Day
19 Thursday, June 16th
Quebec is divided into several tourist areas, and the area
in which we were to spend most of the rest of our trip is the Duplessis tourist
area. Duplessis is further subdivided
into regions. And the ferry ride follows
the coastline in what is called the Basse-Cote-Nord, or Lower North Shore. There are scant few roads in the region so
access is primarily by small plane or by ferry.
The main mode of travel for the inhabitants of the region is snow mobile,
and everyone looks forward to Winter so they can visit friends in other
villages. We were told that the winter
of 2011 provided little snow and the villagers had a very tough time of it.
The Basse-Cote-Nord shoreline is awash with rocky bays,
islands, islets, cays and all the things that make a natural shoreline
wonderful. Well – except sandy beaches,
but you find those in the next part of the Duplessis region.
My only disappointment on the ferry trip was that I had to
sleep during the night time part of it. We never left sight of the beautiful,
unspoiled northern shoreline of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. In fact for me, one of the biggest takeaways from our trip was an appreciation of just what an amazing body of water we have
just to our north – the mighty St. Lawrence.
It had the same kind of effect on me that Lake Superior did the first
time I saw it. There is something so
special it borders on the spiritual.
I fell in love with the area and would love to spend more time there.
The first port of call we were awake to experience was a
small community called La Tabatiere, which is part of the Gros Mecaina
municipality. The other part is Mutton
Bay, and together they have a population of about 535.
According to the literature, the name comes from the native
Innu word tabaquen which means sorcerer.
Apparently Innu who traded with settlers in La Tabatière usually
consulted a sorcerer-soothsayer before heading on a hunting trip. No mention of whether they consulted the
sorcerer before trading with the settlers who ultimately took the land from
them… Today, La Tabatière is home to the largest marine produce processing plant in the Basse-Cote-Nord.
We had a couple of
hours in port at La Tabatière, which was about enough time to leave the ferry
and walk along some of the nearby roads.
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Above and below, coming in to port at La Tabatiere |
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View from the roadside in La Tabatiere |
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Learning a little bit about the history |
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At every port cargo was loaded and unloaded by the on-board crane |
The next stop was the village of Tete-a-la-Baleine, or Head
of the Whale – population 190 souls. Its
name comes from a nearby island that is shaped like a whale’s head. The island is part of the nearby Toutes-Isles
Archipelago, one of the many archipelagos adorning the shores of the St.
Lawrence.
The trip from La Tabatiere to Tete-a-la-Baleine was superbly
beautiful and we were graced with a totally blue sky through which to enjoy the
scenery.
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This part of Canada is made up of very old rock. Very old - like Fangorn Forest |
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The birds you see on the rocks are eider ducks. Eider down had, at one time, been an important export for this area. |
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Coming in to port at Tete-a-la-Baleine |
The inhabitants of Tete-a-la-Baleine have a separate village
where they historically live during the fishing season. It is on nearby Providence Island. It is not used as much now, but in the days
before motored boats it was the only way for them to reach the fishing banks. The chapel on the island, Chapelle de l’ile
Providence, was built in 1895 and is the
oldest in Basse-Cote-Nord. Today it houses
an inn and restaurant.
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Chapelle de l'ile Providence on Providence Island. |
We did not have enough time to visit the island on this
trip, but we did have time for a tour of the main village. It was a tad pricey, but I didn’t grudge them
the cost since they really don’t have much in the way of income for the
village. About the most interesting
thing on the tour was the emergency service building which houses their unusual
emergency vehicles. Though it made all
the sense in the world as the best way to reach remotely located folks in
trouble.
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Tete-a-la-Baleine emergency service vehicles |
We
also visited a church whose altar featured a depiction of the windy shores upon
which it sits.
I couldn't resist snapping a picture of this village scene.
Tete-a-la-Baleine still is, by and large, a fishing village and there were many private fishing boats moored in the harbor alongside our Nordik Express.
Who would travel on
this ferry anyway?
Our fellow Nordik Express passengers were primarily local
people who use the ferry as one of the only ways to travel from place to
place. Many were indigenous folks who
live in one of the villages the Nordik serves.
Another group were business people with a need to travel up and down the
Basse-Cote-Nord. I believe John and I
were the only tourists on board, and may well have been the only Americans.
Early in the trip
we made friends with a perfectly lovely young Quebecois couple, Maude and
Pierre Alexandre. They had just finished
a four year assignment serving the Innu village of Pakuashipi where Maude was a
nurse and Pierre Alexandre was a teacher.
The village elders must have been pleased with them because they told us
the elders can send someone packing if they don’t like their attitude or
abilities. They were planning a year-long
trip around the world after finishing their assignment in Pakuashipi, and we very
much enjoyed talking with them.
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Maude, Pierre Alexandre and John on the deck of the Nordik Express |
The final port of call for this day was the charming village
of Harrington Harbor, population 300. It's known for its boardwalks. Every building in the village is connected by
way of well built wooden boardwalks. The
boardwalks abut nearly seamlessly, in places, with the broad smooth bedrock
ground surface upon which the buildings stand.
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What John is standing on is broad, flat bedrock which makes up the preponderance of the ground surface in the area. |
The only way to traverse the village along these boardwalks is by foot,
bike or – the preferred method – on 4X4s. The
boardwalks were built in the 1960s, a decade which also brought electricity and
telephones to the village.
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Rush hour in Harrington Harbor |
I was pretty enchanted by Harrington Harbor in the hour or
so we had available to stroll along its walkways. I fancy spending a couple of months here just
enjoying the scenery and experiencing this part of the world.
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Checking out the fresh,local crabs Pierre Alexandre and Maude found for their dinner |
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Picturesque Harrington Harbor scenes |
The folks we spoke to
told us about a movie that had been filmed here. They said it was a pretty
funny movie. We researched it when we
got home and found it on Netflix. It’s
called 'The Seduction of Dr. Lewis', and is a pretty good indie movie. We had fun seeing places we recognized from
our short visit. I recommend it. Award winning. Subtitled in English.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0366532/
We left Harrington Harbor to a beautiful sunset and a fly over by a flock of seagulls.
That night we had a wonderful lobster dinner on-board the Nordik Express. Before bed, we stood on deck enjoying the night and noticed a dark spot on the water that turned out to be our last iceberg sighting for the trip, captured here - perhaps appropriately -in a grainy, ghostly picture.
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The last iceberg.... |