The sunny day we had prayed for didnt seem to be making an appearance when we got up at 7am in preperation for our whale watching adventure.

The mist was thick and we could barely see our hands in front of our faces so we wrapped up warm in as many layers of clothes as we could and headed out anyway. I was so nervous about the boat ride itself (as we had booked to go out in the high speed zodiac that seats only 12 people) that I couldn’t face my jam sandwich breakfast!

We arrived (late as we missed the turn off) and met with the captain…who looked like a typical french sailor, the only thing missing was a pipe…who said “we will not go out now as we cannot see anything! Come back at 11.”

Back to peggy we went and ate our breakfast in the mist and hoped for sunshine. Adamant that we wouldn’t be going out at all Alex sent me in to check at 11 and it was only as I got down the hill to the waters edge that I could see the end of the jetty, land over the water and also the sun peeping through the lifting fog. I ran back up the hill, grabbed Alex and we ran down to the front to get kitted out for the ride. We looked like a cross between spacemen and firemen in our yellow waterproof waders with braces and bright red floatation devises!

Two boats went out with 10 people in each so there was plenty of room. I was armed with a sick bag (just in case) and my camera, Alex armed with a bag of cookies and his camera and we were off…at the speed of light!

It was so fast I could barely stay in my seat bouncing up and down on the waves, the water felt like glass beneath us as we took off and crashed down at speed for about 30 minutes! Once we all had serious whip lash and a broken rib or two we slowed down to bob about in the icy black waves.

Within minutes we saw the plumes of water rising into the air not far from us and headed towards the group of 5 minke whales! The captain explained that as they are in a sanctury the rules are that within 400 meters of the whales the boat cannot travel at speed and that they must not get too close. The best way to see the whales was to let them come to us.

We got quite close and saw the group of whales dive back into the water and we set off in another direction to see the beluga whales. The Beluga looked like silver hills in the black water and there looked to be 7 or 8 of them. The captain explained how they are protected and that the boats cannot get near to them at all so we watched from a safe distance.

Plenty of grey seals (known as the sea-wolf) came to peep at us in the boat and filled the time inbetween whale sightings which were frequent. At one point we saw two finback whales so close to the boat that they dived right below us. Thats when the realisation of the size of these creatures really hit home. “The St. Lawrence’s tides, currents, and the contour of its marine trench yield amazing cloudlike concentrations of fish and plankton that can stretch for many kilometers. It’s no wonder that this kind of “fine dining” helps make the St. Lawrence one of the world’s premier whale watching destinations!”

The changes in tides were strong and extremely noticable in our little rubber
dingy and to think that this river was full of whales was quite daunting as we bobbed along. We watched for an hour and then back upto a gazillion knots to get up back onto dry land.

The mist had completely lifted by time we got back and our prayers had been answered for that sunny day! After our exciting and adventurous morning we had a good 100 miles to travel back towards Quebec as we are aiming to be in Ottowa (450 milesaway) by Thursday in time for Canada day 1st July!

We made good time and arrived in Sainte Rose du Nord to watch the sunset and to try the famous Quebecious speciality Poutine! Chips, gravy and cheese curds, this dish was made with me in mind! It was sooo good! We finished off a lovely day by camping at the top of a mountain in a lay-by!

We got up early to climb to the viewpoint on the mountain to watch the sun rise with our coffees which set us in good stead for another day of heavy driving!

See what happens next in our wedding travel adventure!