Monday, October 7, 2024

Sept. 14th, 2024, Day 18 East Coast - Kouchibouguac NP, Bathhurst, Dalhousie, Campbellton, Parc National du Bic, Rimouski

Today we had nice weather again. We fold up the tent and headed for a Tim Hortens in Miramichi via the highway to have breakfast. We also crossed a good portion of the Acadian peninsula using the highway. About 15km before Bathhurst we left the highway and followed route 134 into Bathhurst downtown (from then on we followed the scenic route along the coast until we reached Campbellton).

We tried to park in Bathhurst downtown but did not find immediately a suitable parking lot. After seeing a portion of downtown from the car while looking for a parking lot we decided to continue driving. We stopped at the Poissonnerie Arseneau to buy some smoked fish. Then we continued along the shore of Chaleur Bay following the Acadian Shores Road Trip signs towards Dalhousie and Campbellton. We had a nice dinner at Charlo Beach near Dalhousie. There was a parking lot right at the beach with a few benches and a washroom. We had a baguette style lunch while enjoying nice view across the water to Gaspe Peninsula. Then we continued towards Campbellton. All along from getting into Bathhurst and driving along the shore towards Dalhousie we encountered again plenty of house with Acadian stars over the entrance areas and telephone posts painted with Acadian flags like the day before. I am surprised how much national identity symbols are on display everywhere in this area.

In Campbellton downtown we had a short stop and walked a portion of the town and the shoreline.

Then we continued our drive towards Quebec. We crossed over into Quebec at Matapedia. The drive from Matapedia towards Mont-Joli at the St. Lawrence shore is very scenic despite driving a highway. Amqui is a town that lingers in my head (it has a very nice ski hill). We had another baguette stop at Lac Matapedia. Then we continued our drive and finally saw the St. Lawrence river. From there it was only a short highway drive to Parc National du Bic. It was a Saturday and we wanted to make sure we had a campsite there. The campground was very full, but we still got a site. Actually it was the "worst" camping site we had on the whole trip ;-). After setting up the tent we went back to Rimouski for dinner at Parfum de Coree. We enjoyed a good Korean dinner there. We also managed to buy some baguettes at Boulangerie Le Farinographe.

Afterwards we drove back to Parc National du Bic and even managed to hike the trail from Ferme Rioux (Visitor Center) to Cap a l'Orignal along the St. Lawrence shore. We just made it to Cap a l'Orignal at around sundown (we needed low tide) and returned to Ferme Rioux via the Le-ContraBandier trail. The walk late in the evening was every bit as scenic as the one I had done 6 or 7 years earlier with Daniella. The trail can only be walked at low tide. Back then, we also walked into the sundown. Very crawled very satisfied into our tent this night. 

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