L2323 – Va-moose from Canada

Introduction

In my last post, L2323 – A Tale of Two Oceans, I described the long and rough crossing we made across the Atlantic, our arrival in Canada being delayed by a day as we struggled to avoid two storms. I also described our lovely second, and now only day in St. John’s, Newfoundland, where we took an excellent private tour along the coast.

Leaving St. John’s late in the evening, we had a day at sea sailing towards our next port of call, Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Sydney, Nova Scotia, Canada

This was our first visit to Sydney – well this one, we have both been to the perhaps more famous one ‘down under’ a few times. Looking through the tours arranged by Fred. Olsen, one stood out to us, which we booked straight away, despite being 7 hours long and rather expensive. The description for the tour, The Cabot Trail, said “The Cabot Trail is considered one of the world’s most scenic destinations and offers a spectacular coastal drive through the Cape Breton Highlands…”.

We had to be up early as the tour check in time was 8:15, but I did manage to take a few snaps of the early morning light as we sailed in towards Sydney, and also of the scenery across from the ship once we had docked.

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Carol and I were on the first of three coaches making this tour, and as we set off our local guide explained that all three coaches would be having lunch at the same venue, but at different times. Well, we are pretty sure that is what he was saying, as making out anything and everything he had to say (and there was a lot!) was a real struggle as the sound was so distorted. We were sat near the back of the coach, just in front of the ship’s representative, and agreeing about the problem he spoke to the guide at a photo stop. The guide said that he must be holding the microphone too near his mouth, and for the next twenty minutes or so his commentary was clearer, but alas it soon returned to being really hard work to understand. The guide was an ex-schoolteacher, and it showed – he never stopped either telling us stuff, or quizzing us on what he had told us. He was also full of stories of how he had encountered what must have been virtually every wild animal in Canada, and how he had known just what to do to face them down and do the right thing. When we heard several of these tales the second time around it really, really got too much to bear.

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The weather forecast had been quite promising – sunshine developing, and temperatures rising to 19 degrees. Alas this was way too optimistic, as it remained very dull, grey and cool all day, which did nothing to set off the scenery. Of course we understand that we are in the lap of the Gods when it comes to the weather, and also when it comes to how far advanced the colour change of the trees had got. While yes, in places the trees had started to turn, they were far from the spectacle shown in the picture in the tour guide.

I think to say everyone on the coach was astonished would not be an exageration when at 10:40 we pulled up outside a restaurant for our lunch – even the guide said perhaps he had better call it our brunch. I do realise they had three ‘sittings’ to fit in, but even so this was really too early, especially as we had eaten a good breakfast ahead of our long trip.

To be fair, the buffet-style food was actually very good – choice of two tasty soups, various cold meats and cheeses with some salad and bread or rolls, with desserts and coffee.

Leaving the restaurant we continued to follow the Cabot Trail road towards what turned out to be our ultimate destination, a small fishing harbour just short of Ingonish. With so little there, neither of us saw the point in getting off the coach for 5 minutes, and I just took some snaps through the coach window.

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From there we just drove back towards the ship down the same roads, albeit with a couple more photostops. The first of these was just around the bay near the Keltic Lodge Hotel.

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Later we stopped at the Pathend Brook Lookout, which gave some quite dramatic views over the cliffs and coastline.

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Our final photostop was at the Seal Island Lookoff, where there were good views of Seal Island Bridge, which we would shortly take to cross the sea to Boularderie Island.

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As we approached Sydney, we diverted off the main road to drive through an area where the indiginous people live. We were not sure whether this was part of the tour, or something to fill in time as we were well ahead of schedule, but either way neither of us felt comfortable gawping at their homes, schools and shops.

Carol and I are so fortunate, we have travelled to so many countries and seen so many wonderful places. We know that we did not see the route in ideal conditions – if there had been blue sky and sunshine we are sure it would have looked better, and had it been a week or so later when the leaves had turned properly would have made a world of difference too. But in the conditions we saw it, and having at the same time to contend with a really bad, continuous, repetitive and distorted commentary from our guide, we both sadly thought it was far from one of the world’s most scenic destinations, and we came away very disappointed in our tour.

It was interesting to talk later with our friends Rosemary and Steven, who did the same tour but in the second of the three coaches. They had a much better guide, their lunch was at midday, and they saw wildlife which we didn’t – so they said that they would give the tour a much higher rating than we would. It’s all about the luck of the draw, and we were pleased for them that they had a good experience from it.

After returning to our cabin for some peace & quiet, and a good rest, I went out onto the upper deck to take some photographs of the dock and the giant fiddle sculpture there.

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While we were at dinner we set sail for our next port of call, Halifax, which we would reach after a morning at sea.

Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada

Carol and I had visited Halifax before, on our cruise to Canada in the Fall on Black Watch back in 2018. Here we did a wonderful tour which took us around Halifax and out to Peggy’s Cove – made truly memorable by just about the best local guide we have ever had anywhere the world – you can read about it in my blog post W1821 – Lighthouses and Lobsters.

For this visit we were in port for around 24 hours, but split over two days – from around 1pm one day to around 1pm the following day.

Having had such a fantastic tour last time, we were reluctant to book one this time, as we felt it was unlikely to be as good. We therefore decided to use a Hop On, Hop Off (HOHO) bus to explore the city under our own steam. However in the tours guide it listed a tour which was simply a ticket for a HOHO bus at a competitive price, and even better part of the ticket cost would be put as a donation to a breast cancer charity – so we booked that.

It turned out that the HOHO ticket was valid for 24 hours from when we exchanged our tour ticket, so effectively it covered all the time we were in port – result!

Our weather on our first day in Halifax was lovely – clear blue skies, warm sunshine and around 21 degrees – ideal for looking around. We ate our lunch as we made our final approaches to the port, and afterwards we watched from our balcony as our ship docked immediately behind the huge Norwegian Escape cruise ship.

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We waited a short while for the initial rush to clear, and then went ashore to pick up a HOHO bus, which conveniently stopped right outside the terminal building. The HOHO busses in Halifax are former London ‘double decker’ ones, something we were both very familiar with, but which we had not ridden for some time. We rode the bus up to the Citadel, which we remembered from our previous visit gave good views across the city. We walked right around the outside of the Citadel, enjoying the views and the lovely sunshine.

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From there we walked downhill towards the waterfront, and a boardwalk which we had been recommended which would take us all the way back to our ship. We took our time, looking in the various gift shops and statues on the way, and also stopping for a tasty meal in an Italian restaurant. After the disappointment of the weather on the tour from Sydney the day before, at least we were exploring Halifax in perfect conditions. However we knew from the weather forecasts that this was not going to last – more on this later…

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After dinner I took a couple of photographs of the port by night.

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Our second day in port dawned bright and mostly sunny, but there was definitely more cloud around and the wind was getting up, more signs that a big change was on its way.

Around 9am we left the ship and reboarded the HOHO bus, this time we sat upstairs to ride the bus all the way around the city and back to the terminal. Each bus has a local guide on board – on both occasions the guide was very entertaining and added to the enjoyment of the ride.

This time I tried to take photographs through the not exactly sparkling bus windows with varying success.

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When we reached the Citadel quite a few other passengers got off, and we were able to get a seat right at the front of the bus upstairs, which gave us even better views. Also as it was a Saturday there was much less traffic around, which made the ride more enjoyable.

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We thought the Hydrostone District National Historic Site was particularly attractive:

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The tour went right out to the Fairview Lawn Cemetery where the Titanic graves are located (somewhere we had visited on the tour last time), before returning to the city centre along a route close to the waterfront.

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Arriving back at the terminal building I took a photo of our bright pink bus.

Before returning to our ship, we walked a short way to where from the bus we had seen a row of attractive historic houses, so that I could get better photographs of them.

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We then walked down to the waterfront and back to our waiting ship.

Back to the deteriorating weather. In his pre-departure talk Captain Val confirmed that due to Tropical Storm Philippe we would not be able to go to our next planned port of call, Saint John in New Brunswick, Canada. Instead we would be proceeding slowly and carefully directly to the next planned port, Portland in Maine, USA, trying as we did so to avoid the worst of the weather.

While we were waiting to depart our Stewardess came around to stack up all the furniture on our balcony, and also in the cabin put things like glasses and bottles in the drawers – these things are never a good sign!

The Captain tried to make our departure, but the wind was already too strong, and the ship kept being pushed back against the quayside. The Captain then announced that we would have to wait for tugs to arrive which would help safely pull the ship away from the quayside. Once clear, we sailed past part of the boardwalk, before turning and heading out to sea.

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Postscript

I am writing this on our unexpected sea day sailing between Canada and the USA. Yes, it was rough overnight, but not as bad as we feared, or as bad as it was at times crossing the Atlantic Ocean. When I pulled back the curtains this morning the skies were full of cloud and rain, but now, around noon, the skies have cleared and the sun is out. There is still quite a swell though, and we continue to rock and roll.

We are due into Portland at 8pm this evening. As this is our first port of call in the USA on this cruise, everyone on board has to go through US Immigration. This will be done on board starting at 8am tomorrow morning, so it will be another early start for us all.

L2323 – A Tale of Two Oceans

Introduction

In my last post, S2305 – Limping Home, I described the final stages of our epic Around the World in 80 Days in cruise, which we completed back in May this year.

After a busy summer at home, we are finally back cruising again, on a cruise we actually booked a long, long time ago. The cruise is L2323 American Waterways and Canada in the Fall, and is for 34 nights on the Fred. Olsen ship Balmoral.

Here is a map of our itinerary:

On this cruise we are travelling with our very good friends Rosemary and Steven, who, like us, met on a Fred. Olsen World Cruise on the lovely Black Watch – albeit a year later than Carol and me.

Day 1 – Embarkation

Arriving at Southampton we were pleased to find that they were enforcing the check-in times, so that instead of a huge tedious queue snaking back and forth prior to the security checks, it was just a short wait before we were through. Everything was quick and efficient, and it wasn’t long before we were safely on board and eating a light lunch.

We were fortunate as our cases arrived promptly this time, and we soon had everything unpacked and we could relax ahead of our voyage. Some of our fellow passengers were not so lucky – with so many on board for a longer cruise, there were a lot of cases to load, and also a lot of stores and provisions which delayed proceedings. In the event we were a couple of hours late sailing, something I thought Captain Valentin ‘Val’ Giuglea might be disappointed in, as we knew bad weather was expected.

