Tadoussac

It was so nice to finally sleep in a real bed, in a real room, with four walls.

I tried my best to find my old love for camping but I just couldn't do it. And on the last morning in a tent, when we awoke to steady rain, I was reminded of another reason I don't like to camp.

Tearing down our site in the rain.

Our tent had to go in its packing bag wet and we had no place to lay it out to dry for the rest of the trip, which meant that our car started to smell funky after a couple of days. But that was okay because after seeing beluga whales swimming in a bay, we were headed to a proper hotel.

And by proper, I mean the most prestigious hotel in Tadoussac: the Hotel Tadoussac.

This hotel has been around since the 1940s and is an old-world resort hotel with tennis courts, an outdoor shuffleboard area, and even an area on the lawn for croquet. Muskoka chairs looked out onto the bay.

The room was a bit dated but, by God, we had a proper room with a comfortable bed.

We checked in, got settled, and then headed straight to dinner. We chose a food truck that was just outside the town—Casse-croûte Le Connaisseur—which has been in business since 1966. The food was great and inexpensive, which is what we needed after spending a lot of money on breakfast and lunch.

We wandered the town afterwards but turned in early, something that we had been doing every night so far on this trip.

The next day, after breakfast at a café near the hotel, we suited up in our Farmer John wetsuits and took our kayaks down to the beach. The water was freezing cold but we were comfy in our layers, and the air was mild.

We were hoping to spy some whales in Tadoussac Bay and at the mouth of the Saguenay River, and the tide was out. We paddled to a point but as soon as we reached the Saguenay, a gale-force wind hit and forced us into a little bay near the ferry crossing for shelter.

We decided that it wasn't worth the risk of trying to get past the two ferries that connect Highway 138 on the northern and southern shores of the Saguenay. Instead, we worked our way back into Tadoussac Bay, where the water and wind were calmer.

We later hiked a trail that led to the point we had paddled around and we could see several whales, including belugas and minke whales, and we realized that we had probably been paddling close to whales but were so focused on keeping a straight line and seeking shelter that we didn't look out for them.

Fuzzy capture of a minke whale from a 10x zoom on my smartphone.

I'm going to maintain that we kayaked with whales. Prove me wrong.

We visited a brewery in the afternoon and had a fantastic dinner at an upscale restaurant to celebrate our final night of our vacation. It was a great trip, with five days of kayaking, half a dozen or more hikes, and some great whale spotting.

The next morning, before checking out of the hotel, we climbed a trail near a giant sand dune and got a great view of the St. Lawrence River. We promised ourselves that we'd return to this region soon.

Possibly, next year.

We checked out, took our Niro across the Saguenay River on the ferry (it's free), and headed home, though we weren't planning to make the drive in one day. There was still one more night before we'd be sleeping in our own beds.

I'll wrap up the tale of our Québec vacation tomorrow. I've finished the video of our Jacques Cartier River run, which I'll share on YouTube in the coming days, and I'll start work on our Saguenay Fjord kayak adventure soon.

Stay tuned.