We were up early today!
We decided to go whale watching. We didn’t know that you needed an appointment however. The first place we went to was taking appointments at 11:00 tomorrow. The next one we went to would take us today, but we had about an hour to kill. We stopped at the co-op to pick up a few necessities. 4L of milk here is $8!! We ran back to the campsite and Guylaine and I threw some stuff in the cooler for after the tour.
The tour started at 1:00 and was supposed to take an hour and a half. They guaranteed we see a whale or you get your money back. So, out to see we go. Xavier was fine until all the kids started asking him if he was scared, so I guess he figured he was supposed to be, so he started crying. Finally, after circling around outside of the harbour, we finally spotted some dolphins. It was kind of cool, but I was looking forward to the whales. We kept going around and then finally we saw a minke whale……for about 3 seconds. But 3 seconds is 3 seconds, so no money back. And that was it. They circled around for a little longer, then took us close to Cheticamp Island where the campground is to look at bald eagles, then back to the harbour. Overall it wasn’t a bad trip, but we saw a whale breach once, and we were out for 2 and a half freaking hours! We had other stuff we wanted to do. We certainly didn’t come here to spend a day on a boat. Alex and Xavier were playing in the boat and next thing you know, Alex’s hat is lost at sea. Oh well, the kids had fun even if we didn’t see much. And they even got a chance to drive the boat.
We ate lunch right in the parking lot because everyone was starving (it was almost 5:00pm!), then we decided to drive as much of the trail as we could.
It cost us $20 to get into the park, but it was worth every penny. The initial views were unbelievable. The first site you see is the Grande Faliase, a mountain that is crumbling away. We tried to take pictures of the winding steep hills (17% grade at one spot today) but it’s really hard to get the pictures with the right prospective. It really is something you have to see to believe.
We got to the Skyline trail at about 6:00pm. It’s a 7km hike to the coast. We almost decided to skip this because we’re not sure the kids are going to be able to do it. But it was something we had been looking at doing for so long, it was just impossible to give up. I’m glad we didn’t.
At the beginning of the trail, there were warning signs on what to do if you spot a coyote, so as usual, Sam is fascinated, William (and Guylaine) are terrified. Xavier decided he was going to walk, but we brought the stroller because the end of the trail is all boardwalks with no railings and huge drops. We made our way up the trail to a smaller trail, where it didn’t take too long to spot 2 moose grazing just off the trail. The kids were amazed. Xavier wanted to rub them. We walked further up the trail and could barely make out a huge bull moose with big antlers feeding no more then 20 feet off the path. But the forest was so dense it made taking a picture of him impossible. Alex and I found a trail and snuck in behind him, but we must have been downwind of him as he immediately laid down in the tall grass so that only his antlers were visible. He was huge.
We finally got to the end of the trail after about an hour of hiking. I can’t even describe it. It’s the skyline trail because when you look at how the sea meets the mountains, and the tiny winding roads below, you feel like you could reach out and touch the sky. I’ve never seen anything like it before. An hour hike back, but it felt so much longer. We were really getting tired, but it was getting dark and we didn’t feel like being eaten by coyotes, so we picked up the pace. We spotted another 2 moose grazing (mama moose is what Xavier calls them). When we got to the parking lot we were the only car left.
We decided to drive a little further before ending the day, and found two more moose grazing in the ditch on the side of the road. There was no traffic at all, so I shut the truck off, put it in neutral and coasted down right beside them. They were no more then 8 feet from the truck. My camera was dead, so we captured what we could with Katrina’s. Guylaine started making kissing noises like she was calling a dog, and the moose looked right us. We kept driving, all the way to Pleasant Bay, and the views kept getting more spectacular around each corner. Finally, we decided to head back. We were going back through the park in the dark with all kids of moose on very steep and very winding roads. It was a little stressful. We stopped at the first corner store we could find to stock up on water. We had all run out while hiking and everyone was dying of thirst. We got back to the campsite about 9:30. We made bacon and eggs for the kids while I got chatting with the neighbours. We’re in for an early morning tomorrow. We need to pack up the trailer and move it, but we don’t know where. We only had this site for last night and tonight, and they’ve had no cancellations, so we need to be out by tomorrow. It’s one of the drawbacks of playing it by ear. Our last two trips, the sites were booked well in advance, and we didn’t move once. This time we decided to try something different to see how it would work out. I guess we’ll see how this works out tomorrow.
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