Days 2-6 – and day 7! – At sea

We were sailing away from the UK out across the Atlantic Ocean just as Storm Agnes was approaching from the other direction. With damaging high winds and rough seas expected off Ireland, we were not surprised at all when Captain Val announced that we would be sailing south to avoid the worst of the weather – for once heading to the Bay of Biscay due to the weather, rather than avoiding it! The first couple of days were slow progress – the ship rocked, rolled and crashed through the very heavy seas. We have to say that Captain Val did a brilliant job of keeping us informed – with announcements several times a day, and at lunchtime on the third day he gave a presentation in the Neptune Lounge about how the weather was affecting our journey.

He told us that the combination of having to sail further as we skirted around the storms (we had another one still to pass), and only being able to proceed more slowly than usual in the high seas meant we would be more than 12 hours late into our first port of call, St. John’s in Newfoundland, Canada. We were due to spend two days there, but due to the weather we would now miss the first day, and arrive early in the morning on the second day.

On the fourth day the seas were finally calm enough to have our first formal night, and the Captain’s Welcome party. We were surprised to hear that 91% of the 952 passengers on board were returning Oceans passengers – a very impressive statistic.

Day 8 – St. John’s, Newfoundland, Canada

When we awoke and pulled back the curtains there was a very strange sight outside – big lumps of rock sticking out of the sea, and after a moment or two I remembered it was something called land!! Actually we were just sailing through the narrow entrance to St. John’s, and it was looking lovely in the dawn sunlight, so I dashed out onto the balcony with my phone to take a few photos.

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Carol and I have visited St. John’s once before, back in 2018 as part of our Canada in the Fall cruise on Black Watch – see W1821 Mist the View. On that occasion we had explored the town on foot (in the rain), so this time around we wanted to see a bit more of Newfoundland. When the Fred. Olsen tours were released for this cruise we were rather disappointed in the tours available in this port, so I did some research on the internet and found a private tour run by Legend Tours that would take us on a three hour scenic drive around the coast to the north of St. Johns. Our friends Rosemary and Steven were delighted to join us, the details of the tour can be found here.

Like before, when we got off the ship there was someone with a beautiful Newfoundland dog waiting to greet everyone as they walked along the quayside.

It was just a short walk into the town to the tour company’s shop, where we met our local driver and guide Brian, who proved to be a really good guide and told us all about the places we visited and about life in Newfoundland. Carol and I really do like having a personal guide like this, where we can ask all the questions we want, and where the tour can be tailored to us.

Our first stop was outside an Ocean Sciences centre overlooking Pogy Bay. Brian told us about the rescued seals that used to be kept there, but which have now been released back into the wild.

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We then drove on to Outer Cove, where we made a short photo-stop.

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Our next stops were at Middle Cove, where we stopped first at a lookout point overlooking the bay, before parking at Middle Cove Beach so that we could walk down onto the beach. The sand was rather grey and gritty, but the waves were crashing against the cliffs to the side of the beach.

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We then had a brief stop in Torbay (the road was closed which prevented us going further), before driving on to Flatrock.

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We then carried on up the coast to Pouch Cove, before cutting across the peninsula to the tiny fishing harbour at Bauline.

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On our way back to St. John’s, Brian gave us two extra stops, the first was at the Admiral’s Green golf course in Pippy Park, where there were fantastic views down over the St. John’s area.

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The second extra stop was at the University, where Brian directed us to where we could see the skeleton of a blue whale, which was suspended on cables in the atrium of one of the buildings there. It was a chance to appreciate just how large these magnificent creatures are.

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Sadly this was the end of what had een a brilliant and really interesting tour, so Brian then drove us back to the ship. We would thoroughly recommend the tour company and this particular tour to anyone wanting to see further afield than St. John’s itself.

After a light lunch and a rest on board the ship, we went back ashore for a wander around the town – there are lots of interesting shops to explore. As always I was on the look out for anything different to photograph.

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As we were unexpectedly staying for the evening in St. John’s, Carol and I decided to be a little extravagant and have a meal out in the town. We went to The Keg Steakhouse, which was just a little way along the quayside, where we sat on a table overlooking the harbour and both ate fabulous steaks which just melted in the mouth. This brought back fond memories of the amazing steaks we used to enjoy in The Grill speciality restaurants on the Fred. Olsen ships, back in the day before everything had to be Asian food.

It was just a short walk back to the ship, where we spent the rest of the evening reflecting on a wonderful day, which had more than made up for the six days rocking and rolling across the Atlantic Ocean.

Carol and I were both fast asleep in bed long before the ship set sail to our next port of call, Sydney in Nova Scotia, Canada, which we will reach after a day at sea.

The ports and scenic cruising then come thick and fast over 12 days in a row, so I am not sure when I will have time to post my next installment!

Postscript 1

Since the pandemic, Carol and I have done lots of cruises on Fred. Olsen’s newer ships, Bolette and Borealis, but this is our first time back on their older ship Balmoral, so it has been interesting to compare and contrast the ships. With so many passengers on board, and the smaller public areas, the ship has felt very packed and crowded. We are also missing the proper theatres with raked seating, and the larger buffet restaurants. Although we usually take the stairs to help combat all the food on board, on the odd occasions we do take the lift, we have also noticed the difference in the waiting times with so fewer lifts available.

I am really pleased to be able to report a couple of positives. Since the pandemic I, like a whole chorus of people on social media – have had a moan about the menus and the food on board – the lack of choice for non-vegetarians, and the quality of much of the food. This time (so far, touch wood) things are much improved – indeed one night I had to make a decision between four main meals that I would have liked to have – something I have not had to do for a long time.

The other positive was a couple of the evening shows in the Neptune Lounge this week. Fred. Olsen rightly makes a thing about the large percentage of repeating passengers, but alas the guest artists also have a very high repeat rate – and when they come back it is with an identical show. This is bad enough for a singer, but when it is a “comedian” – and I use the term very lightly – and you know the punchlines long before they get around to saying them, then it really isn’t acceptable. Most nights we look at the Daily Times and say “oh no, it’s so-and-so yet again”, and don’t bother to go to the show. However this week we had a couple of shows from an absolutely brilliant and extremely talented guitarist called Mark M Thompson – we, and people we have talked to have all said how refreshing and lovely it was to have a new and really entertaining show. However, it turns out that Mark was a last minute replacement for an act that could not make the cruise – so it was probably by accident rather than by design.

Postscript 2

Alas not everything is quite so rosy. On our bonus sea day we attended the second of two Oceans Loyalty Cocktail Parties – there were too many Oceans members on board to just have the one as usual. At the start of the event we were shown the by now very familiar video about the history of Fred. Olsen, and about how they restarted the business after the pandemic – even the Future Cruise/Oceans representative and hostess Noemi commented on how we would have all seen it several times before.

We never did find out who got the award for most Oceans points on this cruise or how many points they have – as it was presented the day before they did not think to tell us.

There were six people who received Milestone awards – these are given out to people who have clocked up 500, 750, 1000 etc nights – quite an achievement. As it happens my wife Carol was one of those, having reached her 750 nights milestone. Usually each person is called up in turn to receive bottle of champagne and a bouquet of flowers, have congratulations and a handshake from the Captain, and an individual photograph taken with him. A caption on the screen behind tells everyone what milestone that person has reached. You later receive a copy of the photograph with the Captain, which goes in a presentation folder to keep as a keepsake.

Not this time – everything was done at once in such a rush (having wasted time with the video earlier). Just one list of everyone’s names was shown on the screen, with no indication which milestone each person had reached. Everyone was called up on stage at the same time. Bottles of champagne – but no flowers – were thrust at everyone, and then a giant group photo taken – not the personal one which would have been far, far more appropriate for the keepsake folder.

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I know I have a stake as my wife was involved, but I came away thinking that what happened really didn’t show much respect for the people concerned, and the huge amount of loyalty – and at the end of the day money – they have given to Fred. Olsen. It was not just me either, my wife is angry, hurt and disappointed, and when we met our friends at lunch afterwards, they were appalled at the way it had been handled also. Fred. Olsen like to say it’s all about the people – well this time it certainly wasn’t.

W1821 – Giant Way (part 2)

In my last blog,  W1821 – Giant Way (part 1), I described our visit to our last port of call on our Canada in the Fall cruise, which was Belfast in Northern Ireland, and our tour from there which was to drive a giant way to see the Giant’s Causeway. At the end of the post I left the story at the point at which we were taking the long drive back to our waiting ship in Belfast, indicating this story was to be continued – which I will do later in this post.

A very unfortunate feature of the latter part of our Canadian cruise which so far I had intentionally not dwelt on was that there was a serious outbreak of gastroenteritis-type illness on board. This is something that is sadly all too common where large numbers of people are gathered together – for example in factories, hotels, hospitals, and colleges – and some sections of the press and social media have in the past unfairly singled cruise ships out as being particularly susceptible and deficient in this area, which was why until now I had deliberately not mentioned it in my blog. However I had left some clues – it was the explanation as to why some tours were checking in on the quayside rather than on the ship, and also the reason why Carol and I were spending virtually all our time in our cabin during the five sea days coming back across the Atlantic Ocean.

Carol and I know the tell-tale signs to look out for, and picked up that they had a problem on board a good couple of days before the Captain started making multiple announcements each day about it. His announcements also talked about all the extra precautions they were introducing on board to try and stop the transfer of the virus from passenger to passenger, such as having crew to serve on the buffets, closing the launderettes, swimming pools and jacuzzis. Another thing they did, which I think is such a sad reflection on some of the passengers on board, is that they closed some of the public toilets, and posted crew in the ones that remained open, just to ensure that all passengers washed their hands properly before leaving them.

We know just how extra hard the crew work during these ‘Code Red’ situations, and know full well that it is not their fault if the virus continues to spread – it is the fault of downright stupid and selfish passengers who fail to declare their symptoms, and/or continue to move around the ship spreading the virus after they become infected. Indeed the Captain during his announcements began to say that they knew of cases of people still moving around the ship after they had become infected. My personal view is that by doing this such people have shown that they are not fit and proper people to be cruise ship passengers, and therefore should be put off the ship at the very next port (at their own expense to get home), and banned from any future cruise bookings – and possibly with some public ‘naming and shaming’ too.

Carol and I had been aware how close the virus had got to us – one of the ladies on our dinner table had been infected, as were passengers in the cabins on either side of ours. By being ultra cautious and keeping ourselves to ourselves we thought we had got away with it….

