Kayaking
François Guillor meets us as we arrive at Rivière Éternité. I'm the first one out of the minivan. I shake his hand, and, one by one, the members of the team follow my lead: producer Yanick Rose, cameraman Daniel Desrosiers, cyber-photographer François Bergeron, VIA representative Benoît Laporte and finally, emerging from an immense pile of baggage, Antoine and Laurence Laporte, who are no strangers to our commander in chief.
I see a hint of worry in our guide's eyes, no doubt because there are so many of us. Yanick explains that we are not only producing the usual web reports, we're also filming two different television series, in collaboration with our national train company. "Well," says François Guillot, "I'm gonna have to be very interesting!" No worry, he will be.
After the usual safety reminders, we put our multi-coloured kayaks in the fjord's waters. The technique is simple: You only have to row, row, row your boat, while looking at the amazing scenery and listening to your guide's comments. "The rocks all around us are part of the Great Canadian Shield, a very old rock formation dating back to the Precambrian era, about one billion years ago," explains François. "The movement of tectonic plates and three different ice ages that swept across the continent formed what is now known as the Shield."
A landscape that looks quite ordinary when observed from the mountaintops suddenly looms a lot larger when you're sitting on the water. From down here, it's plain to see why the Montagnais had named the fjord River of Death. The further we row our kayaks on the fjord's waters, the further back in time we seem to be going. A geologist, geographer, historian and storyteller wrapped into one, François shares with us his passion for the region's historical past. "The natives didn't trust the fjord because of the tides, which can be quite high, not to mention how difficult it is to reach the shore. Of course, they were probably trying to scare away the white man and protect their natural riches!" Starting from around 1600, the road to the Saguenay did indeed become an important fur-trading route. The natives would hunt and bring the skins to Tadoussac in their bark canoes; the white men would then take over, running the trading post.
Seated comfortably in our kayaks, we let the history of the region soak in, so much so that an advancing Egyptian cargo ship yanks us out of our reverie: "What's he doing here?" we think. As if all of a sudden, the fjord was ours, and we were the first settlers; as if beauty went hand in hand with secret. We see this cargo ship as an intruder in "our" waters. François gives us a saddened smile. "It's not like it used to be. Now, all sorts of boats pass through here." Later that evening, when we left the agitated waters of the fjord, we met with the Egyptian sailors in La Baie; they were busy trying to sell pieces of papyrus stamped with the image of Nefertiti and Tutankhamen.
For now, we are continuing along the rocky cliffs; although stable, our kayaks are more difficult to manoeuvre. "It's almost impossible to turn a kayak over," François says reassuringly. "That's what makes kayaking so accessible to all." We see another group of kayakers, among whom we spy a man in his 60s who seems to enjoy wooshing by all his teammates. "What I love most about kayaking," continues François, "is that it allows us to better understand the history and layout of the fjord. It's an interesting way to discover the region."
Other than the kayaking expedition, Québec Hors Circuit, François Guillot's adventure company, offers a variety of other outdoor activities in the Saguenay region. Canoeing, camping, mountain biking, trekking, off-trail cross-country skiing, snowmobiling are all ways to discover the different personalities of the fjord. "For me, the region represents one of the few remaining adventure territories," says François. "I couldn't see myself living anywhere else."
