Last Day on the Islands

Our last day was again another beautiful day. We headed out for a hike on Boudreau Ile. This is a small uninhabited island with a beautiful view.

There was a small section of the island that you could imagine would be what the surface of mars looks like, except for the seagull!

During our hike I took a couple of pictures of a butterfly, flowers and birds that caught my eye.

 

And, of course we came across another beach.  But enough pictures of beaches. From there we visited a very old Anglican church that had just been refurbished. They kept it very much to the original style.

Then on to Old Harry Beach for a visit. Yes it was beautiful as all of them are. We are told that this is a world famous beach but if that's the case, they all should be.

We are back at the housed to have some salmon pie and get packed up. We have to be at the dock to catch our ferry at 6:30 am. Then it's off for a one nite stop in Nova Scotia.

A few days to catch back up

I got a bit lazy at the end of the last few days and fell behind so let me catch back up. Sunday was a pretty quiet day. We tried our hands at clam hunting again and once again we were busted. Clearly we need help from a local but I doubt we will try that again.

We went to the beach again for a few hours. Compared to our last time a the beach, it was positively crowded. There had to be at least 6 people within view! We did see a jelly fish that I chased around in the waves for a few minutes with my sport camera.

After that we retired back to the house where I played with my camera drone for a bit. The picture at the top of the post, if you look closely at it, you can see my at the back of house waving to the drone. The next two are looking north and then south from Grosse-Ile from an altitude of about 200 meters. As you can see, there is a lot of beaches.

Yesterday we did a boat trip out to Ile d'Entree. I was really something to see. The community of 60 people are primarily english speaking but are quite bilingual. Our zodiac captain gave a tour around the island to stat with. I couldn't get over the fact that it looked like something out of Lord of the Rings! I felt like we went back in time.

After our tour around the island, we went on shore and had a look around. You can really see how the sea air and wind can take it's tole on things. The people we met were very friendly and happy to talk to us. I took the time to play around with black and white photography again. It just seemed like the right medium.

No seafood for dinner last night. It didn't seem right but the spaghetti and meatballs was very good.

Okay, so that catches back up to today. Lucky me. I have managed to come down with a cold so we had a slow day. We headed toward Harve-aux-Maisons to visit a traditional fish smoke house and a local cheese shop. On the way we stumbled across another smaller, rougher but also beautiful beach.

We made it to the shops we wanted to visit and picked up a few ingredients for dinner. Seafood chowder!

Tomorrow is our last full day here so we will have to see what we can fit in before we have to pack for the ferry back to the mainland and our next stop.

An Easy Day

We had a late start to the day today after a rather late night. After a luxurious breakfast and a slow moving morning we finally got out and headed for the Little Red Schoolhouse museum on Grande-Entree island. It was small but very well done. We were the only ones there for a bit so we got a very good tour with lots of detail and history.

After that we headed for the marina right at the tip of the island. From there we unloaded the bikes and took a leisurely ride to get a better look at the area. After that we just had to visit the two little boutiques that were there. You just never know what treasures you may find (or not).

After that we checked out a couple of attractions in the area to plan our next couple of days and then headed for home back on Grosse-Ile.

I was feeling a little guilty for not getting my ass in gear in the morning and getting out for a harder ride so I decided to grab my camera and head out for a walk that included some serous hill climbing and beach walking. I have been trying to get a bit better at my black and white photo composition so that was my focus (excuse the pun) for this walk. I think I did pretty good.

Check out all of this trips photos at Magdalene Islands Flickr album.

Tomorrow is another day, ON VACATION!

A day at the Beach

I was up and away early today to get in a 30K ride. Another beautiful day for it.

After breakfast we packed up our beach gear and headed out to play in the ocean. We pulled off in a small area along Dune du Nord. From there it was a short walk over a dune to a beach that looked like it went on for ever.

We were the only people there! It was quite unbelievable. After a bit of looking around searching for the prefect spot, we noticed that there there was a set of eyes very carefully giving us the once over.

After about ten minutes of observation, our friendly neighbourhood seal must of decided that we just weren't that interested and headed off and we got ourselves ready to get wet. The water was a bit cool but I had brought my shorty wetsuit so I was quite comfortable.

After a bit of playing in the surf it was time to get out the kite. What a great place for kite flying. I had a bit of an audience from the local birds but still not another human to be seen anywhere.

Well it had been a pretty intense day so far so we headed back, got cleaned up, had a seafood dinner (again) and then went out to the area high school gym to watch some local talent play some old time country and bluegrass. It was a father daughter and son group and they were really quit good. The gym was full of locals, a few tourists and  fair number of people from all over the islands. It was quite a fun time and the music was very well done.

The music's over and it's time to call it a day. I'm starting to use to this kind life and I like it!

On the North End

Today we left our little motel on the central island and headed north. But before we left this island we headed around the west coat to have a look at the shore line and at a small lighthouse up on one of the sand stone cliffs. Like everything else we have seen so far, it was truly beautiful. It is no surprise to hear of people who keep returning here year after year and of those that choose to stay.

We headed back to the east and turned north. We crossed over Havre-aux-Maisons and drove along one of the long narrow fingers of land that make up a large part of the islands and headed for the northern tip. It struck me as a bit odd but on this one small corner of this particular island (Grosse-Ile) changed from where everyone speaks french (and in many cases, only french) to where is this community they speak english (and in most cases, don't speak french at all).

After a very short drive, we were through the english community and rounding the northern tip and around to the french speaking community called Grande-Entree and hunting for beaches. It actually is never much of a challenge to find a beach out here.

After carefully scouting my next sport for fish and chips later on during our stay, we headed back to Grosse-Iie where we have a beautiful little house rented for the next 7 days right in the middle of this beautiful little fishing village. Now there's nothing left to do by try out my new kite.

A Bit of Rain and a lot of Wind

Today, as promised, the wind showed up with meaning! Sustained speeds of 30 to 35 kph with gusts over 45. Along with all that winds came a bit rain to add to the mix. I think I'm going to chicken out of the bike ride today.

As we had planned, we headed out to witch the parasailing and wind surfing. It was even a bit windy for them but the heartier (crazier) of them still showed up. They put on quite a show.

After a couple of hours watch this show, you could taste the salt on your lips. Time to head for the museum. We found that this little museum was very well done. It explained how people came to live on this out of the way place. They also had an impressive skeleton of a sperm wail hanging from the ceiling of one of the rooms.

While we were driving out on one of the long thin fingers of the south island we came upon this spot where there were several trebuchets all set up pointing out to sea. I have no idea what that was all about but wouldn't that be fun to play with!

Time to head back and pick up some ingredients at the local fish market for a good seafood chowder and get ready for our next move. We have a cottage by the beach on the northern island.