Sunday – Village of Gaspe to Escuminac, QC

Escuminac, Canada

Today I awoke once again to beautiful blue skies and no wind. Cool, but just the way I like it.

I got assistance this morning from a lovely retired school teacher from Kincardine, ON. He helped direct me backing up to line the SUV up with the trailer hitch. Note to self, I have to get a back up camera. Although if I did I wouldn’t have had a chance to meet the lovely school teacher. He was full of great advice for a newbie camper.

The drive from the village of Gaspe to Perce was absolutely gorgeous. My first glimpse of Perce Rock was from the north and it was far across the bay. It disappeared from sight as I got closer and then, there is was, front and centre, as I came flying down a hill into town. Awesome view, unfortunately, not capturable by camera while driving! And no where safe to stop. I stopped for a short time in Perce to take some pics and wander along their boardwalk. Cool playground there. It was pretty empty except for a tour bus unloading and the passengers heading down to boats to be shuttled out to the rock. At low tide you can walk out there, but it was high tide and so boats is the only answer. It was bright, but really cool this morning and I was actually glad not to be going out and exposed to the elements. There are many, many shops and restaurants in Perce, but not really interesting at 9 am when you’ve already had breakie. So on I went.

The shoreline was quite different on the south drive. Not as rugged but beautiful still the same. Lovely red sand beaches. It is definitely more populated and there were more of the brightly coloured houses here too.

My target for today was Escuminac Flats, the home of my friend and former colleague, Daryl Gray. This is my second visit to Escuminac, and the first thing I said to Daryl was, “How the heck did I find this place the first time I was here?” And that was before GPS, Google Maps on my iPhone and texts from Daryl with directions! The last time we were here was for Daryl’s daughter Stacey, also a friend, to be married to another mutual friend, Jason Hatcher. One of those dynamo couples that I got to know through politics before they were married. It’s surprising how many two generation political friends I have. Sign I’m getting old I guess. Daryl is former Member of Parliament for this area, and more importantly today, the owner of an RV Park on the Bay of Chaleur which is the water between Quebec and New Brunswick, the discovery of which is attribute to Jacques Cartier. I couldn’t pass up an opportunity to spend some time with Daryl catching up on things. The last time I saw him was in Kiev on our mutual election observation mission to Ukraine for the spring Presidential Election. We had a great dinner of east coast seafood and great political talk.

One of the great things about politics is the number of friends I have across the country. I hope to visit Stacey and Jason later this summer in Calgary.

I have no clue where I’m going tomorrow. Maybe I’ll have time to walk on a beach. Stay tuned!

I can’t figure out how to integrate the pics into this blog using the iPad app but check them out below.