Tues Aug 12th - Tour around Ile D'Orleans

Tues Aug 12th - Tour around Ile D'Orleans

Lovely boulangerie...

Scrumptious treats

What was forecast to be a rainy day turned out, to our delight, to be quite sunny with a few high clouds, so after a slow breakfast we set off at about 11am to tour around the island. We reminisced a little as we drove about the time we were here many years ago with our friends from UK Derek and Lin. Stopped at a Boulangerie for coffee and bakery treats late morning, then drove around the point of the island looking out over Quebec City, then on to the Cassis maker where we bought some Cassis, then a winery ( Le Vignoble de Ste Petronille) to have a tasting and bought a bottle of nice white. More tastings at various food and cideries etc with a last stop at the 'fromagerie' for a tasting of fried cheese... yum!!! Bought some local cheeses, some dry smoked sausage and, armed with our fresh bread from the boulangerie, we headed back to camp to enjoy a lovely platter of our goodies... a quick walk to the Quai before bed.

Land around Vignoble de Ste Petronille

Vignoble de Ste Petronille

Cheers to the good times

Mon Aug 11 - Truck Radiator blown

Mon Aug 11 - Truck Radiator blown

Montmorency Falls from Bridge

Homemade chips and mayo

Church next to pub

View from Pub parking

Good to have truck safe again

Janice up early... back is rather bad... so she walked to the end of the quai (quay) with a cup of tea and watched the ships sail by. We had a quick toast (with homemade marmalade from Alma farmers market) and set off for the dealership to have the truck checked... we made it gingerly without issue, but when we arrived we looked under the truck and coolant fluid was flowing unchecked onto the floor...  No need for the service tech guy, who speaks little English, to explain what was wrong!!!! New radiator needed to be ordered, so we sat on this beautiful sunny morning in the waiting room of the dealership, racking up the bill as we sat. BUT... we are so very lucky. Safety in this lifestyle we live is first and foremost above all.  The idea of being stuck on a highway with the 'condo' attached, in the rain, with no help in sight on a Sunday in the middle of the wilderness.... or  sitting comfortably in a waiting room on a sunny morning catching up on the blog.... the choice is clear and we are indeed counting our blessings today. .... more to come later..... here we go... so after about 4 hours... finally new radiator and we had a quick intake of breath when the bill came to discover, much to our delight, that it was covered under our extended warranty... just $200 deductible.... whooo hoooo!!! So .. happy and surprised (and feeling a lot safer) we headed back to the island and went to a micro brewery / pub for a bite to eat and a nice beer... then back to our campsite. Made a cup of tea and walked to the Quai again..

End of the Quai at Ile 'D'Orleans Campsite

The End of a good day!

Sun Aug 10th - Move sites and truck leak!

Sun Aug 10th - Move sites and truck leak!
We hitched up and moved to our site for the next 5 nights (site 72).. very nice. We did however notice that there was an inordinate amount of water coming from the front of the truck. At first we thought it might be from the air-conditioning. After setting up and sitting outside with a coffee on our wooden deck!!!, Derek checked and noticed that the coolant level was down... he filled it and it took quite a few litres, so we knew we may have more of a problem than we thought. We decided not to leave the campground today in case there was a major issue with the truck, and so spent most of the day reading, walking around the campground and generally relaxing. We wandered down to the shore at about 10pm after a fabulous pork chop meal (chops from New Brunswick farm). We were told by a guy camping nearby that there was supposed to be a meteor shower (an annual event here). But after about an hour sipping our beers in the dark on the beach we gave up (turns out it does not happen until Aug 12th). We researched GM dealers to take the truck to tomorrow. Sad to give up a day in this heavenly place to go get the truck looked at.. but such are the hazards of this lifestyle.
No Photos today... !!!!! 

Sat Aug 9 - Ile D'Orleans

Sat Aug 9 - Ile D'Orleans

Unique church on S side St Lawrence- Quebec

Bridge over to Ile'D'Orleans

Our Site at Ile D'Orleans for 1 night

View from (side) back window

Camping De la Demi-Lieue, is so great, and we only have a 2 hour drive left to get to Ile D'orleans, so we decided to hang out at the camp for the morning (checkout is not til 1pm). We did a load of laundry and generally lolly-gagged around for a few hours. we started our drive to Ile D'Orleans and arrived about 3pm and were given a lovely site at the edge of the campground overlooking fields. We set up and walked around to see the site we will move to tomorrow.. looks wonderful - wooden deck, patio furniture and nice and wide, close to the river facing the south shore of the St Lawrence river. We cooked up a nice dinner with baked haddock, Quinoa and purple beans --- YUM!! We are so excited to be here at Ile D'Orleans.. we last camped here many years ago with our friends Derek and Lin from UK. This island is beautiful, and we can't wait to get to taste the cassis, the bread, wine, smoked fish and soak up the lovely landscape that make up this wonderful french rural Quebec island in the middle of the St Lawrence River.

