Quebec, 40 years on
The first time I went to Quebec I was 10 years old. I went to Montreal while they were building the Olympic stadium, I went into a McDonalds for the first time (and had what was to me the most incredible strawberry milkshake), we went to one of the great lakes and stayed in log cabin. My Dad was 50. Although I’ve been to Canada many times since, I’d not been back to Quebec since then and I was well aware of Quebec’s fine reputation for whale-watching and wildlife-viewing, but conscious that there were very few people in the UK who travelled to Quebec with wildlife in mind.
I was determined to get back to Quebec as it is a bit of a hole in our portfolio of Canadian holidays, so towards the end of 2013 I set about planning a trip, and this summer together with my wife and three children we went… and had the holiday of a lifetime. My youngest daughter was 10 when we departed for Quebec and I was about to score a half-century!
The heady heights of the Bigtop
We flew into Montreal and headed up to Quebec City the following morning where we spent a couple of nights. Quebec is a beautiful historic city with plenty to keep a family busy for many a day. For us though, the highlight was an evening performance at Cirque du Soleil. If you are unfamiliar with Cirque du Soleil they are (it is?) an extraordinary circus performance that has travelled the world, but which has its home on the waterfront of this charming city. And, we would never have gone had it not been for one of my girls who knew this was their home, and thought it would be the perfect place to see them… and it was.
A small sliver on the St Lawrence
Our self-drive trip took us in a north-easterly direction firstly to Le Bic National Park, then to Matane Nature Reserve and on to Gaspesie National Park - each with its own unique characteristics and each wonderful.
Le Bic is famous for its seals, and we saw plenty, but the thing I will remember most about Le Bic is curiously not the seals, but the breathtaking beauty of this section of the coast. The park is not big, it is a small sliver of land on the St Lawrence, but in such a small space it crams in ‘the spectacular’. We took the coastal path and, knowing that the tide was out, walked all the way round the peninsular - across interesting beaches where we looked at shells and studied the seaweed, through woodland and over rocky outcrops. The weather was perfect for a walk like this and all of us felt that we had thrown off our English cobwebs by the end of it.
The moose is loose
Driving up the coast to Matane we kept an eye out for whales and then turned inland to the entrance of the reserve. From here it was another hour or so’s drive to get to our cabin on the lakeside. We were driving through beautiful forested countryside, and to our amazement had a brilliant moose encounter along the way. This was a first for me (other than seeing one from the air!) and they are rather larger than I had imagined!
“… among grunts and rumbles and flashes and creaks and clicks and murmurs of “Alice, ssh!”, it began to flee…” Read Charlotte’s blog
Matane is the place for moose in this part of Canada with some 3,000 or so in the reserve. Here we stayed in a beautiful log cabin, probably larger than my family home on the edge of a crystal clear lake.
We had our own mooring and two rowing boats, there were kayaks available for us to use and there are some great walking trails. So, you guessed it, we rowed, swam, kayaked and walked in Matane… and loved every minute of it. And, on our last evening here we went out on a fabulous moose safari. Our guide spoke excellent English, had a great sense of humour and in addition to teaching my girls how to talk in moose language, managed to give us some great sightings of moose.
The ‘no-caribou’ trail - we wouldn’t have missed it for anything
On then to Gaspesie where unfortunately the weather turned nasty on us and despite our best efforts we failed to see caribou. We did the self-guided caribou trail, which is quite a climb, to a viewing point with spectacular views out across the park. But sadly, on this occasion we saw little other than driving rain and low fog whilst being battered by a gale! Having said that, we enjoyed every minute of it, everyone was excited about the prospect of seeing caribou, and the possibility that they might be around the next corner kept us on our toes. We wouldn't have missed it for anything. We rounded our stay off in Gaspesie with dinner in the rather fabulous Gite de Mont Albert and were disappointed to have to leave the park… we still had unfinished business!
A sensory explosion!
