Carleton sur mer to Gaspé

I enjoyed our brief stay at the motel in Carleton sur mer. Funny how circumstances change how one feels about something  Initially I was quite disappointed in the somewhat “long in the tooth” motel in which we found

ourselves.

However, the cheerful friendliness and helpfulness of the owner and hearing her story about establishing the motel and now running it, essentially single handedly, made me see the place in a different light.

So, on a beautiful sunny morning we left in a buoyant mood after a simple but enjoyable breakfast and looking forward to the trip to Gaspé which included passing through Percé, home of “the Rock”. More about the rock later.

The inside of the church taken through a window

Ruth had found another heritage village near New Richmond which was a short drive from Carleton sur mer. This initiative is a memorial to the United Empire Loyalists who emigrated to this area during the US war of independence. This is a pleasant place but less developed than the previous heritage villages we visited. There were a few buildings, including a church from the period, brought from Stellarville, if I recall correctly. Beside the church was a small pile of snow which delighted Kita!

She doesn’t look delighted in the photo but she defintely was excited, running, rolling and burying her nose in the snow! The property also offered a very convenient and attractive place for a much appreciated walk, which we did.

We continued on along the south coast of the Gasperie stopping frequently to try to capture in photos the spectacular topography but, as impressive as some of these images might be, photos fail to convey the visual experience of actually being there. Better photos might come closer but whatever the quality of the two dimensional photograph, it will still fall short of being there.

We stopped for lunch at a “viewing site” near Bonaventure and while enjoying some food and the sun, we noticed some gulls, or what we took to be gulls, cruising above the bay. A couple of them seemed particularly enthusiastic in their pursuits, circling about then diving at full speed crashing into the water, surfacing, then scrambling off the water to get airborne, circling again before repeating the dive and crash into the water. Not typical gull behaviour we thought. Then Ruth noticed the black wingtips - our first experience with Gannet fishing techniques! 

Sorry - no photos of the Gannets.

Back on the road we stopped briefly in New Carlisle, the birthplace of René Lévesque, the once influential and still esteemed Québec Premier. I know, I said in the previous blog that we were in New Carlisle, but I was wrong. Memory of what we saw and when we saw it is not always accurate. Which is why Ruth’s notes are usually necessary to minimize the blur of places and times. In any case, I also previously mentioned that there is a life size statue of Lévesque in a small park, actually a children’s playground, in his home town of New Carlisle. Now, Lévesque was a fairly short man and the statue, being life size, reflected this fact to the displeasure, I have been told, of some of his more ardent admirers. They apparently felt that statue should be more like the man, larger than life!

We left the life size Monsieur Lévesque in New Carlisle, moving east to another heritage site at Haspebiac which Ruth’s perusal of the books had revealed. This one is a tribute to the cod fishermen who laboured for decades under the harsh conditions presented by the ocean and the brutal behaviour of the fish processing and distribution industry. It is an impressive project with some beautifully restored historic buildings on a very

attractive site which is uniquely integrated with a gathering of currently active fishing boats.

Among the unusual artifacts that attracted me was a “skeleton” of what I assume to be an old fishing boat - an opportunity for a couple of potentially interesting photos!

At this point we were getting close to a place of interest that I was really looking forward to seeing - Percé and the famous rock! Now, as we are driving we are constantly on the lookout for places that we can stop for viewing and photos, some of them “official” and some,  just areas that we can safely pull off the road. For the “official” areas there is often a sign a couple of km in advance informing us of an upcoming “official” site and, as we had just seen one of these advance signs, we were anticipating the turn off.  We came to a fairly sharp turn in the road and there immediately in front of us was the turn off which we managed to negotiate. This turn in the road, we learned later,  is called La Côte Surprise, and we were indeed surprised because there in front of us was the famous Rock!

This is NOT the Percé rock.

T

This is the Percé Rock

Percé Rock (Rocher Percé, "pierced rock") is a huge sheer rock formation at the tip of Gaspé Peninsula off the Baie de Percé. It is one of the world's largest natural arches located in water and is considered a geologically and historically rich natural icon of Québec.  It's difficult to grasp the size of the rock which they say is 88 meters high. The last photo with the building on the nearby mainland may provide some perspective on the size and the map locates the rock and the larger nearby island in relation to the mainland.

