We are successfully on the road again with a new battery for Hazelnut Romy. We’re still not sure what caused the old battery to fail, so there’s a reasonable probability we’ll reach this point again in the future, but maybe we just got a dud. They tested everything extensively in Saguenay and found no unusual electrical draw, so who knows! We are very grateful for the Saguenay Mercedes crew who took us seriously, explained everything in English even though there was only one person there who could translate, let us sleep in their parking lot for free, lent us a personal car to get groceries, and even recommended a great campsite to stay at when we left. Since they recommended that we stay in the area for a couple nights, we adapted the next few days of travel, which meant cutting out the south shore of the St Lawrence River, Acadian Peninsula, and Kouchibouguac National Park. In return, we got an incredible riverside campsite, some extra time on the north shore of the river, and a delightful brewery stay in Nackawic, NB.

The Saguenay River flows from Lac-Saint-Jean, north of Saguenay, to the St Lawrence at the town of Tadoussac. Like any good fjord, its cliff-lined channel provides breathtaking sights. The salt water from the St Lawrence River pushes upstream under the freshwater surface of the river, meaning the fjord also gets a huge variety of marine life. Including, apparently, the elusive and enormous Greenland Shark, which spends time in the depths of the river. Our first stop upon leaving Saguenay was in Sainte-Rose-Du-Nord, a picturesque tiny town surrounded by trees and rock walls. The wharf in this town juts into a perfect little bay, with views up and down the fjord of the Saguenay. On this day, the wind was blowing like crazy and there was a significant swell coming into the bay, but the sights were still incredible and the wind kept things cool and kept the bugs away. We had some cheese and bread at a table on the wharf before continuing our journey.

The road along this side of the river (Boulevard Tadoussac, though I’m sure it has other names along the way) climbs up and down and around through large, forested hills, with rocky outcroppings, sparkling lakes, and occasional views of the river. The day was absolutely perfect, and every lake sparkled like something out of your imagination. Perfect.

Our consultant at the Mercedes dealership had suggested that we camp along the Riviere-Sainte-Marguerite in one of his favorite fishing and camping spots. The river has pull-outs all along it with numbered pools for fishing, and a few for camping. He told us what number to look for along the road and described the site we would find, but we were both blown away by the beauty of the spot. It was windy enough that the bugs stayed away and we enjoyed sitting in the shade and watching the river flow by. Across the river were forested slopes leading up to rocky cliffs at the top, and we were able to watch the sun go down from this viewpoint. We ended up sharing the spot with a couple other campers, but there was plenty of room, and we enjoyed the quiet, lovely night in the woods. It really felt like someone had shared their “secret spot” — a place I would happily return!

In the morning, we decided to drive south to the shore of the St Lawrence and see what we could find. We headed for a National Park spot with a lighthouse and viewpoint to watch for whales. We really didn’t know much about it, except that apparently you can sometimes see Beluga Whales there– a group of them that live in the river and are separate from the arctic population. The site was crowded, but very well-managed and spacious, so parking was easy and there was a ton of room to spread out on the rocks by the river. The river is so wide there that we couldn’t even see the other side, though there was a little fog that helped with that. The day was sunny, but cool, and the breezes continued to keep the humidity at bay. It was lovely to sit by the water, and we figured this was entirely worth it, even if we didn’t see a single marine mammal.

But then we saw marine mammals! First, there was a Minke whale swimming by, near the shore. We saw it a couple more times. Then one of the kids behind us spotted belugas. They were a ways off shore, but the sun was absolutely shining off of them. They are so completely white that they absolutely glow. There were at least 2-3 adults and 2 juveniles that we could see and they just stuck around, seemingly playing or practicing their dives. I never really thought I’d see belugas in the wild, so this was very exciting!

From there, we tried to go to another viewing spot in Tadoussac, but the town was so crowded that we just kept driving right through. We ended up at the Tadoussac Dunes, where we walked down a very long, very nice, new stairway to the beach, waded in the water, and got very sweaty walking back up. Driving back out to the main road, we took a gravel road to avoid going back through town. As we were driving, there were a bunch of tiny private drives going into the woods. As we glanced down one of them to a grassy field, a large bear startled, stood on its hind legs, and ran off into the woods! I wish we could have gotten a better look, but we definitely startled one another. The main highway along the river uses a ferry to cross the mouth of the Saguenay River from Tadoussac to keep going south. There are two car ferries that go back and forth all day and night and the crossing takes about 10 minutes once you’re on the boat. The drive continued to be beautiful. Our campsite for the night was in the municipal campground of St Simeon. We had an inexpensive site up the hill from the river, so there wasn’t much view, but it was an easy 2-minute walk to get ice cream, so it all worked out.

The next two days were mostly about driving a long ways pretty fast, to get back on track and arrive in PEI only a day later than initially expected. But there were some highlights. A very tight parking spot on the ferry across the St Lawrence (which takes over an hour! That’s how big the river is!). More cheese from Fromagerie Le Detour, including their famous Grey Owl cheese– appropriately, cheese was our last stop in Quebec. More lovely scenery as we crossed into New Brunswick then skirted the border of Maine. A LOVELY stay at the Big Axe Brewery, a Harvest Host site in Nackawic, New Brunswick– the sites are right on the St John River, and their beer is really good! The world’s largest axe at the park nearby. A stop at Mrs. Dunster’s Bakery in Moncton, the original home of Morgan’s favorite chocolate sugar donuts. And then Prince Edward Island!

We’ll pick up there next time, I think, since there’s a beach calling my name today. PEI is fantastic, though, and I’m really looking forward to sharing it with you soon.