Monday 31 August 2026
Today we dock at Havre St Pierre, right on the north shore of the Gulf of St Lawrence. We have been warned that there’s not much to see at Havre St Pierre and our arrival somehow confirms that
Regardless, we walk through the town. This requires us walking the entire two blocks in both directions, past suburban houses to the centre of town. Now, the centre of town consists of a Shell service station, a bank, three souvenir stores, curiously a shoe shop, and the Poissonnerie du Havre. Which is completely devoid of poissonnes. We purchased no shoes, no fuel, no money and not a single souvenir. Back at port we did find a tourist information place and clever Cherrie enquired as to where we might locate the monoliths which we had seen photos of. “Oui, madame, vous pouvez faire une excursion en bateau”. And so we did. We took a boat trip, with an intimate group of 48 others, out to the Mingan Archipelago National Park.
And what sights we saw. This National Park is home to the largest concentration of monoliths in Canada.
Our guide, Freddie, is wonderful. He works for National Parks, is a scientist, is passionate about the environment and is amazingly adept at instant switching between fluent French, with a perfect accent, and fluent English with a neutral accent. We follow every word and he holds us totally enthralled.
We visit two different islands, each with very well maintained paths and boardwalks, with strict instructions not to deviate from the path as the vegetation is so endangered.
These extraordinary monoliths are limestone and have been formed over hundreds of thousands of years not by erosion but by the movement of the earths crust. So sayeth Freddie, in detail and in a most convincing way.
Vegetation has found somewhere to flourish
And flourish it does
Internet connection is proving to be problematic on this cruise, perhaps because we are about to enter the North Atlantic Ocean, having passed through the narrow passage to the mouth of the mighty St Lawrence. Hence the delay in blogs- sometimes I can get enough signal to write (although many of you may dispute that) but can’t download the photos to post. Will keep trying and roll with the punches.
Next post will be from Greenland, connection permitting. Tomorrow we enter the Labrador Sea. Woof woof.
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