Fortunately, here we found one of few open information places so we were able to get the information we needed to best see and photograph the rock. At one of the recommended locations there was a boardwalk in a sad state of repair due, I learned in an extended conversation with a local man I met on an intact part of the boardwalk, to serious storms this past winter.

During this delightful conversation we also exchanged some information about our personal family histories and each of our careers! He accommodating, as we Anglophones generally assume they will do, to my inability to communicate in French.

I have to say that on this trip I have found it particularly embarrassing that I cannot speak French and I that come into a French speaking community automatically assuming that, since I cannot speak French,  they will accommodate by speaking English!  It’s an arrogance of a large part of the English speaking world and I am not happy to be one of those, especially in “bilingual” Canada and especially since I have French roots! Thankfully, most folks here are willing and able to accommodate.or this trip would have been much more difficult for us.

On to the city of Gaspé and our motel, the Adams Motel, where I was informed the they do not accept pets! Here is my opportunity to vent my view of the "middle men",  both those on line and through 800 numbers. These groups, I have found during this adventure, to be much less than helpful.  My experience has been that they know nothing  about the location of the motel/hotel, or about the facility for which  they are supposed to be arranging a reservation. And, if a reservation is finally completed it may well not be what you expect. The Adams motel incident was only one example of problems we had with these folks who are far removed from the accommodation. On several occasions I gave up in frustration. When we could find a phone number for the actual facility, which is often not possible if the facility is not in the CAA books, things went smoothly. At the Adams motel, an exception was made so, in the end,  we were able to stay.

Beresford to Carleton sur mer on the Gaspésie

Hoorah! Wednesday morning, departure day, we woke to a sunny day and warmer temperatures than we have experienced for some time. So, we are leaving for our next destination - Carleton sur mer in the Gaspésie. (We have learned that Gaspésie is the “official” name for the Gaspé Peninsula and that the origin of the name "Gaspé" comes from the Mi'kmaq word gespe'g, meaning "end", referring to the end of the land.)

Remember to click on any photo to see a larger version.

But, before talking about the trip I want to say that, while this trip has been a joint effort, Ruth has done the lion's share of the work. Without her organization both at the outset and throughout the trip it would have been abandoned before it started or very early en route! And we have become increasingly efficient at moving our relatively large amount of stuff into and out of car and motels so that we can accomplish it quite quickly. So, my thanks to her for all of that, and for reviewing my blog before it gets published with all of the typos. And one other thing that made this trip possible was our acquisition of a small refrigerator which works on the car battery and on 110 volts with an adapter. If you are ever planning a trip like the one we have been on, especially with an 80 pound dog on a raw food diet, I highly recommend this terrific device! And, it’s made in Canada.

The fossil cliff at the National Park of Miguasha

The drive to the Gaspésie took us along the New Brunswick coast, and more quite lovely scenery, spoiled around Belladune by a smelting plant and a large generating station both belching out almost enough emmisons into the air to resemble Hamilton’s steel plants.  In Campbellton, New Brunswick, we stopped at  Sugarloaf Mountain provincial park where, we were told, we should experience the spectacular view from this rather unusually large mound of rock seemingly misplaced on an otherwise relatively flat landscape. But we failed to experience the view as, true to our experience so far with such attractions, it was not yet open.  But we did stay in the parking lot and eat our lunch. 

View from Mount St. Joseph in Carleton sur mer

Shortly after entering the Gaspésie Ruth, in perusing the bits of information we had gathered, noticed the extremely small National Park of Miguasha, also a UNESCO World Heritage site, which we learned was a world renowned source of important Devonian fossils - fauna in transition from water to land forms. There was a short walking trail which allowed access to the beach and the shale wall which has been the source of the fossil evidence for which this place is so well known in the world of geology and palaeontology. I visited the wall but failed to find any fossil forms. After our visit to the Park we went on to Auberge de Caps motel in Carleton sur mer.

From Mt. St. Joseph - sand bar extending into the
Bay of Chaleur

In searching for our accommodations in the Gaspésie we have learned that the towns and/or regions, are spread

out along the road and the coast with a few houses here and there, for quite long distances. So when you think you are in the town you are looking for, you may not actually be there yet.  In fact, you may find that you have to drive for several kilometres before you find your destination.

The Auberge de Caps was an interesting place: spartan, but with rooms looking right on to the

Baie de Chaleur!

