We’ve reached the Manicouagan Reservoir! We also literally threw ourselves into the void (though tethered) before heading north on a long, straight road towards the Eye of Quebec.
Cancer card
I’m writing to you from Uapishka Station. We’ve finally reached the Manicouagan Reservoir, our base camp, our starting point, but getting there hasn’t been easy. It’s sometimes said that life is everything that happens in between the big, memorable moments. All the little moments you experience and then forget just as quickly. That’s why we record some of them in our group expedition logbook (Aurélie carries it, but everyone writes in it). At breakfast, for example, we exchange jokes and anecdotes like ‘the day my dog ate my chemo pill’. Then the conversation turns to best way to play the ‘cancer card’, i.e., how to open a few doors by subtly pointing out that you’re a teenager with cancer. There’s also a discussion about the failings of the medical system when it comes to announcing a cancer diagnosis.
Up in the air
Like yesterday, we were disappointed to find out that the road to the expedition was still closed. But since we gave away the punchline at the beginning of this article, you know that it was eventually reopened. What you don’t know is where we were when we got the good news: literally suspended in mid-air, either hurtling down a zipline or crossing a suspension bridge. To help us pass the time, our Aventure Nordique guides, Fred and Coralie, opened the doors of their aerial playground above Baie Saint-Pancrace. The view of the river, speeding past you as you slide down a hundred metre cable, then back over a suspension bridge over a frozen waterfall, is breathtaking. Special mention goes to Vincent, who faced his fear of heights twice.
And in the special moments’ column, we’ll never forget a morning meditation by the river, a lunch on a cliff (chicken sandwiches, if you’re wondering), laughs galore, a few hundred kilometres on the yellow bus, and even a sunset over the impressive Manic 5 dam.
Finally, as night fell, we reached Uapishka Station, whose name means ‘the mountain where the snow never melts’ in the Innu language. This will be our last night in a real bed before we pitch our tents on the frozen reservoir tomorrow. We’re gradually leaving the comforts of the city behind and rediscovering ourselves. Do you want to know our new motto, sung at the top of our lungs on the yellow bus? ‘À nous les Monts Groulx!’ (The Monts Groulx are ours!).
Valérian Mazataud, volunteer photographer-blogger for the Sur la pointe des pieds Foundation
Translated by Lorraine Gagnon
In pictures
