Author Archives: Jill and Bud

We started today with a walk at Pinware River Provincial Park. Though sunny here, the park was still totally socked in with fog. I didn’t even try to take pictures.

We then tried to take the old section of Route 510 along the Pinware River. No fog here, but not long after we negotiated this patch of rough road we came to a place where there was a trench through the road. Bud managed a five point turn between the bank and the guardrails at a wide space after backing down from the trench.

We wanted to tour a lighthouse, but the coast was still foggy.

The straights looked like a river of fog.

So we went home for lunch and left Matey in the trailer because he couldn’t go into the lighthouse.

Coming back an hour and a half later the fog was gone. We were headed for the Point Amour Lighthouse, which you can see across the bay.

This lighthouse is 109 feet tall, making it the tallest building on the Labrador Straights, the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada and the second tallest lighthouse in Canada.

Though still in use, it is now a Provincial Historic Site and for a small fee you can tour the building and climb the tower.

This tower has seen 200 mph winds, but the walls are six feet thick.

I appreciated the humor which did distract from the 132 step climb!

It’s now fully automated. The bulb shines for 16 seconds, is off for four seconds and then repeats. The interval identifies it as this lighthouse. You can see four bulbs there, only the top one shines through the fresnel lens. The other three are spares. If the bulb blows a switch activates a little motor which turns the next bulb into place. The young docent said each bulb lasts about a year and once every few years the coast guard comes and replaces the burnt out bulbs.

Of course the view from the top was spectacular.

The docent said folks had seen whales earlier that day, but we saw none.

We did get a good look all around.

We left the building and walked further down the shore. I looked back to see a tour bus backing in. I was glad we’d finished our tour. While Bud was using the restroom and I was hanging on to the binoculars for him I looked to sea and saw fins. It was orca whales. There were at least seven of them. I watched hoping Bud would come out. Then I put down the binoculars to try to get a picture. They disappeared. Bud came out and they never came back. After some time spent searching for them we left.

We wanted to stop at this site on the way back out. This is a gravesite and funerary monument made 7,700 years ago. It is the oldest known funerary monument in North America.

It is now commemorated with this sign.

Just before we got to that site as we drove along the cove still looking for orcas we saw this fin. This was no orca.

It was a humpback whale! We pulled over and watched it for quite a while.

I was able to catch a picture of a blow. That’s not easy because that’s the first thing you see as the whale surfaces.

And finally, as it was swimming away, I got a picture of the tail.

So it was a very fine day.

We started our day’s exploration of Red Bay on another well made trail. This is the start of two trails.

We opted not to do the 680 plus stairs on Tracy Hill. Not only would that be too much for Matey (not us mind you) but it was still quite misty so the rewarding view would not be there.

Instead we took the more level route to Boney Shore.

After reading descriptions and this warning sign…

I was expecting more recognizable whale bones than these.

I later learned that it is mostly the large bones behind the head that remain.

Since these bones have been here since they were discarded by Basque whalers about four hundred years ago it’s amazing they are still visible at all.

It would have been a nice walk even without the bones.

The larches and the mist added a bit of magic to an already enjoyable trail.

Our next stop was the Whale Exhibit in its brand new home.

Here we did find more recognizable whale bones and learned a lot more history. This is almost a full skeleton of a Bowhead whale. It was in the shallows in the harbor at Red Bay. The woman at the exhibit explained that the ribs were missing because locals would use them for making sled runners.

Bowheads are named for the shape of their huge heads, the bony protrusion is used to pound air holes through the ice in the Arctic Sea where they live. They were one of two species hunted by the Basques who journeyed here each year from about 1520 to the end of the 16th century to harvest the whale oil.

The other species was the Right Whale, so named because they were the right ones to hunt. Both species swim slowly near the surface. They are krill eaters so not at all aggressive. They have large amounts of blubber to be rendered into oil and their baleen, used to filter out the krill, was the source of “whale bone” for corset stays, collars stays, hoops for skirts, even buggy whips. Whale oil was preferred for lamps because it burned clean and bright and a barrel of whale oil was worth a lot of money. Each whale of these species would yield about 40 to 50 barrels of oil. And, when killed, these whales float making them easy to harvest.

