Manicouagan (Manic) 5

Two dam tours in the same day!

We’d scheduled a tour of Manic 5 for 3pm, which gave us plenty of time to drive from the tour at Manic 2.

Manic 5 is the largest arched buttress dam in the world. I’ll fill in the details later when we have internet, but suffice it to say this is a large hunk of concrete. The tour was much the same as Manic 2, but with more stops. First we saw the building and machinery where power is generated. Unlike Manic 2, the water for Manic 5 is diverted from a spillway at the side of the dam and the generation station is below the dam to one side.

Next we went to the dam itself and saw the large central arch from below. This arch is overhung at an angle of 70 degrees, which feels daunting from below. Then we went inside, a series of small tunnels leading to the bedrock and a huge chamber inside one of the arches. Sorry, no photos allowed 🙁

We closed the tour on top of the dam, crossing it in our school bus and looking down on the valley and out at the large lake formed by the dam.

We’re camping here tonight in a parking lot near the road with about ten other campers. But that allowed us to walk back to the dam, which is illuminated at night and looks amazing above the fog from the river.Read more