More Mount St. Joseph

The reception area was small and the receptionist was a very friendly and helpful person who offered to help us bring our belongings into the room! We declined the generous offer. She also was extremely helpful in informing us about places to eat - including recommendations about the quality and price of each - and things of interest around Carleton sur mer.

Park in Carleton sur mer

She also explained that breakfast would be in the adjacent room at 7 am.

Sand bar and water basin - Park in Carleton sur mer

We had brought food for dinner so did not try any of the places that she had recommended. When we went for breakfast, there she was again, having set a table for us with bread and spreads for toast and offering coffee and orange juice.  We were the only ones in the room which was simple but clean and well equipped with dishes and appliances which we could have used to prepare our own meal. She puttered about, sweeping the floor and chatting.

Park in Carleton sur mer

We learned that she is a retired nurse who, with 2 partners, turned this former retirement home,into a motel in 1992. She now runs it on her own with one hired maintenance man! And, she loves her job! One of the points of interest that our motel friend mentioned was Mount St. Joseph, a 555 meter high site in the centre of Carleton sur mer. I decided to take this steep drive to the top for a quite spectacular view! After a moderately unsettling drive down I went to the park - an area within the city which is protected from the bay waters by a long sand bar which provides not only protection but a lovely walking area.

More Park in Carleton

Thursday after breakfast of toast and our interesting talk with motel owner we set off under clear skies for our next destination, the city of Gaspé which is close to the eastern end of Gaspésie.

Sackville to Bathurst/Beresford New Brunswick

Well, we arrived in Beresford, New Brunswick on Sunday May 15 after a rainy, windy drive of just under 4 hours. 

But, before saying more about now, I want to go back a bit.

The day before we left the Hunter Mountain area we drove for a couple of hours on a “scenic” drive along one of

the “Bras” of the Bras d’Or Lake. It turned out to be a fairly low key scenic drive but we did find the Iona  Highland Village, an initiative which is committed to developing awareness of and sharing the heritage of Gaelic language and culture in Nova Scotia. And it certainly gave us some interesting insights.

For example, Gaelic as a unique Scottish Highlands language apparently evolved from Irish Gaelic in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and it accompanied Highland Scots who emigrated to what is now Nova Scotia. At Confederation in 1867 Gaelic was the third most common language spoken in what was then Canada and in 1900 over 100,000 people in Nova Scotia still spoke Gaelic as their mother tongue. In the this heritage village there are several renovated and preserved historic buildings from the Nova Scotia Gaelic era, including a unique round stone and thatch “house” with

stone steps built into the wall (presumably to minimize the difficulty of accessing the thatch roof for repair), and a small but prominent white church sitting high on the landscape. I’m not sure of the denomination of the church but as the Highland Gaels who emigrated to Nova Scotia were predominantly followers of either Roman Catholic or Presbyterian churches, it could be either or represent both.

The discovery of this village was definitely the interesting and informative high point of the drive for me.

Church at the Gaelic Heritage site.

Now I’m sitting in a comfortable room at Danny’s Inn, Restaurant and Conference Centre in Beresford, New Brunswick, with the all day rain continuing to fall. The folks here are very friendly and accommodating (very few customers at the moment). The place is quite nice and we are ready for another "rest" from driving and unpacking and re-packing every day. So, before pressing on we will likely stay here for a couple more nights.

So far the weather here has been pretty unpleasant with persistent cool and rain so not much exploring. We hope to get to one of the Parks here in Bathurst.

Acadian Village home.

Another bit of clarification. When we started this trip we intended to go from Nova Scotia on to Newfoundland but a number of factors contributed to our decision to scratch that part of the plan. First, though it is nice to have her along, travelling with a dog presents a number of difficulties. It is not always easy to find accommodation that accepts pets. And travelling with a dog on a raw food diet adds an enormous complication as the food has to be kept frozen or cold.

Acadian Village Grist Mill and dam

We have a neat refrigerator that works in the car and on 110 V systems in motels but we are still limited by the amount we can carry. And the sources of raw food along the way are relatively few.  And, though we found a source in Newfoundland, other factors precluded this part of the trip. The ferry ride of about 8 hours presents its own complication. The dog can be accommodated on board either on deck in a hard plastic crate or in the car. No one is allowed to stay with her in the car and we would not have access to the car during the trip to "The Rock".

