Day 3 (Rimouski XVI)

Sunday, July 2
The next morning, we wake up and have breakfast outside on a picnic bench looking at the Roche. It was amazing.




We wanted to stay at this place but it was pretty far away. While I was trying to take a photo of this...this extremely happy man with his wife/girlfriend walks by and insists to take a group photo of us:


To which he added, "put your arms around each other, you guys are friends, right?" I swear he had a jump in his step.


We headed down to the quay to take a boat to L'île bon aventure (the island of good adventure?).


On the boat. Here we go.

First thing, circle around the roche, then circle the island and then stop on the island.


I promised Kollene I wouldn't post this, but it's just too damn funny. Alix got up to take a picture for Kit and left her unsuspecting camera with me. Don't leave me with things. She didn't see this until she was looking through her photos nearly a week later.


Getting closer.


Percé




Rocks.


The ISLAND...see those white specs? Those are birds.


Birds, lots and lots of birds. Northern Gannets to be precise.


So many birds...you have no idea, but you might once we get onto the island. BTW it smelled hoooooooorrible there.


This photo has a good story. So we're on the boat and I hear people yelling "Fuck! Fuck!" and I'm thinking, "really, this is inappropriate language, there's kids around, people should watch waht they say." Then someone yells "Fuck!" again and everyone runs over to the side of the boat, when I realise, they're yelling "phoques!" as in, "seals!"




So many birds, just sooo many.


Coming around the otherside of the island.


On the island. So the island has no running water or electricity and no one has lived on it since 1975ish.


After using the waterless bathrooms (indoor outhouses with hand sanitizer, seemed almost futuristic actually) we promptly stopped for snacks on the deck of one of the restored houses.


We took the short way there ( = to the bird mass), which was crossing through the middle of the island.


There were a lot of dead trees. With mushrooms.


Mushrooms are so colourful.


And pretty.


Epic?


Group photo! This little part of the trail was gorgeous. It really seemed natural (minus the beaten path).


Because we like to look at mushrooms, it took us 45 minutes instead of 25 minutes to get to the otherside of the island.


There was a lookout where the birds hang out. The section was all roped off and there were rangers making sure no one jumped the ropes. I decided that I need to pose with the birds.


Kissy kissy. There were like a bizillion of these birds.

Watch them in action.



They also store easily.


Getting the picture of how many there really are?


The cliff of birds was close to a kilometre long.


Oh yeah, they had flying penguins there.

After we left the bird area, we started walking on the trail along the coast. It was really nice but also somewhat rainy (the thick trees helped).. I ended up walking ahead of the others and there was a spot to go down to the water. Kit wanted to keep going but I wanted to explore, so they waited at the top, while I went down to explore the beach.



It was pretty, but it would have been mucho better if it was sunny. There were people using the overhang as shelter so they could eat their lunch sans umbrella.


There were all these abandoned houses we tried to get into, but the floors were collapsed and they were bolted shut.


The kids way behind. Open field+ rain = crap.




Why we opted to not sneak into a house to eat our lunch.


On the random boat we hitched a ride back on. I was really cold.
After we finally got off the island...the boats came every hour, and we got there at 2:15, which meant we had to wait until 3:00...so we sat in the cafe and ate our lunch.

Then it was off to Bioparc and then to Campbellton, NB to spend the night. However, we realised while driving that there was no way that we were going to make it to the bioparc or to Nouvelle/Miguasha, so we decided we'd do it on Monday.


Midway through our trip, we made a pit stop. The gas station bathroom not only provided entertainment, but not pictured is a pine car airfreshner hanging on the door.

I was driving the whole way, so I didn't get to take pics.
Here are some driving photos:

Hey Ohms! You have your own city here.


Bridge to New Brunswick!

At dinner, we were glad to find out:

They don't serve conservatives and that in French they don't have preservatives. They got that muddled up, in French conservatives=preservatives, and preservatives=condoms. Anyway, it was an amazing restaurant and they gave us all caramel spread.

Also another genius moment...I notice that everything is in French, "what's going on? I thought we were in Nova Scotia, why is everything in French?"
Everyone else "New Brunswick."

The reason we went to Campbellton is for the neato youth hostel... it's where we met Sebastian, our light house keeper.

Bunks!


We had the rest of our sangria.


Dixie Lee seemed sluttier here.


So after some wandering around town, we decided we'd go for drinks at ...


Dinky Bar! Which was full of very friendly locals, with whom we were weary to talk to. I discovered, Moosehead Red...and wow, yum. I wish we had that. The guys at the bar tried to convince me that there is only Moosehead in NB, which I informed him he was mistaken.


Then it was bedtime.