Wed. 7th October ‘26
We are pleased to be back on track after yesterday’s adventure and have a relatively short drive today, so hope to get to our hotel early enough to catch up on the admin we did not do yesterday. As we have not yet taken the time to explore Matane, we head to the lighthouse, which is in town near the ferry port. These ferries from the north shore of the St Lawrence River were an alternative to the ferry we planned to catch yesterday, but the river is even wider here (and these ferries were also cancelled). We are close to the mouth of the river where it becomes the Gulf of St Lawrence and our route today takes us along the northern bank to Gaspé.
The mix of water and autumn colours makes the drive very picturesque, and it was difficult not to stop every five minutes to admire and photograph the scenery. It should not be a surprise that this is a good spot for wind turbines and soon a number are visible on the horizon. We are on the hunt for the original Èole wind turbine, an experimental vertical – axis wind turbine built in the 1980s and, guess what, the tallest in the world when it was built at 96 metres. Unfortunately, the visitor centre was closed for the season now – this may be a recurring story – and so we had to make do with photos from a distance.
This is quite a dangerous coast for shipping and so there are numerous lighthouses to visit as we work our way around the coast. Most of the lighthouses are tourist attractions but as we are at the end of the season all have closed. That will save our legs from climbing numerous steps to the top of each! Next up is La Martre Lighthouse, unusual in that it is painted completely red. After that is the Cap de la Madeleine lighthouse, the more classic white with red roof.
A viewpoint tempts us and when we stop we spy yet another oversized chair, with a couple taking it in turns to sit in it. After a quick chat photos are exchanged, and we have this image of the two of us. This is the nearest we ever get to having photos of the two of us and selfies are right out! We are not sure where this phenomenon started but Dave jokes he is getting a collection together of him in all these different chairs. [Ed. The first picture of me in a big chair is from Guatemala, and I use it as my profile pic in places, the normal size chairs are called Adirondack chairs and are ‘a thing’ in this part of the world].
Around every turn in the road the scenery was just stunning and as promised the best section was between Riviere-la Madeleine and Grande Valle. The rolling hills of trees and the little coves filled with houses were just beautiful. These are clearly mixed forests with conifers in green and deciduous trees in all shades from light green to yellow, orange and bright red. The roads are not built with enough parking spots for us to stop at the best views. We will just have to remember them, as our photos do not do it justice.
Claude had warned us that we were in for a some glorious views along today’s drive. And so it has turned out to be. Claude also tells us that the hills we have skirted around are called the Chic-Choc mountains. Even the naming is fantastic. We have one last lighthouse at Pointe à la Renommee to stop at. As we were the only people there, we move the chairs around for the photo to avoid taking just another holiday snap (we are travelling and not on holiday). After that, we take the fast route to Gaspe. The lighthouse is down a short dirt track through the colourful trees. The peninsular we are cutting out is Forillon National Park, which we will be visiting tomorrow. We are glad to finally get to Gaspe around late afternoon and not sure where all the time went.