In 2012 I didn't stay on Highway 362 for too long because there was another scenic turn-off that had caught my eye when I drove past here in 2011. This was signposted for the Cap aux Oies - Goose Cape.

Many many years ago, I saw an old travel guide somewhere that told me that
"on peut, durant de longues heures, marcher et méditer en toute tranquillité au bord de l'eau"
which, translated roughly by Yours Truly, means that "one can walk and meditate for hours and hours along the water's edge in perfect peace and quiet"

Anyone who has worked in the travel business for as long as I have or is as cynical as I am will know that that is simply travel agency-speak for
"this place is so boring that no-one ever comes and bugger-all ever happens here".

With an introduction like that, Cap aux Oies has to be well-worth a visit.

The first thing that I noticed was the speed limit sign - 50 kph maximum - and didn't that make me smile? I mean, who would want to go any faster than that down here? They might miss something formidable.

Mind you, judging by the state of the road that you can see in the photograph, I don't suppose that you would want to be driving much faster than that anyway.

A little further on along the road I come to yet another shuddering halt, for I can now see the Cap aux Oies just down there. This would be quite a spectacular view if the sun were out, but then again, if this were summer there would be leaves on the trees and so you wouldn't have the view. You can't have it both ways.

If you look slightly to the left of centre you will see the road that I have to follow. I'm still not anything like near the base of the mountains just yet.

That's the road down which I have just driven, - 2kms of road like that. I told you that it would be exciting.

The road off to the right wasn't all that exciting, I seem to recall. At least I didn't make any notes about it. However, I did happen to notice a sign down here that said "to the beach". It's not quite as exciting as Virginia Woolf and her "to the lighthouse", but then again, who's afraid of Virginia Woolf?

Well, they were right. It is a beach, and something of a pretty little beach it would be too if somehow I could manage to entice the sun out of its shelter behind the clouds. It was well-worth the little deviation and I'm glad that I came here.

However, my attention isn't just focused on the beach. We have once again encountered our famous railway line, Le Massif de Charlevoix, that runs from Quebec along the Charlevoix coast to Clermont.

It's not just the railway line that has caught my attention either. We are also at the site of what appears to be a disused railway siding, and knowing very little about the line, I could quite easily speculate that if you were going to build a railway station at Cap aux Oies, then here would be a place as good as anywhere else.

Mind you, let's return our attention to the main line, such as it is, for a moment. It seems to me that something rather big and heavy has come off the rails here and churned up the sleepers for a considerable distance.

And not only that - some of the other sleepers are in a dreadful state. Not quite as bad as those on the Viaduc des Fades near where I live and if you want my opinion, all of these should have been pulled up and replaced a long time ago. No wonder the (big, heavy) trains merely creep along here. But then, what do I know?

Having said all that, however, you've just come with me down this incredibly steep slope to the village here. You were also with me when we encountered that steep slope down to St Joseph de la Rive , and also the steep slope down to Petite Riviere St François . You can see how difficult it must have been to go anywhere by land around here before the modern era of road-building. The only real connection with anywhere would have been by the river and that would only have been intermittent, with a real risk of drowning as as we have seen elsewhere .

The arrival of Forget's railway to communities such as these must have seemed like a Godsend, and we'll be talking much more about the enigmatic Sir Joseph David Rodolphe Forget and his railway in just a few minutes

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