Labrador

Oh such poor internet where we are, so I am just hopeing this works.

Our trip to Labrador was great, we met some wonderful people and saw much different countryside. The northern part of Newfoundland is quite brown and grey with rocks but Labrador was green, very green, even the rocks looked green.

We were up early as our ferry left at 8am and we wanted to be on time.

The sailing was very smooth and we saw one whale, once they opened those big front doors to the ferry we were off. We actually landed in Blanc Sablon Quebec, so we are travelling through provinces and time changes quite quickly.

The first thing that greeted us were the black flies and yes they were plentiful but not as bad as we had been warned. Up on top we could look back to where the ferry docked and the harbour of Blanc Sablon.

About 5 miles down the road we entered into Labrador and visited the tourist information in an old gothic church. Here they had a little wall sign with a statement from Jacques Cartier that said he was sure he had found the land that God had given to Cain. It is extremely rocky and I am not sure you could find a place to grow a garden.

Just before the little village of L'Anse Amour is this ancient burial ground, the archeologists think that this was the first civilization in these parts and this is the burial ground of a 12 year old girl from 8000 years ago.



This light house was my favorite part of the day, it had a tour through the way the Wyatt family lived and an escorted tour right to the top of the lighthouse which is attached to the house. I worried all the way up how I was going to get down but was determined I was going to do this. Once up on top we were very high up and standing right beside the fresnel lens, I do not think you would be doing this anywhere else.

Just as we were arriving a frighter was headed up the Straight.

Right beside the lighthouse was the foundation of the Marconi Station that was active for 65 years and two men were stationed there at all times.

Another shot of the lighthouse, after the tour we were invited next door for some Labrador tea, it was quite lovely but tasted a little like tree bark. They also had a resident groundhog which was the biggest I had every seen, I think they fed him well.

Five flights of stairs and two ladders, I sat on my bottom to get onto the ladders.

This young man turned out to be the grandson of Mary, they lady that we spent the night with.

From Pointe Amour we headed up to Red Bay to see the National Historic Site of the Basque sailors that came to harvest our whales. It was an amazing story of how they discovered the wreck of a ship just like the one above in their harbour and retrieved every piece so they could recreate the times.

Once here they hunted the "right" whale in these little boats called chalupas. The whales were called the right whales because they were the right ones to fish for, slow and once shot they did not sink but floated.

We talked for awhile with a couple local residences and inspite our feeling of desolation they are very content, they say they have all they need and would not want to leave.

As you can tell our day was cloudy but at least not raining.

After a very untasty chicken dinner we arrived at Barney's Bed and Breakfast and met Mary, she was a delight to talk to and she and here parents were born and raised here, she was one of 13 and had 8 children of her own. She has seen many changes, including the road that we now all complain about as it is so rough, they had to travel around by little boat.

That night Ron and I went for a walk, good time the black flies have gone to bed. We met the other two people staying at our bed and breakfast and they are a father and daughter headed to ride the Norther Ranger out of Goose Bay to Nain, we had really wanted to do this trip. We are going to get together with them in Nova Scotia, where the live, to look at their pictures.

The next morning we head west of the ferry into Quebec, it was so foggy that we could not see much and it looked like it would have been beautiful.

We were in line very early for the ferry, so I bought more cod, Ron really liked the last bunch.

It was still very foggy and the ferry looked spooky coming into port.

The little town of Blanc Sablon across the bay in the fog.

Our return trip was very uneventful, got a quick glimpse of a whale but the fog was thick, were back in time for turkey dinner at the restaurant next door. Tried to do the blog but with no success so Sharon and I played hairdresser and colored each others hair, had a great shower and did laundry, the facilities at this park are wonderful. Off to Cow Head this morning, have a great day everyone.