Motreal, Quebec and Tadoussac - August 19th - August 28th 2016

We left Ottawa just after lunch on August 19th. As we made our way towards Montreal the biggest change occurred as we crossed provinces from Ontario to Quebec. As soon as we crossed, all signage changed completely from mixed English/French to exclusively French. Luckily all the people we came across in supermarkets and shops were perfectly fluent in English so we never had any communication issues.

We arrived in to Montreal in the mid afternoon and checked in to our hostel in the middle of the downtown restaurant area. For our first night in the city we tried the Irish pub across the street while we finalised our plans for the next couple of days. As our first day in the city was forecast to be overcast with a strong chance of rain we decided to do some indoor activities.

First stop was the Montreal Biodome. The Biodome is an indoor zoo divided in to four separate ecological zones. Highlights included the Amazon zone, with monkeys scuttling overhead in the trees and a family of lynx (a mother and two cubs),  who put on a show while we watched from the prime central position in front of their enclosure.

Next it was to the insectarium, a short walk away. The insectarium had thousands of pinned exhibits of bugs from around the world as well as a couple of dozen living specimens. The shapes and colours on show were amazing (though I think Holly was a little creeped out by the scorpion feasting on an unlucky cockroach). There was almost as much to see there as the biodome. It was huge.

The next morning we were greeted with a bright sunny day so we decided to make the most of it! We made the short walk uptown  from our hostel and arrived at the city’s outdoor centrepiece Mont Royal. Mont Royal is a mountain overlooking the city that has been converted into a giant national park and recreational area. After climbing about twenty sets of stairs we reached the top and were greeted with a view of the city skyline backed by the winding St Lawrence River. We explored the summit for a while checking out the sculptures and winding trails.

After lunch we walked down towards the riverside area of the city.  Along the way we stopped in the historic district to see the famous Notre-Dame Basilica. The queue was long but we were entertained by an excellent busker. The inside of the Basilica was definitely worth the wait though – the pure extravagance and rich detail is hard to put in to words!

The Basilica was completed in 1829 at the approximate cost of 47,500 pounds (about 3.8 million Australian dollars today!). The primary hall features a full gold plated pulpit with beautiful wooden pews and staircases up the middle. The stained glass windows up each side are amazing and all up it is a spectacular sight. Out the back is a smaller hall with an amazing carved pulpit most famous for being the location of Celine Dion’s wedding.

We then moved in to the old town of the city, but sadly much of it was under construction and repair. This was a little disappointing as Holly had memories of the area being amazing on her last visit. I guess this gives a reason for a return visit in the future once the area has been restored!

The next morning we rose early, checked out of our hostel and continued northeast along the highway towards our next destination – Quebec city. Again the road was fairly flat and unremarkable following roughly along the south bank of the St Lawrence river. We arrived at our destination in the mid afternoon and checked in to our hostel. We were in a great location only a short walk up the hill to Old Quebec.
For dinner we decided to visit the cobbled streets of the city and walked up a windy old road to an Irish pub that Holly had looked up online.

Even though it was dusk, as we made our way from the hostel, we caught our first glimpses of the sights of the old town – the cobbled streets, the old style facades on the shops and restaurants and a couple of huge European looking stone buildings towering up in to the sky. This got us excited for the next day of exploring the city.

The next morning we set out retracing our path back in to the heart of the old town. Our first stop was the town basilica, built in 1647. The inside of the basilica was once again amazing, not quite as spectacular as the Notre-Dame in Montreal, but still amazing in its own right. Next, we crossed through the old university, glistening white in the sun, and reached the inside of the city wall. Here the wall snaked along overlooking both the river and the strip of land containing, what we found out to be, the oldest city area in all of mainland Canada.

We walked along the wall for a while looking for some steps down and passed many, many cannons facing out over the river. These cannons were now relics from the days  when the French were defending their city from the dreaded English. It surely would have been a formidable sight for any foes – the city up on the hill above the river surrounded by a wall and bristling with defensive guns!

We found our staircase and moved down into the oldest part of the city, established by the French in 1608. This was a very picturesque area, full of cottages with their little terrace gardens as well as the cobbles that covered the ground everywhere. There was also a giant mural painted up the side of one of the multistory houses. This mural is called the La Fresque des Quebecois and was painted in 1999 and cleverly combines modern and traditional elements.

