For some added adventure, we decided to visit a part of Canada we'd never been to before - les Iles de la Madeleine (aka the Magdalen Islands). A series of islands connected by causeways in the Gulf of St. Lawrence, these islands belong to Quebec but are most easily reached by ferry from PEI.
We caught the boat in Souris, and after some boarding chaos (steep ramps and sharp turns!), we settled in for a five-hour crossing. Apparently the ferry had come from Spain, where vehicles are generally much smaller. Considered public transit, masks were still mandatory on the ferry, though we spent most of the crossing on the outdoor deck areas to enjoy the sail.
There were also some great comfy lounges that were eerily empty given the number of vehicles we saw waiting to load....until we passed the pub. That is where everyone (but us it seemed) was, crammed full of people taking advantage of the rule that your mask could come off if you were eating or drinking. As one of the very few people out on deck, we were also rewarded with a breaching whale beside the ship.
We arrived just after 6pm in Cap-aux-Meules, the biggest town on the islands, and made the short drive to our rented accommodation. We had booked someone's camping trailer for two nights through airbnb, fairly centrally located at Pointe-aux-Loups for maximum exploration. We got by on some local takeout, as well as some groceries we had brought from "mainland" PEI.
We spent the next 36 hours exploring the islands by car and on foot, driving the length from to bottom and back again. I'll let the photographs below do the talking....but basically imagine PEI's red sand and beaches mashed up with some of Newfoundland's random ruggedness.
A very short visit, but a great scouting trip - a la prochaine!
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