I realized in Quebec City, I packed waaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyy toooooooooooo much for this trip seeing as how I have to truck it around with me while I transfer from place to place. It’s hard to plan ahead because of the unpredictable weather; I need a warm jacket, and all manners of clothing and footwear. I thoroughly recommend, if you’ve got the cash to take the plane however if you are interested in the sights then get a car and drive. It’s really beautiful and you can stop in Tadoussac for a little whale watching and camping.
About an hour after Quebec on the north side of the St Lawrence River, it’s gorgeous. One of those parts of the province that looks as if you won’t see a human for miles. It made me think about urbanization and urban sprawl and what this place might look like in 100 years. In the spring this landscape is a million shades and tints of green. The trees really stand out against the grey sky, there’s fog rolling off the mountain tops and the only sign of human life were the power lines and a seriously lonely motel. At this point I really had to pee but a man just spent the better part of fifteen minutes in the toilet closet so I question the air quality in there.
We stopped for lunch in Saint Simeon. I tried to find a depanneur that was not far from the restaurant the last time I took the bus through about 9 years ago but it wasn’t there anymore so I went to the restaurant and had a delightful grill cheese. I guess it was silly to think that it would still be there; like nothing ever changes in these small towns. I felt like it was a prelude to what would await me on the LNS.
St Simeon
In Tadoussac you catch the ferry across the river. They have two ferry boats that cross in opposite directions. A few years back they proposed to build a bridge to connect the two sides but due to the high density of whales in the area the project was shot down. The plan was deemed too ecologically risky as it would disturb the whale population. Tadoussac is known for whale watching tourism so they developed a new way to see the whales that is the least disruptive to the majestic mammals. They initiated a stringent set of regulations concerning the amount of time a boat is permitted in a whale zone, the permissible proximity to a whale pod and the maximum amount of boats allowed in the same area. The reason for this is because the boats sonar and radar equipment creates underwater disturbances that have a very detrimental affect on the whale’s behavior. For more information please visit:http://www.quebecbleu.com/en/baleines_baleines.asp
From the Ferry in Tadoussac
When I was younger; I don’t remember exactly how old but somewhere in the vicinity of 12 I drove from Sherbrooke to Rimouski with a family from Harrington. They had docked their longliner (fishing boat) there. We took their boat from Rimouski to Harrington. The entire trip should have taken a couple of days but unfortunately the weather was terrible. If I remember correctly we got stuck in Riviere du Loup which is a beautiful town; after a very rainy and fog filled day the sun came out their daughter and I went to dig in the sand for treasures. We bought some fresh shrimp and had a meal aboard the boat. We also got stuck on Anticosti Island (the Nordik docks there for a couple hours in Port Menier). After Anticosti Island the weather was in our favor and we sailed through smoothly. On the last night we stopped in a harbor, tied up beside a lobster boat and bought some VERY fresh lobster for the evening’s meal.
So, to continue the story of Day 1, I get to a hostel in Sept Iles, it seemed okay, I wasn’t too picky at the time and I will tell you why. I get off the bus and find out I don’t have a cell signal. I can’t get a hold of my friend so I ask the women at the bus station where I can find a cheap hotel. She replies in that annoyingly whiny/condescending voice “Mais les hotels sont cher ici madame.” I tell her I simply need a bed for the night, is there a hostel/YMCA around? She says in the same voice “Oui, Auberge Le Tangon.” I ask her where and she begrudgingly circles it on a map and then tells me she’s closing the station, its like 8:15, she was so unbelievably rude and bitchy I was afraid to ask for a cab number, she unwillingly gave me the number for the hostel and lets me call for a room. I think I may have encountered the pinnacle of the Quebec inhospitality. Anyway, I leave the bus station with about 80 pounds of luggage; seriously I had back spasms afterwards. I’m thinking, optimistically; I have a couple of options: I can call Dad and get him to call a friend to pick me up and crash at their place; or I can phone a cab and go to the hostel. Simple options if you ask me, well that’s if you’re cell phone works or you can find a pay phone anywhere. So I am in this predicament because stupidly I didn’t plan ahead. I was planning on going to a café or something until it closed and then going to the wharf to wait for the boat but damn it was cold there and really wasn’t the greatest or safest plan to begin with. There are so many crime drama episodes about grungy sexually predatory dock workers or unsavory types who hang around, damn sailors, it made me all paranoid. Anyway I start walking thinking I am bound to find a phone or a taxi to hail. An hour later; no luck, I finally arrive at the hostel trembling from the weight of my luggage and sweating from the effort. I’ve decided this was an important enough incident to lodge a complaint with the Tourism Bureau of Sept Iles. They can’t have people like that being the first point of contact for tourists, especially since their tourism booklet’s boast great hospitality.
