Having survived ...

... last night's motel I woke up to the coldest day of the journey so far (Labrador excluded of course) and I'm now in winter gear - thick jacket, hat and gloves. I'm just amazed at how quickly winter has arrived here.

So off for a quick tour of Dalhousie and its neighbouring town, Campbelltown, where the predominant language spoken here is, as you might expect, ... errrr ... French, even though this is New Brunswick. And crossing the head of Chaleur Bay into Quebec, the predominant language in the town in which you arrive is ... errrr ... Mikmac. Strawberry and I had the pleasure of being introduced to the new tribal chief, the old one having just won the world's tea-drinking championship, he died in his teepee.

"I am Chief Running Buffalo" said the chief
"How" I replied
"How" replied Strawberry Moose.

"And this is my favourite squaw Minnimama"
"How" I replied
"How" replied Strawberry Moose

"I bought her for two buffalo skins" said the chief
"How" I replied
"Never mind how" said Strawberry Moose. "Where?"

And so then along the north bank of the Baie de Chaleur, or the south shore of the Gaspe Peninsula, depending upon how you look at it. The first European to set foot here was Jacques Cartier in his epic voyage of 1534 (although if he did indeed set his foot in everywhere that he is supposed to have set his foot he would never have had time to have written about it)

This north bank (or south shore) is really beautiful and you can't move along it without tripping over a motel ir a guest house. There are thousands of them. And quite right too - it is one of the most scenic parts of whatever passes for the Canadian Riviera and well worth the visit, and it's not all that often that you hear me say that.

Highlight of the voyage was the town of Perce, and this was where I was headed for. Cartier also had a landfall here and there is no mistake about this - he describes perfectly the offshore island with the hole through the middle, and it truly is spetacular.

I'm now in a motel in the town of Gaspe - the eastern-most town on the peninsula. This is quite a historic place, a well-known former port but, alas, with everything demolished in the 1970s and much of it not yet rebuilt as modern ships are far too big to use the new port.

And I have realised that tomorrow, if I can get a place on the late evening ferry to Baie Comeau from Matane, this will be my last night south of the St Lawrence.

That is rather a depressing thought, you know.