Oh Canada! June 16th - Basse-Cote-Nord from Blanc Sablon, Quebec to Harrington Harbor

Day 19 Thursday, June 16^th

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. 

Above and below, coming in to port at La Tabatiere

View from the roadside in La Tabatiere

Learning a little bit about the history

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.

This part of Canada is made up of very old rock.  Very old - like Fangorn Forest

The birds you see on the rocks are eider ducks.  Eider down had, at one time, been an important export for this area.

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. 

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.

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.

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.  

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.

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. 

Checking out the fresh,local crabs Pierre Alexandre and Maude found for their dinner

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.

The last iceberg....