Quebec: Whales and Trails, Part 1

 Joan and I had booked a trip with Natural Habitat Adventures, NatHab, to visit Quebec and the Saint Lawrence Estuary, with an emphasis on whale watching. Our journey began on September 18, 2023, but only after another airline adventure.

 

Our flights were from Columbus to/from Québec City, with a connection in Toronto. United was our flight to/from Toronto, and, booked as part of the United reservation, Air Canada to/from Québec City. Two weeks before departure, Joan logged in to see if any schedule changes had occurred. Lo and behold, the Air Canada flight to Québec City from Toronto had disappeared. Nobody had notified us. United would take us to Toronto, leave us there to hitchhike to Québec City, and then return us to Columbus! Joan called United, and their first suggestions were not helpful: arriving at the Québec City airport at 10pm does not work when the orientation dinner for the trip takes place in town at 5pm! Finally, United came up with a connection through Newark on our way out, and Toronto on the way back.

This has not been a good airline year!

September 18

Newark was surprisingly uncrowded on this Monday. During the flight to Quebec, we met two women on the other side of the aisle who would also be on our adventure. In the arrivals lobby, there was a shuttle driver with a sign that displayed not "NatHab," but the women's names. Joan and I joined them!

After dropping off our luggage at the Hotel Le Germain Québec, Joan and I had the afternoon to explore parts of the old city of Québec. The sky was cloudy with threats of rain from the outwash of Hurricane Lee, but the downpours weren't to arrive before the next day. We took a long walk and saw the Basilica-Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Québec, Montmorency Park National Historical Site, and others, including a chocolate shop with a chocolate museum. As is my unfortunate habit, I neglected to take photos on this arrival day, but here are a few snatched from Google StreetView. (Thank you, Google.) One side effect of this technique is that the weather appears better than it was!

 

First, the Basilica-Cathedral. (Click on any image to enlarge.)

The famous hotel Fairmont Le Chateau Frontenac.

The chocolate bonanza.

Two images of the Promenade des Gouverneurs which, clinging to the heights, yielded ever-changing views of the St. Lawrence.

It was not all flat.

Joan and I also enjoyed going down the funicular Vieux-Québec, an electric cableway built in 1879. Here's a view of the petite top station.

And a look from below.

Then it was time for our welcome dinner at the hotel, where we met our fellow travelers and our guides, Julia and Jackie, sketched out our plans and gauged our interests.

September 19

The next morning was grayer than before. Here's a picture of the Séminaire de Québec taken from our hotel room window.

Shifting the image, we can see that real estate is maximized on the lower level of the city by constructing rooftop gardens, patios, and such.

Then we hit the road, traveling northeast out of the city towards Tadoussac, where we would spend the next two nights, focused on whale-watching.

However, the weather was getting worse, with wind and rain, so after consulting by phone with the whale-watching outfit (Essipit Whale Watching Tours, an indigenous-owned company), our guides pivoted. On arriving at Tadoussac, we visited the Interpretation Centre on Marine Mammals instead, a short walk from the Hotel Tadoussac. Our whale-watching tours were reduced from three to two, but we all agreed it was the best course.

The Interpretation Centre has many hands-on exhibits, an exclusive film (in French with subtitles), and a fantastic collection of whale skeletons, from the smallest creature to the largest.

One such is an example of whale baleen, the method by which grazing whales feed.

After taking a big gulp of the sea, the whale expels the water, but food items such as krill are caught in the baleen and swallowed. Our group agreed that this museum visit was a wonderful orientation before the upcoming whale-watching.

These first two days were on the move, but tomorrow our group will focus on whale and walking adventures.

Iceland: Dettiifoss, Namafyall, and More

On July 24th our NatHab group was treated to a Möðrudalur floor show at breakfast.

I don't think he needs any coffee!

We made a quick getaway afterwards to beat the crowds to the Dettifoss waterfall, one of the top attractions in this part of Iceland.

Katherine was pointing things out, probably cautioning us, but it was hard to hear above the thunderous water.

Looking down with people to provide scale.

Both the volume and agitation of Dettifoss were impressive, almost overwhelming. This video holds clips from two different viewpoints. A short walk upstream from Dettifoss is a scenic but less aggressive waterfall, Selfoss, not to be overlooked. Water spills down from a wide sweep of cliff.
A closer look.

After a brief stop at Selfoss we had to scoot back to the bus and head towards Mývatn, a premiere tourist area; cruise ships even dock at Akureyri and bus people there. Our first stop in Greater Mývatn was the Námafyall geothermal field.

The view was otherwordly.

Steam vents! A strong whiff of sulfur when you're downwind.

Bubbling mud! (More sulfur.)

 
Then on to Grjótagjá we drove, where the stresses of the deformation zone between North American and Eurasian tectonic plates, about 100km wide, can be observed on the surface. Click on the images to enlarge.

One of many rifts in this part of Iceland. Some guides will tell you that here you can stand with one foot on each techtonic plate, but it's a more complicated terrain than that.

The water in the bottom was a popular bathing place -- warm water is always welcome in Iceland's climate -- until the 1975-1984 eruptions of nearby Krafla injected magma flows under the area. Water temperatures originally rose to 60° C, but now are between 43°-46° C, or 109°-115° F.

This section of the rift belongs to a farm, but the landowner graciously allows tourist access at no charge. Thank you. Pick up after yourself.

Off to a generous buffet lunch at the Hotel Myvatn, after which we walked across the road to investigate Skútustaðagígar, a walk through a landscape pocked by steam craters. These formations weren't created by lava eruptions, but by steam explosions generated by subsurface magma heating the wet terrain above it.

The view from an observation point demanded two panoramic photos.

Otherwise it's just a spaghetti strip!

 Birdwatching is a primary attraction here. Plenty of ducks.

An arctic tern. I learned that one way to distinguish it from the common tern is that the arctic's beak is entirely red, while the common's is tipped in black.

Our walk completed, we drove to Sigurgeir's Bird Museum, the largest private bird collection in Iceland. After Akureyri lent the museum a sea-eagle the only bird that breeds in Iceland remaining unrepresented here is the grey phalarope.

Note the water feature in the floor, right.

The museum is named after the young man who started it, but who died early, drowning in Lake Mývatn at age 37.

Next door is a boat museum featuring the Sleipnir.

This vessel has a long history.

There were two different info sheets!

As you can tell, this was a very busy day. The time had come to drive back to the east end of the lake and check in to the Hótel Reynihlíð. Outside sat a whittler.

In the lobby was a conglomerate partition.

 

Front view --- Side view

The scene outside our room included a stone fence and horses. Icelandic horses, for no other breeds are allowed in Iceland.

A few of our NatHab group chose to visit a nearby (short drive) geothermal steam bath after checking in, but Joan and I gave it a pass.

We wrapped up with a wonderful dinner at the hotel. For a while a singer was on the first floor of the hotel conducting a sing-along (John Denver, the Beatles, Willie Nelson, etc.), but the event disbanded early enough that it didn't interfere with our collapsing into bed.