Consequently they have been hunted nearly to extinction. Although there was still whale hunting when the Basque stopped coming, they were getting harder to find and that probably contributed to the end of the Basque whaling in Labrador.

Today there are only about 10,000 Bowhead whales and just 366 Right Whales left in the world.

The new home of the whale exhibit is the refurbished fish factory, here in a photo I took from across the bay. The Canadian government funded the remodeling and the building now houses the whale exhibit and a boat tour company. When the woman at the exhibit was young every man fished for cod and every woman worked in processing the catch. But the cod, like the whales, are almost gone. A two year moratorium on cod fishing was imposed in 1992, but the cod numbers still haven’t recovered so it is still in effect. The woman at the museum said there was only one man still fishing now.

Our museum guide also told us about the red “rocks” you see in the pile in this photo. As a kid they would find these soft rocks and use them like chalk to write on other rocks. Then in 1977 Selma Huxley Barkham came to town. She was a widow with four children. Her husband had introduced her to the Basque people he had met as a student. He died at just 34, but Selma continued his interest. Hearing about a connection to early Canadian whaling, she went, children in tow, to Mexico to learn Spanish, then to Spain to research old documents and finally, following the information she unearthed and fit together, to the south Labrador coast. When Selma Huxley Barkham saw those red rocks she recognized them as roof tiles, brought by the Basque as ballast in their ships and used to construct the roofs for the whaling works they built on these shores. After that, the children of Red Bay would bring their rocks to Selma. Our museum guide (I wish I knew her name) said there was always a kid or two trailing after Selma handing her pieces of red roof tiles.

I could have stayed a lot longer talking with her but we still wanted to go to the official historic site.

There we learned that the next guided tour was at two and we confirmed that Matey could go, too. So we decided to eat at the restaurant across the parking lot, The Whaler’s Restaurant, of course. And that’s whale bone on the far wall.

I had a nice view up the street while we ate our fresh cod (there is still very limited inshore fishing allowed).

Then we joined a group of people for a short ride in a park service boat out to Saddle Island.

There our guide led us along a boardwalk as he regaled us with tales of the Basque whalers of the 1500’s and the people of Red Bay now.

He pointed out the locations of shipwrecks…

from which underwater archaeologists recovered the artifacts seen in the park information center.

He told us how the archeologists left the excavated roof tiles sitting in heaps and how he too, as a kid, treated them like ordinary stones, skipping them out across the water.

He told us about the cooperages where the barrels, made in Basque and disassembled for shipping, were carefully reassembled by the coopers here.

He showed us the impressions of the places near the shoreline where the whale blubber was rendered into oil, here reconstructed at the information center.

And he told us that his town, Red Bay, now has just 140 people, far fewer than the number of whalers that visited each summer.

I came away with a whole lot of information and a concern for people who love their place but face an uncertain future in keeping it viable. And like the whalers, who only got a share of the profits from a voyage while the sponsors who stayed home got the most, the folks in Red Bay never got the millions made by the factory ships overfishing the cod, but they are bearing the consequences.

Labrador basically has one highway, the Trans-Labrador Highway. Down here, on the southern end it’s route 510. When you get as far north as Happy Valley – Goose Bay and turn west it’s route 500. This country here is all rock and bog and every mile of this highway is built up, like a causeway.

Every time there’s a highway sign they build a little causeway out to it. Bud figured it must take a full dump truck load of gravel for every sign. No wonder there’s only one road.

Along the southern shore, where we are, there are a series of little towns for about 35 miles, to Red Bay. Then there’s nothing for a long time and then you come to Mary’s Harbour. I thought we would probably only go as far as Red Bay, but Bud was up for a longer drive.

We’ll be exploring the closer towns in the next days but today we left Red bay behind and drove fifty miles without seeing a single house. There were two Quonset garages and about in the center of the stretch was a highway maintenance depot. That’s it. We saw 12 cars in that 50 miles.

They call this The Big Land, and you can see why.

