It has been an incredible few days. We are writing this evening because we are not sure when we will be back online and we want to give you an inkling of how our week has been so far. On Monday afternoon we prepared ourselves for our first night of camping by making a trip to Canadian Tire and drove to Quebec City. Following the guidance of some East Coast travel experts (namely the Dunnings), we planned on camping the night outside of the city and taking the ferry into the city the next morning. We drove to the first camping site we found on the outskirts of town. It was about 6.30 pm. Coming from a background of camping in remote, secluded areas we were pretty shocked to see the campsite. It was basically a large clearing with some scattered trees, a mini-village of RVs, and a collection of buildings that each served a purpose- one had a laundromat, another had a restaurant, and in the center of the site was a large building with super clean facilities, warm showers, and flush toilets! It was a nice reintroduction to camping, if you can call it that.
We picked a site at the edge and to the back of the lot. The sky was overcast and we wanted some coverage from the rain and wind that seemed inevitable. A number of the local RV-ers walked by us, some several times, probably wondering why we chose not to set up camp next to them and join them in a game of Bridge.
We set up camp complete with our Coleman stove and our tent & tarp. We made a delicious meal of veggie dogs and tea. By the time we had that all figured out, it was time to wash up and get in the tent since the sun was about to go down. We both slept well and were surprised at how warm the night was. It was raining in the morning when we woke up, so we immediately packed up and drove off regrettably forfeiting our trip to Quebec City. It was 8 am. At some point in this venture, we were supposed to give someone $23. Since the camp office was closed when we entered and when we exited, we drove off with a car full of wet gear to our next destination.
Eleven hours later we reached the tip of the Gaspe Peninsula which is as far as you can go in Quebec without falling into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The views we had all day driving were spectacular and we drove through areas were we felt we could have been in Spain or the south of France. But, we grew tired of driving and really wanted to find a nice spot to camp. A National Park called Forillon was our destination and we had reached it at last. We drove in and were assigned a campsite. This was closer to real camping than the night before. Each site was separated by its neighbour with a wall of trees. We giggled with delight as we parked and began to set up camp. As our tent dried and after we had finished a meal of lentil soup and veggie dogs, we explored the area a little bit. There were no RVs here, just small tents like ours and young rugged-looking 20-something year olds huddling around their campfires.
There was a grassy, narrow trail leading us down to the water. We really were on the tip of the Gaspe and the views were overwhelming. Standing on the sandy beach, we had in front of us ocean for as far as you could see, to the right there were high mountains and steep cliffs blanketed with dense trees, to the left there was a grassy knoll and more water, and behind us was a pink grapefruit-coloured sunset that turned the clouds into cotton candy. Maya ran along the beach, playing with pieces of seaweed and old crab shells. Magi and I watched a seal watching us from the water. It was a crisp, cold windy night so there were no flies. It was perfect.
Our camp was on a small hill right above the ocean so we listened to waves crash and seagulls cry as we fell asleep.
Tonight we are in Miramichi visiting Jeremy, Jennifer, Emerson and the dogs, a couple of German Pinschers named Newt & Dara. It is amazing to see how much Emerson has grown since the last time we saw him only seven months ago (of course, he was only one month old last time). He is a real joyful baby and really damn cute. It is wonderful to be here tonight.
Tomorrow morning we head off again to explore more of the east coast. We plan on reaching Nova Scotia at long last. We will have to fill you in on all that later.
Goodnight!
tothesea,
k&m