... at five o'clock this morning john and i headed north to the gaspe ... the gps offered up the fastest route, but we managed to add a few hours onto the journey by stopping every now and then to take pictures ...
... coming over the crest of a little hill, we saw percé rock sailing away from the mainland ...
... passing by the "$10 parking," we found a free lot, parked the car, and hiked to the top of the steep bluff that faces the rock ... a few feet on the other side of the fence is a sheer drop-off of several hundred feet ...
... from this vantage we couldn't see the famous hole in the rock, but we were treated to a clear view of bonaventure island, a sanctuary for over 290 species of birds ...
... a tiny flower, on this windy headland waiting for a bit of warmth ...
... this building is one of the sets (a recreation of the original which was burned) for a soon-to-be-released movie about the front de libération du québec ... it was strange, how only an hour or so earlier i had been talking with john about how when we visited the world's fair in 1968 the flq was active blowing up things in montreal ...
... we met pierre, who was busy making measurements ... from what we could gather, he and his pals were busy tearing down the mountain in the background so that they could use it as fill to eliminate a particularly harrowing turn in the highway ... i remember being caught by surprise and taking the curve at speed in the rain on my motorcycle last year, one of those time-for-new-skivvies experiences ...
... we stopped at a beach composed of millions and millions of perfect skipping stones ...
... leaving the main highway, we came across this cemetery perched atop a great bluff above the edge of the sea ...
... road weary, we walked downtown to enjoy a meal ... last year in this restaurant i counted pennies when i shouldn't have, so, keeping a vow i'd made, i ordered a bowl of absolutely perfect bouillabaisse ... john with a beer and me a ginger ale, we celebrated our arriving and offered up a toast to our missing comrade ...
... no, the gravity isn't stronger in canada, our big heads are just the result of me using my 12mm ultra-wide to take a selfie ...
... what a beautiful place is the gaspe ...