Since we were going the hundred miles to Mary’s Harbour I suggested we go another 30 to St. Lewis. This town is the furthest east you can drive in North America without taking the ferry to the island of Newfoundland. We made the turn to St, Lewis and found we had twenty miles to go on a gravel road. Fortunately it was the best gravel road Bud has ever driven on. He was doing 50 mph and the drive was smooth.

On the way out we met the guy on the road grader who is probably responsible for that.

I was excited to see that this route was named Iceberg Alley.

We made it to the end of the road. Not only is this as far east as you could drive, it’s as far north as we’ve ever driven. We were at 54.4 degrees north.

There’s not much to St. Lewis. We found snacks at Brenda’s Cash and Carry, which sells “a little bit of everything”.

We took them out to Fisherman’s Point…

where in true Newfoundland and Labrador style we found a walking path to a lookout,

a gazebo,

a picnic table and a couple of benches. All provided by the St. Lewis Heritage Society.

And off across the bay…

five ice bergs,

two of which were really huge, though distant,

provided by Mother Nature. Iceberg Alley indeed!

Was it worth the 260 mile round trip? Considering the views along the way, we thought so.

After all the driving yesterday, and anticipating more driving in the days to come, we decided to spend the day close to home.

We drove less than a mile to this nicely done parking lot for the Jersey Shore section of the Pioneer Footpath. Again I am impressed, now on the Labrador side of this province, by how well these trails are done and how welcome they make you feel. I took this picture as we were returning from our walk. It’s a beautiful Sunday, the first weekend of summer (albeit only in the upper 50’s here today) and we are the only vehicle in the lot. We did meet three locals on the trail, but we pretty much had it to ourselves.

The Labrador Pioneer Footpath leads from the border with Quebec, through several small towns to Pinware Provincial Park. That’s 30 miles by road, not sure just how long the trail is. We were on the first segment of it yesterday to look for the iceberg. Today we walked a bit of it closer to the water’s edge.

The trail follows the footpaths used between communities before the road was built. The footpaths often followed the telegraph lines, and the section we walked had remnants of the old posts, propped up with stone cairns because the only “soil” here is peat and that won‘t support a pole.

This is called the Jersey Shore because it was used as a summer stopping place by whalers from the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands off the north coast of France. One young seaman, James Dumaresq, settled here in 1810, the first permanent settlement in the area. The place became known as L’anse au Cotard. There were only ever three buildings here and the highest census was 17 people, all of his family. This is the foundation of the main house. The settlement was abandoned after a fire but his descendants still live in L’anse-au-Clair.

They may have chosen this spot as there is a little brook that flows down here.

It’s also sheltered from the wind by the steep bank behind it.

Now it provides a destination for this lovely trail, which in typical Newfoundland and Labrador fashion is nicely done. This stop had a bench, information, a picnic table, a viewing scope and a trash receptacle.

Nearby was this little stone room on the edge of the water that was used as a blind for hunting seagulls. Yes, seagulls. Evidently they tried for the young, gray ones, which were more tender.

It was a lovely walk.

The landscape was striking.

That’s me, giving scale to the stone outcrop.

I got the wearing of the bug jacket down, but it was windy so no bugs and for most of the walk my hood was off.

We were hoping to see whales or seals, but only saw ducks and “our” iceberg. We’re pretty sure one end broke off, there were a lot of small ice chunks in the water near it.

Still, it was a nice walk and I added another new plant. Those pink flowers are on a foot high bush. It looked like miniature azaleas. It’s bog laurel, Kalmia polifolia, and is in the same family as azaleas. This place is a botanist’s dream!

Yesterday we took the MV Qajaq W from St. Barbe to Blanc Sablon, Quebec. Here she is approaching the dock at St. Barbe.

As she comes to the dock the top of the bow lifts up…

and her ramp drops down. Only the ramp at the dock didn’t cooperate, so the ferry had to back a bit, raise her ramp, drop her bow and do the whole thing again at another spot on the landing. This had no ramp on the shore side, but the junction was okay and all the vehicles made it off and on without incident.

Bud and I spent nearly the whole trip outside near the bow looking for whales and icebergs. We spotted what we thought were two bergs near the far shore. Sure enough, as we got close I was able to catch this photo of the closer iceberg.

Same iceberg, different angle.

