Labrador and Newfoundland June 20-28, 2018

June 20, 2018

We hooked up Honalee and drove from Quirpon, south along the east coast of the Northern Peninsula to Roddickton to tour the Moose Interpretive Center. It wasn’t very big and mostly dealt with the history of logging and forestry in the area, which was very interesting. 

We drove straight west to the coast and back north a few miles to St. Barbe. The “campground” isn’t really a campground. It’s a large fenced-in gravel parking lot with ONLY 30amp electric. No water and no sewer hookups. We filled our water tank a little on our way in so we have some water stored. There is a large building in the lot that has very clean washrooms/showers/WiFi/Kitchen etc. So they try to accommodate everyone. It’s mostly a place people park their RV’s while they take the ferry over to Labrador… just like we will do tomorrow.

After dropping off Honalee, we drove to Flowers Cove to see the Thrombolites. They are the earliest forms of life on Earth and can only be found here and in Australia.

It began to rain hard!! We ate across the street (at the only restaurant in town) and relaxed in Honalee. We read mostly… no TV and no WiFi.

June 21, 2018

We got up at 5:00am and found that it was still raining! We ate across the street again. Then we caught the 8:00AM ferry to Labrador. This ferry is not as big as the one we took from Cape Britten Island to Newfoundland but still pretty big! Several semi trucks and large road maintenance trucks along with other vehicles and walk-on passengers. It was a smooth ride with little wind and lots of sea birds (we think they were Murre) but no whales.

Elmo is excited to arrive in Labrador!

And we arrived in Blanc-Salon, Quebec. It’s the northern tip of Quebec and just 1/4 mile from Labrador. We stopped at the Visitors/Welcome Center but it was closed…. Strange. And so we began driving north on the only road, #510.

Initially the terrain is similar to Newfoundland in that it’s very rocky. We stopped at the Point Amour Lighthouse. It is the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada and the second tallest in all of Canada at 109 feet. The walls are 6 inches thick. There were also the remains of a shipwreck on the beach. Still really cold but we walked around a little.

But soon we were in mountainous terrain with huge evergreen trees and roaring rivers and beautiful lakes. We stopped in L’Anse Amour Labrador to tour a museum about women’s role in the history of Labrador, but it was closed. BUT…. The city manager was there and she let us in anyway. She said they are in the process (PRO-cess) of setting it up and getting it going in this new location. A man was there with her and he began telling us the history of women, the history of the area and a lot about fishing in Labrador. Turns out he’s Head of Tourism for all of Labrador!! Great guy named Randy. What luck that we would stumble upon him! A wealth of information!!

Further north we drove over a pretty large bridge (the surface of the bridge was wooden). The Pinware River ran under it. WOW! The river is huge! Roaring and amazing! The Salmon run the river in July and it’s a heavily fished area then! It was thunderous. It reminds me of the Pacific Northwest and some areas of Coloroado.

Looking south on an overcast day.

Looking north.

Looking south on a beautiful clear day.

Further north we arrived in Red Bay (about 50 miles from the ferry), our overnight destination! Beautiful little fishing village tucked into a cove/bay area. Our lodging for the night was perfect. It’s a large room with windows all around so you can see the beautiful bay. It has a kitchenette, TV and bathroom. It's called The Loft.

Elmo loves the view of the harbour out the window.

We ate lunch at the Whaler’s Station also owned by the same family. While eating lunch we ran into a man and his wife from the ferry! They are from Vancouver and super friendly. They are only staying one night also.

Whaler's Station (left), The Interpretative Center (right), The Loft (behind the Interpretative Center on the water)
in Red Bay Labrador.

Then we saw Randy, the guy who runs tourism for Labrador! He stopped by and we talked some more.

What we noticed right away was that there was a huge iceberg out in the ocean!! HUGE! Then we toured the Visitors Centre and Interpretation Centre.

We asked around and ended up meeting up with a boat captain named Therman. He said he would take us out to see the iceberg in late afternoon. He’s a pretty busy guy! He also takes passengers out to Saddle Island every hour and has two people to pick up, then he has to take all 6 school children home from school, because he’s also the school bus driver.

Therman wears very little clothing. He only wears coveralls with his business information on the back. No shirt underneath and no coat. He said he just never gets cold!

