Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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Ottawa - Shawinigan 443 km. 5:58 hours. Elevation maximum 486 metres

Wiggling our way to Shawinigan!
Driving to Shawinigan can be straightforward - Ottawa, Montreal, Trois Rivieres and then you are here. We have done that before - especially the Ottawa to Montreal bit - so we figured we would try a different route avoiding the major roads and going through Mont Tremblant. However, this turned out to be a pretty wiggly route (as you can see from the map) particularly when there are bridges out and flooded roads! But we had plenty of time so it was fun in the end with some very different driving than last year - and a much slower average speed!

First things first, we had to get Mary Jane clean and filled up. The day before we left, Rob got to play with the big vacuum while Hild was wiping things down inside and then after a fill up, we ran her through a nice car wash with pretty coloured bubbles and a soft brush.

We didn't start early - for a change - but after breakfast and a cup of tea we packed up Mary Jane and drove straight over the bridge into Quebec. Hild was driving, but it wasn't raining (for a change) and we had a bit of fun playing with Tiny - our new toy which is a cheap digital sports camera we hung from the passenger sun visor. The idea is that we can quickly grab photos or videos as we see them through the front window. Be prepared to get way too many slightly tilted shots of things with smudges from flies stuck on the windscreen!

Here are a couple of Tiny's shots - waiting for the garage door ro open as we left home and then just about getting through the floodwater on Route 349! We wanted to use 348, but the bridge was washed out there and if we had not got through here, we would have had a long detour south to get through. Note the incorrect time-stamp - it turns out Tiny has a habit of forgetting the date and time a bit. We will have to work that one out.

We stopped just outside Mont Blanc for lunch. Do we really need to show you another photo of Rob and Hild eating sandwiches and making tea on the Trangia stove? The place we stopped at - Sentier des cimes laurentides - has a tree-top walkway, but it would have needed a longer stop to make it worthwhile so we gave it miss.

OK, you asked for it - here is Hild with her milk and sandwich! Then we had a short side-trip into Saint Agathe des Monts - which turned out to be longer when we missed an exit and had to drive too far down Route 15 before we could turn back. Agathe is the daughter of friends from Ottawa who are now back in France and as they live in the French Alps close to Geneva, Agathe of the Mountains seems to fit her perfectly!

After that we just had to wiggle our way through the Laurentians with roads winding aound lakes and through farmland with spring floods until we got to Shawinigan for our first night away. It is just one night here on our way to Saguenay tomorrow which we hope will be a more strightforward drive.

Coming up: North to Saguenay

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