We were away by two. We needed to shop for chocolates and food and I remembered from our outward trip two weeks ago that Chicoutimi had an ample supply of shops. Sure enough, we found what we needed and a lot of good food and wine that we didn't really need. Then, like last time, we crossed the Saguenay River, but this time we headed north towards Lac St Jean, the great lake that feeds the Saguenay. We turned off to Pointe Taillon national park, on the lake's eastern shore. It turned out that the park has no real campground, but they allow tent camping amongst the dunes. I asked if we could pretend we had a tent and just camp in the parking lot. That seemed to be OK as long as we paid the camping fee. The beach had bathrooms and a shower so we weren't exactly roughing it. By nightfall everyone else had left and we had the parking lot to ourselves.

The park is very much a vacation spot. It has a long sandy beach, large picnic areas, and bike trails circling the whole park. The sand is famous for its colours, purple from zircons and black from manganese, and the waves separate the colours, making patterns along the water's edge.

Friday October 7th

We tried to explore the park a little, but there wasn't much to see from the road. You needed a bicycle to get the most out of it, and we'd forgotten to pack one. So we returned to the road, driving around the east side of the lake.

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