L’automne 2024: Day 5: Le-Paradis Marin, QC: Whales in Paradis

For this morning walk I ventured out of the day care (oh, sorry, I meant campground) and over to the municipal park that, in addition to the police HQ and the fire department, hosts a beautiful lookout. I then hit the local neighbour hood inconveniently (for the residents) close to the campground but more importantly for me, at the same elevation. I did happen to notice that one of the sites nearby had a bear pelt over their lawn chair. I guess that is one way to make a statement and stay warm.

After walk time we had a non-aggressive exit from the campground. We had dumped on the way in so skipped the dump on the way out.

Our first stop was at the boulangerie in Tadoussac for some baguette. Then we headed to a whale watching lookout in Les Bergerrones. We stayed there for a while, eating croissant and we finally saw a minke whale. The whale was kind and kept swimming back and forth across our view but at a fair distance from shore. We called him Juan as he was the only Juan we saw.

Next we went to the National Whale Interpretive Centre and walked to the viewing area there. This is a paid visit. The shore here is smooth rounded rocks with deep water just off shore. It is also known for persistent wind. We had a nice picnic featuring baguette, fromage et viande on the rocks. We did not dress for the wind. We saw one minke whale close to shore and had several seal sightings. After a few hours we decided to depart and head to the campground which was only a few kilometres away.

We were far more challenged than we should have been finding our campsite. Eventually we did and were pleased to see that we had a decent view of the river 163 meters from the front of the van.

We set up and then took the wrong path down to the rocks along the shore of the river. There may be a pattern here where we take the wrong route. Well, we always get there! As we were walking on the rocks to find a nice vantage point we heard a whale exhale (it’s a whale of an exhale) and looked up to see a humpback whale diving. We never saw it surface again. This whale was not as considerate as Juan. Once dinner time approached we headed back to the van.

I found Mrs Milddogs comfortably sitting in the van with her feet on the dash viewing the river while she took a break from the sun and wind. As we were prepping for dinner, we just happened to look at the river and spotted another minke whale (Juan, is that you?) swimming close to shore.

Post dinner we had a nice sunset visit with Tony and Barb. The XX crowd took the front seats of the van and watched the river while we XY people sat at the picnic table. No more whales spotted.

Tomorrow we will probably bring our chairs to the rocks to avoid another sore arse day.

This campground is nicer than the one in Tadoussac. I’ll experience the showers tomorrow.

I’m sunburnt.