Acadian Village Grist Mill

Neither of these options was acceptable for us, so, sadly, the Newfoundland visit was not possible.

Back to Bathurst.  One of our 3 days there was rain free and as there was a threat of sun, on the advice of a tourist information person (at a not yet open information office) we decided to drive to Miscous Island, relatively close to Bathurst (about 60 Km or so) where there are said to be spectacular views. It turned out that the

School and Church

original destination was a bit further than we thought and, with our usual stopping and starting, time prevented us from reaching our goal. But, one of the stopping places, an historical Acadian Heritage village, proved to be a lucky find! Once again, not yet open - but there were lots of folks around working hard to have the park open by early June. In spite of the time pressures they were facing and that the park is actually closed, they were extremely friendly and went some pains to make it possible for us to walk through the heritage

Acadians seem to have had Credit Unions!

village! A bit like other such places, the buildings have been moved from their original locations in different areas of the province and placed here in their original compass orientations and in relation to each other to create a semblance of an authentic Acadian village. The walk through the entire village was about 2.5 Km and we really impressed with the buildings and the overall ambience of the entire village.

Tinsmith's Shop - taken through the closed window

Tavern

So, here we are preparing to depart from northern New Brunswick for the Gaspé Peninsula where finding accommodation is a bit tricky for two reasons. Once again, finding pet friendly places that fit with our driving schedule has not been easy and secondly because many places are not yet open! 

But, having said that, I am happy to say that we have found and booked places for the first 3 nights on the Gaspé Peninsula.

Nest stop, Carleton sur mer, Province of Québec.

Ingonish to Hunter Mountain Chalets

The last blog post took us from Sackville, New Brunswick to the Brown's at Margaree Centre and then to Ingonish.

Brace yourself as this is a long post including a lot of images, as it takes us from Ingonish all the way to Hunter Mountain covering some of the best parts of our trip on and off the Cabot Trail!

Our Chalet at Hunter Mountain Chalets

Speaking of images, remember to click on any image to view a larger version.

We traveled Tuesday from Ingonish to Pleasant Bay then Wednesday to Hunter Mountain and are currently at Hunter Mountain Chalets just off the southern portion of the Cabot Trail.  This is such a great place that we plan to stay for at least 3 days. We have had quite nice weather for the past couple of days and the weather guessers are promising more for the next day or two.

Sunrise at Hunter Mountain Chalets

But it is important to say that, in spite of the rain and cold for much of the time this has been a great trip because the area is mostly beautiful but also, to a large degree, because we have taken our time and let the trip evolve each day. Of course, we had to plan accommodation locations ahead, but we kept the daily driving distances short to allow lots of time to stop and walk a bit, take photos and just enjoy the scenery and some chats with local people.

The Entry drive way and Office at Hunter Mountain Chalets

One in particular will be remembered as being quite special.

On leaving Ingonish we stopped for gas at a small “full service” gas station, Caper Gas  Drive ‘er (this is not a spelling error!).
I commented to the person filling our tank, who was also the owner, that full service places are pretty rare. This initiated an interesting, informative and wide ranging conversation about the economic circumstances of not only gas stations but this part of Nova Scotia. For example, he said that to convert his business to self service would cost $150,000 which he cannot afford. He can barely stay open in this region where there are 2 profitable months, 2 or 3 iffy months and the rest profitless months!

Along the Coastal Loop by Aspy Bay on route to Pleasant Bay

He can stay open because, having been here for decades his family does not have a mortgage to pay. Others are not so fortunate. There are few to no jobs so the young people leave and the population loss decreases even local demand seriously affecting the local economy. This poor economic condition shows in the deterioration of the provincial roads even on the “famous” Cabot Trail and this deterioration is emphasized in comparison to the excellent roads in the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, a federal jurisdiction.

Until the area can be rejuvenated by making it a year round economically sound environment things are not likely to improve. But our conversation was not all doom and gloom as he says some promising things are happening. He also gave us some excellent advice about how we could find the best routes and resources on and off the Cabot Trail.

