Crazy Moebius Explores the Americas: Some adjustments required

Day 32

Current Location: Havre-aux-Maisons, Iles-de-la-Madeleine, Quebec (Canada)

Total Countries visited: 2

Total Miles Driven: 3,548

Number of Large Marge technical problems since the last post: 0 (!!!)

Well hello there! This is my first post written from inside Large Marge. She's quite comfortable !

I am technically in the middle of the ocean, on a tiny archipelago 60 miles (by ferry) off the coast of Prince Edward Island called Iles-de-la-Madeleine (Magdalen Islands). Can't be much more remote than this ! 13,000 inhabitants here, and the entire island is cliffs and beaches. It's gorgeous.

See how I got here in the picture below:

I'm at the upper rightmost arrow on the map.

I have done many great things since my last post, it has been a wonderful time. I drove around the Gaspesie peninsula of Quebec, across New Brunswick, spent some time walking and hiking at the National Parks, saw a lot of wildlife, went deep sea fishing, saw magnificent sunsets... everything was just perfect. If you have never gone to the Canadian maritime provinces (Eastern Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia), I highly recommend it... cures stress every time...

Day 32. I have been on the road for more than one month. What a start! It has been even more exciting than expected, but quite different in some aspects.

For one thing, everything is going much slower than anticipated. Disregarding the time spent waiting for Large Marge to get fixed up, I am spending a lot more time visiting the sites, doing fun activities, relaxing... I think that's a good thing, but requires adjustment on my part.

Also, I finally am starting to feel relaxed. I can't say whether today is Thursday or Friday, every day feels the same (that's different from before, when Mondays felt like a slap in the face and Sunday evenings I had my weekly indigestion). Up until last week I was somehow feeling pressed for time... I would feel bad if I spent one extra hour in a cute little village, or if I didn't get to my desired campground by nightfall... I quickly realized that was wrong, so I forced myself to take a day off (and now, 3 more days off on the islands). That did the trick. I don't care anymore how far I go on a given day, as long as I enjoy it fully. Who knows where I'll end up in 6 months? Maybe Argentina, maybe not... it doesn't matter.

As for the last few days in more detail:

Gaspesie

Gaspesie is a peninsula in Eastern Quebec, giving into the St. Lawrence seaway. It is a gorgeous area, with mountains inland, cliffs on the shore, ocean always in sight... quite dramatic. The highlight of the region is Perce, which has a huge rock in the middle of the ocean with a hole in it (probably not the most elegant description, but looking at the pictures you'll see). As luck would have it, I met Irene as I was in Perce and she was visiting the area. The sea was very angry that day my friends ! And Large Marge was rocking back and forth through the night because of the wind gusts... a bit scary.

The sky glows pink at night.

Unbelievable sunsets.

Cliffs of Perce

Pierced rock of Perce

Spent the night right on the sea.

Monster rockin the rock.

A bit inland from the shore is Gaspesie National Park, with some of the highest mountains in Quebec. I went hiking on a 11 mile trip up and around one of the most technical mountains, Mont Albert. It was very difficult but rewarding with the beautiful views.

Mysterious forest.

I'm on top of the world !

Quite an amazing view.

Acadia

Acadia is an area Northeast of New Brunswick where Acadians live. Acadians are another group of french descendants who settled on the Atlantic, distinctly from Quebecers. They have quite the accent (even for me)! The Acadian accent is like typical Quebec accent, with a rolled "r" and interchanging all "a"s for "o"s. I can't ever get tired of hearing them speak... And they are very proud of their heritage.

Acadian village.

Pastoral scenery.

Lady making wool.

Beaches

The beaches of atlantic canada are a world apart... Rugged, not crowded, they often go on for miles... I spent a day at a wonderful beach in Kouchibouguac (don't ask me how to pronounce) National Park in New Brunswick... I walked about 5 miles on the beach just for the heck of it, and there was absolutely nobody in sight. It was just the bearded man and the sea (and a lot of birds). I loved it.

