Le 13 juin - La Romaine, Harrington Harbour etc

Selon l’horaire révisé, nous étions supposés arriver au village suivant, La Romaine, à 0h45 mais quand je suis sorti pour voir notre arrivée il n’y avait rien en vu, je suis donc retourné au lit. Nous avons accosté vers 4h. Le quai est tellement petit que les passagers ne sont pas permis de débarquer une fois que les operations de déchargement ont commencé, nous avons manqué notre opertunité d’explorer. Mais il faut dire qu’il n’y a pas grand chose à voir parce que le village est loin du quai. Nous avons regardé les operations du pont d’observation... et nous avons vu une autre petite baleine.





Nous avons trouvé ‘notre place’ sur le 8e pont ou il y a des chaises lazy-boy près des 
fenêtres. 
Notre cabine est sur le 3e pont donc plusieurs fois par jour nous montons les 5 étages de marches... jusqu’à ici nous avons boudé l’ascenseur.

Aujourd’hui le film ‘La grande séduction’ était montré dans le salon du 8e en préparation pour notre visite à Harrington Harbour ou le film a été tourné.
Une belle journée pour visiter Harrington Harbour, nous nous sommes promenés pendant plus d’une heure... vraiement un village charmant.
L’entrée et sortie du havre est via un étroit détroit entre deux îles après avoir passé près de plusieurs autres îles sans habitation.

Le prochain arrêt était à Tête-à-la-Balaine après un autre passage entre les îles rocheuses. Je suis decendu et j’ai visité le centre d’acceuil, une petite cabine avec une très jeune femme comme employée. Elle vient de finir l’école sécondaire. Elle est francophone mais parle un anglais parfait ‘parce que j’ai des amies dans d’autres villages (anglephone)’ elle a dit. Elle m’a expliqué que dans son école il y a 8 étudiants entre la première et la 11e année... et 3 profs!

Le centre d'acceuil à gauche de la photo.
Le quai est encore loin du village donc rien à voir sauf la nature. Pas d’arbres seulement des petites plantes et buissons... le tundra.


----------------
June 13th
According to the revised schedule we were supposed to arrive at the following village, La Romaine, at 12:45am but when I went to watch our arrival but nothing was in sight so I went back to bed. We didn’t dock until about 4am. The dock at La Romaine is so small that passengers cannot disembark once the unloading operations have started to we missed our chance to explore the terra ferma. Not that there was much to explore since the dock is at a distance from the village. We watched the unloading and loading from the observation deck and were treated to the passage of another small whale.

We have found ‘our place’ on the 8th deck in the salon where there a pairs of lazy-boy like chairs beside the windows. Our cabin is on the 3rd deck so several times a day we make the climb up 5 flights... so far we have refused to take the elevator.
Today they are showing the movie ‘The Grand Seduction’ which was filmed at our next stop, Harrington Harbour’.
It was a beautiful day for our visit to Harrington Harbour, we had over an hour to walk around, it really is a charming little village. Entry and exit from the harbour is through a narrow channel between two islands after passing by many other uninhabited islands.

Next stop was Tête-à-la-Balaine which is reached after a passing between several rocky islands. I went ashore and visited the visitors center which is a little cabin staffed by a young woman just out of highschool. She is francophone but speaks perfect english ‘because I have friends from other (anglephone) villages’ she said. She also explained that there are a total of 8 students in her school for years from grade 1 to grade 11... and three teachers! The dock is miles from the village so there was not much to see other than nature. There are no trees and only small plants and bushes... basically tundra.


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