Kayaking!

Rise and shine! We all woke up eager to kayak with the seals yesterday and had no problem getting to the pier on time. We were the first ones there and got to chat with Julian more before going on the tour. He was actually new to guiding and was looking forward to practicing his English with us.

The others trickled in and soon we were setting off! Kat and I went in a double kayak, two couples were in doubles and Shane was all alone. Pretty much as soon as we all got in the water we saw a minke whale swimming not too far off. It was an incredible moment and we took it as a sign our luck was turning around.

We paddled for almost 4km while the cute instructor encouraged us (Kats input to the blog). And then we saw the cutest little faces bobbing up and down in the water and we were soon surrounded by seals. Some of the came right up to the kayaks! I’m looking forward to seeing Shane’s photos of them.

Julian asked us if we’d made it to the look off and we had to admit we hadn’t paid enough attention to his Instructions. He was happy to explain again, and even point out the boardwalk from the water.

We got to stay in the area where the seals were for probably 45 minutes and it was hard to leave them.

On the way back, Kat and I were trying to hit all the buoys, we told ourselves if we did we’d have good luck. Julian told us the best luck came from white buoys, I think he was saying it because there weren’t any. We continued along and then finally saw one and managed to both tap it with our paddles. Not too long after that we saw the same whale. And again. And again. And again. I had Shane’s GoPro and can’t wait to see if I got any of the whale sightings on it.

Before we knew it, we were back on shore and saying our goodbyes. Julian told us he loved our energy! I think we definitely interacted with him way more than the others on the tour did.

We wanted to squeeze a hike in before we set off for our next campsite so we quickly looked up where it was. Fortunately, there was an interconnecting trail not far from us so we didn’t even need to drive anywhere. Mont Alban was another highly rated trail for seeing wildlife so we were really keen.

Unfortunately, I think the best time to do that trail would be first thing in the morning. By the time we were on it, so was everyone else. Including a couple we had taken photographs of back on Mont Albert! We had a nice chat with them and wondered if we’d see them again.

The trail was good for coastal views and had a lot of look offs. We even got to see two more whales! There was also an observation tower but still no moose.

After we finished the trail we set off to find the look off Julian had told us about. It was easy to find when we went on the right road and before we knew it, we were watching seals again. This time we were above them which was an interesting perspective. I really like how curious they are about us, they all kept looking up and watching us.

We took off towards Percé with a quick detour to another waterfall. As we were driving in we saw signs saying that there was a few and it closed at 5. It was 4:50 by the time we got to the gatehouse so we weren’t sure we’d make it in. But it seemed touching the white buoy was working for us as they told us we could enter for free since the cash was closed!

We got to Percé pretty late and hungry. We set up quickly and the decided to walk into town for dinner. There was a famous pub here that also made their own beer that we wanted to check out.

Unfortunately, they had a sign up saying they had no kitchen at this time. We tried to find somewhere else to eat but everything seemed to close at 9 and it was already 8:50. We had hoped to have a fun night out but spent it with Uncle Ben at camp instead.