Au bout du monde....

here's something from the archives. A trip to Gaspesie. Thanks to Miruna for this one. I coudn't tell it in a better way! (from: miruna.myaiesec.net)


It amazes me every time… and it is a genuine amazement. Canada is a huge and diverse territory with secrets waiting at every step, for every trip. Mid-December 2007 I took a trip to the most Eastern point of the Québec region: Gaspésie. Experiences like this remind me why I love traveling, why my heart feels restless every time I start growing roots… the beauty of places, God made or man made, is overwhelming and crying out to be re-discovered again and again and again.

Gaspésie is a pointy peninsula bravely eating out of the Atlantic Ocean; its history reminds of the 1^st settlers and of the row Canadian beginnings with the French and the English. The towns are simple yet beautiful and tell stories of the seamen and their kind struggling with life on the “other side of the world”. There is a sense of order and chaos in each and every sight… hard to describe in words but recognized by inhabitants and visitors, all together.

Winter is not the standard time of the year to visit Gaspésie, but I think for us, for me, this left its mark deep inside as it was unique. I will never forget how the wind kept sweeping away the snow on the road in front of us; with swirls and talent like it was weaving a winter kilt; people opening their house and souls to practical strangers to tell old and new stories; the Ocean furious, with changing colors, looking like it was a hungry wolf biting out of the white flesh of a whale; frozen orange-blood sunsets melting into the snowy hills, waiting for the game to come out; sun and wind burned seamen faces with their tucks perfectly arranged to embrace their foreheads, raising their eyebrows and looking at what the wind had brought from the West; la Roche Percee strange monument of nature, a horse without its master seen from far; it all seems like another world, it feels like another world.

Just because all this was not enough, we decided to challenge ourselves, just for the sake of it, or maybe because we wanted a face-to-face encounter with Nature, a face-to-face encounter with OUR nature. Froillon Park is at the tip of Gaspésie, offering its visitors a wide range of outdoor activities and incredible sights. If you want to see the place where land meets the Ocean and go to the “end of the world” (au but du monde) as people there call it then Park Froillon is the place.

Cap de Gaspé is about 11.4 km away and it is the most Eastern point that you can reach by foot. We decided to rent snowshoes and walk… through snow and sun, right on the edge of the land where the Ocean washes the shores. 6 hours and a half, 22.8 km there and back, a journey that brought me to my knees through beauty and harshness. Again my hands are having issues typing words to depict the beauty, the silence, and the perfect shine of the sun on the ocean and snow. We had a mission and it almost felt like a purification journey; we had to walk through the frozen snow, up and down, down and up, acknowledging with every step how small and passing we are… nature was reigning and we were speechless and mobile. We made it and we met the Ocean where it comes to visit the land; the light house was silent and contemplating at the waves waiting to see the seals and whales return. Looking out I knew it was the end of the world, my present world, but deep inside I was hurting as I was looking out trying to see what is beyond and how far it was, but I could only smell the beyond not see it….

Returning was another challenge; it was the time to face myself and my limits; no longer looking outside but pushing and pulling within; mobilizing my whole being to fight against and for me. I have never felt this exhausted, close to giving up and still hopeful in my life; I was aching in and out but I knew that if I were to stop I would not be able to move again. The sun was long gone, but the moon was up allowing me to have a heart to heart talk with my shadow. I was never so far from getting back… yet I did return, we both did, my friend and I…

I left Toronto to see something new and beautiful, to experience nature and re-discover myself; I am coming back with the sense that I walked towards the limit of land and myself; I found beauty beyond what the norm tells you and forgot what aches me without right. In the midst of this, somehow, somewhere, during a starry night love also found me and it felt right…

Over but not out,

Miruna :o)