Here we go again. I am currently lying on my comfortable queen sized bed and put once again all my efforts into writing some nice stories for you.
Quebec to Matane
The perks of residing in a motel a little bit outside of the city is that you are in about two minutes on the highway. After some petit déjeuner I hopped into my car and began my journey along the coast of one of the worlds largest fjords. I never asked myself if there are any fjords outside of Scandinavia, but as I have learned there are. There were two possible routes to my first stop, on one hand we have the route 20, a highway and the fastest option. On the other hand there is the route des navigateures, the route 132, a much more scenic and slower route along the coast. In the end I alternated between the two routes. That day it was a little bit cloudy what made the views a little bit less exciting, nevertheless they were quite nice.
I arrived early at the motel and after having checked in I took my little Jeep for a drive through the small village. This settlement was not unlike many others I have seen on the way: A church, a small shop and a lot of small wooden houses. I’m still wondering what the people populating all these houses do for a living. You rarely see any industry or large buildings that could house some kind of company.
The place where I was staying was already without a highway connection. The highway ended a few dozen kilometers before. The route des navigateurs is left as the only option for getting farther north. Having a little daylight and time to spare left I decided to drive a little bit into the midland. The results of this expedition are shown below.
Matane to Gaspé
Without spoiling too much I can already reveal that this was the most awesome route I have ever driven, as far as I can remember.
Coast part
First I continued to follow the route 132. But in contrast to before the coast was no longer flat, it steadily became more hilly. And because of the season and the remoteness there were nearly no cars on the road. So I didn’t have to concentrate too much on what was going on on the road (driver in front breaking, the speed I was going at, etc) and could enjoy the view instead.
Once in a while you had a few cars in front of you (mostly after some orange sign with the letters “travaux” written on it and the resulting waiting). That’s where I noticed that not all cars have a lot of power. Everyone was speeding on the road (90 was more a minimum than maximum =) but shortly before a hill the whole convoy sped up to around 120 in order to not fall below 90 once at the top. And the whole convoy was in on it, from the smallest cars to the largest trucks.
Land part
For the second part I no longer followed the route 132 but took one of the few roads going across the fjord. On this road were even less cars than before and for kilometers you didn’t come across a single house. The longest distance with nothing but road was 90 kilometers, according to the shield announcing the last gas station for that distance.
After every corner, every hill you were curious of what you find there. At the coast you would find mostly sea and hills, but here in midland you find breathtaking view over lakes, rivers and hills covered with yellow, green and red trees. Combined with some nice music I had a wonderful time driving through those woods. And once in a while I would find myself go “Uuuuuups” only to lift my foot from the pedal afterwards.
Gaspé
For my stay in Gaspé I found wonderful hotel. It was a little bit more expensive than the usual stay but I never came across a hotel with a perfect rating before and this hotel had one. After having spent a night in this hotel I can say that the reviews weren’t wrong. I had a very pleasant conversation with the young lady at the reception in French-English (She speaks English as good as I speak French, but we managed =). Besides a friendly staff you can see that they spend a lot of attention to details.
Shortly before the sun set down I decided to check out the nearby national park before I take a longer walk the next day. The results of this short 3-4 kilometers walk can be seen below.
Parc national Forillon
I had perfect weather for my little excursion today. First I took a little detour around the national park in my car. Then I left the car behind and continued on foot. As a byproduct I found the perfect way to walk faster. You just have to start late and want to be back before the sun sets down. Given that the early bird catches the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese it just happened that I started my tour as early as noon. 10 km one way, 10 km back and the sun sets around 5 PM. I ended up walking nonstop except for pictures and did the over 20 km and 548 m elevation gain in a little bit over 4 hours. With a little bit time left before the sun sets I made it back to Gaspé and enjoyed the sunset there.
Short summary: Walking in the national park is best described as walking in the Swiss mountains while having a sea nearby making noises =)
One thing I have to say is: I’m sorry, but I wasn’t able to capture the complete awesomeness of what I was allowed to see in simple pictures. My smartphone has a fixed focal length and I couldn’t zoom in all the incredible stuff I was gazing upon and a lot of breathtaking views went by too fast to be captured. I hope you can grasp and feel a little bit of Canada by looking at the selected few photos I have uploaded.