Can you see that iceberg in the distance (past the ship wreck)? This was taken from our B&B.

Our captain! No coat, not shirt, just coveralls.

The fog began to come in.

I love the icebergs that have the dark blue lines in them.
Super old and compressed water (less air so it makes a darker color).

 We were out on the boat viewing the iceberg. We were talking one minute and the next…. Straight out of a horror movie, our Captain opened the cabin door and pulled out a huge AX. My “big city” and “too much TV watching” kicked in and I thought to myself, “Oh shit! What’s he going to do with that Ax?” He leaned over the boat and began swinging that ax with all his might, into the water. What was he doing??? Well apparently, he had pulled up along side a small iceberg that I couldn’t see and he was chopping it up. Then he got out a large net and began pulling in huge chunks of the ice and dumping them into the boat.

Purest water on earth!

He was laughing and told us a friend wanted him to bring her some iceberg ice. I explained to him that I was a bit taken-back when he pulled out a huge ax. When he realized that I was a little afraid of what he was up to… he was so apologetic. He admitted he should have explained what he was doing. He commented that "those things don’t happen up here" and he forgot that it might appear frightening to others. We laughed about it and it makes for a great story! Plus, we got a huge chunk of the ice! 

Ate dinner at the same place we had lunch, Whaler’s Station! It’s the only game in town! Great food and great music and great Labrador beer. Wonderful evening.

June 22, 2018

We woke to a beautiful sunny day in Red Bay Labrador! The view out our windows were amazing!

We ate breakfast at the Whaler’s Station again. The owners and people working here are very nice and accommodating. Tom bought a t-shirt!

First we drove north, deeper into Labrador, just to see what the road was like. Our maps say it is an un-maintained road but it's a NEW road and was great. We did not see any other vehicles but we do know that it connects to Happy Valley-Goose Bay which is 8 hours away, with NOTHING in between.

Since it is the 2nd day of SUMMER, Elmo decided he wanted to play in the snow!!

Elmo making a snow angel.

Elmo made a Snowman!

We drove into Quebec and further south. Everything is in French in Quebec. All the little communities are clean and well kept. The road doesn’t go very far south but it's beautiful country!

We played on the ocean for awhile! Icebergs and waves.

Actually, I made this one!

Small iceberg close to shore.

And they promote safe bike and car driving! Share the road!

Fast running river/waterfall under ice field.

We took the 8:00 pm Ferry back to Newfoundland… The waves got very high (8-10 feet high). We did not see any whales. But finally we have consistent WiFi!!

Tired and went right to bed.

June 23, 2018

We woke to some wind but decided to go ahead and head south, back to Port Au Choix. This is the same Oceanside RV campground that we stayed in before. It’s RIGHT on the ocean with huge waves coming in and a very blustery 25 mph wind. We again froze because of this stiff wind, while we set up utilities. We were the only ones there.

We drove to Hawkes Bay to go through the Salmon Interpretive Center there. As our luck continues, it was closed because it’s Saturday. We walked around outside anyway and saw huge river raging. They built a salmon ladder for them to climb in order to get to the top of the waterfall. Apparently, several salmon try to jump up but can’t make it because it’s too high. This Salmon ladder has allowed them to continue upstream where they can spawn and increase the salmon population.

Beautiful walkway.

We went grocery shopping and when we returned to the ocean campground to find 2 more campers. I began making some cookies and watching the waves roll in as I made cookies, and Tom was messing with the Satellite reception. It was beautiful and so relaxing. Then, another camper came in. He decided to park right beside us, between us and another camper … totally blocking our view and packing us in like sardines. Why? When the campground is empty and there are over 25 more sites to pick from, all with the same view? What a JERK! Even in Newfoundland there are inconsiderate jerks….

The manager of the campground came around 9:00 to collect money from everyone who hasn’t paid. His name is Todd and we invited him in. He talked and talked. Apparently, the Capelin are coming in here too. With the wind so high, it’s a perfect time for them to “roll”. This means they literally, by the thousands, roll in with the waves. This food source is what the whales are following.

Todd also talked about local music going on this evening and tomorrow in Port au Choix. Tonight, is a band at his aunt’s hotel/restaurant. Tomorrow night is a variety of local talent. We might stay another night and go tomorrow night to hear local talent.