Neverending beach - NB.

Rocky Red Sand Beach - PEI.

Kouchibouguac National Park - funny story

One thing I learned to adjust as I reached this national park in New Brunswick... start the day earlier, end the day earlier... meaning while it's still daylight, leaving enough time to unwind, prepare food, get ready for the night etc.

I arrived at the Park on Wednesday I believe. I got there at 7:45pm. Sunset was at 8:00pm. And as I was driving to my campsite I saw that there was some kind of "show" on a little stage at 8:00pm as well. So I parked, plugged Large Marge in for the night, rushed through it all, and at 7:59 I ran to the stage so I wouldn't miss the show.

I get there, and am greeted by the host. There was nobody else. Just me. He told me to take a seat and wait to see if anyone else would show up. They didn't. This was truly a one-man show. And I felt so bad I just couldn't get up and leave. So I stayed through an incredibly boring account of the types of flora in the Park, which lasted all of 1 hour. And to top it all, I was wearing shorts and a t-shirt. Within the first 5 minutes, there were so many mosquitoes swarming around me that I was doing a little tap-clap dance on my seat... but I felt so bad I couldn't leave. Thank god after 10 minutes the host had pity on me and offered me some bug spray.

Then the show ends. It's pitch black. No moon. I don't have my flash light.

Hilarity ensued.

Next time, take your time buddy.

Beard update

It's been 1 month and it shows. Beard is growing fast, can't say so much about the hair... The other interesting fact is that I am starting to have dandruff in my beard (but not in the hair... weird isn't it)? Should I shampoo it?

Day 0

Day 32

--> Day 180 ?

Navigation

Ok... I used to have blind faith in my GPS... Now I have the cynical type of faith where I believe she's going to get me where I need to go, but through the most little bumpy roads in the middle of nowhere possible. I'm not kidding - I'm driving on a major highway, and she asks me to get off the highway (which I dutifully do) to travel on "Road" (it doesn't have a name) for 15 minutes, then reconnect on the same highway I was on before... WTF? Did I save time?

I think the lesson here is that I have to trust my gut first. If the road doesn't feel right, then don't take it. Some of those little roads are very remote, choppy, don't have any lights or traffic and I wouldn't want to get stranded on them.

Food

I have been eating very well so far... I'd say about half of it at restaurants to sample local fare, the other half inside of Large Marge. Quite obviously, the key item has been fish and seafood which are fabulous and always fresh. I have been eating fish pretty much every day in some shape or form. In fact, I went fishing yesterday (deep sea fishing) and caught some mackerel and cod which I cooked for dinner tonight - delicious. And yesterday I ate PEI oysters which were caught the same morning 1/4 mile away (the best I have had). You can see some of what I have been eating in the following pictures:

Pasta Chez Large Marge.

Starting to crave Beef.

Delicious lobster roll.

Poutine Rapee - very fattening.

PEI oysters

Wildlife

I also saw a lot of wildlife - the most notable were a moose and bear, but I also saw all sorts of birds, squirrels, fish, insects and more. See for yourself:

The bear necessities.

Moose au chocolat.

You're gonna love my nuts.

Prince Edward Island

Such a tiny island... the main way to get there is by the Confederation Bridge from New Brunswick which is 8 miles long. The island itself isn't much more than 30 miles wide by approximately 70 miles long. I wanted to make special mention of PEI because it is so unbelievably pretty. Rolling hills mixing up with the sea, and the earth is red (not brown)... it's quite inspiring. This is in fact the land that inspired Anne of the Green Gables.

Which one is the true Monster?

Beautiful colours.

Fisherman at heart.

Moebius of Avonlea.

Green Gables - a bit cheesy.

Horsing around

I will leave you now with some final pictures from my trip - everything is so beautiful, I easily take 100 pictures a day. I can't post all of them here, but if you want to see the bulk of it, go to gallery.me.com/droy006.