Forillon National Park, Quebec

 As usual, I woke up at 8:00am, had breakfast, and packed our tents up (what’s new?). We left our campsite at 9:00am and headed towards Parc-ile Bonaventure, which means island of good adventure in English. I used our GPS to locate Parc-ile Bonaventure, and after thirty minutes of following its instructions, we found ourselves lost in the middle of nowhere. My dad started blaming me and the GPS and after forty more minutes of driving around, we finally reached Percé. 

   

My brother staring at
Percé rock

At 10:00am, as we approached the town of Percé, I noticed a huge rock formation in the middle of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. My dad quickly purchased six tickets (total of $150 dollars) for a boat tour around the rock formation and access to Bonaventure Island.


Approaching the Percé Rock  

We hopped aboard the Felix Leclerc at 11:00pm and began our tour of the Percé rock. The tour guide talked in both French and English (thankfully!) and I was able to understand and learn some important facts about the Percé rock. Translated into English, Rocher Percé means “pierced rock”. The rock earned its nickname because of a small arching hole found near the base of the rock. The small arching hole was a unique result of millions of years of erosion. Thousands of fossils of early marine life, such as trilobites, brachiopods, etc, can be found within the layers of limestone that make up the rock formation. 

The arch in the limestone



Seals basking in the sun

As we neared the natural wonder, I spotted numerous seals (possibly harbour seals) basking in the sun and thousands of birds perched in the wedges and on the cliffs of the rock. The guide explained that hundreds of thousands of birds make their homes on Percé rock and Bonaventure Island.   

After circling Percé rock, the boat arrived at Bonaventure Island at 12:00pm, where everyone disembarked. The island’s main feature was the breeding ground of hundreds of thousands of Northern Gannets, along with three different trails to reach the breeding grounds. Before we started, we had lunch in the café, where lobster sandwiches were sold for ten dollars each!  



Bonaventure Island's breeding ground for
thousands of Northern Gannets

After thirty minutes of hiking, we reached the Northern Gannet breeding ground (although I could have smelled and heard it kilometres away). There was a rancid stench that filled the air (possibly from the excess of bird poop and lack of hygiene). Flies buzzed everywhere, yet I was too distracted by the vast number of gannets occupying the area. The breeding ground was approximately two hundred metres long and fifty metres wide, with a gannet occupying every square metre. Everywhere I looked, I saw gannets; gannets fighting; gannets mating; gannets feeding; gannets flying; the list goes forever! I took a billion photos and caught two gannets mating. Another cute gannet was pulling grass from the ground and waddling with the grass in its beak to its nest. Then, I noticed the baby gannets; small, grey bundles of feathers. I saw lots of babies, but sadly, most of them were dead, so I didn’t bother taking photos of them.   

Soon, my family began to snap out of its awe and realize the rancid stench and countless black flies that flied around. After fifteen minutes at the breeding ground, we decided to leave and return to the dock. The boat came at 2:00pm and we hopped on and returned to Percé.

At 2:30pm, we left Percé and headed towards Forillon National Park, our next destination. By 7:00pm, we reached Forillon’s campground, but sadly, all the campsites were taken and there was no vacancy! We desperately turned around and headed back down Highway 132 until we came across a private campground. Here, we unpacked and set our tents up at 8:00pm. I wanted to take a shower, but since it was a private campground, one had to pay a buck per minute of hot water and thus I opted not to wash myself (a five dollar shower was pretty ridiculous).

After brushing my teeth, I headed back to our campsite. Since I was bored and tired, I decided to fall asleep earlier than usual so that I would be well-rested for tomorrow’s trails and thus I entered our tent at 9:00pm and fell asleep at 9:30pm.