After a leisurely breakfast, we headed back to the main road west, out of the park and towards the Saint John river valley. This is a rich and fertile area, with excellent farming and good soil for potatoes. McCains has their headquarters in the area, and a Potato Museum at which we stopped to learn more of the lowly spud.
One thing I learned is that potatoes have the highest protein content, next to soybeans, of any vegetable or legume. No wonder the Irish could, not just survive, but fare well on little more than potatoes.
Further up the river we stopped at a beach. It was a lovely hot day, near 30°, and all sunshine and blue sky. The kids played in the water for an hour, then we got out the fishing rod and wandered down to a nearby dock where they tossed the line into the water for another half hour or so, without success.
From there we crossed into Quebec and went into the city of Rivière du Loup, a bustling small metropolis. Near the centre of town is a park with a series of waterfalls (and hydro-electric works). A system of walking paths follows the gorge, and we embarked on a walkabout. The kids and I with Mo headed in one direction, while Laolao and Laoye said they’d go the opposite way. We had gone about half the distance when the heavens opened and rain began to pour down. In no time we were all soaked to the skin – so might as well keep walking! Shortly along we met Laolao and Laoye who, wisely, had read the clouds and fished out their raincoats before setting out. By the time we got back to the bus the rain had stopped and we all dried off and put on dry clothes.
That night we spent in the Zellers parking lot.
I’d said I’d pay for a whale-watching expedition for all of us – hence the stop in R-du-L. As luck would have it, the next morning dawned rather foggy, but we made our way to the cruise dock nonetheless. We had been told, after all, that there was a money-back guarantee if no whales were spotted.
No sooner had the ship left shore than Laolao and Mustang spotted a beluga. That was the first and last whale anyone saw. The riverguide / naturalist gazed through the fog non-stop and called out whenever he saw a grey seal – of which we saw, or rather glimpsed, quite a few – but no whales were to be seen, no doubt in large part owing to the fog.
Upon returning to the shore we were informed that they could not refund us our money but we were free to take the afternoon cruise at no charge, or we could take a voucher to take the cruise again at a future date this year, again at no charge. As we had no time to linger I took the voucher, with little hope of making it back out to R-du-Loup for another chance to see whales, at least not this whale-watching season.
From there we headed west again, towards Trois-Rivières, and found the Sanctuaire Notre-Dame-du-Cap, a Catholic retreat centre with a small campground for pilgrims to the Sanctuary. We took up residence there for the night and spent some time that evening exploring the lovely grounds.
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