11th & 12th
June 2016
Long dusty roads, a manic
dam, and a wedding !
Today was another long hard
drive crossing the forests and lakes of Labrador, and on into Quebec Province.
I know I have said before that sometimes these long days have to just be ground
out in order to get to the next place, and sometimes it is so difficult, but
then, along the way, there are moments that just take your breathe away and
make you realize that it is all worthwhile. And it is only by having days like
this that you really get to understand how big some of these places in the
world really are. 2000 kms in 4 days,
and all you have seen is trees and lakes ?
Yup – But its those small moments, lakes relecting the sky, or the many different
greens in the trees of the forest, often that have gone past into your rear
view mirror before your mind even registers them, that make it all worthwhile.
Once I set off this morning I
knew there was dirt road ahead because I had found it last night before turning
back to the Relais Gabriel to camp, and it was OK – 100 kms of it, and it was
different from the flat roads before.
This time it was undulating and weaving through the countryside – If it
had been tarmac it would have been an incredible drive in a Lotus or similar
handling car !
There was hardly any traffic
on it, but I knew I was slowly catching something up due to the increasing dust
haze in the air. Eventually I came up
behind this big semi, and overtaking would have been a problem due to the dust
obscuring vision almost totally. But at
that point we past this lake, and because the air was so still, the reflections
in the water were almost perfect. So I
pulled over, let the truck get ahead, and got out of the car and spent 5
minutes just taking in the scenery and taking a few snaps. Just gorgeous.
Back on the road winding
through the greenery of the forests, until we finally came to “Manic 5”, or
“Manic Cinq” as it had occasionally be written on signs. I thought it was just going to be a village
or something, but when I turned this corner and started to cross an enormous
concrete structure, I understood. It was
a massive dam and hydro electric scheme, and “manic” seemed like a pretty good
way of describing it, it was so enormous, and so unexpected, out in the middle
of absolutely no where !! You drive across the dam, and can just see the
massive lake behind the dam, and then the road doubles back on itself and you
dive steeply, right down underneath the dam that you just drove over the top
of. Quite incredible – Especially when 2 minutes earlier you had just been
bopping along through some rather boring countryside listening to a talking
book !!
The enormity of this project
defies belief – this is one big power plant !
And as I continued on south, we passed some other dams and hydro
electric plants – all called “Manic” – 4, 3 2, and finally Manic 1 not long
before I hit civilization at Baie-Comeau.
Soon after Manic 5 I spied a
big old porcupine wandering along beside the road, but before I got there he
had done a disappearing trick into the grasses and all but disappeared. And not long after that I saw my first ground
squirrel for a while – He ran across the road then sat up on his hind legs and
watched me, his head swiveling as I passed.
So cute ! And that was about all
the wildlife I saw today – A bit dismal really.
The road was tarmac again after Manic 5, but was similar in that it just
wove through the forest and past lakes, all the way down to Baie-Comeau, which
was one of the largest towns I have seen since St John’s in Newfoundland. I
found some reasonably priced fuel (compared to the last stop – Like 27 cents a
litre cheaper ! – and did a quick grocery stock up before heading into Tim
Hortons for a coffee and some wifi.
As usual, someone came up and
asked if I own “that truck” outside – Turns out to be a local Quebecois with a
truck camper who is wanting to do the S America trip, so we chat for a
while. Then about 10 minutes later
another guy comes up and speaks to me, and when I look up there are these 3
young guys all dressed in suits, and saying something about a “wedding” and
“photos”. Seeing most people round here
speak mostly French, it took a while to work it out, but it turned out that one
of them was on his way to his wedding, and they saw my truck as they passed and
wanted some photos
with me and the truck before they continued on to the
ceremony ! All quite funny, and we got a
guy on a Harley who pulled up in the car park to take the pics – I think he was
as bemused by it all as I was ! Anyway,
after a few pics, a lot of laughs and “Bon Chance”s, they took off to the
wedding, and I took off down the coast of the St Lawrence Seaway. Another first
! And I don’t even know what their names
were ! (Edit later : The groom’s name
was Marc Henri, and he emailed me the lovely photo of him and his bride from
later that day. Have a great life, Marc –
Thank you for stopping and talking and including me in your special day.
The road down the St Lawrence
Seaway is (so far) rather disappointing, especially in the rain or at low tide.
It is called the “Routes des Balines” as apparently it is a favourite
whale haunt at certain times of the year.
But you don’t get to see much water from the road – it is all trees and
forest blocking your view. And when you
do get to see the water – There isn’t any !
Just these mud flats stretching out a long way to the water – Presumably
when the tide comes in the water comes up to the edge, but it would be so
shallow that no self respecting whale would be swimming around close to shore. Hmmmm.
Past a waterfall, and that
was pretty much all, until by about 6 pm I was starting to get weary. I tried one camp site but it was Saturday
night and pretty full, and no one seemed to be around, so I kept going a little
longer until I suddenly saw a sign to Camping Tipi at a place called Les
Escoumins. I turned off the main road
and followed the signs, eventually coming to a kind of Indian village where the
signs seem to be in 2 languages, and there were tipis everywhere ! I had decided to stop for a couple of nights
to catch my breath after all the driving, and do some laundry and a few other
bits and pieces, so once I found out they had wifi, showers, and a laundry, I
decided to stay, even though it was one of the more expensive camp sites of the
whole trip.
The evening was fine enough,
and I cooked and ate an excellent steak outside before heading to bed.
In the morning, it was
pouring. In fact, it didn’t stop pouring all day, so although I managed to get
most of the things done that I wanted, it has been a pretty frustrating “lay
day”. Additionally, their wifi is not
the best, and keeps dropping in and out, which really gets annoying when you
are trying to do internet banking or skype people. Once again, thank goodness for the little
electric heater that has kept me warm sitting in the van !
Today was another long hard
drive crossing the forests and lakes of Labrador, and on into Quebec Province.
I know I have said before that sometimes these long days have to just be ground
out in order to get to the next place, and sometimes it is so difficult, but
then, along the way, there are moments that just take your breathe away and
make you realize that it is all worthwhile. And it is only by having days like
this that you really get to understand how big some of these places in the
world really are. 2000 kms in 4 days,
and all you have seen is trees and lakes ?
Yup – But its those small moments, lakes relecting the sky, or the many different
greens in the trees of the forest, often that have gone past into your rear
view mirror before your mind even registers them, that make it all worthwhile.
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