Tadoussac & Whales

We had a good sleep after our brewery stop right by the river in Matane and up super early to be at the ferry for 7am to head to Godbout across the Gulf of St Lawrence.  We were there at 7am and an hour before departure but as we watched the loading people spend more and more time squeezing people in and our departure time came and went it was apparent they’d overbooked! We didn’t get on and worried about getting to tadoussac as we had whale watching booked the next day. 

Fortunately we re-booked onto the afternoon ferry to Comeu - not quite the same destination and a slightly longer ferry (2hrs) but phew we wouldn’t miss our whale watching (I’ve been desperate to see whales for years and we’ve tried on 3-4 occasions to go on other whale watching tours in other countries and failed to see one so far!)

A quick replan to explore around Matane before the afternoon departure and we decided to pop to st flavie. They have an art gallery there and part of it is an installation of people walking out from the sea to the gallery, it was a fantastic site and Alex enjoyed scampering between the people and looking in the rock pools. 

We saw so much life in the rock pools including purple centipede’s with fluttering legs we failed to identify and Alex found a huge rock crab (over the size limit we checked) Result! and it was my job to catch him without losing a finger and bring him with us for dinner! Alex was beyond excited to have found and caught a crab and to eat him!

We drove through some really different little villages off the highway on the way back to the ferry including Metis-sun-mer which felt almost English as there were hedges and gardens - something most of Canadian homes we’ve seen so far don’t really have.

Guy also spots our first ground hog sunbathing on the rocks!

After lunch in the queue for the ferry and watching a couple of giant cargo ships moving into the harbour, The ferry trip was relaxed (well it was once we boarded and we knew we wouldn’t get left behind again!)

We did get the crossing free due to the debacle of being left behind in the morning (bonus!)

Arriving at baie comeu much later than planned we have a pit stop for dinner and to cook the crab (yum!) and then we need to drive straight towards tadoussac.  Here we had planned the whale watching - the mix of fresh and sea water creates an amazing krill and plankton food hotspot that draws in up to 13 species of whales that migrate though here (except the beluga who live here permanently) and it is one of the best places in the world to see them.

We find an amazing little free campsite thanks to IOverlander in a “relais” village which are designated nice stopover villlages with lots of services and amenities for travellers.  In this spot there was a loo block, fresh water, a dump site, kids play park and dog agility playground as well as camping spots right by the river.  We were just sad we arrived late and would be departing early.

We try to sleep but keep hearing what we think is someone whistling outside our van - it is in fact white throated sparrows that sound just like someone whistling a tune and they’re all a little different - pretty magical and the frogs are outside having some fun from the sound of it too!

We wake early and excited to get to our whale watching tour on a little zodiac boat departing from tadoussac.  Sadly it’s a cold rainy day (sandwiched in amongst a week glorious sunshine - Sod's Law!) we wrap ourselves up in all our layers and have a load more added by the tour company and bright orange waterproofs! Alex is so wrapped up he waddles to the boat.

We head out past an old lighthouse in the middle of the sea and we’re soon on bumpy waters that indicates the confluence of sea water and the river mixing and arrival at the food rich feeding grounds. 

Excitement abounds when our guide yells "minke 11 o clock!" We are all desperately watching for whale blows and the movement of their backs in the water but we don’t see the shy minke who is only popping up very briefly for a single breath.  The minke are just starting to arrive back here as it’s early in the season so we move on to try and see some beluga who are giving birth to their calves right now.

Again more excitement as the guide calls out beluga but again we don’t see them as they are on the other side of the boat and fleeting - they are protected so the boat isn’t allowed to go too close and follow them! I think I saw a brown back of a small beluga calf but can’t be sure.

It’s getting super cold now and we head into the sanguenay fjord which is stunning to see if any of the beluga are here to calve, sadly we don’t see any but we do see some cute harbour seals and a seal pup on the rocks. 

Feeling deflated we all return back to harbour - only a couple of people on our boat managed to glimpse a beluga but mostly we didn’t see anything! I’m beginning to think we’re jinxed when it comes to spotting whales but we’ll try again in Vancouver when it’s a little later in the season and hopefully more whales about!

To commiserate we have a flight of beers in a lovely little microbrewery and toast the whales we didn’t see with a glass of “whale ale” in hand!

After a short free ferry across the sanguenay ford it's onward next to Quebec City and a run of 3 cities quebec, Montreal and Ottawa before we pick up Zara from Toronto.

Emma