 

So back to the story of our last port of call and tour on the cruise – when I left the story in part 1, we were back on the coach making the long drive all the way back to the cruise ship. Alas around half way back, I started to feel very unwell – I was suddenly hot and clammy, and I suspected that soon I might need to get to a bathroom in a hurry – it was all too apparent that our luck had run out! I alerted Carol to my situation quietly, wondering just what I was going to do and contemplating just how awful things could suddenly get.  Fortunately my condition eased off – my temperature dropped again, and I was able to safely and quietly sit things out until we got back to the ship.

We returned to our cabin, and feeling very tired and drained, lay on my bed for an hour or so snoozing. Then suddenly the symptoms returned with a vengeance  –  and shall we say I spent the next few hours visiting the bathroom very frequently and at very short notice! Carol of course reported my condition to the medical department, and a nurse came to check my condition, she give me some re-hydration powders and took away a sample. I was of course confined to the cabin – but this of course would only be until we disembarked the ship early the following morning.

We were very interested to hear the Captain say as part of his sail-away broadcast that there had been an increase in gastroenteritis cases that day – so I was not alone!

Carol could and did – bless her – set to and did all the packing for both of us. She was not allowed to put the cases out in the corridor as usual, instead she had special labels to put on them, and during the evening someone came and took them away to have their outsides sterilised. We were also told to ignore all the disembarkation announcements, we would only be let off once all the well passengers had left the ship.

The big challenge was what we were going to do once we were thrown off the ship in the morning – at best I was going to be terribly drained, and not fit to go any distance at all, never mind the 430 kilometres (270 miles) that I was supposed to be driving home that day back to our home on the south coast of England. My car – a manual drive car and Carol only drives automatic ones – was in the Cruise & Passenger Services car parking service compound, and was due to be collected from there in the morning.

With the help of Guest Services, Carol was able to arrange with Cruise & Passenger Services for the car to remain in their compound for a couple more days, and to get us booked into the Crowne Plaza Hotel that is just across from the terminal building. However we were told we could not have the room until mid afternoon, until Carol telephoned them and managed to arrange for us to have access to a room in the morning so that I could go straight back to bed there.

Although overnight thankfully the frequency of my visits to the bathroom dropped away, I didn’t get much sleep, and by morning I was shattered, and Carol thought I still had a temperature. A nurse made a fleeting visit, her phone going while she was with me, and she said that she had been kept busy with patients all night long – it looked like for whatever reason there really had been a spike in cases.

Feeling so weak I really didn’t know how I was going to manage to get from our cabin down to deck 3 and the gangplank, and from there along and up a steep slope to the terminal building, and from there to the hotel – it all seemed so daunting and so impossible. I have done almost all my cruising from Southampton, and I am used to seeing waiters there go back and forth assisting elderly and infirm passengers ashore in wheelchairs, so we asked if I could have wheelchair assistance to get off the ship. The medical department referred us to guest services and vice versa, and all we were offered in the end was use of the port minibus that takes elderly and infirm passengers from the quayside end of the gangplank up to outside the terminal building – other than that all they would do is call an ambulance for me!

Accompanied by Carol, I staggered slowly – having to carry some of our hand luggage – down on the lift, along the long corridor and down the gangplank to the quayside. On the way we could see crew frantically cleaning the ship ready for the next batch of victims – I mean passengers – to come aboard that afternoon.

The minibus took us up to the terminal building, were for once finding our cases was easy as there were so few left there. The next daunting challenge was to get ourselves, our hand luggage and all our suitcases over to the hotel – it was a case of so near and yet so far. Carol talked to a very nice porter, who kindly offered to take our luggage over to the hotel if we could manage to follow him on foot. By the time Carol had taken care of checking us in, and I had staggered up to our room, I was so grateful to get back into a bed, and I slept for much of the remainder of the day.

My system by now was of course completely empty, but Google helped us find a brilliant sandwich shop called Bite, which is in Tower Gardens close to the hotel. Carol went there and staggered back with a large bag of delicious sandwiches – plain chicken ones for me – salad and water, which basically kept us going for a couple of days. The sandwiches were so fresh and chock full of filling – so much better than those plastic ones in plastic triangles you get from supermarkets etc.

Our room overlooked the Mersey, and we could see the bows of Black Watch moored up for most of the day. Just as the sun was going down I slipped out of bed for a couple of minutes to watch her sail away on her next cruise – a mystery cruise – and we wondered where she might be going, and how her new passengers might fare onboard.

 

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The next day I continued to rest in or on the bed for most of the day, but with the combination of all this rest and the nutritious sandwiches I was starting to feel a lot better and stronger. By late afternoon I was well enough to go for a short walk outside, and even snap a few photographs on the way!

 

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Late that afternoon we had great views of a lovely sunset from our hotel room.

 

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The following morning we packed up and checked out of the hotel, and then waited for the parking company to release our car. They were brilliant – they sent someone especially with a minibus to the hotel, and transported us and all our luggage to the compound, where we thankfully loaded up our car and by 1:30 we were at last at the start of our giant way home.

I had no idea how far I would be able to drive – we set off just taking it a mile at a time – each mile was a mile near home – and a mile less to do the following day if as we expected, we needed to break the journey part way.

Not long after making it onto the M6 motorway we reached a couple of stretches of road works where the traffic was crawling along, and at this stage I didn’t think we would get that far. However as the day wore on and we got further south the traffic really thinned out, and the weather was ideal for driving.

 

Around Oxford, which is a couple of hours from home, I started to think about what was the bigger effort – to stop at a hotel and check in, unload the car, unpack into a new room, stay the night, pack up again and check out, and find breakfast; or carry on for home on roads I knew well in good driving conditions. The latter won, and after a final stop at a pub for a meal, we drove back to our home and our own bed, getting home soon after 10pm.

Needless to say the next day I was shattered, and spent the whole day resting and dozing from time to time. I am delighted to say that I am now pretty much recovered from it all.

Before I finish, just some thoughts on the whole experience:

• The Crowne Plaza Hotel, the Cruise & Passenger Services car parking people and the Bite sandwich shop were all amazing and so helpful – thank you one and all!
• To start with the crew on the ship – especially Guest Services – were very helpful too, but they seemed to be swamped, and by departure day the focus seemed to be totally on cleaning the ship ahead of the new passenger intake rather than helping us.
• Talking of which, we were amazed if not shocked that they only delayed the boarding of the next cruise passengers by an hour or so – although as we left we saw all the staff hard at work cleaning, there was no way they could properly deep clean the ship in that amount of extra time. I see from Facebook that the Code Red is still in place, of course I have no idea how many cases they might or might not be still getting.
• To encourage passengers to remain in their cabins while they are infected, Fred. Olsen offers a small monetary inducement provided you do remain in your cabin. In the past, this has been made as a credit to your on-board account, so that it could for example pay for WiFi while you are confined. However now it is only made as a credit against a whole new booking for a cruise made in the next 12 months. Regular and loyal customers like Carol and I already have around 200 nights of cruises booked ahead with Fred., so this ‘incentive’ is useless to us. If they want it to be an incentive – make it something that’s actually of value! Also how about offering free WiFi (or refund on WiFi already bought) while someone is confined?

 

Postcript

Well that finally brings to an end yet another wonderful cruise, which despite my health problems at the end, both Carol and I thoroughly enjoyed. We were both surprised and delighted to find how friendly and welcoming virtually all the Canadian people were that we met, and the scenery was just amazing. We were so lucky with the timing of the weather that brought out all the wonderful colours in the foliage for us, and I know a particular high-spot for Carol was to see so many whales so close to the ship.

Regular readers will know that Carol and I happen to be working our way around the Fred. Olsen fleet, in the past few weeks we have been on first Braemar and now Black Watch. Our next cruise is only just over a month away, when we hope to get some early winter sunshine on another of Fred.’s wonderful small ships – so until then – au revoir!

 

 

W1821 – Giant Way (part 1)

In my last post,  W1821 – Final Corner, I described our visit to what was sadly our last port in Canada, Corner Brook, and the walking tour that Carol and I made there. Leaving Newfoundland we set off back across the wide Atlantic Ocean towards our next and final port of call on this cruise, Belfast in Northern Ireland.

It took five long days at sea to cross the ocean, and during the third and fourth days in particular the weather was quite stormy – the decks were closed off and as we heard the waves crash into the bows of the ship (often followed by a shudder down the length of the ship) we could watch them on the bridge camera break not only right over the fore-deck, but also up over the bridge windows.  Fortunately on the fifth day, as we neared the island of Ireland, the seas calmed down and the sun came out once more.

Early in the morning on our last full day of our cruise, we sailed into the port of Belfast. This was my first time in this port, so despite the weather – it was cold and grey, with misty rain in the air – I was up on deck to watch our approach. At first it was too dark and misty to see much – yet alone take any worthwhile photographs, so I retreated downstairs and went for breakfast with Carol. I then returned on deck to watch our final approach, to find us sailing past the predictable ferry boats and container docks.

Ahead of us I could see the two iconic giant cranes, Samson and Goliath, in the Harland and Wolff shipyard, such a landmark on the skyline of the city and a fitting memorial to its shipbuilding history. Further in the distance was the striking Titanic Belfast exhibition building, the points of its star-shape making it instantly recognisable. On our port side was an open dock area with just a tent and some cranes, and I instantly knew that this would be where we would dock. Sure enough we did a 180 degree turn, with a tugboat in close attendance but not required, and slowly came back alongside the quay there. The combination of the open dock with just a tent, plus the gasworks next door might well make it a contender for that mythical coffee-book of stunning Fred. Olsen cruise ports that I keep imagining I will compile one day!

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Once we were close to docking I returned to the Cabin to prepare for our tour ashore. The tours in Belfast itself seemed to concentrate on one of two man-made disasters – a visit to Titanic Belfast, or to the various prisons and ‘peace walls’ associated with The Troubles. While we had heard excellent reports of the former, and I am sure it would be fascinating to many, but as far as Carol and I were concerned it was just not our thing. Likewise the second option, and without letting this blog stray into politics – or heaven forbid the ‘B**x*t’ word – it would have been a sharp reminder of just how fragile and precarious the current peace in the Province is in the current circumstances. Instead we elected to take the tour that took us well out of the city, to see the UNESCO World Heritage Site of the Giant’s Causeway on the coast of County Antrim.

