We catch a break in the weather

We woke up this morning in Baie-Comeau, Québec and opened our windows to see the rain coming down. It kept raining throughout the morning as all of the other excursions left the ship. It was still raining when we boarded our school bus to take us to Nature Park Pointe-Aux-Outardes. But when we got to the park, the rain stopped and we had a wonderful 90-minute walk with Fred, an official park guide.

The park has nine distinct ecosystems; our walk took us into three of them, beginning with the boreal forest. Fred explained how the spruce beetle kills off old weak trees to make room for new trees to grow.

Despite appearances, this is a healthy forest.

He also pointed out many of the trees and other plants in the forest.

Juniper
Sheep Laurel – a poisonous relative of Labrador Tea

Our next ecosystem was the salt marsh. Before the park was established, the locals would ride ATVs and dune buggies on the marsh – and they still do outside the park boundary. Hunters also enjoy the marsh (outside the park, of course). Fred described the marsh as “kidneys” (unlike the forest, which is the lungs) because it purifies the water that flows into the dunes at high tide and returns to the river at low tide.

Salt Marsh
Northern Harrier over the salt marshes
Sweetgale (bog myrtle)
A storm brought this table here from Ragueneau on the other side of the river
The black spot near the center of the photo is a fox burrow, home to two adult foxes and their five kits.
Lichen after the rain
Labrador tea – it has a fuzzy underside, unlike sheep laurel

We continued on to the sand dunes.

Now we’re in the dunes
Lycopodium
A cold day for the beach!

We passed by the Fir and Spruce Forest on our way back to the visitor centre, but I didn’t take any photos there.

After being served some Labrador Tea at the visitor centre, we had a chance to walk on the beach for a few minutes before getting on the bus to return to the ship.

Ring-Billed Gull

We passed a monument to the pioneers on our way back to town, as well as the hotel that Colonel Robert McCormick (publisher of the Chicago Tribune and founder of Baie-Comeau) built for visiting executives.

Homage to the local pioneers (Monument aux pionniers)
Hotel Le Manoir Baie-Comeau (built in 1937 – the block on the right side is a recent addition)

We had a few minutes before “All Aboard!”, so I enjoyed the sunshine, the view, and the birds.

American Herring Gull taking off!
Double-Crested Comorant

The rain returned soon after we sailed away, but it didn’t last long, and Diane and I enjoyed some rainbows.

Double rainbow from our room
Double rainbow with reflection on the top deck

It started raining again, and the forecast is pretty bad for the next couple of days. The captain said that we should be able to dock at tomorrow’s port, Gaspé, but we’ll have to skip Wednesday’s stop at Îles de la Madeleine. Instead, we’ll spend a few extra hours in Gaspé and then sail directly to Charlottetown, PEI and arrive there Wednesday night instead of the planned Thursday morning arrival.

We’ll see.

A visit to Saguenay Fjord

We arrived in Saguenay Fjord late last night; this morning, we opened our curtains and saw the village in the first light of day.

After breakfast, we bundled up (the temperature was about 4º (Celsius, fortunately) and it was windy) and set out for “A Cultural Walk in Saguenay” with our local guide Lise.

We started at the shore of Ha! Ha! Bay where we learned a little local history; the biggest industry used to be pulp and paper, but now it’s smelting aluminum. Bauxite ore is shipped from all over the world to take advantage of the very low energy prices here, thanks to copious hydroelectric power (Lise mentioned that her fully-electric house has an annual energy bill of about $1100 US!).

There are several theories about how Ha! Ha! Bay got its name. Was it because the French mariners who first found it were surprised? Or was it derived from a French term for an “unexpected obstacle”? Or was it a First Nations name that got changed as it was written down? I like the last theory, but I have no basis for my opinion. :-)

Saguenay regional flag. The green is the forest, the yellow is agriculture, the white is aluminum, and the red is the blood of early settlers.

We took a very welcome break from the wind at Auberge des 21 (named after the original 21 French settlers here), where we had a morning snack of local wild blueberry pie and Labrador tea.

Valeria, owner of Auberge des 21
Morning snack – it was delicious
Labrador tea leaves

It was a lot warmer by the time we left Auberge des 21 for the short walk to our next stop, Créations ANICKO. Anicko told us how she left Saguenay for college and eventually returned to make art and run her boutique.

She mostly sells clothing and accessories with her designs on them, but she also creates and sells original paintings; she was willing to let me show the one she is currently working on.

Our next stop was just down the block at Savonnerie Chèvre-Feuille, where Yvon makes goat milk soap. He’d made a fresh batch yesterday and showed us how he takes it out of the press, cuts it into reasonably-sized bars, and puts it aside to dry for a month before it’s ready for sale and use.

Don’t eat it – it’s goat milk soap!

Our final stop was another artist’s boutique, “à Moi de Moi”, where the owner Mélanie showed how she paints on fabric and creates everything from tea towels to purses to lots of clothing. I didn’t get a chance to take any photos in the boutique – our group filled it up pretty well!

After that, Lise brought us back to the port, showing us a few other interesting sights along the way.

I wouldn’t want to live upstairs here during the winter!
The local hospital overlooks Ha! Ha! Bay

Diane and I took another walk through town before returning to the ship; we stopped at the Magasin Général du Quai, but didn’t find anything there we really wanted (I even passed up all the local candy!), but I didn’t feel too bad about that, since we’d already done our part to support the local artisans (the paper bag contains four bars of goat milk soap).

We had a light lunch and then went back to our cabin to work on photos. While we were there, we heard a squadron of Canada Geese flying overhead on their way south for the winter.

Canadian Invasion Troops

We left the village of Saguenay Fjord around 2:30 and sailed back down the fjord to rejoin the St. Lawrence. The highlight of this segment was a chance to see the Statue of Notre-Dame-du-Saguenay, which was originally built in 1881 to honor a vow that Charles-Napoléon Robitaille, a traveling salesman made after he was miraculously saved from dying after he fell into freezing water when the the ice broke under him while he was heading towards Lac Saint-Jean. He struggled in vain and finally asked the Blessed Virgin to save him; he was miraculously able to get out of the water and was saved.

The statue wasn’t the only thing worth photographing on this leg, of course.

Impressive fall colors!

Cap Trinité, which holds the statue, was quite impressive on its own.

We had hoped to see some more whales on our way back to the St. Lawrence, but it got too dark before we reached the likeliest area to see them, so I put the camera away and we went to dinner.