Jul 4 - Gaspé, Percé Rock, and Chandler, QC
What a difference a day makes. After a very brief shower
this morning, the sun shone brightly. It was a good day for
a drive – we have just about 300 kms to do today.
We left Mont-St-Pierre, driving along the shoreline around
the first of many headlands. As we came into the very next
bay, what did we see? Yup, a gas station. Now, I almost asked
the park attendant before we headed out yesterday, to get
some gas you might remember, where the locals got gas. It
didn't make sense that they would do a 100 km round trip
just to get gas. And what really cheesed me off is the gas was 5 cents a litre cheaper. Oh well suck it up, Mason!
We had a lot of rain in the last few days on and off. It is quite apparent.
Hwy 132 hugs the shoreline cutting out around the headlands then diving into the next bay and the next small community. The road was good and we covered a lot of territory quickly. Then the topography changed. We started climbing up and over the headlands. It made for some quite pretty views. Here is Grand-Vallée in the distance.
We encountered a few roadworks - one at the bottom of a ginormous hill. We crawled up the hill in 1st gear!
Of course when one goes up a hill…….. Like in Ontario, roads just go straight up and straight down the hills, no zig zagging back and forth to reduce the gradient. The steepest downgrade we ran into today was 14%, with, I might add,
a 50 kmh zone at the bottom of it 'cause we were entering a village!
The occasional village had some interesting features but most villages were just houses on either side of the highway with the, by now, usual large Catholic church. We wondered: "What do people do here?" Here's Cloridorme.
And getting a little closer.
Only to find another spectacular little bay. Oh, this one looks like a good place for a coffee break.
Anse de L'Ētang - what a pretty spot!
As we continued along the coast, the scenery did not disappoint.
A few more ups and downs and we were at Gaspé.
The beach was covered in weathered, flat stones - the result of pounding surf over the millenia, no doubt.
Then we climbed up and over another headland.
Well, no, actually we weren't. Gaspé is made up of 17 smaller communities so we still had a ways to go to Gaspé proper.
We did not continue on the coastal route. We were both getting a little tired of climbing and descending the many hills, so we took the highway directly to Gaspé, across the peninsula. Driving around Hwy 132 would have added another 65 kms and at least 1½ hours to today's drive .
Out of the valley and across the bay we went.
Doesn't look like much at low tide, does it?
A few minutes later we drove through an old part of Gaspé.
Then we found a parking spot and went for a walk along the boardwalk.
Up and down we go again, until……there it is!
So after immersing ourselves in the local history, we continued our drive towards Chandler. Next major stop – Percé and its famous rock. But first, lunch at another neat little bay.
The translation reads:
"The grandfather of my grandfather was aground on these banks
His wife was an O'Connor"
Okay, so that's interesting.
There is a lot of history in the area. The boardwalk area had a number of displays and plaques describing it. And a couple of statues.
We found this one particularly curious. ---->
Doesn't look like it, but this is the 14% grade I mentioned earlier. That's 14% down...down...down for 1 kilometer!
As we drove through Percé, there were people everywhere. I guess the "rock" is a big tourist draw. It is an impressive hunk of rock, but once you've seen it……?
I guess if you are into fishing, hiking, biking, etc., this is an interesting place to visit. But we felt there were too many tourists for our liking. The feeling did make me wonder what we'll think of the US east coast as we head into that mass of humanity in a few weeks!
We arrived in Chandler and our campground (Parc du Bourg de Pabos) for the next couple of nights. They have wifi! YES!! I'd do a fist bump, but I would probably hurt myself.
We head out in a couple of days for Point-à-la-Croix,
a couple of hundred kms west of here, close to the
New Brunswick border.
See you there (unless something exciting happens
in Chandler).