Once again the check-in for tours was on the quayside, but with several tours setting off immediately after we docked, there was quite a scrum of people waiting at the bottom of and up the stairs close to the gangplank before we were given clearance to leave the ship. After a double-take at boarding the coach on the other side, we settled ourselves down for the long drive to our destination.

As we drove out through the port area our local guide pointed out and told us about the two iconic cranes and about the Titanic Belfast building – pointing out that the latter has a white-painted roof, so that from above it is a white star, in homage to the White Star Line which operated Titanic. Once out of the city, most of our route took us through rolling countryside, and our guide told us how important sheep and cattle farming are to the Province.

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Finally after what seemed a marathon drive, we arrived at our first photo-stop – which was a cliff-top viewpoint overlooking the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge, near Ballintoy. The bridge links the mainland to the tiny island of Carrickarede with a span of 20 metres, the bridge being 30 metres above the rocks below. From the viewpoint we could also see the nearby Rathlin Island, and further out near the horizon we could also see across to Scotland.

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Leaving the viewpoint we then had some stunning views of the coastline was we drove the final leg of our epic journey to the Giant’s Causeway, including at one point a rainbow lighting up the sky.

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Finally we arrived at the Giant’s Causeway visitor’s centre, were we were issued with maps and tickets, and given a couple of hours free time to explore the attraction. There was a bus which could have driven us down to the Causeway itself, but after sitting for so long on our own coach we decided that we would prefer to make the 15 minute walk down to it ourselves.

It was lovely to be out in the fresh sea air (such a change on a cruise!), and our route took us around an attractive bay before reaching the hexagonal blocks of the Causeway. The Giant’s Causeway was one of those places that had intrigued me for a long time, but sadly the reality didn’t quite live up to the expectation, in all probability not helped by the large numbers of people climbing all over it and posing for the inevitable ‘selfies’ – and yes, I do appreciate by being there, Carol and I were part of the problem.

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We did spot a narrow path cut through the rocks, which led through to the next bay. Here the numbers of people were much reduced, and Carol and I enjoyed the scenery here much more than at the Causeway itself.

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We decided to walk back up to the visitor’s centre rather than catch the bus, and walking in the opposite direction gave us a good view of the camel-shaped rock formation in the first bay. Walking towards us were a number of monks in bright orange robes, but I was a little disconcerted to see even one of them resort to taking ‘selfies’! We suspected that someone had been sneaky and had steepened the hill up to the visitor’s centre while we weren’t looking – it seemed much steeper walking uphill than it had done coming downhill!

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Returning to the visitor’s centre, we spent the remainder of our free time there looking around the shop and the various exhibits about the attraction and the surrounding area. We also watched an animated film that was being projected in a loop onto one of the walls, which offered up the two explanations for the formation of the causeway – I will let you decide which you believe to be the true one:

• The Irish giant Finn MacCool built the causeway so that he could cross over to Scotland to fight the Scottish giant Benandonner. Reaching the other side he realises that Benandonner is much bigger than he is, and hurries back home. Finn’s wife, Oonagh, disguises Finn as a baby and tucks him in a cradle. When Benandonner arrives and sees the size of the ‘baby’, he reckons that its father, Finn, must be a giant among giants. He flees back to Scotland in fright, destroying the causeway behind him so that Finn will be unable to chase after him. There are identical basalt columns at Fingal’s Cave on the Scottish isle of Staffa, which would be the Scottish end of the causeway.
• The causeway was formed when molten rock was forced up through fissures in the earth to form a lava plateau. During one intense period of volcanic activity, rapidly cooling lava contracted and differences in the cooling rate led to the formation of the hexagonal basalt columns.

We were very impressed with the visitor’s centre – it was large and airy, and the outside design of the building (and even the car park surface) reflected the attraction it related to. Usually there is not enough time at places we visit on tour, but in this case we had more than enough time to see everything that we wanted before it was time to board our coach once more.

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Before we drove back towards Belfast, we had one last photo-stop, at a viewpoint overlooking the dramatic Dunluce Castle.

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We then sat back in our seats for the long drive back to Belfast and our waiting ship.

It felt like we had driven a giant way to view the Giant’s Causeway, and with hindsight, neither of us felt that the distance and effort involved was worth the epic journey, especially as how the rest of the day and beyond was to unfold….  (to be continued)

 

Postscript

The evening before we sailed into Belfast was the last formal night of the cruise, which brings with it two of the highlights of any Fred. Olsen cruise, the Crew Show and the Gala Buffet.

The Crew Show is a show featuring the talents of the ordinary members of the ship’s crew – the waiters, the stewardesses, deck-hands, engine-room boys etc. They put on a show of singing and dancing that is always a delight, many of the songs, dances and costumes being from their native homelands.

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The Gala Buffet is where the Galley staff really get their chance to shine, producing an astonishing array of food art. You have to stay up to 11:15 at night to view and photograph it, and although I am not interested in eating so late at night, and anyway I think the food looks too good to spoil, there always seems to be an array of hungry passengers hanging around waiting to have their chance to tuck in. Somehow too they keep coming up with new ideas and designs, here are a selection of what was on show this cruise.

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W1821 – Final Corner

In my last post,  W1821 – Magnificent Monoliths, I described our visit to Havre-Saint-Pierre, and the fabulous tour we did there which went to Ile Quarry to see the dramatic monoliths there. We sailed from Havre-Saint-Pierre in the early afternoon, and in his pre-sailing briefing, the Captain had told us that instead of docking at our next port, Corner Brook, the following morning, we would have to use tenders instead, for reasons beyond their control.

In the port talk for Corner Brook, the lecturer had described how to reach the port you first sail through the Bay of Islands, a large inlet containing some 15 islands of varying sizes, the largest being Woods Island. I set my alarm with the intention of being up on deck to watch us sail through the Bay, but when I pulled back the curtains in our cabin I deduced from all the lights on the land I could see that we were already approaching Corner Brook. It was also still dark, and with it being forecast to be -1 that early in the morning there I decided it was better to remain where I was!

Carol and I had again booked a ship’s shore tour in this port – this time it was a walking tour exploring some trails close to the city. Ours was the last of the shore tours to depart that morning, but when we got to the Neptune Lounge to check in, we found the lounge to be still full of passengers waiting to go ashore for the earlier tours – as using the tendering operation was proceeding very slowly. In addition, the tours staff were warning passengers that the shoreside jetty where the tenders were docking was moving up and down a lot in the swell.

Eventually we were called to board our tender, along with the first batch of passengers touring independently. As we looked across the water to the port we could see another larger cruise ship sailing towards it – and we realised that was the reason we were at tender – the other ship was taking the only berth in the port. It was a bit choppy crossing the water to the port, but the warnings about the jetty were well founded, and great care had to be taken stepping across from the tender onto the jetty, and then walking along it to reach the safety of the shore.

Waiting for us was a now all too familiar yellow school bus, and not one but two local guides, Larry and Gary. We were taken first on a ring road around the town, which gave good views down onto the town below, which was located in a sort of bowl. Our guides told us about the harsh winters they experience in the area, with very low temperatures and meters of snow – but far from being fazed by this, they told us how much they enjoy the wintry conditions. They told us that many residents use their snowmobiles for more of the year than their cars, and in some places there are more snowmobile tracks than there are roads.

As we waited at some traffic lights, Carol pointed out to me a very cute dog with his head right out of the car window next to us.

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After a while we turned off into a quiet road, where we alighted the bus to begin our first walk, which was to take us to a viewpoint overlooking a river gorge. This was my favourite part of the walks we made that morning, it was more wild and natural up there, and there were great views across the valley and down to the port, with lots of trees and coloured foliage to see.

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We then retraced our steps back to the bus, for a short drive down to a park close to the town centre, from where we were to begin the second of our walks. Here our guides told us about how an adjustable dam is closed to create a pool for swimming in the summer months, but opened in winter to let the water flow freely.

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Our second walk took us through a tunnel under a road, then alongside the river until it reached a lake. Here the guides proudly told us about two mute swans that live on the lake – their wings are clipped to stop them flying away. Carol pointed out to one of them that a few minutes from where we live back home there is a park with dozens of swans on it!

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We then crossed a narrow footbridge so that we could walk along the far side of the lake, which was created to supply water to the huge paper mill in the town. At the far end of the lake was a concrete dam that held back the water, and which like the other adjustable dam had a fish ladder to allow salmon to bypass the dam. We continued to follow the river for a while, then the path ran alongside and crossed a huge oil pipe before entering the town.

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Here the school bus was waiting for us, which took us for a short ride to drop us close to a restaurant, where we had tea or coffee, and some delicious tarts made with local fruits. Close to the restaurant was a brick building that our guides told us used to be a bank, but which was now being converted to a cannabis shop, ready for when it becomes legalised on the 17th October.

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We were then taken back past the huge paper mill to the quayside, where we decided to board the shuttle bus so that we could take a look around the city centre. However we did not find much to see there, just a war memorial, and some craft stalls inside the library building, so we very quickly returned via a shuttle bus and tender to our ship for lunch.

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Both early that afternoon, and as we set sail, I went up on deck to take some photographs of the bay around us.

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As we ate dinner that evening we continued to sail out of the Bay of Islands, and as it grew dark I pointed out to Carol that sadly this was our last view of Canada. We have both thoroughly enjoyed our extended time in the country, so impressed by both the stunning scenery with of course the gorgeous coloured foliage, but also by the Canadian people – they were all so friendly and welcoming. We both feel we would like to return to Canada for a longer holiday – dare I say it using one of those metal tubes in the air – in the not to distant future.

We then had five days at sea crossing the Atlantic Ocean, some of which were quite rough, before reaching our final destination on this cruise, Belfast in Northern Ireland. Our adventures there will be the subject of my next post – but as we disembark in Liverpool very early the next morning, that will have to wait until we are safely home and unpacked.
Postscript

Early the following morning Carol looked out of our cabin window and to my great surprise said that she could see land! My assumption that we had seen the last of Canada was wrong, for I had clearly underestimated the size of Newfoundland. It had taken us all evening and night to sail around it’s western and northern coasts, and we were only then just seeing the final corner of Canadian land!