We then wound our way back up to the walled city and walked the length of the riverside to the Battlefields park. This was a historic area where the famous conquest of the British over the French was fought in 1759, shaping the future of North America. These days it had been converted in to a giant park area with lots of locals around walking their dogs and out for their daily exercise.

We passed around the La Citadelle de Quebec (a historic fort) and made our way along the interior of the city wall. It was very cool along this section as you could walk along the top of the wall itself, it was quite wide in places and some sections had been covered in grass. Along the way we passed three giant gates, the old entrances to the city. They reminded me of something from medieval times and looked strange with the electric lights, traffic lights and other modern signs of the times all around them. All three were still used as entry points to the city, but now they had modern style roads and cars running through them.

Overall, the old town of Quebec city was very beautiful and very much made you feel like you had stumbled into Europe. We completed our loop of the city and made our way back to the hostel for a home cooked meal (and some unanticipated French karaoke from the local bar across the street from our room!)

 The next morning we made the short drive just outside the city to visit Montmorency falls. These falls were located only 10 to 15 minutes outside the QC and are located just off to the side of the main highway. When we arrived we decided to take the stairs up to the top of the falls, this didn’t look too bad from a distance, but up closer it was a much more daunting task! Firstly we passed by the viewing point at the base of the falls (right in the spray zone!). After a brief stop we started climbing the stairs, all 83 metres of them! (The equivalent of a 25 story building).

The sights got better as we got closer to the top and we had three viewpoints along the way to admire the falls. Once making it to the top we looped around a short track to cross the bridge that spanned over the top of the falls. The bridge gave a great view right over the spot where the water dropped over the edge and gave you an idea of the volume of water required to power the falls.

There were also several messages built out of the driftwood the had piled up at the base of the falls – mostly peoples names but also SOS and Help! Like you would expect to see built by a castaway or on a deserted island. The walk ended at a fancy looking function centre and restaurant and it was here we caught the cable car back down to the car park. We finished the day with lunch back in the Old Town and dinner (plus bonus karaoke) at the hostel.

The next morning we left QC and continued our way in a Northeast direction still following along the banks of the river. Here the river was starting to get wider and the terrain was getting rougher with a couple of mountains and some large forested areas. We both thought that we spotted a moose at different points, but it was only glimpses and the sightings remain unconfirmed!

After about three hours of driving we reached the Saguenay River and just across on the opposite bank was our destination, the small town of Tadoussac. We caught the ferry across the river and checked in to our accommodation at the Auberge de Jeunesse. It felt like the Byron Bay of Canada with a mix of hippy travellers and eccentric looking locals hanging around the main room and courtyard. There was also the strong aroma of weed, an old man out the back carving stilts out of wood and there were people playing horseshoe in a patch of dirt. An entire old ship had been retired into the back garden and semi-converted into a picnic table and there were little squirrels darting back and forth. Overall we loved the look of it and were very happy with our choice of hostel! We made the short walk in to the main town area, picked up some groceries and had some beverages in the small bar area as we enjoyed another home cooked meal.

Our primary reason for travelling up this far north was that this area is regarded as being one of the best places in the world for whale watching. We reviewed the weather and determined that our second full day in Tadoussac had the best conditions so we booked our tour through the hostel and set out to spend the day around the town. After a delicious breakfast at Café Boheme (so good that we made it our local for each morning of our time there) we decided to make our way to the shore of the river as we had heard that it was sometimes possible to see whales from the bank.

The walk down to the river was very pretty with the colourful old houses looking out over the beach alongside the massive red Tadoussac inn. And sure enough, as we rounded the southern head, we almost immediately saw a minke whale fin only a few metres off the rocks at the point! We rushed over only for the weather to suddenly close in and the rain to come pouring from the sky. The other dozen or so people who were clambering over the rocks darted away for shelter but we stood there in the rain as three minke whales fed lazily around the mouth of the Saguenay only metres away from where we stood watching. Despite the rain it was a highlight of the trip to date with just us and the whales!

