frenchman that is it that has increased his English vocabulary.
To me, Québec city was just another city but fortunately for our collection of photographs Luda felt and had some charm so off she went walking round the old city and an hour and a half later came back absolutely enchanted by the old French lookalike city with all of its small French cafes, boutiques, delightful shops and everything to make a French person feel at home.
We then went on to Québec’s most celebrated waterfall which is higher than Niagara Falls and a major tourist attraction. From the entrance you walk across the falls suspension bridge where you can do photos looking down at the pouring mass of water and observe the daredevils using a flying fox across the valley from one side to the other than you walk down to the steps and lots of steps down to the bottom where you can photograph the falls and that therefore magnificence then crossover of footbridge to the gondola entrance with the gondola takes you back to the starting point whilst the water carries on its path towards the sea.
We then wanted to carry on North but the GPS took us on what was the shortest route but not where we want to go so we went off the motorway to regroup and we found a large car Park that was available for overnight parking and that’s where we are for the night.
Monday, June 20
Today we left the "Park and ride" just as it was filling up with cars being left there for the day and buses coming and going and we got on the road north towards Chicoutimi and crossed over the Saguenay River to the northern bank and followed that River down until it spilled into the St Lawrence, getting close to this point was very deep and very wide and was posted as one of the whale watching spots, with a reputation of baby Beluga whales being able to be seen, we did stop at a forest office of the Park that contained this stretch of the river, and they were not hopeful of us necessarily being able to see these baby whales, not like a New Zealand were if you don’t see the whales in Kaikoura you don’t pay.
It was a very long day with lots of photo opportunities and very few overnight camping spots so we went into what turned out to be a little bit of a primitive campsite compared to some that we have been in but it was good for the night.
Tuesday, June 21
Today we set off for the decision town of Baie-Comeau, the decision being whether to go North to Goose Bay over what proves to be 1800 km of possibly rough shingle roads. But we took the coward way out and carried on Highway 138 along the coast of the Gulf St Lawrence and travelling through most of the towns we could find no real reason for the people being there but then I guess that’s the same and most places around the world.
Once at today’s destination we went on to the information office and they gave us a map on Newfoundland and Labrador along with an interesting book and information on the Goose Bay Road, after a lot of soul-searching we worked out that the only reason I want to do this Road was the mere fact of having done it, is not as if the Road leads to some of the marvelous wonders of the world, but as far as I can gather would be experiencing timber trucks coming towards us at a high speed and put that equation onto a shingle Road we decide to say no thanks.
Wednesday, June 22
Having made the big decision not to go North by Goose Bay we now had to cross from Baie-Comeau to Matane, the GPS told us where the ferry left from but did not tell us times et cetera so we decided to have our breakfast at the wharf and by about 7:30 a.m. were at the top of the unreserved line. There was a red car beside us and the reserved line so that was good confirmation that something was going to happen sometime today, naturally the guy in the red car did not speak English but I’ve managed to understand that he said the boat would depart at 8 a.m., of course 8 a.m. came and went and about 10 o’clock other ferry goers started arriving for what turned out to be 11 a.m. departure.
Were not unused to ferries but this is the 1st time in all of our travel by ferries that 2 of the staff had a large tape measure and measured every vehicle, making a note on a card which they gave you so you could pay on board. Then there was the complex procedure of choosing who would board the ferry first and that took about 6 staff and find it was our turn to be last on the boat and then I had to line up on board to pay all the time thinking how simple our inter Island ferry system was and how few staff they had in New Zealand to run it.
It was a pleasant 2 ½ hour crossing it was pleasant to discover that we were not the last off the ferry so we set off East to go round the Gaspe Peninsula passing through many towns and villages that was scattered all along the coast travelling on the main Highway with the sea on our left-hand side almost all of the time. We stopped beside a rest area and parked our RV with the nose looking out towards sea and proceeded to wait for the beautiful sunset that we had in store for us.
Thursday, June 23
We carried on around the Gaspe Peninsula again with the sea on our left-hand side and usually 100 meter wall of rock on the other side and it was delightful to pass by waterfalls of varying sizes pouring down the rock face and on to sea and every time we rounded a bend to go into a Bay they would be a village with all of its amenities including a large church. After a while the Road went inland and we were faced by steep climbs up hills with the resulting steep descents down into the valleys with climbs up to 15%.
