Thursday August 9th
Today was a planned rest day so I could whale watch. I had booked a reservation by phone yesterday and was quite excited to see some whales for the first time outside of captivity. I had some time in the morning so I caught up on the blogs and went for breakfast. The breakfast was a straight up omelette for $12 but had fresh fruit and really good cheese and mushroom inside to become the best paid for breakfast of the trip.
The whale watching boat probably holds a 100 people and is designed so that the viewer can sit on either side of he boat and face port or starboard. The only problem was there was almost no standing room and there wasn’t enough seats. This meant that people with less social grace inevitably budded in front on ether side when there was a potential siting. It got old pretty quick and started to make the trip a little regrettable. The boat kind of goes straight up the middle so you are not near either shore, this may be due to depth of the water but i am not sure. The North shore is definitely picturesque with rolling mountains and some bare spots where the side of the mountain collapsed into the river.
As for the river it is really part of the ocean by the time you get 10 or so kilometers down the river. The water even changes to a dark brown from a lighter blue. There are also reefs which is where the whales tend to feed. I got a glimpse of a beluga or two but mostly we would hear Minke 2 o’clock. Then later Minke 11:30. All you would see is a bit of the dorsal fin and then they would be gone. There were a few dolphins and many seals. All and all it felt that we were disturbing their feeding time. I don’t think I will do another whale tour unless it is somehow more discreet and with less people..
After it was done it was the typical made dash off the boat for absolutely no reason at all. I decided to hit the only restuarant near the dock and had a crappy piece of halibut for $16 but the rice was pretty good which was nice because the usual option is fries. Even with all of my complaints it was still a good day and I can still say j’aime Quebec.
