So where have I reached now?

I left Québec via Highway 138 as usual, up along the north bank of the St Lawrence and after a few detours (including a lesson in how to do roofing in Canada, for which I was exttemely grateful) climbed over Cap Tourmente into the Charlevoix which is the most beautiful region in the world.

Highway 362 then hugs the coastline and took me to a small village called St Joseph, where there is a ferry out into the St Lawrence to the Ile aux Coudres - and what a stunning place to stay for the night that was too (the gloom in the photo is because it was 06:00 by the way).

Back on the mainland it was back along the St Lawrence, a few more detours (of course), a trip over the Saguenay Ferry, and then branching off along the River Ste Marguerite and the Saguenay Fjord all the way to the headwaters of the Lac St Jacques.

I've never been this way before (said the actress to the bishop) and I was astonished. It's well-worth the drive. To reach the fjord there's a really narrow canyon that beats anything that I've ever seen in the Alps or in the Rockies and it astonishes me that no-one has publicised this area very much.

The Lac St Jacques is huge too. So much so that it has its own micro-climate - nothing like the alpine tundra that there is only a few miles away. There are animals such as cattle and goats (and no buts about it), even a couple of llamas, hayfields, gardens, cops, greenhouses, all  that kind of this - nothing at all like what I was expecting. The weather too is glorious and I feel a bit guilty sitting around doing this when I could be out walking down the banks of the river just here in the sunshine.

But now I shall be going back down the other side of the lack and the fjord to St Simeon where I'll rejoin Highway 138 (that met up with Highway 362 at La Malbaie) and then back over the Saguenay Ferry to continue my route along the north bank of the St Lawrence in the general direction of Sept-Iles.