After Todd left we bundled up and went out into the freezing wind which Todd said was blowing at 50 mph. As I was standing near the water, a huge wave came in and drench me. I wasn’t expecting it to come up so far! What fun (and cold)! Then Tom came down to where I was and as we stood there, another wave came in much harder than expected … and we got soaked. We tried to Facetime Sasha but she didn’t answer. We got ahold of Karis! I’m sure she thinks we are crazy! We couldn’t really talk because of the noise of the waves and wind. No Capelin so we went in to dry off.

June 24, 2018

Today it rained a lot! We decided to stay another night. We didn’t do much all day. The rain stopped and the sun came out and what a beautiful evening in Port au Choix.

Port au Choix

Oceanside RV Campground. We loved this site!

Then, we decided to go to the local restaurant where they have local talent perform every Sunday night. It was so interesting! These people know everyone in town. There are only about a hundred total so they have to learn to live together and to get along with each other. It was such a happy group of people! They genuinely like each other. They all dance with each other and laughed and had a such a great time. Old, Young, Thin, Large, etc. What a happy group of people.

June 25, 2018

Beautiful morning! We packed up and drove to past Rocky Harbour and on to Deer Lake. We set up at Gateway to the North RV Park. We drove into town and picked u a few groceries. We plan to travel to Grand Falls-Windsor tomorrow.

June 26, 2018

We’re in Deer Lake and we woke up to rain!! Rain!! I checked the weather in Grand Falls-Windsor and it’s snowing all day with “ice pellets”!! Wonderful. Guess we’ll stay put and read and watch movies all day!

The couple that we met on the ferry coming over, almost 4 weeks ago, are our new neighbors here! Margaret and Barry drove through ice pellets, snow and slush to get here…Wow! We have been texting and emailing with them so we knew they were on their way. They have been in Newfoundland for one month and have three more months to travel New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island etc. before they travel back home to British Columbia. We went out to eat dinner with them and had a great time. 

Barry and Margaret

June 27, 2018

Beautiful day! We drove a little over 2 hours today to Grand Falls-Windsor. It snowed in Windsor yesterday and today it was 70!! The campground is Sanger Memorial RV Park on the Exploits River.  It’s a very nice campground with lots of trees and the sites are large and mostly private and full hookups!

Tom and I are having fun identifying trees.
They have Aspen and Birch here that often look similar.

This is a Cherry tree.

Remember A&W's?? I love their root beers. The ones in Canada are NOT the same as the ones in the USA.
They are the very health conscience and only serve beef that is hormone and antibiotic free.

We set up camp and went into town. We bought some groceries and went to Walmart for tech supplies. I made a yummy pizza for dinner!

June 28th

Another beautiful day! It reached 86 degrees today!! The warmest we have had in almost a year of travel!

We went to the Salmon Interpretive Center… not very impressive. The signage poor and did not explain what was going on. The information from person at the center was was hard to understand. She skipped around and changed topics and it was terrible. It was fun to walk around and on the lower level, we could see salmon climbing the "ladders". They are very small salmon..?

DEEP THOUGHTS: (taken from an old Saturday Night Life Skit): You know how when you plan a 1 week vacation, and then you are on the vacation and busy doing all that you came to do, and then after 1 week you have mixed feelings. You are tired from doing all the fun things you came to do and your thoughts drift to returning home to rest up a bit. But also you wonder what it would be like to live in this vacation-land a little longer and not have to go back and go to work and return to your routine, predictable life. Well, I have been having those thoughts. (Although I know I am retired, I still feel like I have to go back to work at some point.) We were doing really well while we were in the States. We knew how to comfortably move from site to site and how long to stay so we could relax. But in Newfoundland, we know we are only here for 3+ months and there is SO MUCH to see and do that we are going all the time. We have not found a comfortable mix of “vacation” and “relax” time. We have not had much down-time. So, I’m feeling like we are on vacation here. So, to help us out, our next two campgrounds will be long stays! We’ll be in Twillingate and Eastport for over a week each. That should help a bunch! I plan to sew a little and paint some. Tom plans to book a full day fishing trip.

I have to share some beautiful "Mommy and Me" photos of Sasha and Parker!