W1821 – Magnificent Monoliths

In my last post,  W1821 – Thanksgiving Turkey, I described our visit to Montréal on Canadian Thanksgiving Day, and the tour we took from there out into the Laurentian Mountains that was spoiled by our having a very poor local guide. Leaving Montréal early that evening, we began sailing back down the St Lawrence River, and spent the next day sailing the river and the estuary before reaching our next port of call, Havre-Saint-Pierre early the next morning.

As seems to happen too often, I was a little later getting up on deck than I intended, and we were already sailing past the islands of the Mingan Archipelago when I got there. I was delighted to find a bright and clear morning after all the mist and rain we had endured the previous day sailing down the river. We sailed between two of the larger islands, then turned sharply to starboard to head towards the tiny port. As we approached the port I could see a lone accordian player sitting on the quay playing away to welcome us.

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Carol and I were booked on a ship’s shore tour that was to take us out to explore part of one of the largest islands of the archipelago, Ile Quarry (or Quarry Island). This island is famed for some striking monoliths on one of its beaches, and the whole island is a nature reserve.

Unusually we had to check in down on the quayside rather than in the Neptune Lounge. Once everyone was checked in, we were led through a tiny security hut, and along the quay to a terminal building. Here to our surprise we were all issued with thick bright orange survival jackets to put on. We were then led out a different door, and just outside was both the accordian man I had seen earlier, and also a very animated beaver! It soon became apparent why we needed the survival jackets, for instead of the simple boat we had expected from the tour description, there waiting on the quayside to take us were a RIB and a speedboat! Carol and I ended up in the RIB, Carol with her short legs had a little bit of difficulty climbing in, but she managed it ok and we were soon underway.

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We followed the speedboat out of the harbour and then turned to sail past our ship, giving us great views of it from low down close to the water. Once clear of the harbour area they opened the throttle, and for around half an hour we sped across the water towards Ile Quarry. We were both so glad of our survival jackets, for they kept the very cold wind and the spray off us beautifully – we both tucked our hands up the sleeves to keep them warm too.

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Eventually we slowed as we turned and swept into a bay on the island, and they moored the two craft either side of a small wooden jetty. We were then led a short distance along the beach to a large wooden cabin, which was lovely and warm inside from a big wood burner. Here we slightly reluctantly left the survival jackets, and walked back towards the jetty where we met up with the two local guides from the Canadian parks authority, Parks Canada. Close to the cabin were a couple of very basic toilets – tiny wooden sheds with bright yellow doors – inside the loo itself was just over a deep hole in the ground.

The guides told us that it was very important that we left no litter or anything else on the island when we left, and also that we did not take anything from the island away with us – apart from of course great memories and photographs. They also told us that it was important that we remained on the path – mostly a boardwalk – at all times so as not to damage the fragile environment, and also because in some places the ground was extremely soft and marshy and we could easily sink right in.

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We were divided into two groups, and each group went off with one of the guides, one group doing the guided walk in one direction, the other in the other direction.

Our guide told us how there were a number of distinct habitats on the island, and that our walk would take us to many of them in turn as we went around. We started with the dry and salty beach habitat, which abruptly changed to a woodland habitat as we headed inland away from the beach.

Once under the trees our guide pointed out two very common plants with brightly coloured berries, one with blue berries and one with red ones, and warned us not to be tempted to eat them as they were very poisonous to humans. As she was telling us this, a partridge landed on the path just ahead of her, and then flew up into a tree right next to the path where we were standing. The guide also told us about all the lichens that grow profusely on the trees, an indicator of the very clean air the island enjoys.

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A bit further on we came to a former sea cliff, now inland within the woodland area. This cliff was left high and dry when sea levels rose following the ice age. Here there was also a striking sculpture representing a pixelated version of reality, and our guide used it to remind those of us with cameras that it was so important to take in everything around us with our eyes and our memories, not just with the camera itself – something that Carol often reminds me too.

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Walking on, we came to a flight of wooden steps, which led up to a viewing platform. From there we had our first distant views of the monoliths through the trees.

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Climbing back down, we then walked further along our path until we came to another abrupt change of habitat, this time to a wetland habitat. Here there were many pools of water, and much of the ground was very soft and marshy.

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Passing through the wetlands, just as abruptly the habitat changed again, this time to a very arid one. Here there was a lot of shingle in distinct ridges, and our guide told us that once this was a beach. Very few plants were growing there, but there were a couple of very stunted trees, almost like bonsai trees.

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Continuing our guided walk, we then came to an area with more small lakes, which lead out to a limestone beach, on which were the iconic limestone monoliths. These sculpted towers of rock looked very dramatic and imposing ahead of us, and our guide led us down then across the crunchy rocks of the beach to stand close to them. Here we had some time to wander around and view them from different perspectives.

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We were then led up some wooden steps which took us from the beach to the top of the cliffs overlooking it, it was at this point the other group passed us on their way to the beach. From there our guide led us a short distance to yet another small lake, this one had a singleton monolith beside it. We were now given some free time to admire and photograph the main monoliths on the beach from above, and also some seabirds on the beach immediately below us.

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Our guide then led us back down the wooden steps, across the limestone beach, and then back inland to reach the original bay with it’s jetty and cabin via a different and shorter route. On the way we passed first more wetland habitat, where the guide pointed out a pitcher plant which obtains additional nutrients by trapping insects in liquid in its bowl-shaped leaves and then digesting them. Then we passed through quite dense woodland before emerging close to the jetty. Here our guide showed us using a map on a noticeboard where we had been walking – we thought that we must have walked quite a way around the island, but in fact our route twisted and turned just around the narrowest part of the island.

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We returned to the cabin to don our survival suits for our return journey to the mainland. Carol decided it would be easier for her to board the speedboat this time, which did mean we got to ride in both of the boat types. Once again the big jackets kept us snug, although with the wind behind us this time it was not so cold anyway.

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When we got back to the terminal building the beaver and accordian man were still there to greet us, but now they had violin lady to accompany them! We very reluctantly returned the jackets – we thought they might be useful sometimes to keep us warm and dry up on deck on the ship – and made our way back to the ship for our lunch.

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Over lunch we reflected on what a great tour this had been. We both loved the unexpected rides in the RIB and in the speedboat – I had been thinking all through the cruise about doing a tour in one of the ship’s new RIBs but never actually booked one, and this saved me needing to do so. However we are booked on a cruise on Boudicca next year, and I may well be tempted to book a tour or two on it’s RIBs then, especially when we are in warmer climes. We were both fascinated and impressed by the monoliths, and I was very struck the lovely light there, and by seeing all the different habitats with their different fauna and flora with such abrupt and distinct boundaries between them. If our last tour in Montréal deserved a low hypothetical score, then this one deserved an extremely high one.

We only had a short stay in Havre-Saint-Pierre, for at 2pm we set sail for our next port of call, Corner Brook, which was to be our final port in Canada. As we sailed out I went up onto the top-most deck to watch our departure, and from there could see that Havre-Saint-Pierre was a little larger than I first thought. When we talked to two of our dinner companions later who had just walked ashore that morning, they told us that there wasn’t much to see in the port, so we didn’t miss out by not having time to go ashore for our usual walkaround after our tour.

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Our adventures in Corner Brook will be the subject of my next post.
Postscript

As I write this post, we are currently on the fourth of five days at sea crossing the Atlantic Ocean. These days at sea have given me a chance to catch up on my blog – I had got five blogs behind where we we doing so many consecutive port calls in a row. Today we are sailing in a force 9 gale into very rough seas. Every now and then there is a great crash and judder, and if we then look up at the television in the cabin, which is showing the view from the bridge camera, we can see huge waves crash right over the foredeck, and right up over the bridge windows, obscuring the view for two or three seconds. Fortunately Carol and I are good sailors (touch wood), but we still think it best to stay put in our cabin as much as possible while the ship is moving around so much.

W1821 – Thanksgiving Turkey

In my last post,  W1821 – Electric Views, I described our visit to the port of Trois-Rivières, and the tour we made from there to an Energy plant and exhibition centre. Leaving the port that evening, we sailed further up the St Lawrence River, arriving in our next port of call, Montréal, once again around four in the morning. Fortunately for us, but probably not for other passengers, this time the gangway was set up on the other side of the ship, so we were spared the very loud crashes and bangs of the previous night.

I had set my alarm for an early start as we were booked on a long (8 hour) tour in Montréal which had an early start time. The tour we had selected was one of those marked “Must Do” in the tours brochure, and was to take us out to see the glorious Laurentian Mountains. The tour description told us that we would visit two villages, and in one of them take a gondola to the summit of one of the mountains for impressive views of the area. It told us that the area we would be visiting should be ablaze with colour in the fall, and that it is often referred to as “Switzerland of Canada”, and so we were expecting this tour to be a highlight of this cruise.

Carol and I were on the first of several coaches making this tour, and as we drove away from the dock and out through the streets of Montréal. I managed to catch a few photographs of the city – this would be the only chance I would get, as with such a long tour there would not be time to go ashore again after we returned. We saw many impressive buildings, and as we drove further out, a distant view of the Olympic Stadium.

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All too soon it became evident that we had a problem with our local guide. Where all the other guides we had had so far in Canada had been very friendly, welcoming, and full of information about the history and geography of the places we were travelling through, this guy was hardly speaking a word.

It took just under two hours to reach our first stop, including a comfort stop at a service station halfway there. For the first half of the journey it was built up most of the way – we passed lots of shopping malls, warehouses and even a space campus with a large rocket parked outside! The second half was much more scenic, with miles and miles of beautiful trees and foliage to admire.

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Our first stop was at the village where we were due to spend most time, and which included the gondola ride up to the top of the mountain, and where we were also supposed to buy our own lunches. Usually the tour guides are very helpful, making it very clear as to the timetable of events, where and when we had to be with them, and where and how to get any tickets required etc. Not in this case – our guide mumbled a couple of sentences and then asked us if everything was clear, and got a resounding chorus of no from all the bemused and confused passengers. Fortunately the ship’s representative on board intervened, and managed to discover from him that he would be getting the tickets for the gondola ride for us, and that we should meet back at the coach at 12:55.

We followed the guide off the coach, and he led us to a short queue for a gondola, and we were surprised when we just boarded this one without any ticket. It turned out that this gondola just took us to a higher level within the village, but it did provide some lovely aerial views of it.

