Whale: check. Iceberg: check!



St Barbe, NL – It was a hurried start to the day, because we had to re-port for our ferry ride to Labrador one hour prior to departure, which meant 7 am. Luckily, our RV parking lot is just across the street from the ticket office, so it could have been worse! With ticket in hand, we drove down to the dock for our one-hour wait to load.

 

In the course of our one-and-a-half-hour crossing of the Strait of Belle Isle, we managed to spot a humpback whale, with its spout of spray, and then, when we approached the opposite shore, there was our first iceberg! I thought it might be the only one because there were no others in sight at that point, but along our drive we saw at least half a dozen more of varying sizes. They were a brilliant white, with beautiful turquoise shadows closer to the water.

Between our arrival time at Blanc Sablon, Quebec at 9:30 and our departure deadline of 3:30 pm, we took the Labrador Coast Drive to a National Historic site at Red Bay, about 70 km away. We stopped at the visitor centre shortly after landing and spoke with Hilary about the route. She gave us a very useful mile-by-mile guide of the little towns we would pass through so we could make the most of our time.

 

We thought it would be best to shoot for the final stop first and work our way back, so we only made a couple of short stops when the view compelled us. You don’t see icebergs every day, and there were some spectacular rivers as well. The road was pretty rough in places;  some of the potholes we dodged were the size and depth of a stockpot!

The terrain was hilly and covered with scrub bushes along much of the way, and there were some lovely vistas of tree-clad mountains, some of which had patches of snow on them still. The soil had a red tinge to it that probably explained the name of Red Bay. Clusters of cars and trucks beside the road indicated where the good fishing spots were on some of the rivers.

The Parks Canada site at Red Bay was devoted to telling the story of Basque fishermen who came here in the 1500s and 1600s, and made this spot the whale oil capital of the world at the time. A sunken whaling ship was found in the Red Bay harbour, and was reassembled in the museum. Next to it was the jawbone of a Right Whale that measured some 12 feet long! Other artifacts included pottery, whale oil barrels and tools.

In the community building on our way out (after a hurried lunch at the Whaler Station restaurant) we examined parts of a 400-year-old whale’s remains, artfully reassembled within a custom-made framework. This animal was also found locally, and the display included a lot of information about the nature of whales.

Back along the winding, lumpy road we sped, hoping to catch a glimpse of the lighthouse at L’Anse Amour before getting back to the ferry. It’s the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada at 109 feet, and was built in 1850. To our dismay, we found ourselves in L’Anse au Clair and realized we’d passed the turnoff, even though we were looking for the sign. My unproven theory is they only post signs for out-going traffic, not for those returning.  We probably would have been late for the ferry if we had stopped, so I guess it was for the best.

Land of ancient peoples

St Barbe, NL – We are on the doorstep of Labrador this evening, a few mi-nutes’ walk from the dock where a ferry cros-ses the Strait of Belle Isle several times a day. We’ll be on that ferry in the morning.

The first leg of our drive today as we bid farewell to beautiful Gros Morne National Park was familiar ground; we’d been up as far as Cow Head and back and to parts between several times over the last five days. Our route hugged the coast of the Gulf of St Lawrence, bringing us past picturesque small fishing villages. We passed a few spots that we plan to visit on the way back, because we will have to retrace our steps in a few days.

We did turn off Highway 430 just past Hawke’s Bay to see Port au Choix, where there’s a national historic site. On the way, we passed through Port Saunders. It has a large Marine Services building with a cluster of fishing boats next to it, in and out of the water. As we have seen in many of these small towns, the homes are modest but neat, and there’s a sense of community that has been forged over years of hard work and daunting challenges.

Even the trees along the shore speak of fierce winter gales, with trunks bent low by pre-vailing winds, and branches twisted and gnarled by years of salt spray. Splashes of wildflowers – bright yellow buttercups and pink and purple fireweed, and even frothy white dandelions gone to seed – nestle in ditches and on hillsides.

We were pleased to see the turn-off for the Parks Canada site had space for our RV-and-car package. Inside was a small museum devoted to the aboriginal populations of this region, dating back some 4000 years. Many of the artifacts on display were unearthed at archeological digs in the area. Back in the 1960s a local resident was digging a foundation to build a movie theatre and found an ancient burial site. It’s one of several sites around Port au Choix.

A short video explained the arrival of migrating tribes from four ancient cultures: Maritime Archaic Indian, Groswater Palaeo-Eskimo, Dorset Palaeo-Eskimo and Recent Indian. Each of these depended on the sea for their livelihood, with its whales, walruses, seals and fish. They also fashioned excellent tools from the rocks, and from animals’ bones. We saw some sharpened blades and harpoon heads that were beautifully made, as well as needles and some jewelry made from bears’ teeth.

