For a
little B&B in a backwater Canadian town we were surprised at the
quality of the breakfast, feast, served up. It reminded both of us
of my brother in law John, a chef by trade, who does not serve up
meals but works of art that look too good to eat. A bowl of fruit
and yoghurt was followed by a warm croissant then four cheese and
spinach omelette for Stef, leak and bacon quiche for me. The latter
were served with decorative flowers, blueberries, icing sugar and a
quartered apple cut in slices along the quarter so it tiered out on
the plate. It all tasted as good as it looked.
Brewing lavender has a funny effect...
We chatted for a while with Danielle and Jean, the owners, before
leaving. Danielle has been to some of the places we are planning to
go to in Indonesia and showed me her photos. As I expected, we will
be back into hot, humid and very poor countryside. We retrieved the
cheeses we had bought yesterday from their fridge and finally set
off at about 11am.
The insurance was still a
problem. The difficulty seems to be that the insurance broker has
been told by the garage that we will be driving in the US, which we
will not be. Because it is such a litigious country, Canadian
insurers are wary and will not cover us. When we said we were not
going to the US things got easier but not easy. We need to get a
letter from our UK insurer confirming our claims history. They are
shut in the UK now so that is a problem to sort out tomorrow.
Our route took us south along Lac Lovering and through Fitch Bay to
Bleu Lavande, Canada's largest lavender producing farm. It was
recommended to us by Jean at the hotel. With hindsight I do not know
why we went there as neither of us are particularly partial to the
scent of lavender, despite having some in our garden at home! As
with the vineyards, here it is a relatively new set up. Apparently
there are very few pure strains of lavender left in the world and
there are trying to keep a pure strain here. As such all their
plants are sterile (how? surely this is tampering with nature too?)
so each year they totally replace their stock with new plants
from Australia.
They have four different varieties (Pure English and Hidcote were
two of them) planted here. We had a short talk about how they set up
the operation and, because it was harvest time, we also saw the
distilling process in action. A huge still crammed full of lavender
twigs. The smell when the lid was taken off was very heady and
overpowering. Its is strong enough that the man who runs the
distilling process finds himself getting very relaxed and snoozy as
the day day progresses.
We had an amble down among the plants and a quick look in the gift
shop. Even the bags for people to take home their purchases are
lavender in colour. Back out in the car park they had a harvesting
tractor cutting the crop in a small demonstration field. Again the
scent was overpowering. Back in the car, the air con went on full
pelt again because its another very hot day. When e had parked we
were next to other cars and a couple of Honda Goldwing bikes. When
we got back our car was an island of one in a big pretty empty car
park - we looked a but daft!
As we were close to the border with Vermont, USA, we decided to
drive down to Beebe Plain, the last town on the Quebecois side. It
turned out to be one of those places where one side of the main
street was in Canada and the other side was in the US. The border
actually cuts through one house so that the person who lives there
goes from Canada to the US every time they leave their bedroom to go
to the bathroom. The house used to be the Post Office and the
international mail was passed through a hole in the wall.
We stopped to take photos of the US and Canadian borders and
promptly got bawled out by the US side. Stef went to ask if we could
get stamps in our passports -possible if we crossed the border and
paid US$6 each! With much form filling, but no finger printing this
time, we were allowed through. Their border checks of the locals
were cursory and gruff but they still let everyone through.
I doubt that the insurance for our hire car covered us in the States
but that did not deter Stef. We did a loop round and about twenty
minutes later were back in Canada through a different border
crossing. On our way into the States I do not think the guys at the
US border control believed us when we said that in mainland Europe
you just drive through the border with no checks. Perhaps they just
did not care!
Bridge of Coaticook
We worked our way up through Ayers Cliff and Massawippi (they have
great names here!) before turning back to go to Coaticook
(pronounced Co-at-i-cook) another Danielle and Jean recommendation.
There is a river valley here where the river has carved a deep
gorge. Spanning the gorge is a Guiness World Record, the longest
pedestrian suspension bridge in the world. It is set in a small
national park and a walking trail takes you winding through. It is
cleverly done with little information panels through the park
telling you about the history of the town as you go.
The views from the suspension bridge were great, almost as much fun
as I had wobbling the bridge for Stef's benefit - his vertigo had
well and truly kicked in. I know it was cruel but it was worth it so
see the look on his face. For safety, I did not tell him until we
were off the bridge that I agreed with him that some of the planks
had seen better days - he would not have made it across!
Through the park, the path took us past some odd rock formations,
vertical tunnels created by stones that had been caught up in
whirlpools in the river, then up to an observation point. This was a
tall (120 steps) wooden tower built in memory of a local businessman.
From the top there were wide views down on to Coaticook and out
across the surrounding valleys. From here I could just make out a
deer in the surrounding woods reaching up to pluck leaves from the
trees, the closest I have been to a deer in the wild.
The path wound down to the river, past a dam, concrete replaced the
wooden one in 1921, which is still used as part of the town's
hydroelectric plant. To improve the water pressure a tunnel had been
carved through 180 metres of rock to divert the river. A small
access tunnel is still open, with the original 1920's
lighting. It is carved through flint rock and must have been tough
work to build. Lights had been laid out through the woods so that
the pople working on the tunnel could see their way through to work
(there were no access roads so they had to walk through the forest).
One still remains, now about 15 metres up, its height has
increased as the tree it is tied to has grown.
In a hut further on the original turbines are still working,
producing about 10% of the electricity needed by Coaticook. On the way
we passed a woodpecker busily working away to get bugs from a tree.
We were about two metres away and it did not move away. The speed
and force of its pecking was incredible,. Back at the entrance we
stopped for an ice cream. Stef asked for banana and strawberry. I
did not bother ordering one. His small ice cream had six huge scoops
- very big even with both of us sharing it.
Back at the car we made our plans for the nights (it was already
after 6pm) and decided to head for North Hatley. We had nowhere
booked to stay and tried a couple of B&Bs with no success. The
hotel at the crossroads into town did have a room free so we checked
in. It was a bit like Fawlty Towers. A gruff French woman was behind
reception. What looked like a very hen pecked husband was hovering
around and parked our car for us. We seem to have hit on a run of
very hot rooms to stay in - this one was no different. We both
showered to wash away the heat and stickiness. A few minutes after
leaving the the luxury of air conditioning though we were back to
hot, sweaty and sticky mode. We quickly checked mail and then headed
on for dinner.
There seemed to be a choice of one place - or at least that was all
that was instantly visible. North Hatley is at the top of Lake
Massawippi and we were sat by the lake. The local duck population
were happily swimming and quacking their way by. Signs asked people
not to feed the ducks though to that they do not become dependent on
humans for their survival!
After dinner we went for an amble out on to the lake and briefly
watched the stars. It is even quieter here than Magog and there was
no-one else in sight. As we walked back past the restaurant at 10pm
it was just closing up.
