Our Canadian Maritimes adventure was drawing to a close. It was time to leave Newfoundland/Labrador and make our way through Quebec back to the United States. It amazes me that even after living in New York State for 40 years, we had never been to Quebec!
Our route would take us from Labrador city due south to the St. Lawrence River. Then west to Quebec City before we crossed into Maine.Leaving Labrador City, the road wasn’t bad. It was paved and lined with power poles. It turns out, this whole stretch of Highway 389 was all about power and mining of iron ore.Very quickly, the paved road turned to dirt.The road grader was our friend. Get rid of those washboard ruts!We were in mining country, and a single train track transports the iron ore mined near the north end of our route down to the St. Lawrence River.If we weren’t crossing the train track, we were following along the train track. I stopped counting at 8 railroad crossings. We were told there were 11 railroad crossings in total.I haven’t seen a wooded deck bridge like this since the Yukon during our Alaska trip!There was iron ore mining, hematite to be specific, all over the place.As expected, there were no campgrounds. We had scoped out this pullout ahead of time (thank you iOverlander.com) and decided to spend the night here.
Unless you have studied a map of Quebec, you probably don’t know of the existence of Lake Manicouagan, Rene-Levasseur Island and the Manicouagan River. People call the river “Manic” for short. If you look at the picture below, the island looks entirely too perfectly circular.
Lake Manicouagan was created by the impact of a 3 mile wide meteorite 214 million years ago (thanks Wikipedia). It is sometimes called the “Eye of Quebec.”You can’t see much of the lake from the highway. More adventurous types paddle around the island.Along the Manicouagan River are a series of hydro-electric dams. This is the most famous, Manic-5.Manic-5 is a multiple arch buttress dam. We were looking forward to the dam tour. But the damn dam tours ended the week before. Yes, summer (and the influx of tourists) apparently was over. Even the interpretive center was closed.At the Manic-5 Dam, we saw Electric Vehicle charging station in the middle of nowhere. I wish the USA was this proactive with charging stations.Once we got past Manic-5, the roadway improved. We passed road to Manic-2 (another dam) as we headed south. I think there must be a 1, 3 and 4 also!
Finally, we arrived in Quebec City. Let’s talk culture shock. After six weeks of being in remote Canada, we were a little stunned to be in a big city again. There was traffic on the roads. There were tall buildings. And there were people, lots of people. Can we turn around and go back? Just kidding. Maybe.
We spent the Labor Day weekend (it was Labour Day in Canada too) at a very nice KOA campground with 50 amp power and a hot tub. It was time to regroup and recharge.Old Quebec City is known for being very European like. This section of the town was crowded with tourists. VERY crowded.The Google Translate app got a heavy workout in Quebec City. Here we have a shop called the Crazy Pig!We saw a good number of young Asians taking pictures in front of this read door. What was that about? Apparently there is a popular South Korean soap opera called Goblin. This door was featured in the show as a magic portal. In real life, it leads into back of the Théâtre Petit Champlain. Read about this tourist attraction here.We took the funicular up to the upper town.From there were could see the St. Lawrence River. Before we had kids, we used to spend a lot of time on the New York end of the St. Lawrence River. It was kind of cool to see the other end of it.The upper city had a boardwalk overlooking the river. Placed on the boardwalk were these skylight structures.It turns out, the boardwalk was built over an archeological site of Old Quebec City and the skylights were looking down on the site! What a cool way to preserve the past and still allow the modern to exist.This archeological site is part of Parks Canada, and this summer everyone had free entry to all of the National Parks in Canada. Thank you Canada.There used to be a fort here. So of course, you had the cannons to go with the fort.One of the most intriguing things we tripped over in Quebec City was this very large Swiss watch! It was presented to Quebec City from the Swiss town of Jura. It is a perpetual clock made by Swiss watchmaker Richard Mille. We spent a good twenty minutes checking out all the features of it and getting Google’s explanation. It was very interesting!Kids playing on the waterfront with a lake freighter going down the St. Lawrence River.
Our time in Canada had come to an end. We are now making our way back home, having stopped in Maine to see Janelle and New York to see Callie. I have a few more blog posts coming up. We owe you a summary of all the fish and chips James ate. And, as usual, we will have all the numbers; miles driven, cost of fuel, etc. that we usually do at the end of a major trip. This year I am NOT looking forward to adding up the cost of the diesel fuel. Ouch.
Guess that bridge looked pretty sturdy for you to cross it. Thanks for all the info. as usual — hope you have enough “storage” in your brain to keep it all!!!!
What a great city. I hear it’s fascinating and thank you google translate! I’ve never been but I love the idea of the old European City. Crowds I can pass on as well though. Love those skylights. It looks like a wonderful city to venture around. Patiently awaiting the next blog!
Guess that bridge looked pretty sturdy for you to cross it. Thanks for all the info. as usual — hope you have enough “storage” in your brain to keep it all!!!!
What a great city. I hear it’s fascinating and thank you google translate! I’ve never been but I love the idea of the old European City. Crowds I can pass on as well though. Love those skylights. It looks like a wonderful city to venture around. Patiently awaiting the next blog!