And this is it after we’d passed. We also saw three whales blowing, which a nice man from the Netherlands explained had to be humpbacks, because they are the only ones that blow. No pictures as it was just spouts of water and too far to photo. Bud saw their backs, twice, but I missed that.

We landed at Blanc Sablon, which is in Quebec but only a couple of miles from the Newfoundland and Labrador border.

There were no problems docking on this end.

Soon we were driving up out of Blanc Sablon…

and there was the iceberg.

I got a pretty good shot as we drove by.

We then drove down into L’Anse-au-Clair…

where we had reservations at the Northern Light Inn Campground.

Of course the campground was across the street and not so picturesque. Also it was swarming with bugs. There are gnats, black flies and the elongated tiny bugs that love to bite me. Bud swallowed a bug as we hustled to get set up. I had a conversation with a camper from Ontario this morning and she said they wore bug jackets. Before starting our day’s exploring we went over to the Home Hardware conveniently located across the street next to the Inn to see what they had.

We got two bug jackets, which are mostly net.

Bud suggested I take our selfie by the Welcome to Newfoundland Labrador sign, but I didn’t do too good a job.

I then discovered that the net hood is supposed to be pulled down on your head. I think it’s made to fit over a cap and next time I’ll try that. Whatever the fashion statement, it was wonderful to walk around with no fear of bugs.

Happily bug free we set off down the lovely walking path to try to find “our” iceberg.

This was another nicely made path. Here it’s cut through the peat.

It was carefully constructed through this incredible landscape.

I’m looking forward to exploring more of this gorgeous trail…

but today we were looking for our iceberg. And there it was.

We picked our way along off the path along the edge of the boulders for a better look.

We weren’t the only ones coming for a closer look, that boat was much closer.

If they were taking pictures they are much more dramatic than mine!

On the ferry we’d seen another iceberg further southwest. I was advised that the drive into Quebec along the coast was beautiful, so we went looking for the other iceberg.

We found it.

We stopped at a point of land at Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon to get this image.

After a brief rest stop we continued along the coast. Note that the port-a-potty is strapped down, I assume because of the wind.

This is the Rivière Brador Oest, which tumbles down these falls…

as it flows into the Baie de Brador.

Further along we spotted a third iceberg.

This was probably the largest of the three, but we couldn’t get very close.

We kept on and even tried a little off-roading, but the track was incredibly rough and this is no place to damage your vehicle.

We found that if we unzipped and pulled down the hoods we could comfortably wear our bug jackets, making it easier to get out and take photos.

And there were places I wanted to get out and photograph. This is Baie des Esquimaux, where the Rivière-Saint-Paul empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The little village is located at the head of the bay.

This is looking out to the gulf.

Not far past Rivière-Saint-Paul you come down into Vieux-Fort,

where the road just ends. No signs, no visitors center, not even a store. The road just ends.

So I took a couple of photos…

and we turned around and drove back.

Besides seeing three icebergs, this coast was worth the drive.

We’re spending a week based here and I’m looking forward to seeing the Labrador part of the coast. I’ll keep you posted.

We are headed up the west coast of Newfoundland towards our next stop in Labrador. Last year we stopped at the National Historical Site here. There are traces of ancient Dorset people here, and we saw a caribou. So I thought we should stay here on our way up to the ferry.

I reserved a site at the Sea Shore RV Park, which turns out to be some RV hook-ups in the back lot of the Sea Echo Motel.

We have water and electric, we’re the only RV here and we’re right across the road with an open view to Gargamelle Cove, so it’s fine with us.

Matey and I walked out and explored when we got here. It’s a picturesque little port. Port au Choix (Port a Schwaa) is a corruption of Gaelic for little port, but is now usually taken to mean Port of Choice, from the French. It fits both names.

There’s an active fishing fleet and a fish processing plant.

Like everywhere in Newfoundland, if there’s a nice view a place is provided for viewing. This is right along the main street at the harbor.

And if there’s a notable bit of history, a display is made for anyone interested. I have found these things in every community we have visited and they make me feel like I’m being welcomed everywhere.

This morning we went to walk the Philip’s Garden Trail along the coast at the National Historic Site in hopes of seeing caribou. I got out of the truck, looked to the side and there was a caribou!

