Gaspe Cure

We were fortunate that today was another blue sky day, at least this morning, and that we were able to take the boat out to tour around Perce Rock and visit Saint Bonaventure Island. Yesterday, even though the sun was out and the sky was blue, there was still a strong wind left over from the storm and they "closed" the Island at 2pm. But today the wind was gentle, even through the temperature was in the mid-fifties.

We arrived at the dock at 9:30 am, in time to catch the 10 am boat. This man sits on the dock and plays his guitar and serenades those waiting to take the boat tour.  He is really quite good, at least what little we heard yesterday and today. A nice touch.

The Rock up-close. The boat ride was an hour long, around both sides of the Rock and then around the Island to the wharf where you can get off to explore the Island. The boat tour included narration, which was in French, followed by a heavily accented English version of perhaps 1/4 of the spiel. Quite charming.

A view back toward the town.  See that black ribbon of highway? That is a 17% grade that we will have to travel tomorrow - towing the Airstream.

This part of the boat tour was fascinating. We went around to the other side of the Rock and the texture of the rock was much more rugged.

Looking through the pierced rock from the north side.

We then headed over to the Island and the north side which is a migratory bird sanctuary for more than 200,000 seabirds, mostly gannets.

From the tour boat, we thought these were the bird nesting places. But wait.

Interesting, and lovely rock formations on the northeastern side of the Island.

At the base of the cliffs, there were these inquisitive seals - you can just see their heads poking out of the water. They were watching us watching them.

This is a roly-poly grey seal sunning itself on an off-shore rock.

More lovely rock formations and a view of the Acadian forest on the Island.

Coming around to the south side of the Island we got a close-up view of some of the houses that remain from a time when there were families living on the Island. Until 1971, there were 110 people living on the Island; 35 families. They came mostly from the Jersey Islands, which are in the English Chanel, between England and France.

There was a dock on the south side where you could get off the boat and explore the Island. Bonaventure Island is a Provincial Park and there are four different trails that lead across the island to the gannet colony. We took the trails that form an eight km circle around the top of the island, together they are called the Chemin-du-Roy, the King's Highway. There is a lovely balsam and fir forest on the top of the Island.

The first section of the trail, called the Sentier des Mousses, is 1.9 km across the eastern part of the Island. When we arrived on the other side there was this view-point. You can see the trees and, if you look closely, you can see a formation of gannets flying by below us.

A little further along the trail, now traveling along the northern edge of the island, was the gannet colony. We couldn't see this from the boat; we thought the gannets were just nesting in the crevices of the cliffs. The wooden structure in the middle is a viewing platform.

There are no less than 116,000 gannets nesting on the cliffs and the plateau throughout the summer. At the end of September, they will take three months and migrate to South Carolina, Florida and Mexico. Then in the spring, they will take three months to fly back. They mate for life, and the birds always return to the same place they were hatched. A pair will hatch one egg per season and it will be five years before a gannett will reproduce. 

Further along the perimeter of the Island is this beach which is accessible from the trail via steps.

The Island looks flat, but there are steep elevation gains and losses all along the trail; some requiring steps.

The west, quiet, side of the island.

When we got back, and while we were waiting for the boat, we had a lively conversation with Carole, a Park Ranger. We talked about the families on the Island, the efforts to preserve the houses and cod fishing. (Cod fishing is endlessly fascinating!) Carole told us about the Gaspe cure which refers to the fact that the Gaspe peninsula has a drier climate than the rest of the Maritime provinces and that the quality of cod that came from here was superior to all others.

Meet Cathy and Tony. We first met them on the trail, just past the gannett colony. Since they were speaking English we exchanged a greeting and Frederick complimented them on their English. They then told us they were from Ontario and we said we knew a little of London, Ontario, where we bought our Airstream. One thing lead to another as it typically does and we told them we were retired and living on-the-road. We then hiked on but when we went down to the dock to get on the boat, Tony called out, "It's all your fault!". Ever since our brief conversation on the trail they had been talking about living on-the-road when they retire. They had questions and asked if they could talk to us on the boat ride back. We did and then invited them over to see the Airstream. (It turns out they are staying in the Bed & Breakfast that is just across the fence behind our camping site.) We had a nice conversation and they went away with a lots to think about.