Gaspé to La Martre, Québec

August 14, 2019

Wednesday was a travel day as I left where I had been staying north of Gaspé and went north, then west along the northern edge of the Gaspé Peninsula.  I had been lucky with timing when I traveled west along the north edge of New Brunswick province a few days earlier by having the morning sun behind me and after I had crossed in to Québec province had the afternoon sun behind me as I traveled east along the southern edge of the Peninsula.  That luck transferred to today as the morning sun was behind me or to my left as I traveled towards La Martre.

Here are things I saw at various points throughout the morning:

The road pretty much ran parallel to the shore the whole way and there were many views of towns, often with church steeples, jutting out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  I can’t stress enough how enjoyable those driving days were.  The scenery is simply spectacular.

The photo above is of a small river  to the left of the road leading out to the Gulf with a gray and red walkway running along it.  The photo below is of a small ice hockey rink I saw to the right of the road as I drove.

I drove through a small town and then the road turned 90 degrees to the right.  The photo below is looking ahead.  Take note of how steep the hillside is and how close it is to the roadway below.

Shortly after traversing that section of road it turned left and again ran straight along the coastline.  I saw these two signs within sight of each other.  The first is a “watch for fallen rocks” sign.  When I saw that there were two I remember thinking “Wow, they’re really serious this time…”.

Here is a closeup of the second sign:

Avalanche warning.

I now wish I had parked my car off the opposite side of the road and had walked back up the road to take a photo of it as a small speck at the base of the mountain.  The hillside was incredibly tall and steep and there was virtually no room for rocks or snow to fall without hitting or blocking the roadway.

There was a tall concrete wall bordering the coastline.  At random intervals there was a set of vertical stairs leading straight down to the rocks below.

 

I was somewhat concerned that, after I had pulled off safely to a small parking area behind the guard rails, there was one other car parked and a set of sneakers up on top of the concrete wall.  I was afraid perhaps someone took the final plunge.  I was greatly relieved that as I walked back to my car after taking photos I saw a guy quietly fishing down by the water back the way I had come: