Saturday 29 August 2026

We awoke at 5.30am so we could be on deck at 6am to see sunrise, and almost certainly whales. The sun rose. The whales did not. It was cold out there but it was a lovely sunrise.

At 11am we dock in the fjord town of Saguenay, about 130kms north of Quebec City.

I have booked a fjord tour for the three of us. We meet the 24 seater mini bus and the wonder of the day begins. We wonder what it is that our tour guide is saying. We believe that she is speaking English but there is no real evidence of such.

Our first stop is to see a statue. We wonder who it is and what the French inscription says. As we wander away from the group we do spot some rather compelling fish

We drive past a pyramid of pyramids

We are left wondering what is so funny about this pyramid of pyramids

Our second stop is even more wonderous. What on earth is this?

Our guide rattles on in great detail and all unintelligible. It’s clearly about the Nativity

Some may find these cultural, peculiar life size statues wonderous

There are so many, over the 300 yards, that there’s even a spot to rest and wonder

In total, there are 35 of these scenes

Our photo editor refuses to display all of them, for fear of you being wondered out

This is a most extraordinary tour. The cure for tour guide verbal diorrhea has not yet reached Saguenay. We wonder why we ever signed up for it, but the reviews were good, We wonder if they were rigged.

We stop in a little village, but wonder why. We walk down a hill, by private houses with peculiar curios around

We then walk up a hill, by private houses. We cross a bridge

and miraculously the mini bus is there to pick us up.

We’re stumped as to why we made this stop.

Finally, and now completely switched off, we reach the fjord

Not a patch on Norway, but the power here is all generated by hydro. These cables that cross the fjord are 60m above water in summer, reduced to 30m by the weight of ice and snow in winter

By now Chris is fully immersed in this tour

Driving back, which is something we feared might never happen, we pass the country side. Completely oblivious to the chatter from up front, we like what we see

At last, blessedly, after almost five hours, we return to the wonder of the ship.

It’s only our tour guide who had a whale of a time

Tonight we partake in the traditional white night of this cruise line. Everyone is dressed in white. Lucky we each have a white shirt with us.

Good music, great buffet (I had lobster tail, well tails from two different lobsters) and we dance a bit. Until the rain set in. Then to the bar and a Pina Colada or two.

The end of a day of wonder