I was hoping I could get Bud’s attention before he went away. I needn’t have worried, he came right towards us. We got back in the truck with Matey and watched him come up.

He walked right behind us and over to some buildings.

After we started up the trail we looked back and he had gone into the water and he swam across the little cove to the opposite shore.

The trail itself was beautiful.

This is a wind-swept coast so the forest near the sea is all in miniature.

The rocks, too, were fascinating.

We didn’t get far before Matey showed signs of tiring so we headed back. We decided to do some touring by car.

First we drove out to the end of Point Riche, which is part of the National Historic Site. The wind was howling and these waves were big. We saw some breakers out in the water that were well over six feet.

We decided to drive north of town to look for more caribou, and when we turned around to drive back out we spotted this group of caribou cows.

There were at least two calves, but it was hard to see them as they were lying in the grass.

We did take the road north out of town. That turned out to be rough gravel through very pretty country.

We went by an area that had a lot of yellow flowers. When we got close I saw they were orchids! There must have been over a hundred of these yellow lady’s slippers there.

There are only about 550,000 people in all of Newfoundland and Labrador so it’s easy to get to a place where you can’t see or hear anyone. I’ve also noticed that there are very few aircraft. All you hear are wind and waves.

We came to a boggy area with another miniature forest. This one had larches, as well as spruce.

Later in the afternoon we took another walk. This time we went out the side of the cove the caribou had swum to.

We didn’t see him, but I did find another plant new to me.

This is Golden Root, Rhodiola rosea, and it grows wild in the Arctic regions of Europe, Asia and North America. I was excited to have found an Arctic plant!

We’re leaving Port au Choix tomorrow, but I will not forget it.

Getting around in Newfoundland is definitely beautiful, but this year we are spending more time here so we can take things more slowly.

I am appreciating the smaller things. Of course the flowers. Geum rivale; Purple Avens.

Clintonia borealis; Blue-bead Lily which is named for its fruit, not the flower.

But I am also noticing the smells. Even walking around the wooded part of this campground (KOA Gros Morne/Norris Point) it smells of conifers, like your house with a fresh cut Christmas tree.

And the sounds. Being here earlier things are wetter and there are little streams everywhere.

I noticed this cloud, which seemed to hang in one spot in the sky even though there was a breeze.

There are so many walking trails here, and they are made with just enough intrusion into the landscape to let you immerse yourself in your surroundings without struggling.

They let you see the forest beauty,

and notice when the woods offers up an arrangement to rival any human design.

When help is needed to protect you or the forest, it is given, but not too much.

Of course nowhere is perfect. There are all these little black bugs that bite me if I stop moving, but that’s what the screen house is for. (Just know that every photo you see comes at a price!)

The nickname for the island of Newfoundland (as opposed to the Province of Newfoundland Labrador) is The Rock. And it’s pretty apparent why. As soon as you start driving north on TransCanada Highway 1 from Channel-Port aux Basques where the ferry lands, you are treated to views of the Long Range Mountains. These are a northern extension of the Appalachians and here are not as high, but far more rocky.

It may be a rock, but it is beautiful, and we are glad to be back. This is looking at the western flank of the Long Range Mountains (which, as their name says, run up the whole western side of the island) and up that very pretty valley you can still see some snow.

We came back to Grand Codroy RV and Tent Camping Park. It’s a very popular place and just a 30 minute drive from the ferry dock. You can tell when the ferry comes in, the campers soon follow.

Even with a full park there’s plenty of room to breathe.

The campground is on the Grand Codroy River in the Codroy Valley. This valley has world famous wetlands and enough soil that there’s a dairy farm.

Matey and I walked the short trail through the woods here.

Besides lovely glimpses of the river I found two flowers which I must tell you about.

The first is Canada Mayflower (Maianthemum canadense).

In some places it carpeted the understory.

The second is this tiny flower, Moneses uniflora. It grows around the Northern Hemisphere in temperate, moist coniferous forests and has at least eight common names. You’re looking at the backs of the blossoms as they hang down.