Luckily after about 15 minutes the rain cleared, but we continued to sit and watch the minkes for the next couple of hours. A few boats and jet skis came to watch as well but the whales didn’t seem to mind. They even crossed up occasionally near the giant traffic ferries without seeming too bothered. As we made our way back to the main area of the town we spotted some white dots out in the harbour – beluga whales! Only the small back hump and blowholes of the whales were visible and they were a long way out, but it was clear that a pod of rare belugas were playing out amongst the small waves.

After a break for lunch we tried our luck from the north head. Sadly the wind had blown up very strong making any kind of wildlife viewing very difficult. However the walk itself was nice and there were some cool rock formations around the headland.
That night we ate dinner in the pub area of the hostel where an interesting French Canadian band played on the tiny stage. For their big finale the entire band donned wrestling masks and the frontman strutted amongst the crowd in a full lycra ensemble. All in all a fun night with a great atmosphere!

The next day was moment we had been waiting for – we had our whale watching trip out on the river! We headed down to the waterfront area and were herded on to our boat. We had gone with a zodiac style tour again like we had done in the bay of fundy but this time we were on a larger vessel that held around 20 people. We were barely out of the harbour before we came across another pod of beluga whales. Due to national park restrictions we weren’t able to get too close so but we felt the tour had got off to a great start!

The captain of the boat got a call on his radio and we were whisked over to the opposite bank of the river. We saw a couple of minkes and seals in the area but that is not what we had been brought over for. Suddenly a massive whale broke the surface of the water as he swam his way past our zodiac. The distance between the blowhole and tail was huge, it certainly dwarfed our boat! We were told that he was a fin whale, the second largest whale in the world.

We watched the huge whale take several breaths before diving down to the depths to feed. Then we were off again , this time for many kilometres up the river. After roughly an hour of powering north we finally reached the centrepiece of the tour – a massive blue whale slowly making her way through the fjord waters. We learned that approximately six blue whales make these waters their home every summer and this whale was a regular. Her name was Jawbreaker and we were in for a treat as she was one of the minority of blue whales who raise their tails from the water when they dive. The size was incredible – especially compared to a couple of the little boats who were out there watching her!

After around 20 minutes of viewing it was time for us to make our long way back to the harbour. This seemed to fly by as we were still on a high from what we had just seen.  We spent our last night in the hostel pub again (complete with encore performance from the wrestling band). Then the next morning we started the long trip back to Toronto.

Toronto, Algonquin National Park and Ottawa - August 11 -August 19 2016

Leaving HalIfax was neither fun, nor easy. We were all prepared. Had arrived early for check in, thought we'd chill out in the airport and wait for our flight. Ha, how wrong we were. See, Air Canada has a tendency to overbook flights. Thus, Adrian had a guaranteed seat to Toronto, I however, did not. After some waiting around and hoping to get put on the flight, at the last minute, I had a seat. Hurdle over.

Then we arrived in Toronto. All was great, until we arrived at the hostel. They didn’t have a room for us. A room that we had booked 4 months earlier! Apparently it was the booking agency’s fault. So, at midnight, we were in a new city, tired, cranky and with no place to stay. It was a weekend and summer and there were 3 Blue Jays games on. We eventually found a nice motel on the direct subway line to the city, so we booked it. A $60 cab ride and $350 extra in accommodation costs and we were set!

As a side note: The Hostel in Toronto tried to first blame the booking agent for the error. Then they tried to blame us, saying our credit card was expired when we booked, then they tried to blame the booking agent again. Lucky I’m not a pushover and I told both the  Hostel and booking agent that I would be seeking compensation and taking the matter further. Suddenly we get an email saying the Hostel is admitting to their mistake and now it seems some compensation is on it’s way.

Anyway, the following day we decided to put our previous night aside and enjoy Toronto. Our first stop was CN Tower. Once the tallest building in the America’s and standing 553.33 metres high, CN tower provides a great 360° view of Toronto. We were lucky enough to have a clear day, and the views were pretty impressive. From the viewing platform we could even see planes taking off and landing from the little airport on Toronto Island.

After the CN Tower we decided to go to Ripley’s Aquarium. First just let me say, in all my travels, I have never seen a queue so long for an aquarium! It was ridiculous! Thank goodness we had the City Pass and skipped the queues. Once inside the jam packed aquarium, we saw many magnificent fish, sharks, rays and penguins. It was a beautiful aquarium and a great place to be on a super hot and humid Toronto day.

From the aquarium we went to the Royal Ontario Museum. Now you may be thinking ‘how did you fit it all in’? Well, thankfully on Fridays, the museum is open until 8:30pm. We didn’t really know what to expect when we got there. However, we were greeted by a giant skeleton of a an Futalognkosaurus, one of the largest dinosaurs ever discovered. Immediately we were excited. Especially Adrian!

There were many cool artifacts from China, Egypt, Europe and the America’s, as well as some magnificent animal models from all over the world, but nothing really compared to the dinosaur display. There were many almost complete real dinosaur bone skeletons. They had a T-Rex head and partial cast, a stegosaurus, a pterodactyl, an allosaurus, a velociraptor and many more. It was actually very impressive and I have never seen Adrian so wide eyed! Needless to say, we closed out the museum.

The following morning, we set out to find Casa Loma. We now think there is a suburb called this, as well as the giant castle on the hill. Anyway, we eventually found it. Casa Loma (Spanish for hill house) is an historic mansion in midtown Toronto. It was constructed from 1911-1914 for financier Sir Henry Mill Pellatt, the man that bought hydro electricity to Toronto. It cost $3.5 million dollars to build and was considered to be quite outrageous at the time, even though it paled in comparison to most wealthy Southerners in the USA at the time. It was a very beautiful place, containing many war artifacts, amazing gardens and period pieces from the people who lived there. It was also the place where a lot of movies have been shot including, Cocktail, X-men, Chicago and many others. All in all it was a pretty cool place to see.

The afternoon brought our first real rain of the holiday, so we chilled out at a pub on the waterfront and enjoyed the cool change. In the evening we decided to watch a movie. Sausage Party. Hilarious and very strange. Just don’t let your kids watch it! This animation is not for the kids.

Following a bad start on arrival, Toronto turned out to be a really cool city. Very cosmopolitan and so much to see and do. So after enjoying our couple of days in Toronto, we picked up our hire car and headed for Algonquin National Park. But first, we made a stop at Toronto Zoo.

First of all, Toronto Zoo is huge! Allow a whole day. We were foolish enough to think we could do it in about 5-6 hours. It has impressive enclosures and some really awesome animals from all over the world. The African exhibits and animals were definitely some of the most impressive, with two giant white rhinos, zebras and giant ostrich. They had baby panda’s which we unfortunately missed due to time restrictions. They also had an Asian, Arctic, North American, South American, and even Australian section. Highly recommend this zoo if you have the time.

Once finished at the zoo, we made our way to Algonquin National Park. However, what should have been an easy 2.5 hour commute, turned into an almost 5 hour marathon. Unfortunately the coordinates that the hostel gave us, took us to the right degree north, just not to the right degree east. So initially we ended up literally in the middle of nowhere, 100km away from where we needed to be! Thankfully though, we found our way out of the forest and back to a service station, where we not only got our bearings, but spotted a black bear as well. He was just there rummaging through the garbage. We watched him for a minute or two (never getting out of the car) to try and get a photo, but he ran away pretty quickly.

Anyway, we eventually made it to our destination, the Wolf Den Hostel which was on the western edge of the park. And yes, it is as cool as it sounds. The hostel is an amazing super large cabin. It had a magnificent kitchen and the common area had an amazing array of books, games and musical instruments to keep you entertained. There was also no Wi-Fi and no TV. It really felt secluded and off the grid.

Algonquin itself is a National Park one third the size of Belgium! It is known for its over 1000 lakes, 100s of walking and canoe trails and wildlife, such as bears, wolves,
beavers, and moose etc. So, on our first day there we set off on a hike called Centennial Ridges, a 10km loop. This was one of the newer trails in the park, opened in 1993 to celebrate the park's 100th birthday. We had hoped to see some or one of the afore mentioned animals, but alas, we did not and we had to settle for two chipmonks and a garter snake! However, the hike was very pretty, taking us through beautiful pine forests and providing us with spectacular cliff and lake views along the way. It was a lovely day of hiking, with one other little lookout hike thrown in for good measure.

The following day, we had planned to go kayaking. Unfortunately the day turned into a rest day as we copped some pretty heavy rain. By this stage of the trip though, it was a much needed recuperation day.