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We alighted in a large square, and from there could see a children’s play area in front of the mountain, and to one side was a chair-lift and the other a gondola, both snaking their way up to the top of the mountain. As to where we should go, or where we should wait we had no idea. Eventually we spotted our guide in the distance, and hurriedly made our way over to where he was. It turned out he was showing some other passengers the way to the toilets, and was exasperated with us that we were not waiting in his appointed waiting place that he hadn’t told us about. I managed to work out where he wanted us, and found most of the other passengers there. He eventually returned with a huge pile of tickets, which he doled out to us all.

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Carol and I decided it would be best to go up the mountain straight away. Regular readers will know that Carol has a problem with heights, but to her credit she was still determined to go up the mountain despite this. Fortunately the lovely fellow passenger that had helped Carol the day before was also on this tour with us, and she kindly offered to go up the mountain with us to provide additional support to Carol.

I (but not Carol) thought the views from the gondola going up were amazing, and I did my best to capture some of them through the scratchy and reflective windows of the gondola.

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When we reached the top and alighted from the gondola it was bitterly cold – there was a large electronic sign which alternated between showing the time and the temperature in both scales – when we first arrived it said it was only 1 degree C – that rose to a balmy 2 degrees by the time we went down again.

Unfortunately most of the top of the mountain was a building site and nothing was open – they were clearly preparing for the skiing season ahead. While Carol hung back, I ventured towards the edge each side to capture some photographs of the views. Alas it was quite hazy, so the views of the trees, lake and other mountains were not as clear as I would have wished.

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We then took the gondola back down the mountain, and we shared the journey with a very nice Canadian couple, and chatting with them helped distract Carol from the ground way below her.

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We were then left with about an hour and a half left to explore the village and have our lunch. We wandered around for a short while, keeping an eye out for somewhere suitable to have lunch as we did so. The village was packed with people, it probably didn’t help that this was Thanksgiving Day in Canada – they hold it earlier in Canada than in the USA due to the shorter summer and autumn seasons.

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We then came to a pizza restaurant, and went in and were shown to a table. When we came to place our order for a pizza we asked how long we might have to wait for it, and on being told at least 40 minutes, we made our excuses and left. Then we spotted a take-away burger place, and thought that would be the solution to getting food fairly quickly. However signs on the door indicated they had sold out of fries, and when we tried to order just a burger we were told it would be a twenty minute wait. We decided to stick it out, but when that time went up to at least an hour we got a refund and left – that has to be the slowest fast food I have ever encountered!

We decided the only solution was to go into the small supermarket in the village, and buy some sandwiches and crisps, which we ate sat on a cold metal bench outside. Alas the weather was deteriorating, the sunny intervals earlier had been replaced by clouds, and as we finished it started to spot with rain. We decided that enough was enough, and made our way back to the coach around 10 minutes early, the rain getting harder as we did so. Fortunately the coach arrived just as we did, and we were able to get on board it and out of the rain.

To our surprise and shock the guide announced that we would be making our way directly back to the ship. It was then just before 1pm, and we were not due back to the ship until 4:30pm, and the journey there had taken less than two hours. Even allowing for more Thanksgiving traffic on the way back, something didn’t add up. Our guide’s manner the whole time had been as if he didn’t want to be there, and I was deeply suspicious he just wanted the tour over as quickly as possible so that he could get back to his Thanksgiving celebrations.

There was a lot of muttering and murmuring amongst the passengers, and a couple of them bravely asked the guide about the other village stop we were supposed to make, and he just muttered that there was no time. Sensing the problem, the ship’s representative made a phone call – presumably to the ship – for advice. She then told the guide that there would be a big problem if we didn’t go to the second village, and so very reluctantly he agreed we could go there for just half an hour.

We drove on for quite a while, and I wondered whether we would ever make the stop. Eventually the coach turned off the main road, and drove into a small village, and the driver managed to park it in the busy car park. The guide told us nothing about the place – where it was, what was best to see, just that we had to be back in 30 minutes!

I managed to work out that we were actually at the second village listed in the tour brochure, which was very busy it being Thanksgiving Day – there was a stage with musicians performing, and a large crowd in front watching, and also some produce stalls in a large tent. Fortunately here it was not raining, and we just wandered through the village for a while, with a quick pop into the church, and as usual my shutter finger was kept busy.

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Returning to the coach, we then drove directly back to the ship. As we got nearer to Montréal the traffic did increase, and for a while we just crawled along quite slowly. Despite this we got back to the port 15 minutes early, just as it was getting dark. The final straw was when the guide said to us that he hoped we had had a good tour, and please would we give him a tip. There were various tips I could have given him – not all of them printable here – but none of them would involve any money!

We returned to the ship feeling very, very disappointed with the tour – remember this was one that we thought would be a highlight of the cruise. OK some things could not be helped – the Thanksgiving traffic and the rain – but the surly awful guide who told us so little and who was so unhelpful, and who went out of his way to try and stop us seeing part of the tour really spoilt the day for us. I completed a tour report form making it very clear how unhappy I was with the guide and the tour, and I understand the tours desk were swamped with similar forms and complaints – but to date we have heard nothing back from them.

That evening while we were at dinner we set sail, this time back down the St Lawrence River, for this was the furthest extent of our exploration of Canada. We would have two more ports of call in Canada before sailing back to towards home, and our adventures in the first of these, Havre-Saint-Pierre, will be the subject of my next post.
Postscript

The next day was spent at sea – or more correctly for most of the time at river. Late morning we sailed through the area close to the mouth of the Saguenay Fjord, where seals and various species of whales are known to be frequently seen. Sure enough the Captain announced that there were plenty to be seen from the ship, and so Carol and I rushed up on deck, and spent quite a time thoroughly enjoying watching them from the now slow-moving ship, despite the wind and rain making conditions not very pleasant. As well as numerous seals and minke whales, to our absolute delight we also saw humpback whales – their huge tails looked so impressive, but alas I did not manage to photograph any of these.

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W1821 – Electric Views

In my last post,  W1821 – Queues in Québec, I described our very busy day in the very busy port of Québec. Late that evening we sailed further up the St Lawrence River towards our next port of call, Trois-Rivières, which is also in the province of Québec.

We arrived at Trois-Rivières soon after four in the morning, when it was completely dark and I was safely tucked up and asleep in bed. However around 4:30 both Carol and I were jolted awake by loud bangs and crashes which sounded right outside our cabin. Staggering out of bed, we peeped out our cabin window to find the crew were setting up the gangplank immediately below our cabin. One question – why does it need to be done that early in the morning? Surely no-one needs to get on or off the ship at silly-o-clock!

Fortunately we did manage to doze some more before the alarm woke us – we needed to be up early as the ship’s tour we had booked on had an early start. When we got the tours book at home a few weeks before the cruise began, we were not sure what to do in Trois-Rivières – there didn’t seem to be much to see in the port, and none of the tours looked that promising on paper. However at the port talk we thought one of the ship’s tours might be worth a go, so we booked ourselves on a tour called The Many Faces of Energy.

We boarded a yellow school bus for our journey out to the Cité de L’énergie, a complex that has been created on the site of a hydroelectricity power station to showcase the industrial heritage there, and to demonstrate the past, present and future science and art of energy. It took around 45 minutes to drive out to the complex, and as we drove further north and away from the St Lawrence River there started to be more and more autumn colours to be seen amongst the trees that lined most of the way.

On the way the local guide began by telling us the now familiar history of the St Lawrence River area with conflicts between the French and the English. He then went on to explain how the early settlers first just settled along the St Lawrence River, but with time started to spread out further north away from the river. At first they were hunters and trappers, but later became lumberjacks felling trees for the paper industry. He described how the felled trees were floated down to Trois-Rivières on the Saint Maurice River, and how the highly hazardous job of freeing the inevitable log-jams on the river was considered to be a widow-maker.

Arriving at the complex, we picked up a french-speaking expert about the site, and then the bus dropped us close to a 115 metre high observation tower, which was once part of a hydroelectric transmission tower. Entering the building adjacent to the tower, I was surprised and a little confused to see a suit of armour just inside the door! We took it in turns to use the lift to rise up to the observation deck close to the top of the tower. When we entered the lift, it looked like a normal lift, but as it started to rise it immediately became clear that on the back wall of the lift was a large window, which gave us a good preview of the stunning views that lay ahead.

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The observation deck was circular, with windows all around, affording dramatic and fabulous views of a huge area around the tower. As well as the Saint Maurice River that was dammed to generate the electricity, and the hydroelectric site, we could see the nearby town of Shawinigan, and much of the surrounding countryside. Best of all we had stunning views of all the trees in their autumnal colours – it was breathtaking and mesmerising.

The expert told us about the site and what we could see in french, with our guide translating what he said into english for us.

Regular readers will know that Carol has a problem with heights, so I want to acknowledge her bravery in going up the tower, and thank her too for being there with me. For most of the time we were up the tower she kept back from the windows and admired the views from there, but after a while she did venture forward to get a closer look, but soon was feeling very uncomfortable, and she would like to thank her fellow passenger who came to her aid and escorted back down to the safety of ground level.

Meanwhile of course I had been clicking away with my camera, but I am not sure my photographs do justice to the magnificent vista we could see all around us.

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Once everyone was back down at ground level, we were led into a cinema with a huge wrap-around screen for a dazzling multimedia show all about energy. At times the whole seating area revolved, at at one point there was wind and fine misty rain generated around us. It was all very slick and entertaining, and perhaps understandably given that it was created by an energy company, it was all very much about how wonderful energy is and what it enables us to do, with very little focus on the problems it creates such as global warming. As an example it did raise the question about how we are going to generate as much energy for the rest of the world as the most developed countries now consume, rather than asking the question how are we going to limit and reduce the amount of energy the latter are already using. I only managed to take a couple of snaps as the film started before being told not to take any more.

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We left the cinema by a different door, which took us into an exhibition area with lots of interactive computer screens offering information and quizzes about all sorts of topics to do with energy. There were also some demonstrations to play with, and we could easily spent a whole lot more time in that area than we were allocated.

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We were then led back to our school bus for a short drive around the site to the Northern Aluminium Company Generating Station, the first hydroelectric plant to be built in the area. On the way we passed the aluminum processing plant it used to serve.
The expert (via our guide) told us that the Generating Station was built in 1911, and is still in operation today with its original equipment. He told us how that to reassure and impress investors into this new and unknown technology, they build the building housing the generators in a more elaborate way than needed – for example the use of two colours of bricks, the fancy large windows, and creating wide steps and a balcony to enter the building that was only really used by visitors to the site. On the wall of the building were plaques commemorating the employees whose lives had been lost during the first and the second world wars.

