Day 52 - Gaspé and Percé

We went ashore by tender, which really means by lifeboat but it seems the lifeboats are called tenders except in an emergency. Fortunately the ride each way only took 10 minutes because we were crammed in on narrow seats, with many seats requiring passengers to sit facing each other so close it is difficult to avoid knocking knees.

Our land transport comprised a fleet of school buses. The ship was anchored in Gaspé Harbour and the city of Gaspé is a long way from other cities and does not have lots of buses available for cruise ships, especially when two ships are in port the same day.

Our first included tour was to the
Forillon National Park which was only mildly interesting. We visited an historic shop and paused on a bridge to take photos through the bus windows of this moose eating shrubbery in the creekbed.

The mostly French speaking citizens of Gaspé are anxiously anticipating the opening of moose hunting season. Only the males can be hunted, except one in ten hunting groups is permitted to take a female moose, which apparently provide more tender meat. Neither of our English speaking female tour guides shared much enthusiasm for this tradition which culminates in a parade of vehicles driving around the streets of Gaspé displaying moose heads. When the season first opens hunters can only use bows and arrows, but later guns can be used. No hunting is allowed in the National Park but that is being reconsidered because the moose population in the park is too large.

Our second trip was five and a half hours long as the drive from Gaspé to and from Percé took an hour each way. The main attraction is Percé Rock which is a UNESCO recognised geological formation just offshore. We were driven up to a viewing platform in smaller shuttle buses.

The viewing platform has some glass flooring so we had to remove our shoes to prevent scratching the glass. The view was impressive but the glass platform didn't add to the experience.

We had missed lunch so queued for 20 minutes at a café for Croque Madame, coffee and hot chocolate. At least we were out of the cold 4°C weather. After a cursory visit to a couple of the tourist shops we headed back to catch our return bus. The pick up location had been specified as the tourist information office. The day before a fire had destroyed the nextdoor motel and another building so we we lucky not to have been caught up in that disaster.

Percé is an historic village focussed on tourism. Over winter only 150 people live there, with many houses boarded up until next June. It is quite an attractive village.

We were probably a few days too early to see the peak of the fall colours, but there were some attractive vistas. The red berries are on native dogwood trees.

Our ship's internet connection has been very unsatisfactory. It was out altogether for 24 hours. This part of our cruise is described as scenic cruising but there is no scenery only water. This Viking cruise has not lived up to the standard set when we cruised the Norwegian coast and the Baltic a couple of years ago.