Once again, the following day provided us with glorious sunshine. This time we decided to do the Track and Tower trail, a 7.7km hike. I personally enjoyed this one more than the previous trail. It was through lush forest, over a river and a dam, around the sides of a cliff, and it followed the old service railway track. The view from the top was also quite amazing. Again, we were hopeful of an animal sighting, but again we were out of luck.

Sadly, the next day it was time to say goodbye to our sweet digs and head off to Ottawa, Canada’s capital. However, we did manage to squeeze in one last hike to Beaver Pond. It was but a small hike of 3km, but there was the hope that we might see a beaver or two. It was an enjoyable little hike, with boardwalks that circled two seperate beaver dams. We were enjoying the views and marvelling at a beaver dam that had blocked off an entire river and we had pretty much resigned ourselves to the fact that we wouldn’t see any beavers (a lady on the Track and Tower trail had told us that is is near impossible to see a beaver in the daytime) when out of nowhere a lovely family came along and alerted us to a beaver swimming joyfully up to the dam wall. He wasn’t very big, but he sure was a curious little guy. He swam up to everyone, had a look and swam away.

After a while admiring him, we thought we should carry on. We were absolutely thrilled with our sighting and stopped a little further down the trail to observe some more beaver lodges, when the nice family who alerted us to the first beaver, came along. The kid started telling us that they had spotted another one climbing the bank. So we decided to backtrack in hopes that we might spot him, and spot him we did. He was all the way up the bank, having a good old munch on the green leaves. He was so close and so cute. Both beavers as it turns out were yearlings. Yearlings being the previous seasons new born beavers. It was awesome. So on a high, we finished our hike and made the two and a bit hour drive to Ottawa.

Around dinner time, we made it to Ottawa Jail Hostel. It was a hostel literally transformed from an old jail. If you have the money, you can stay in your own private cell. We unfortunately, could only afford a dorm room in the hospital section of the jail. Thankfully our only dorm room of the trip.

Anyhow, the next day we got up early and went out to explore the city. I had been here many years ago, but forgot just how pretty it is. The Rideau Canal which is 202km long and was built in 1832, runs through the city and brings boats in via its lock system, was one of the first places we visited. One thing’s for sure, you wouldn’t want to be in a hurry to get from the lower part of the river to the higher part. But, it was cool.

We then walked up to Parliament Hill. The houses of Parliament in Ottawa are really a sight to behold and worth a visit outside of summer school holidays. Once again the crowds to do the tour were phenomenal, so we skipped doing the tour (which is free) and made our way to the Canadian Museum of Nature.

Once again this museum had a fantastic dinosaur display. It also had quite an incredible mammal and bird gallery and an amazing full blue whale skeleton. The juvenile (but still huge) blue whale is believed to have died after a giant ship ran over it and crushed it’s spine. Also, for the creepy crawly enthusiasts, it had an awesome live bug display. It was a fun place to visit.

After a full day of museuming and exploring the city, we caught up with an old friend of mine, Jen. I hadn’t seen Jen for 8 years. We had met in 2004 when we both did the same Contiki tour in Europe and had always kept in touch. It was a lovely dinner and so great to catch up on each others lives.

The next day it was time to leave Ottawa. However, before doing so we did the free tour of the hostel. They take you through the old jail and explain how it used to operate. It was very interesting. It was a one of a kind test jail, which was only opened for a brief period due to it’s inhumane treatment of inmates and the high escape rate. It has no bars on windows. People used to get sent there for crimes ranging from not paying taxes or if you were a women, not having a clean house! All the way up to major crimes such as rape and murder. Cellmates would often be locked in solitary and beaten and starved. Three men were even hanged (officially). Unofficially there were at least seven more hangings! You can still see the rope marks in the beam and there is a cracked floorboard underneath where the dead bodies dropped. It was a brutal place. It has even been the subject of one of the ghosthunter television shows who claim to have made recordings of voices in the old death row cells!

Afterwards, we thought we’d try to get a free ticket to do the Parliament tour, but they were all gone. Instead we went for a walk to check out the giant spider sculpture out the front of the National Gallery of Canada. This 30 foot sculpture cost 3 million dollars when it was installed in 2005. This was highly controversial at the time as it was entire third of the museums annual budget! I thought it was pretty cool and certainly very unique!

After a quick cup of coffee it was time to head to the next destination, Montreal!

Holly.