LOCATION: Longue Ponte de Mingan, Quebec
CAMPGROUND: Camping de la Minganie
Not much word on how the bridge repair is coming along. We heard that engineers are looking at it, which doesn’t sound like anything much will happen in the next few days. This is the article from the Quebec News…

The tourist season officially opens tomorrow, June 1. The people here depend on tourism during their very short season. This road closure will impact them significantly.
We took a walk along the Gulf this morning, exercising our leg muscles by walking in the sand. Tony found a hermit crab. When we walked by the seafood processing plant, we could see that they were moving seafood into big refrigerated trucks, probably the only place where they can store their products until the bridge re-opens. Lots of impact everywhere.
As Jenny and I were resting on the boardwalk along the St. Lawrence, a cute chocolate lab trotted up to us. He found a piece of driftwood and brought it to us to play fetch. We could tell that he has been well-trained. He placed the wood in front of his paws, then sat on his haunches, gazed at us with his big eyes, and waited for us to toss the piece of wood. We did that until he was exhausted, and then he returned to his home.


We took photos of the puffins. Sure hope we get to see the real thing.


Tony, Jenny, George, and I had discussions about our plans. Since we don’t have any idea when we will be out of here, we have decided to extend our stay here by at least 3 days. Tony was on the phone rescheduling one reservatio and cancelling another.
After lunch, we returned to the main town, Havre-Saint-Pierre to see for ourselves how people are reacting to the news. First to the seafood shop. Thankfully, they are still well-stocked. We bought supplies for our next few meals.
Then, to the grocery store. Several shelves in the vegetable section were empty. I was able to find one package of lettuce. The dairy section has had the biggest hit. There was almost no milk left. In the news, they are talking about flying in some supplies if this lasts much longer.

Then, we returned to the distillery/brewery. They were happy to see us again. We told them that since we are stranded, we wanted more of their beer!

On our way home, we stopped to look at some waterfalls. This really looks like moose territory – lots of ponds and swampy areas, but alas, no moose.


We have been trying to line up a boat ride to see the Mingan Archipelago, hopefully with sights of puffins and whales. It is part of the National Park here. It is supposed to be a bit warmer tomorrow. We have arranged (we think – in French!) a trip tomorrow morning. Our campsite neighbors are from Switzerland. She speaks both English and French, and so has been our interpreter. They hope to do the boat ride with us.
DINNER: Tony’s turn. Normally, we like to eat outdoors when we camp together. It has just been too cold to do that while we are here. So, we sat around Joy’s dinette table and enjoyed an appetizer of pate’ and sausages. Then, the main course was a seafood pie Tony had bought today at the seafood shop. For meals like this, it is nice to have a regular oven. It was a pie filled with seafood in a bechamel sauce. Quite tasty!

After dinner, the winds shifted to come in from the South, and it warmed up dramatically. I was finally able to enjoy that glass of wine on the deck next to our campsite.


BOOK: “Many Rivers to Cross” by Peter Robinson. This is part of the detective series I read periodically. I like it because it takes place in a village in North Yorkshire where we did a housesitting assignment a few years ago. 3 stars out of 5.