Sebka Park “Battures”

Finding the name of this place over a year after I visited it was simple because past-me helped out future-me by taking a picture of the sign.

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Le blah blah blah.

The complexity was in finding the park’s specific location on google maps, which took an embarrassingly long time. I had clicked my way through heavily zoomed-in portions of highways #30 and #132 and come up with nothing but a simmering rage. Hours later I realized my error was in looking too close to the village of La Pocatiere because I found the site on highway #132 just a couple kilometers southwest from the village of St. Andre de Kamourska, aka. St. Andre.

SebkaParkingLot.JPG
Found you, you bastard!

I have a pretty poor grasp of French but by looking at the words on that sign now and furrowing my brow (“C’mon hamster! Run around that wheel!”) I believe it said something about how the lot was part of Sebka Park which operates a campground 1km west…and possibly that only park visitors can use the site…or that you have to check in…or pay a fee…or something? Je ne comprends pas! So to the operators of Sebka Park: Sorry I didn’t realize I was supposed to check in…I think.

But it was simply too beautiful not to stop.

Sebka6
Damn you for being so good looking!

It was a bright day and very windy, but the kind of wind that’s fun and exciting and not the kind where little girls from Kansas disappear into a world of technicolour. The point is, it was pretty, and I have fond memories of it. And we had arrived just a few months shy of The Great Montreal Sewage Dump of 2015 so the air was still fresh and clean!

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*Enjoys a vigorous inhalation*

“The Sebka” is part of a park network of 12 kilometers of trails, scenic viewpoints, and the prime environments for camping, biking, cycling, rock climbing and kayaking (I should mention the water is back to normal now). E and I didn’t have time to pursue any of those activities at all but I enjoyed feeling ultra Canadian as I looked at the famous St. Lawrence River. By the way, “battures” means sandbanks, referring to the salty marshland at the river’s edge. Even with the sound of the wind the overall feeling was quiet and peaceful, and it was lots of fun driving through dozens of little towns named Saint this or Saint that. I would love the chance to come back, re-photograph it with my good camera, and spend some quality time here again.

Sebka Park website
Information from the Province of Quebec (scroll down when you open the link, their website is ancient).

Note: Since this is not technically a rest stop, there are no washrooms available.