Gaspe, Quebec

The Gaspe Peninsula is like one big national park.  It is sparsely populated and has miles of trails and roads with beautiful water vistas on one side and interesting rock formations on the other.  Sometimes the two come together as this well-known one of the head of an Indian princess.

I chose an excursion that went by bus from the port in Gaspe to Perce (about hour’s drive along the coast).  Here we boarded a boat to cruise around the Perce Rock and Bonaventure Island, the largest migratory bird refuge in North America.

Here I am “pictured framed” with the “Rocher-Perce” behind me.

Here are a couple of closer views of the rock from the boat.

 

 

We then cruised a short distance to circumnavigate Bonaventure Island.  We were fortunate that so many birds were still there.  By this time of year, most have left for Florida and Mexico—the real snowbirds.  We were told that thousands had left recently and then returned.  They don’t know why.

As we got closer to the island, we saw numerous seals laying around on the rocks.

 

Then I saw some swimming. This one flopped on a rock really near the boat.  Notice the number carved into his back.  I really didn’t notice this until I looked at the photo, so I don’t know who does this nor why.

We then rounded the corner of the rock and the number of birds began to increase.  These are northern gannets and about 122,000 of them come here to roost and have their young.  This is not only the largest colony of them in world, but it is also the most accessible.  The young ones are grey.  I only saw a couple of them.  Here’s one swimming.

 

When they mature, they are white with yellow on their heads.  First I saw one…

 

Then a small group...

Then several small groups lined up on the ledges of the rock island…And then thousands of them on ledges, flying, diving, swimming, pooping!!! Look closely and you will see them on every ledge.

 

 

It was really something to see and hear.

We returned to the quay at Perce, and these two men were making great music for our entertainment.  The music sounded like Cajun music to me.  (Notice the photo of the birds behind them.)

We had a pleasant bus ride back to the ship which was waiting for us as always, but this time we had to take a tender to get to her.

It was a wonderful, peaceful exploration of a very beautiful place.