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We then entered the generator building, but for security reasons we were forbidden to take any photographs inside. We could see the huge pipes bringing the water into the building, and the five sets of turbines and generators that converted the power of the rushing water into the electricity. Only three of the generators were in use, the expert told us that maintenance is done at this time ahead of the peak demand during the cold winter months. He also told us that because so much hydro-electricity was generated in the area, a lot of both production and research was carried out there during the second world war. He told us that for fear of German bombings, all the windows of the buildings were painted black, and strict night-time blackouts were enforced in the local town.

We then reboarded the bus for our return journey to the ship. We left the expert at the gates of the site, and as we passed the big lake we could see the observation tower where our visit had begun. Just after leaving Shawinigan the bus stopped by the roadside for a bonus brief photo-stop so that we could get a few more photographs of the lovely autumn foliage in the area.

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During the drive back to the ship our local guide related a couple of long tales that the local native people told, this passed the time well until we reached our waiting ship.

After our lunch on board, Carol and I were both feeling very tired after our disturbed and shortened night, so we retired to our cabin for a siesta. We then had personal business to attend to, so for once we were not able to go back ashore to explore the local town in the afternoon. We did go up on deck though, and I took some photographs of the attractive quayside, and of the lovely foliage on the far side of the St Lawrence River.

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At this point we spotted the ship’s RIBs returning from their tour, and I took some photographs of them returning to the ship, and then being loaded back onto the foredeck of the ship. I noticed that it looked like the propellers of one of the RIBs were rather battered.

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Postscript

After dinner that evening the ship set sail for its next port of call, Montréal. Carol and I went up onto a very cold deck to watch us sail away from the quayside and under the Laviolette Bridge, and despite the darkness I managed to take a few snaps as we did so.

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As soon as we had cleared the bridge we hurried back to the warmth of our cabin to thaw out.

Very early the following morning we would arrive in Montréal, and our adventures there will be the subject of my next post.

W1821 – Queues in Québec

In my last post,  W1821 – A Walk in the Park, I described our visit to Port Saguenay, and a lovely tour to take a guided walk through the stunning Saguenay National Park. Having sailed that afternoon down the Saguenay Fjord, we then sailed up the St Lawrence River overnight towards our next port of call, Québec.

I set my alarm so that I could be up on deck early the following morning and watch & photograph our approach into Québec. I think I must like my warm cosy bed too much, for once again I was clearly up on deck a few minutes too late, for as I stepped out onto the deck near the front of the ship, looking astern I could see a fabulous red and gold dawn. I walked as fast as I could to the ’roundy end’ – the stern – to get some photographs of it, but alas by the time I got there most of the red colour had gone, but it was still a lovely sight.

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Returning to the ‘pointy end’ – the bows – I started to see the centre of Québec with its famous Le Château Frontenac hotel dominating the skyline, all looking lovely in the warm glow of the early morning sunlight. It was soon clear that we were going to be far from alone in port that day as I could see several cruise ships already docked, including a couple of huge ‘blocks of flats’ ones – later we found out that we were one of seven ships in port – just one short of the record there.

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As we got nearer I wondered why the deckhands had not appeared as usual to ready the mooring ropes for docking, but as we sailed on it dawned on me that we were going to be in one of those ‘far from the centre, bus you in’ docks. Sure enough the deckhands did then appear, and in the distance I could see a Saga ship already docked with an empty quayside in front of her. This was indeed where we docked, and later on one of the large German ‘blocks of flats’ cruise ships managed to slot in between us and the Saga ship.

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I went down to join Carol for breakfast before we actually docked, as we had already decided it would be best to catch the first shuttle bus into the city in order to try and beat the worst of the crowds, and also because we had a ship’s shore tour booked for the afternoon. We managed to be one of the first off the ship, and were therefore successful in our mission to be on that first shuttle. It dropped us by Lower Town – the lower part of the city, and we were immediately wowed by the beautiful old buildings, and by all the halloween decorations everywhere, including an array of colourful umbrellas suspended over a narrow alleyway between the buildings.

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We decided to go up to Upper Town – the upper part of the city – and explore there first, before exploring Lower Town on our way back to the shuttle bus later. There is a funicular railway that will take you between the two levels of the city, but we decided that rather queue for that, we would use our legs, and use the steps and roads to get us there instead.

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I had picked up a map of the city onboard the ship, but foolishly left it in the cabin, so our first stop was Tourist Information to obtain a replacement. We then started to wander around the old streets, pausing to look in some of the more interesting shops, and also to look inside the Holy Trinity Cathedral and the Notre-Dame Basilica.

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Eventually we decided it was time we returned to Lower Town, and this time we decided to walk down just using the roads rather than the steps. We were so glad we did, as we came across a stunning and very clever mural covering the entire end-wall of a building.

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Exploring further we found a street where the shops all had very effective window displays.

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As we walked further around Lower Town we found it to be even more attractive and interesting than Upper Town had been, and we thought that with hindsight we should have done the two areas in reverse order, as by now Lower Town was just heaving with people – mostly of course with passengers of various nationalities from all the cruise ships in town. Exploring further we did find another equally stunning and clever mural on another end-wall, this time of a pub.

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As always as we walked around we were on the lookout for the unusual and the quirky – here are some of the things we found, including several amusing t-shirt designs.

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Eventually the crowds became just to great to bear, so we walked to the shuttle bus stop, and were delighted when one arrived just a few minutes later. Back on the ship, we were glad to put our feet up and rest in the peace and quiet of our cabin for a while, knowing we still had a long day ahead of us.

When we returned to the quayside in the afternoon to board our transport for our tour, we found that instead of the usual coach or school bus, this time we would be travelling in a single-decker bus – we concluded that with so many big cruise ships in town, all the coaches in the area must already be in use.

Out tour was to take us to see the Montmorency Falls, one and a half times higher than the more famous Niagara Falls, and then to see more of the historical parts of the city itself.

As we drove out through the city we passed a square where lots of old cars were on display. We continued out of the city and along the banks of the St Lawrence River until we reached the waterfall, where the Montmorency River plunges over a 272-foot cliff on its way to meet with the St Lawrence River.

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Here our local guide told us we had half an hour to view the falls, and that the best way to see it in that time was to walk across a bridge over the river below the falls, and from the far bank you could approach the falls as near as you wanted. This Carol and I did, although Carol elected to stay in the dry while I walked the final part where mist and spray from the falls made keeping my camera lens dry enough to take photographs a challenge. Either side of the falls were lots of trees, many with lovely autumnal colours.

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Once everyone got back on the bus, one of the passengers got quite irate with the guide, saying that in the half hour we had there it was impossible to get up to the bridge over the top of the falls. It was then that we discovered that our guide was quite a feisty lady, she gave as good as she got and pointed out she only said to cross the bridge below the falls not above them, and that it was from below the falls that you got the best views anyway. As we drove away we paused briefly so that we could see a secondary waterfall known as the Bride’s Veil through the windows of the bus.

We then drove back into the city, where we had a scenic drive around very congested roads which made progress slow, the guide pointing out various gates to the city, statues and important historic buildings on the way. At the same time the guide was also telling us about the history of the city, and when she started talking about the Scottish helping the British defeat the French several of the Scottish passengers on board started calling out that Scotland is part of Britain, which brought out the feisty side of our guide once more.

We were then dropped close to Le Château Frontenac hotel, so that we could have around 45 minutes free time to explore Upper Town. As Carol and I had seen much of the area during the morning, we decide just to walk along the Dufferin Terrace, a wooden boardwalk that runs in front of the hotel high above the banks of the St Lawrence River, so that we could see the views from it. By now it was starting to get dark, and it was bitterly cold, even with our coats, hats and gloves on. We were astonished to see a bride and groom posing for photographs in front of the hotel, and wondered how the bride could look relaxed in the pictures with her bare arms and shoulders in that fierce cold wind!

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After a while we decided to see if we could go inside the lobby of the hotel, partly to see what it was like inside, and partly to get out of the cold. As expected it was very ornate and lovely inside, and we wished we had thought of going there sooner. Reluctantly we left the cosy hotel to walk back to our bus at the prescribed time.

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For the drive back to our ship we were taken through a large park on the Plains of Abraham, the site of the very short battle between the British and the French, when General James Wolfe defeated the Marquis of Montcalm to capture the city. When our guide started to tell us all about this, some of the passengers towards the back of the bus remained talking. Our feisty guide got quite irate, asking us if we wanted to hear what she had to say, and saying that she would only continue if there was silence. I think it was a good job that the tour was almost over, otherwise things might just have come to blows between our guide and some of the passengers!

Obviously the first part of the tour, to see the amazing waterfalls, was the best part of the tour for Carol and myself. Our guide had told us that we were in town for the long weekend culminating in Thanksgiving (which is celebrated earlier in Canada than in the USA due to the shorter summer & autumn seasons), so that as well as around 58,000 cruise ship passengers being in town that weekend, there were also lots of Canadians too. No wonder we experienced so many queues in Québec – on foot in the morning in the Old Town, and on the roads in the afternoon in the Upper Town.
Postscript

This was by no means the end of our busy day in Québec, for in the evening we had been invited to a shore-based Oceans event for Diamond Elite and Platinum passengers (I am in the former group, Carol the latter).

The invitation, to a meal at a ‘Sugar Shack’ restaurant, told us to meet in the ship’s cinema at 5pm in order to check in for the drive to the venue. However our afternoon tour was not due back to 5:15, assuming it was not delayed in traffic – clearly someone hadn’t quite checked things out or thought things through. To cut a long story short, after discussion with both Rebecca from Oceans and Sandra from Tours, it was agreed that the best solution was for Carol and I to remain shore-side when we returned from our tour, and board the coaches directly without checking in on board ship first. This meant we were almost the first aboard the first of the coaches – only the Captain and a couple of other officers beat us!

On the way to the restaurant our local guide on board our coach talked about the winter weather they experience in Québec. She told us how everything keeps going despite the very low temperatures and large falls of snow. Schools have five ‘snow days’ a year when they can close if conditions are really difficult. She said that when the schools are open, if temperatures fall below -12 then the school children are kept indoors during break times, otherwise they still go outside to play!