It was hard to turn this blossom up and take its picture, this is the best I could do. My favorite common name for this tiny beauty is Frog’s Reading Lamp.

Later we took a ride to walk the Port aux Basques Coast Trail from the All Trails App. We thought it odd that the route there took us on this very narrow dirt road.

When we were almost to where it said to park the road turned to this deep sand. We parked just before the sand at a wide spot by a sign that told us we were on the T’Railway ATV trail. No wonder! This ATV trail is a Provincial Park that runs 900 kilometers from Port aux Basques to St. John’s. It follows the roadway from the narrow gauge railroad that was replaced by Highway 1 and finally closed in 1988 after 90 years of service. The roadbed became a park in 1997. In any case, it’s a multi-use trail for hikers, snowmobiles and ATV’s and not pickup trucks.

The Port aux Basques Coast Trail was actually a walk along the beach, and we didn’t go far as the wind was blowing the sand in Matey’s eyes.

We explored the cove a bit and found this wreckage. We couldn’t tell what it had been, but it had hand hewn beams and wooden pegs.

Since the beach trail didn’t work out we drove back to the Cape Ray lighthouse about four miles away.

The road ended at the lighthouse, but this track went down to the shore. Bud was going to drive down, but I told him the road ended on the map, we should just park and walk.

It’s a good thing we did. This is looking back up from below the point where the track kind of falls away into the ocean. Someone tried to bypass the eroded part and sunk these ruts deep into the boggy soil.

We walked between the ruts and the bank and came down to another rugged and beautiful spot on the coast.

These were the wave washed rocks. I think that’s pink granite.

Bud found some kelp that he was examining closely. He said it smelled good. He might have tasted it.

It’s so interesting to poke around the coast here. It’s always beautiful and again, you can see why they call this place The Rock.

Yesterday we had a few jobs to do. This is our water heater with the water draining out. We were going to drain this a campground ago and found out the drain plug is also an anti-corrosion anode. So we put off the chore until we could find one. The anode should be replaced yearly.

We bought one two days ago. Can you guess which is the old one? I guess we are a bit late with the change.

New anode in, no leaks.

All buttoned up. Wow, a job that went well, no surprises, no problems!

Yesterday afternoon after Bud had topped off both our truck tanks with diesel, we hitched up. We needed to leave the campground before 6 AM because we’re taking the ferry today and had to check in at 6:30.

We made it, no problem. Here we’re driving into the bow of the ferry. It’s one huge ship.

So for the next 110 miles of our journey we are on the water.

I took this just as we pulled away from the dock. That’s another Marine Atlantic Ferry on the right side of the dock, we had been on the left.

For a bit we watched the shore go by.

But soon this was the view, no icebergs or whales in sight.

So we’re just chilling in our dog-friendly cabin.

Bud packed us a lunch, but grabbed the leftover asparagus instead of the tuna fish, so I guess we’ll wait on lunch. We should be in port before 2:00 Newfoundland time (another half hour earlier than Atlantic).

And now this is our view, so we’re just listening to the ship’s foghorn until we arrive.

We’ve moved along further northeast in preparation for taking the ferry back to Newfoundland. That happens Friday. Meanwhile we’re staying at Mira River Provincial Park not far from Sydney, Nova Scotia. As you can see from the photo we have a reasonable amount of room here, so that’s nice.

There was a nearby disc golf course so we thought we’d try again. It was in a park, and that usually means a pretty open course. Some areas were park-like, but even then the baskets were guarded by trees.

Other holes were pretty much in the woods. It was reasonably cleared unless you threw a wild shot. Bud was throwing a lot of wild shots, so we spent some time looking for his discs. He was getting frustrated; I was throwing fairly well and my bad shots were short and didn’t get in a lot of trouble.

The fairways were definitely rougher towards the end of the course. And Bud was having bad luck. His approach shot was closer than mine on this hole. I then threw a shot right up next to the basket. His shot hit the chains, so should have gone into the basket, but managed to carom off, land on edge and roll back down the hill in front of the basket. He was more than a little frustrated now.

We played all eighteen holes and I won handily. I thought the course was fun and quite pretty, if a bit rough. Bud said maybe we should give up on Canadian disc golf.