Oh Canada! June 1st - Baie-Comeau, QC to Manic Cinq, QC

Day 4 – Friday, June 1^st – Baie-Comeau,QC to Manic Cinq, QC

The fellow at the Hotel le Manoir desk told us when we checked in that we would see whales in the bay in the morning if the wind wasn’t blowing too hard.  And what do you know?  We DID see them in the morning!  We looked out our bedroom window and saw spouts several times.  We even saw the backs of a few whales at different times.  The same fellow told us that morning at breakfast that they were likely belugas and/or small black whales the name he didn’t know how to say in English.  We had a leisurely breakfast with our coffee and binoculars watching the gulf for any further sightings.  Then we packed up the Highlander and headed North for Manic Cinq – our next night’s stay.

Spout spotting

View from breakfast patio at Hotel le Manoir

Watching the ferry come in to port

We left the beauty of the St. Lawrence coast and headed North on highway 389 where it seems they can have a bit of road trouble in the winter.....

This essentially says that the roads between various points is closed if the light is blinking.

And you'd best be sure to have a full tank of gas before you had out....

that means there is gas in 1k, then not again for another 210k or about 126 miles

We passed by Manic 2 a short way north of Baie-Comeau

The landscape then changed quickly from coastal to one filled to overflowing with inland lakes and rivers.  I’ve never seen a land with more water in my entire life.  It’s hard to exaggerate the amount of fresh water Quebec has in the form of rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, etc etc.  If I were to take a picture of ever one of them we passed, I’d run out of film. And that’s hard to do with a digital camera.

Ready for some SERIOUS SWATTING!

Picture perfect day

Interestingly though, and different from the U.S., You cannot access most of the beautiful  rivers, lakes, ponds, wetlands, etc etc .  There aren’t public accesses or side roads that lead down to the water or anything like that.  It's just not geared for recreation, for the most part.  

AUTO 389 is a road that was built by, and is there to serve the needs of, Hydro Quebec - and that’s pretty much it.

It’s fine for people to use it, but it isn’t designed as a tourist road whatsoever.  It’s a totally utilitarian highway that just happens to run through one of the most beautiful places on God’s green Earth.

So we had to content ourselves with pulling off and taking pictures from the side of the road and wishing we could get closer to the water.  It was even hard to find a good place to stop for our lunch because we kept hoping we’d find a place where we could get close to a body of water and have a nice view while we lunched. 

I did, however, find these little beauties on one of my treks behind the bushes....

We crossed the 50^th parallel today!

We drove for pretty much the whole day before we reached Manic Cinq and our hotel for the night, Motel de l’Energie.  The motel is geared primarily for people who work on the dam, not tourists.  We weren't sure what to make of the place when we first got there.  The buildings are very modular and the registration desk doubles as the checkout for the gas station and sundries store.  But the room was practically brand new and very clean and comfortable.  The only drawback is that it had a double bed – and that’s a bit small for us these days.  Chris needs lots of space to sprawl around and toss and turn.

Outside our room in a new modular unit.  

Manic Cinq, or Manic 5 is a dam.  A really really BIG dam.  In fact, it’s billed as the largest arch and buttress concrete dam in the world, standing 462 feet tall and having a thickness of 15 feet wide at the top and close to 200 feet thick at the bottom.  It’s pretty impressive to stand under it and see how big it is.  It’s even more impressive –maybe even a little scary – to see how close we could get to it.  I wonder if dams in the U.S. are that accessible to any John Q. Public who wants to walk up to them.

And here is the road we'd take the next morning north to Labrador City

Looking down the road from Manic 5

I had asked the fellow at Hotel Manoir in Baie Comeau the night before if he wasn’t a bit nervous being downstream from Manic Cinq.  I mean, if it let go…… He said that he had heard if the dam were to breach catastrophically, not only would it take out Baie Comeau, it would cause a big enough disturbance in the St. Lawrence River to take out the town on the south side of the river as well.  All the more reason that I found it a bit unsettling that we were allowed to get so close to it.

The dam is named after the Manicougan River and is called Manic Cinq because it is the 5^th dam on the Manicougan River.  At least that’s what we were told by a local when we asked about it.  We also passed signs pointing directions to dams along the Outard River.  The Quebecois are not afraid to harness the power of their water, nosiree.

Manicougan River here and below

We saw our first wildlife today!  It was….. a Porcupine!  Yes indeed, the little fellow ambled across the road right in front of us and didn’t seem too perturbed about our big Highlander.  Hopefully there are still moose in our future on this trip.

Don't rush me!

And don't BUG me!

  

See, I told you I'd make it across ok. (This picture also shows the kind of road we'd be traveling for the next thousand miles or so - very sharp gravel.)

And then we saw another one who was equally as impressed with us as the first fellow.

Let me outta here, quick!  Wait - I can't move quick.  Rats!

Now go away and leave me be!

The restaurant at Motel de l'Energie had good basic food, but as we’ve noticed so far in Canada, it’s higher priced than we’re used to in the States.  Then add 13% taxes onto it – it adds up.  


We shared a piece of pie for dessert called sugar pie.  I had seen it listed on another restaurant’s menu also, so I rather think it’s a Canadian type of pie.  Anyway it was WONderful!  I may have to try making that myself when I have enough people to share it with so I don’t risk eating it all myself.


Here are a couple of links to recipes for the pie.  Whatever you do, don't look at the nutritional information.     : - )


http://allrecipes.com/recipe/miraculous-canadian-sugar-pie/

http://www.food.com/recipe/canadian-brown-sugar-pie-172758