The coaches took us out into the countryside to the Sugar Shack restaurant, where they also distill the sap from maple trees into maple syrup. On arrival at the site, we were first shown into a building where there was a seated area where we were given a talk about how they harvest the sap and boil it down into the maple syrup. Low and behold the rest of the building was given over to a shop area where we we were given time to buy maple syrup products and other souvenirs!

We were then led across to the restaurant, where there were lots of long tables, each seating 14 people. Many of the tables were already occupied by passengers and crew from the other coaches, who would no doubt get their lecture and sell later. Carol and I moved quickly to take free spaces on one of the few tables left, but made a mistake as this table was right underneath a large loudspeaker. A local singer was playing his guitar and singing away in Canadian French, and where we sat it was deafening almost to the point of being painful. Some of the other passengers on our table asked a waitress if the speaker could be turned down, and it was – slightly – to just very loud, but on our table it was still virtually impossible to hear each other speak, yet alone converse with the people around us.

The food was very good and tasty, with a pea soup & bread followed by a local meat pie, ham, chicken, baked beans, scrambled egg, fried potatoes etc, then pancakes and an apple pie – everything possible was cooked with maple syrup of course.

To be honest all the songs the musician sang sounded much the same to me – it not being helped that I didn’t have a clue what they were about. At one stage the musician said he was going to take a break, and we thought at last, a break from the noise – but no, they just put recorded music on instead! On his return he did a couple of songs with audience participation – we were supposed to join in the chorus and make suitable hand gestures as he sang the songs. While some of the audience joined in and seemed to be enjoying it, that sort of thing is just not my cup of tea – the last time I did that sort of thing to a french song was in primary school!

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As we left the restaurant the Captain was just in front of us, and Carol said to him that it was a good job he was there, so that we knew the ship had not sailed without us. The Captain replied that he knew for sure it had not sailed, as he had the keys safely in his pocket!

As we drove back to the ship on the coach my head was still pounding from all that loud music. I could not help comparing and contrasting that evening’s event with the last time I went to an on-shore Oceans event, which was in Auckland on my first world cruise, documented in my post W1702 – Gala Dinner. In Auckland there was a cabaret act before the meal started and another after it finished, but during the meal everything was quiet so that we could converse with those around us – something impossible this for our table this time. Also in Auckland the photographic team came around taking photos of everyone as a souvenir, this time they were clearly just there to have a good time. I do understand that the Sugar Shack is a part of local culture, and that different people enjoy different things – this time the event simply wasn’t to my taste.

Once we are all safely back on board our waiting ship, the Captain produced the keys and we set sail upstream along the St Lawrence River towards our next port of call, Trois-Rivières. Our adventures there will be the subject of my next post.

W1821 – A Walk in the Park

In my last post,  W1821 – Old Curiosity Shop, I described our visit to the port of Baie-Comeau, where the highlights were an amazing art gallery/museum/antique shop, and viewing two minke whales swim up and down close to our moored ship. Overnight we sailed towards our next port of call, Port Saguenay, which is located near the head of a fjord off the St Lawrence River.

I set my alarm clock and went up onto the topmost deck early the next morning to watch us sail up the fjord towards Saguenay as the sun rose. It was a lovely bright clear morning, but bitterly cold even with my woolly hat and gloves on. The sunrise was stunning over the fjord, and as the light got better I could see all the trees on the steep banks of the fjords as well as a few houses – once again I was astonished to see so few people around to see this fabulous spectacle.

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We were booked on a ship’s shore tour with an early start, so I went back to the cabin to thaw out and get ready for breakfast before we actually docked. Carol and I had a table in the restaurant next to the window, and we could see as we actually docked that there were lots of people dancing in costume on the quayside to welcome us. These were performers from La Fabuleuse Cultural Show, who put on a spectacular show telling the story of how the area was settled, even featuring farm animals. One of the ship’s tours was to go and see this show, which we seriously considered doing, but alas with only one short day in port you cannot do it all, and difficult decisions have to be made – instead we chose to do a tour which was to take us out to a National Park, where we would have a guided walk through the forest. With hindsight I should have left my breakfast for a few minutes to go up on deck to take some photographs of the dancing, for by the time we had finished our breakfast they had just finished their dancing. We still went up on deck, and I was able to take some photographs as they were still milling and sitting around.

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The tour that Carol and I were booked on was to the beautiful Saguenay National Park, where we were to go for a guided walk along the Meandres des Falaises trail. When we left the ship to walk to the terminal building for our tour they were still there, and I caught some more photographs of them quickly as we passed by.

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As we had been warned was likely, the coach for our tour was one of the big yellow school busses, but at least it wasn’t quite so bumpy and rattly as the one I had endured earlier on the cruise in Charlottetown. Our local guide told us that the Saguenay area had the highest concentration of French speakers in the province of Québec, at over 98%. His English was very good, but he said that the driver only spoke French, so if we wanted to speak to him then the guide would have to translate for us.

We drove out through the town, past an area that the guide told us was almost completely destroyed by a flood in 1996 – just one building in that area remained standing. He told us that a bank was swept away, complete with it’s vault and cashpoint machine, each of which contained a large quantity of money. Many years later the vault was found out in the bay, but to this day the cashpoint machine has never been found! In memory of the flood a monument was built in the shape of a pyramid, out of 3000 Yield traffic signs – I just managed to catch a snap of it through the coach window as we passed:

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Our route then took us alongside the fjord for a while, passing the last of the old sawmills in the area, before heading up into the wooded countryside. Our guide told us how timber used to be the most important industry in the area, but this had now been overtaken by the aluminium industry – bauxite is shipped into Saguenay so that it can be processed into aluminium using the very cheap electricity available from all the hydroelectric power stations in the area, and the aluminium exported again by ship, train and lorry. The next most important industries after aluminium and timber are farming (blueberries are an important local crop) and tourism.

Our guide also told us about all the lakes in the area, and we passed several of them on our way. We also passed a couple of small villages, he told is that they used to be be populated by lumberjacks and hunters, nowadays it is by people working in Saguenay itself, and by people working in tourism.

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After nearly an hours drive we arrived at the entrance to the National Park. Our guide told us that from there the road was twisty and bumpy so it that was his least favourite part of the journey, but actually Carol and I enjoyed this part as there were so many lovely trees and a river to see.

It took around 10 minutes to reach the Park Information Centre where we were to alight our bus, which then set off back to Saguenay and the ship to pick up another batch of passengers doing the same tour. We were then divided into groups of 20, and each was assigned to a local park ranger who was to act as our guide during our walk. We had a young lady called Catherine who was great, full of information about everything we saw, and from time to time on the walk we stopped so that she could explain about the geology, climate, flora or fauna using information boards.

The walk was along narrow paths, some on bare earth (we had to look where we were going to avoid tree roots), sometimes there were boardwalks over dips in the ground or over marshy areas. The whole way the scenery was stunning – all the trees turning colour, and views over the edge of the fjord. Apart from our guide explaining things or pointing out things from time to time, it was so peaceful and serene too. We were so glad that we had picked this tour and experienced just a tiny glimpse of the Canadian wilderness.

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One of the plants that our guide pointed out to us was the Canadian Yew. This plant is highly toxic to humans, so much so that an extract from the plant is used in chemotherapy treatment for cancer as it impedes cell growth, so actually it’s a plant that saves lives.

The walk was a circular one, and way to soon we arrived back at the Information Centre, where we had around 30 to 45 minutes of free time before our school bus was due to return. We had a wander around the gift shop, but alas they didn’t have the right size for either the t-shirt that Carol liked or the one that I liked. As there was still plenty of time to wait, I then went for a wander outside, down to the edge of the fjord close to where they launch kayaks for other tours, while Carol people watched on a bench in the shelter of the Information Centre.

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At last our school bus arrived back at the Information Centre with the next batch of passengers, and once they had alighted we were able to board the bus for our return journey to the ship.

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When we reached the part where the road ran alongside the fjord close to the port, our local guide pointed out a huge flock of snow geese on the water. Just as he did so, something must have spooked the geese, for they all flew into the air in one huge ‘snowstorm’ – I was just quick enough to snatch a couple of snaps through the window of the moving coach as they did so.

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As we entered the town we crossed a bridge over a river, and our guide told us that this was one of the very few bountiful salmon rivers actually within a town or city in the world.

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When we got back to the terminal building, I accompanied Carol inside and we walked around the various stalls and shops inside. We were particularly impressed by some stunning wood carvings on one stall, at which there was a man sat doing some carving. Our guide had surprised us earlier by telling us that the Cunard ship Queen Mary 2 occasionally calls at Saguenay, and lo and behold in the corner of the terminal building was a large if slightly basic model of that ship.

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At this point Carol decided to return to the ship, while I elected to have a short walk around the town with my camera. As is so often the case my first stop was at the church, and there was more to see inside than I might have expected for a comparatively small church. I then walked on past various houses and shops, before walking back along the waterfront to our ship.

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By this time I was a bit cold and rather tired, but thoroughly content after such a lovely tour and having seen such stunning scenery in the National Park.

Around 3pm the ship set sail for it’s next port of call, Québec, which we would reach early the following morning. First the ship had to sail back down the Saguenay fjord, and Carol and I went up on deck (well wrapped up) to watch our progress. We just reached the Notre-Dame du Saguenay statue as it was getting quite dark. The statue, which was sculpted by Louis Jobin in 1881, is made entirely of white pine and is covered with thin sheets of lead to protect it from the weather. It is 9 meters high and weighs more than 3 tons. After taking some pictures of it perched high on the cliff we went below to thaw out and get ready for dinner.

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Postscript

I really don’t want my postscripts to become a place where I have a moan or a pop at Fred Olsen, but unfortunately today there is another example of where they really haven’t thought things through. Tonight at 10:30 the amazing Wilmar Casa is putting on one of his brilliant and unique sand art shows. We have been busy telling fellow passengers to look out for this show and be sure to attend as he is such a talent and the show is so entertaining. A couple of problems:

• tonight the clocks have to be put forward by one and a half hours
• we are in port early tomorrow – the first assembly time for tours is 8:00

So how many people are actually going to want to go to a show that late, knowing that they are missing an hour and a half’s sleep and have to be up very early in the morning. What makes it more stupid is that after tomorrow, we have five sea days in a row, when it doesn’t matter going to bed late as you can get up at any time in the morning.

Just to redress the balance, I would also like to put out a public huge thank you to Alexandra, the manager of Guest Services on board, who in her fabulous professional and caring manner has helped sort out something personal for Carol. Thank you – you are a star!!