Community of White Point near Scotch Cove

When we left our friend at his work we departed with a new perspective on the region. And armed with his excellent advice, we found the route and the scenery from Ingonish to Pleasant Bay which was by far the most spectacular to that point.
From Ingonish we traveled on the Cabot trail for about 10 kilometres along the coast to Neil’s Harbour where the Cabot Trail turned inland. Here, on the advice of our gas station friend, we turned off the Cabot trail onto a “scenic route”, the Coastal Loop, which took us to and along the coast of Aspy Bay to some spectacular scenery in an area where whales apparently travel and, with luck, might be seen. We were not that lucky.

At White Point we went down to the wharf and had a chat with a couple of fisherman and asked about the large "baskets" we had seen stored along with lobster traps and wondered about their use. (See the photo of these large orange coloured baskets beside lobster traps in the last blog post) They explained that they are used to catch Snow Crabs in April. Several fishing boats were in the dock area apparently getting ready for lobster fishing which begins next Friday.

View from White Point with the "pointed" mountain marking
Cabot's Landing in the distance.

We considered going to Meat Cove, the most northerly point on Cape Breton but our friend, while partially supporting the idea had said that it was a 2 hour journey and not likely to provide more than we would see along the coast of Aspy Bay. After a lot of stopping and photo making, time tends to pass and we realized that we did not really have enough of it to go to Meat Cove. Our gas station travel consultant had also advised us to look across Aspy Bay from White Point and find a pointed mountain - “we say it looks like a breast” he said with a mildly embarrassed smile. “That, according to Nova Scotians, is the area where John Cabot first landed in North America.”

So, we decided to go in the direction of Meat Cove as far as Cabot landing at Sugarloaf to visit the general location of Cabot’s arrival. There appears to be some competition between Nova Scotia and Newfoundland on this event, each claiming the historic spot. When we arrived at Cabot's Landing Provincial Park, you guessed it - it was closed.

So, from there we retraced our “steps” back to the Cabot Trail and on to Pleasant Bay. Now, when we spotted our Pleasant Bay accommodations we gasped a bit at the overpowering array of pink and blue buildings and lamp posts and virtually everything paintable! Thankfully, the inside was spared the outdoor paint decor. Another definitely spartan space — a small room, a bed, tv set, one ceiling light (there were a couple of other lights on the wall but we were unable to find a way to turn them on), a small table and a bathroom. The only restaurant in Pleasant Bay was not open. We decided to stay only one night.

We set out fairly early on another overcast and cold morning to find a place for breakfast and with high hopes that our booking in Hunter Mountain would be more to our liking.
At the entrance back into Cape Breton Highlands National Park we found the visitors centre to be not exactly open but sufficiently open for us to pick up a topographical map, some books and a few other bits and bobs that we didn’t really need.

The very friendly park folks told us that in the beautiful town of Chéticamp just down the road we would find a Co-op grocery store, a liquor/wine store and an excellent breakfast at Evangeline’s Family Restaurant, and they were correct on all counts!

The rest of the drive to Hunter Mountain took us through more excellent scenery and back through the area of the Margaree’s - remember the Margarees? We passed them all and about 30 Km or so  later with some trepidation we prepared ourselves for the first view of Hunter Mountain Chalets. To our relief and delight what we found was a terrific place!

It was immediately apparent to both of us that we should stay here for more than one night. After we signed in the proprietor, Roland, said he would take us to our lodgings and provide an orientation and he did. There is a small kitchen and the living space and bedrooms are both spacious and welcoming. Roland, who is extremely friendly obviously cares deeply about this place.

His attention to detail is reflected in the quality of everything about the buildings and rooms from the excellent German designed windows to the European beds and the Van Gogh and Monet prints on the walls! - as well as the carefully laid out and marked walking paths on the extensive property! Roland carefully and thoroughly explained how everything works including the recycling arrangements, the history and nature of the walking trails as well as the controls of the TV and he actually set up the TV so we could watch the Jays game!

We have seen nothing even close to this. And at a price much less than we paid at substantially less appealing accommodations. Definitely a three day stay!

(I should tell you that, though I am talking about Hunter Mountain Chalets here, only the last photo has anything to do with Hunter Mountain. The others were made well before we reached here. It's not always easy to coordinate the text with the images that I want to include.)

We would like to stay longer but we should be in Truro by Saturday. So, on Saturday when we reluctantly leave this place, we will face a relatively long drive back to Sackville where we will stay one night before leaving on Sunday for the Gaspé.

Sunrise at Hunter Mountain Chalets