It’s not as easy as it looks. Whales are big but the Saguenay River and St Lawrence are much bigger. Way bigger. So as novices, one needs to know where to “hunt” for them so to speak.
The ferry chugging from Les Escoumins to Trois-Pistoles takes an hour and half and, with eyes peeled, I capture the blow of a blue whale and the dance of the frolicking belugas
But a short drive from the polished vibrancy of Quebec City, the Saugueny region is a place where time ticks in aeons, not seconds. Astonishingly some Greenland Sharks alive today would have seen the earliest voyageurs and fur traders come ashore. It’s also a remarkable destination for seeing Quebec at its finest and most comfortable in its skin. Cafes and microbreweries jostle with artisan chocolatiers and artists’ studios.
The forested fjords that tumble along the Saguenay, millions of years in the making, envelope today’s massive cruise ships like bathtub toys. The 170 kilometres stretching from Lac St Jean to the St. Lawrence is part of 1245 sq. km of protected marine conservation area. To sit on a palaeolithic rock pondering the improbable deep dark water, the intrusive silence and the whiffs of salt in the air is to come face to face with a reality that seems wonderfully indifferent to our presence.
An experiential traveller by nature I sometimes bypass museums and interpretive centres. Here it would be a mistake. The Saguenay Fjords National Park is a wonderful Introduction to the fjords with hiking trails, sea kayaking and for adventurers, a via ferrata circuit on the ominously named cliffs of Baie Eternité. If a Zodiac tour is more your thing Adventure Saguenay runs a variety of tours of the river from the park.
Parks Canada interpretive sites such as Pointe-Noir at the river mouth are exceptional. The Marine Mammal Interpretive Centre in Tadoussac is particularly impressive. And it’s not all dry facts. I couldn’t get my hands around the bones of a two-year-old Fin Whale. And who knew harbour seals had such disproportionate-sized testicles?
Whale watching in open Zodiacs is how it’s done. Tadoussac has probably the most developed whale-watching infrastructure. Platoons of orange-suited visitors head out from dawn to dusk. Strict rules prevent up-close harassment of marine life so bring binoculars and a telephoto lens.