Gaspesie was as far east as our trip was taking us so the following morning we began heading south-west along the coast road for Rimouski where we boarded a ferry to Forestville on the north side of the St Lawrence - but not before taking time to visit Gardin des Metis where we stopped for lunch. In fact to describe it as ‘lunch’ is almost a crime - this was the most superb meal that I think any of us had ever had. It was a sensory explosion presented so beautifully that it seemed a shame to cut into it. And, served in the most idyllic setting imaginable. As with everywhere so far, our only regret was not having enough time to explore the gardens more fully.
But we had to head across the river, so in glorious summer sunshine we drove onto the small ferry and headed north keeping watch for whales… we weren't disappointed and saw plenty of harbour porpoises as we went. The road to Tadoussac from Forestville is not busy - and in fact it felt as though we had taken the ferry to a different country in many ways. It was quiet, and felt somehow remote.
In the low evening sunlight we saw a huge flock of common nighthawks catching insects and then arrived at the bustling town of Tadoussac and our hotel of the same name. What a great place Tadoussac is - we will definitely be going back (though in fact I can say this about almost everywhere we went on our trip). It is vibrant busy town with some lovely hotels and a number of great restaurants. But of course really, it is Quebec’s centre of whale-watching excellence.
I never really thought we would see a blue whale
After an early breakfast we walked the short distance to a gathering point and donned our floatation suits before walking down to the jetty and boarding a 24-person zodiac to head out into the St Lawrence. This is a finely tuned operation with (excellent) interpretation in both English and French and of course we saw whales - and plenty of them! Harbour porpoise and belugas almost straight away, then minke, fin, humpback and the most fabulous of all - blue whale. What a treat!
Having whale-watched all over the world now, it is blue whales that I most wanted to see, and I have spoken to my girls about them for years. They know all the ‘fun facts’ - its the largest mammal that has ever lived on earth, its a long as a Boeing 737, its brain is the size of a Mini Cooper, its arteries are so big that an adult human could swim through them… my girls know all of these gems of ‘useful’ information. But I never really thought we would see one. In fact this year, there were nine blue whales that spent the summer in the St Lawrence enjoying the cold deep water and rich food pickings.
“It was all so exiting, I couldn’t stop taking photos. Although my Dad and I have both seen whales in the past, this was a very different experience as there was more than one species at once which made it all the more exciting for me.” Have a look at Chloe’s post on her whale-watching experience.
It was going to be difficult to top the mornings whale-watching but our afternoon out in double kayaks, on glassy water came pretty close. As a small family group, and with our own guide, we paddled out followed by porpoises, our guide telling us all about the natural history of the area, to the deep water - 300 metres deep in fact - where we stopped and listened.
We listened to the tranquil sound of minke whales feeding around us, and porpoises playing, and to the colossal sound of a blue whale breathing. How far away it was I don’t know, but it is a sound that I will forever remember, and one which, as I write about it, stirs up an extraordinary feeling of emotion - perhaps due the fact that its very existence lies in the balance, a balance which lies in our hands.
We didn’t want to leave Tadoussac (this was becoming a common theme!) but we knew there was more excitement to come so we headed into Saguanay Fjord National Park for night en route to Laurentides Wildlife Reserve. It was another short stop, and we didn’t do it justice, but we did our best - we spent time by the water and did a beautiful morning hike.
Our final wildlife stop was in Laurentides Wildlife Reserve where we spent two nights in a fabulous log cabin and our mission here was to see bears, black bears. Our guide was supremely knowledgeable and whilst during the day we canoed, walked and learnt how the researchers carry out their valuable studies into bears, beavers, moose and caribou, at dusk we went in search of bears. On our first evening we viewed them from the comfort of well-designed raised hides, and the second evening we stayed in our vehicle and went much closer to the spot where regularly appear. First one bear, then a second, then a porcupine, and then a third bear, walking carefully, almost tentatively, aware that we were there but wanting to forage.
Immy (aged 11) had a fabulous experience “It was an AMAZING experience seeing all these wonderful bears especially the large male. It’s a great memory, which I will never, ever forget!”
As a conclusion to our family wildlife holiday, it couldn’t have been better, and we left the bears to their wilderness, travelling the next day to Quebec for our flight home.
Take a look at our new self-drive trips in Quebec, ideal for families looking for a well-paced wildlife adventure or a whale watching experience.