The rest of my bus ride was pretty uneventful; the scenery was gorgeous as for told. The only glitch was that the bathroom door got locked somehow with no one inside, unless of course someone passed out/died in there. This should not be the end of my blog post, this should not be the end of my blog post, this should not be the end of my blog post ;iyhaug;idufbvchbfdagl;uireahbgkjrebvakinfdngvdsjfhgjlhlojhlkshlkdhglkjhakjdkjf!!!!
AHHA
(www.bonjourquebec.com)
Okay so the whole trip I took is called “La Route Bleue" from Montreal to Blanc Sablon but from Tadoussac to Blanc Sablon they call it La Route des Baleines; It is 903 km’s and 14 hours from Montreal to Sept Iles. I’d like to take a minute to give you some information about the interesting places I passed through on the bus. I already told you about Tadoussac’s whale watching attractions, which is about all I know about that place. So I’ll move 199 km’s up river to Baie Comeau, which is 674km’s from Montreal. Baie Comeau began as an industry town for the pulp and paper company Abitibi Consolidated. The town was set up over night, and families moved in for the jobs. It is mostly French and has a population of 22,000. Despite being an industry town, it is beautiful.
728 km’s from Montreal we find the town of Godbout which is named after Joseph Adelarde Godbout who was an agronomist in the early 20th C and became a prominent politician around the 1930s. After Godbout the bus goes through Port Cartier which is one of two major municipalities in the Duplessis region. Port Cartier started as a mining and forestry town but is also a shipping port for the iron ore industry. Port Cartier was an industrial center during the 19th century. 50km’s from Port Cartier is Sept Iles, the largest city in the region and like Port Cartier started as a mining and forestry town. It is the biggest deep water port in the Gulf which means that it is an invaluable city for the iron ore industry. As a side note; Sept Iles is Guy Carbonneau’s home town. Sept Iles is a great town for hikers, hunters, fisher’s and nature enthusiasts. There is a National Wildlife reserve between Sept Iles and Port Cartier. Unfortunately I have never had the chance to explore this city myself. Every time I go there it is late and I leave early, the city has always been a stop over or an airport to me but as I have been reading up on it I wish that I could have spent a day or two there, next time I will. The Mingan Island Cetecean Study Research Center sounds awesome; you can play biologist out on the water helping collect data and studying humpback and minke whales, as well as porpoises, dolphins, and killer whales; you also get to study the endangered blue whale and I bet you would see a few beluga’s along the way. If this is something that would interest you check out their website: www.rorqual.com. The center is not right in Sept Iles but is just north in Longue-Pointe de Mingan.
A monolith in the Mingan Archipelago (tourismduplessis.com)
As for accommodations, I stayed at Auberge Le Tangon which is a really nice 4 star hostel. They have wireless internet, a huge kitchen/dining/living room area and a great backyard with a fire pit, swings, etc. The dorm room had 8 beds and was 22$/night for non hostel members, 18$ for members. They also have single rooms and families are welcome.
That concludes my recap of Day 1 on the bus; I boarded the Nordik Express supply and passenger ship at 5 am the following morning, stay tuned for the boat trip and some more pic’s, they get a lot better from here.
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From the boat in Sept Iles
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