July 20 - L'Anse aux Clair to Red Bay, Labrador

We rode to the end of the paved road in Labrador; Red Bay, Labrador, 56 miles from the ferry terminal.

The scenery changes at the Labrador-Quebec line, interestingly enough.  The Labrador road took us through more trees and bushes on the rocky hills than in Quebec.  At first we thought the change was dramatic, and couldn't see why it would change so much.  However, we were going a little farther inland than we were in Quebec.  When we came closer to the coast we found the familiar rocky hills with black lichen on the rocks and tundra with no trees at all.

We wanted to go to Red Bay, not only because it was the end of the line, but to visit a national historical site about the first commercial enterprise in the New World by the Europeans.  This was a whaling station, operated by Basque whalers in the late 1500's to the mid-1600's.  On display were artifacts of that enterprise, showing how well organized they were, but also how harsh life was for them.  Other people we had met on our journey had told us it was well worthwhile, and it was.

A young man we met while taking our pictures of the "Welcome to Red Bay" sign and display gave us some idea of the climate in the winter.  He said the salt water bay at Red Bay freezes to about a three foot depth, and while snow on wind swept hills near the town reached only 2 to 3 ft., drifts could reach to the top of the power and telephone poles!  They heat with wood, which they gather in the winter with their snow mobiles.  (Everyone calls them Skidoos up here, no matter who the manufacturer is, and they "go Skidooing" in the winter.).  Its much easier to go over the snow to the trees for wood than to try to get to them off the one road.  Keeping the road open in the winter is a real job in itself.  This young man said that this last spring, a man with a snow plow and a front-loader had to clear a 3/4 mile section of road with snow 20 feet high, and it took him 2 months because it kept snowing almost faster than he could remove it!

On our way back from Red Bay, we stopped to see an historic lighthouse, the L'Amour Point Lighthouse.  it was down a dirt road, about 3-4 miles from the paved road.  We had heard at breakfast that this was where the Polar Bear (or Bears) was sighted yesterday, so we kept a sharp eye out for him/her.  Sure enough, the lady at the gift shop, and one of the young people acting as museum guides confirmed that the Polar Bear (they saw only one) was around the lighthouse for the last three days.  They said that yesterday the Polar Bear just sat at the Lighthouse.  (Norm and I guessed that he was just waiting, with his knife and fork, for some good fat tourists.  Anyway, if he was around today, he thought we were too skinny, and he didn't appear.)

Then it was back to the ferry terminal to see about out our ferry from Blanc Sablon to Rimouski, Quebec.  We found that while the ferry was on its way, it was about 4-5 hours late, and that would put it here at about 12 PM Quebec time, which would be 1:30 AM by the time we got up in Labrador, eight miles from the Quebec-Labrador line.  So, we are going to get a late start.  We do have a cabin on the ferry, so we can get some sleep after we get on.

This is the ferry which goes to small villages along the Quebec / Gulf of St. Lawrence shore.  As said in yesterdays commentary, we will be on this ferry for three days.  Then we will report on that journey.

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