Quebec Province

Montmorency Falls, just east of Quebec City.

Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupre Cathedral.

Whale watching at Tadoussac.

Hotels in Tadoussac.

The hotel with the communal toilet.

As dry as possible.

July 27-August 4, 2006

We spent the night in Tadoussac at the Maison Clamphi, a small bed and breakfast style hotel. During the night I had to get up and use the communal toilet. As I left dressed only in a towel, I heard my door click behind me. When I returned the door to our room was locked. I knocked softly trying to get Terri's attention, but she was asleep. I tried a bit louder and then just sat on the stairs for a bit trying to think what to do. Then another patron came up the stairs and saw me sitting there in a towel, can't imagine what he thought... Finally, by knocking loudly I managed to wake Terri up and probably a host of other sleepers too.

Driving along the highway I passed a car and then saw a police car coming towards us. He turned around and followed me and then pulled me over. He was really young and I think he thought that maybe I was a young punk, until I pulled off my helmet. He actually looked surprised that I was an older guy. He explained that he had pulled me over because I had failed to complete my pass before the solid no passing line returned. We talked for a bit and I managed to talk my way out of the ticket.

We went whale watching at Tadoussac. This is where the fresh water of the St. Lawrence and the Saguenay River combine with the salt water of the Atlantic tides and the mingling of the nutrient rich waters attracts all types of whales. We saw White Sided Atlantic Dolphins, Minke whales, Humpbacks, a North Atlantic Right whale and a blue whale!

On the ride home we took a different route to avoid driving back along the 401. We headed inland along the Saguenay River. We ran into some rain particularly around Mt. Tremblant and pulled over a couple of times to wait it out. When we crossed into Ontario again, we stayed at Renfrew. When we woke up in the morning it was pouring and promising to do so all day. Luckily there was a Canadian Tire next door. We went there and bought Terri a yellow rain suit and some plastic bags and tape to put around our feet. Then we headed out. We couldn't afford to stay longer as we had to get back to Toronto in time to fly south to Costa Rica. For a while we were driving along the highway and we could see the thunderstorms just north of us, but unfortunately the road finally turned right into them. The drive wasn't much fun with the driving rain. We stopped at a Tim Horton's and I saw another very wet biker, so I asked him which way he was travelling and he said the opposite from us. So I asked what the weather was like ahead of us and he said "Well I almost drown about 50 kms back!"

We continued on and luckily the weather let up a bit and we got patches of rain. When we got to Minden we could see evidence of the storms with overturned trees and hydro poles. A tornado maybe?

We arrived home safely at Terri's apartment after a successful and exciting 300 kilometre trip. Now on to the next adventure.