The Road took us through a state forest and we went 6 km off the Road to see a 1904 building that housed the 1st radio communication for shipping and there was also a delightful lighthouse on the same Peninsula and later going through the forest we found a signpost which pointed to a state camping ground in the forest so another 6 km drive took us to the entrance of the in a charming little girl told us the campground opened tomorrow, oh the joys of state run organisations. A little bit further on we came up to a car with this blinkers on in the middle of the Road which is always a sign that there is a
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wild animal of some sort to photograph and there were 2 Moose, or should I say mousses? They were young I’m sure that one of the thousand photographs that Luda took will be brilliant.
We carried on through the town of Gaspe and about an hour later fun a nice rest area right beside the sea where we camped for the night.
Friday, June 24
We woke up to a beautiful sunny day with a beautiful view out over the Atlantic Ocean with the thought that perhaps we should stay here for several months but then realised the powers to be would not be amused.
So we carried on the Road towards the New Brunswick border passing small houses located close to the ocean or with a nice ocean view, there were quite a few for sale and quite a few unoccupied by the height of the grass and a few abandoned by this state of the structure. Still no English anywhere either in the signs or in the speech, Canada is supposed to be bilingual but nobody told the people of Québec that.
We passed a tremendous amount of campgrounds on the way, beside the ocean, and they all seem to be full of caravans or 5th wheels packed in quite tight and it almost looked like these are the alternative to having a seaside cottage to get away to for the weekend, although it does puzzle me where all the people for this seaside accommodation come from as I have not noted any major population areas so one just must assume they come from afar.
As well as all the above “owned” accommodation this large numbers of what they call chalets dotted along the roadside and then there are the more formal motels or looking for guests.
I most surprised as I wander through North America the numbers of RVs on the side of the road for sale all the way from 50 foot motorhomes to small ones, large 5th wheelers and caravans down to what I would call New Zealand size 5th wheelers and caravans.
The Québec coastline that we have just travelled has got to be one of the most accessible coastlines we have ever seen with the main road running almost beside the sea all the way. A lot of the parking areas had no camping signs so when we got into New Richmond and found a Maxi shop with a large car Park that was empty that suited us for the night
Saturday, June 25
We headed on towards New Brunswick mostly alongside the River that was the boundary between the 2 provinces until we finally crossed the bridge and we were out of French-speaking Québec with French signs to multilingual New Brunswick with English and French signs with English freely being spoken in the shops. New Brunswick gets name from Brunswick in Germany so there must be a good strong settlement of Germans in this area around naming time, so I’d not be surprised to find a form of German being spoken in this area.
The 1st town we encountered was Campbellton with its magnificent bridge across the Bay and we carried on driving on route 134 which was labeled the Acadian coastal drive which was the main tourist route and all the time we are fighting with our GPS that wanted to send this on to route 11 which I think was several metres shorter.
As we are driving through Beresford we saw a signpost pointing towards the beach and then later a sign which indicated cars and caravans should Park and the large car Park, we assumed the invitation was for motorhomes as well/where we stayed with a view of the ocean in the background and a beautiful sunset.
Sunday, June 26
Today our destination was Miscou Island out on a long Peninsula stretching into the Gulf of St Lawrence, we are following the Acadian Trail and stopped off in the historic village of Arcadia near Bertrand, there on a very large piece of land they brought in period houses from all over the province from as early as 1831 and set them in a natural situation and went one stage further and having all of the houses occupied for the tourists and told the story of the house and its people around the time it was built, occasionally the people telling the story in their period costume were related to the original dwellers. A most interesting improvement on similar historic villages.
Again once we’re out of the cities the houses that were on each side of the road were small and perhaps some of them were summer time cottages, occasionally see a house that was totally abandoned for no apparent reason and as we got closer to our destination there was a wooden walkway over the swamp and there we found the description of the 6 tractors we saw pulling something through a large field and it turned out they were harvesting peat which evidently is a large export item for this province is certainly looked a lot easier than the harvesting of peat that we saw in both Scotland and Ireland.
At the end of the Road was an oldest wooden lighthouse that apparently was the largest in Canada and as it was getting late on the way back we stopped beside a breakwater and parked up for the night
Monday, June 27
We carried on back off the Peninsula sticking to the Acadian route passing through what I would describe as modern fishing villages as I’m sure we will see older fishing villages later in our travels.
Tuesday June 28
Today we drove on the picturesque countryside from Moncton to Westville crossing from the province of New Brunswick to Nova Scotia were immediately we saw the Scottish flag with a crest in the centre displayed proudly alongside the Canadian flag
Wednesday June 29
Today we carried on from Westville to Port Hawkesbury and the thing that we liked the most was that everybody spoke English as a 1st language.