Fri Aug 8th - New Brunswick to Quebec

Fri Aug 8th - New Brunswick to Quebec

View from campground (S shore) - low tide

Camped at Demi-Lieue CG

We left our site at Headquarters Campground not long after 9am and started the drive toward Ile D'Orleans, which we expected to take two days. However we just kept driving and had hoped to get the rest of the tires replaced enroute. We stopped at Canadian Tire in New Brunswick, who appeared to have the only tires of the size we need in the whole of the Maritimes. After checking the car in and spending and hour or so a t a local MacDonalds they called and said they actually had made a mistake and the tires we need are not there (the owner put them on his truck, without recording them 

Lovely Campground... recommend it!

) ARGGHH!! So we also had them check the computer codes as we had an engine warning sign.. they reset the codes and said there appeared to be no problems... so we kept driving until we found a site. Thank goodness for cell phones and mobile internet and Woodall's Campground Guide. We had difficulty finding anywhere that had space for 2 nights. Drove right through New Brunswick and camped on the south shore of the St Lawrence in Quebec at Camping De La Demi-Lieue (Half Mile Campground)..... It was really a camping resort. Fabulous spot... pool, lake, tennis courts, snack bar, laundry, Bocce ball, and the list goes on. After setting up we went for a quick walk and wandered into the snack bar. Unable to resist we ordered a small portion of poutine (for those non-canadians, this is a dish specific to Quebec and is basically french fries (chips to you in UK), covered with a generous portion of cheese curds, then smothered with very hot dark brown gravy.... OH HEAVEN!!!) It was the best poutine we have ever had... good job we are not staying more than one night!!!!
This is definitely a family camping resort and campfires were ablaze all over the place. Laughter, BBQ's smoking and kids galore... loved it!! We called Camping Ile D'orleans to see if they could take us a day early (tomorrow) and they had one site available for tomorrow night ... we will have to move the next day to the site we had already booked for 5 nights... well at least we have somewhere to go tomorrow and we will be on the island early. 
We are a little concerned that the engine warning light came on again... nothing seems to be amiss, but we will check it again when we get to Ile D'Orleans. 

Thurs Aug 7th - 10km hike Tracey Lake and Bruin Lake

Thurs Aug 7th - 10km hike Tracey Lake and Bruin Lake
 
What a great day today. We decided to do a longer hike despite the 'rain' forecast... learning not to take them too seriously!! So we took off for The Tracey Lake trail which has a side trip to Bruin lake. The trail-head starts at Bennett Lake near the Kayak rentals, so we had hoped to go kayaking after the hike (didn't happen).
The trail was wonderful, winding through the forest and across a small stream (Janice was terrified of balancing on rocks and logs to get over the stream but she did it!!) After about four and a half kilometres, we arrived at Tracey lake and chatted with a father and his 2 sons who were there wilderness camping by the lake. We then headed further up the trail to the end of Tracey lake then up another short trail to Bruin Lake... lots of big frogs/toads?? Back at end of Tracey lake we had a picnic lunch. So peaceful, not a sound, no traffic, no boats, just the lake and the forest. The trail had an abundance of mushrooms of various colours. We were hoping to see moose or deer, but no luck there.. just moose poo and a few squirrels and chipmunks! We only passed one other young couple hiking the trail, so it was lovely to have it all to ourselves. Hiking back we passed the father and sons again and met a few young guys further down the trail who were heading out to wilderness camp at the end of Tracey lake (our picnic spot).. they will have a great time.

 When we returned to Bennett Lake after our 10km total hike, we were not really disappointed to be greeted by heavier rain and so the kayak idea bit the dust and we headed back to camp for a hot shower. We packed some of the trailer ready for leaving in the morning for a two day drive to Ile D'Orleans in the St. Lawrence River near Quebec City.

Wilderness Camp at top of Tracey Lake

Wonder why they are called Red Spruce?

Typical Mushroom site

The dreaded stream crossing

Bennett Lake - lovely

Wed Aug 6th - Caribou Plain Hike

Wed Aug 6th - Caribou Plain Hike

Easy but beautiful !!

Caribou plains.. easy trail

 

Not letting rain get in the way!!

Rain was threatened all day so we stayed at camp, but as the day wore on the rain was not showing itself to be more than a few small showers, so as cabin fever set in we took off to go on a short hike at Caribou plains and the Caribou boardwalk... only 2.6 km total, but at least we got out. After the hike we drove over to Bennett lake where the have kayak rentals, but the showers were getting heavier and the guy said it would be too risky to go out. We decided to maybe try again tomorrow. We headed back to camp in the rain and relaxed for the evening and played a game of scrabble ... a close game and lots of fun!! 

Not sure what it is, but 'twas a big bird

View from road