When I came along the north bank of the St Lawrence and over Cap Tourmente in 2011 it was dark and finding a place to park for the night was not as easy as it might have been. Consequently I made for the Tourist Information Centre on the hill overlooking Baie St Paul.

It's quite a big site with plenty of nice, quiet parking spaces. I've called here several times in the past and in the absence of a better alternative having presented itself along the route, this is where I decided to stay the night.

I couldn't have done that when I was here in 2001 , and for two reasons too. Firstly, it was about -20°C at the time and sleeping in a car in those consitions is not for the faint-hearted such as Yours Truly. Secondly, the Visitor Centre wasn't here and the main road passed through where the car park is now.

I said that the parking spaces were nice and quiet here, didn't I? And so it was, and I was well-set for a nice, comfortable sleep. However I can't legislate for torrential downpours and huge thunderstorms at 04:00, or for phone calls from France at 05:30, or a coach-load of Asian tourists arriving at 07:00. At least the old tri-band phone that I brought with me functions, which is always useful (except at 05:30).

The reason why there is a Tourist Information office here now is that this is the gateway to the region of Québec known as Charlevoix and which for me is without any doubt the most beautiful region in the whole of the Province, if not the whole of the country.

If you want to come to Canada and see what the country is all about, but you only have a limited time and limited funds at your disposal, fly to Québec Airport and come to Charlevoix. You will not be disappointed. I promise you that.

The view over the valley as dawn breaks is magnificent but as the day starts to warm up a huge mist has sprung up over the bay. And the more that the day warms up (and believe me - it isn't half warming up quickly as well) the more the mist rises and within about half an hour a thick grey cloud comes rolling up here and we too are lost in the fog.

It made me wish that I had been a little more determined with the camera earlier this morning, but I will tell you something. It's just like home, isn't it?

It's a shame that the weather clouded over so quickly that morning in 2011 that there wasn't time to take a decent photo of the bay.

I know that you will be disappointed by that, but never mind. I was here in October 2010 when the weather was magnificent and so what I've done is to find one of the photos of the bay and of the Charlevoix that I took back then from this very same spot, and I can post this for your viewing pleasure.

Further round to the south from the same viewpoint we have a magnificent view out over the St Lawrence. It's once more of course from my visit of 2010, as are all the next few photos. We saw nothing like this in 2011.

Away there in the distance you can see the southern shore of the St Lawrence - the region around Trois Pistoles, that kind of area. Back in 2012, it was in my mind to come back that way as I had never really explored that particular neck of the woods. When I was out there in 2010 I caught the ferry from Matane to Godbout and retraced my steps down the north shore.

Looking carefully at the above photo, I noticed that there were three ships sailing, or rather dieseling, upstream along the St Lawrence in the general direction of Québec, Montreal and, for all I know, the Great Lakes.

In fact, when I had an even closer look at the image at a later date, there may even have been one or two more. Yes, with all of this shipping on the river, this is exactly why I'm here on the north shore of the St Lawrence.

One of the advantages of having a decent camera and a high-quality lens is that I can crop, enlarge and sharpen a section of an image and you won't notice the difference. I can therefore show you a nice little shot of one of the ships that looks as if it's steaming straight for the rocks just down below here.

I can't work out the name of the ship but it seems to be in the livery of the Canadian Shipping Lines, and we'll be meeting a few of their ships as we work our way along the river.

Meanwhile, looking to the left from our original viewpoint, we can see right into the bay and also the town of Baie St Paul at its head. I'll be down there in very early course, of course - well in fact about 11 months later to be precise, in September 2011.

One thing that I did regret was that when I passed this way in April 2012, I didn't think to stop and retake this photo. We've already seen on several occasions just how much better the view can be when there aren't any leaves on the trees and this would have been an excellent example.

Anyway, you'll see exactly what I mean by the magnificent view, and you'll also see exactly what I mean about the Charlevoix being one of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch and back to 2011, I wandered over to reception to look for the … err … usual offices, and to see whether there might be a coffee machine. I have to say that my timing was impeccable - just as I arrived on the threshold, the guy in charge was putting the key in the lock in the door.

And while I was waiting for him to sort himself out, a huge dog belonging to some campers here ran towards me full-tilt, barking and growling, with the owners in hot pursuit but something well off the pace. But dogs are totally stupid, and they are cowards as well. The answer in situations like this is to make oneself as big as possible by spreading the arms out and then running towards the dog barking and growling. It's really quite funny to watch this kind of dog come to a dead stop and then run off, heading for the hills.

Works every time.

I also had a couple of tragedies as well that morning. Firstly, there's no coffee machine here. Whatever are they thinking of in a place like this? And secondly, as I'm sorting out the stuff for brewing up, I notice that my little inverter has contrived to get itself damaged. That's serious. How am I going to charge up the laptop? I'll have to find a Canadian Tire outlet somewhere and buy a new one. They had some good deals on for stuff like that at the one at Cap de la Madeleine, and I wish now that I had bought a spare.

We can't leave here without Strawberry Moose having another photo opportunity. Being such a superstar, he needs to take advantage of every oportunity that exists.

But do you know what? Not a single person here would agree to appear in the same shot as His Nibs. Miserable badgers. We had all kinds of lame excuses, including a
"well the hunter might miss and get me instead", would you believe, but I think that its just shameful.

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