Thursday June 30
It was a wet today so we decided to drive from our location at Port Hawkesbury to Sydney to see if we could get on the ferry to Newfoundland so we drove in wet weather on the motorway arriving at the terminal at 4 p.m. and whilst they say booking is essential we found we could go on the evening ferry at midnight or on the noon ferry the next day. We chose the noon ferry.
Friday July 1
We got to the ferry little bit earlier than the 2 hours required and booked a return passage for 15 July, and there was the 2 hour wait to get on the ferry, we had one excited passenger pull up behind us that thought we are from Arizona but we told were from the bit further south.
Going on the ferry was as simple as our interisland ferry except that the ship was much larger and of course it was a 6 ½ hour crossing, there was plenty of good seating, no Wi-Fi, and I guess we’ll have time to explore the other amenities on the return voyage.
We got in slightly ahead of time and we were one of the 1st off the boat and drove along 407 to a parking spot with a beautiful view over a village and the bay on the Peninsula, it was a the parking area for one of the many walks on the island so we had a beautiful view of the sunset and Luda had a beautiful walk on the designated route.
Saturday, July 2
We carried on around the bottom of the island past the Burnt Islands towards Rose Blanche and its landmark lighthouse. We stopped at the Barachois Falls hiking trail and walked the new 1 km Boardwalk to capture at magnificent photograph, was then on to the lighthouse was built in 1873 and restored in 1999, is one of the last granite lighthouses on the Atlantic seaboard, consisted of a three-bedroom house with the light room sort of added on as a 3rd story.
Then it was time to start heading back to drive north we stopped off at the Harvey Trail, the guy by the name of Harvey performed to daring rescues and then we carried on Highway 12 a reached Highway 407 and did an exit to drive around the Conroy Valley provincial Park passing St Andrews and also saw a signpost for a McLellan Inn which we will try to visit on our return.
Once you get off the main motorway the roads are quite rough but the scenery is magnificent and the little fishing cottages a very picturesque, nice in a picture but probably not very nice to live in by today’s standards.
The island Newfoundland I think is one large mass of rock and we passed by a range of mountains referred to on the roadside as Table Mountain and everywhere there are small Lakes with the water supplied I would assume by snow fall and rainfall and the fall of gravity from one lake to another.
Off Road vehicles appear to be very popular and being a weekend they are out in force.
Sunday, July 3
During the night we were aware of heavy rain so as no surprise when we woke to an overcast wet day so we drove to Stephenville with very low expectations for good photos, it is a reasonable size town that had, I presume during the Second World War, a very large airfield which I assume played a part in getting American aircraft to Europe to participate in the conflict. It appears it is still being used but most of its concrete runways are just now used for parking on the main road now runs basically through its centre.
The whole business district to me had a slightly rundown appearance and the shopping centre attached to Walmart is doing its best to look interesting but is failing miserably.
As the weather cleared and we had sunshine we decided to take root 460 out to Cape St. George but in hindsight we should have taken root 463 and come back on 460. The rugged cliffs and the bays that we experienced on the way to the Cape were most scenic and the walking trail called Gravels Rest Stop was a very relaxing 3 ½ km walk along the Port au Port Bay with a wonderful view of the largest wooden structure in Newfoundland, our Lady of Mercy Heritage Church.
Monday July 4
Today we drove north to Corner Brook and did some grocery shopping and what I must admit was one of the best supplied grocery shops I recall being in, they had such a variety of items from everywhere, not what you’d expect on a remote island like Newfoundland. One of the items we had not seen before but have heard plenty about them, was Frogs Legs with 6 pairs of frogs legs for $5.64.
We carried on with the picturesque drive out to York harbour, one of the spots on the globe that Captain Cook visited on one of his many journeys, it was overcast and trying to rain most of the day and cold enough to make us think we are back home in the winter.
On the way out to the harbour there was an immense piece of rock high enough to call a mountain and there were 2 rather beautiful waterfalls pouring down from the top and once were out at the harbour we found a provincial Park called Blow Me down Provincial Park, the situated on a Peninsula between Lark Harbour and York harbour and offers magnificent views of the blow me down mountains and the Bay of Islands. There we found the Governors Staircase a 450 staircase through the 450 million year old for a volcanic rock to a town overlooking the Bay of Islands, Lark harbour and York harbour. Magnificent panoramic views in all directions.
Newfoundland is 30 minutes ahead in time from the Canadian East Coast and the scenery as you wander around the edge of the island is absolutely magnificent. Most of the houses are rather small which makes us think they are holiday homes and then we see a very large high school which means there is a |