We had a great chat with Kyle, a Parks Canada guide, who provided lots of answers to our questions with enthusiasm and quite a depth of knowledge.

It was close to three o’clock when we arrived at our destination. This is more of an RV parking lot than an RV park, but we will be able to leave the RV here in security when we make our day trip by car tomorrow. And for a change, we had a home-cooked dinner, including green vegetables!

A whale of a day

Rocky Harbour, NL –No distant rendez-vous pressured us into a hur-ried depar-ture this morning. Based on an internet search, I ventured out to church in Norris Bay, only to find the building abandoned and quiet. I found an unlocked side door, so I went inside and learned that today’s service was set for 7 pm.

I snapped a few pictures of this pretty seaside town and also stopped at the wharf to buy tickets for an afternoon cruise around Bonne Bay before returning to the RV. And, since cleanliness is next to godliness, I did two loads of wash at the KOA laundry room. After lunch we headed out to Norris Bay for our cruise.

When we got to dockside, we recognized the ticket taker – he was Wayne Parsons, one of the performers in the Anchors Aweigh show at the hotel the night before last! And his accordion-squeezing partner, Reg, was our captain for the cruise.

Throughout our two-hour plus cruise around Bonne Bay and into the mouth of the Gulf of St Lawrence, Wayne gave us an amusing but informative spiel about the sights and history around us. We were only a few hundred yards out when he spotted the first whale. Then there was another, and another (the same one?) – gliding to the surface for a breath, revealing a shiny black dorsal fin and dipping back into the deep. Wayne said they were minke whales, about 20 feet long, feasting on the small fish in the bay.

When it got chilly in the wind topside, Reg invited us into the captain’s inner sanctum (despite the “Crew Only” sign on the door) so we could see in warmer surroundings. He had a fish-finder set up so he could steer the vessel to where the whales were most likely to be – and it was working! We must have seen 15 whales or more.

Wayne told us that the depths of Bonne Bay had been well sounded by none other than Captain James Cook in the early 1700s, with precision and detail that serves navigators to this day. He also pointed out the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse in the distance, and said on a clear day it was even possible to see Labrador from the bay.

Reg brought us closer to the rocky shore on the return leg of the journey so we could see the geology at close range. Then he cut the engine and drifted when a magnificent bald eagle came into view, perched on a high rock. We watched for several minutes before he took to flight, spreading his wings wide. As a mature bird, he was easy to spot with his white head, but shortly afterward, Wayne pointed out another eagle with the mottled brown feathers of a younger bird. In all, I think we saw six or seven eagles, both young and old.

We were charmed as we drifted past Woody Point and several people on shore came out to wave at us. All the towns had trim little houses, some in bright colours of red and yellow, set on the hillsides. Behind them we could see the sweeping Tablelands, offering a rare glimpse at the unadorned earth’s crust – a geologist’s dream come true.

As if our trip hadn’t been thrilling enough by this time, it ended with Wayne and Reg and another crew member presenting a medley of sea-faring songs, ending (by edict from Parks Canada, Wayne joked) with a lively rendition of I’se the B’ye. At the end of that one, Reg had to abandon his accordion to race topside and dock the boat!

Another visit to Earle’s seaside res-taurant in Rocky Harbour seemed appropriate, where Val scarfed down a steaming bowl of moose stew and I sampled a Jigg’s Dinner, con-sisting of salt beef, cabbage, turnip, potato, carrot, beets and peas pudding. Hearty fare indeed.

Shrouded giants and tales of the sea

Rocky Harbour, NL – Would we or wouldn’t we? That was the question this morning. We were set to sail up the fjord at Western Brook in Gros Morne Park today, but heavy cloud cover and a mist of rain on the windshield as we drove up the highway made us unsure whether it would be worth-while, or even possible, to accomplish the mission.
When we went to reserve a place for today’s sail, the booking agent said they wouldn’t accept our money till we were at the departure point. One reason was the changeable weather, but the other was the fact that, to get to the dock, passengers had to walk in from the parking lot for three kilometers  – and back out at the end. Six kilometers total! The trail was labeled “easy”, over boardwalks and gravel paths without many hills, but if one was not up to the challenge, one could just turn around and leave without forfeiting the ticket fee.

A heavy Scotch mist and steady breeze sent shivers through us as we set out. Our path took us through a wooded area, and a bog, and more, with helpful interpretive plaques describing the flora, fauna and terrain. I was delighted to spot a pitcher plant, and then a few more; this is the iconic provincial flower that nods above the “Newfoundland Labrador” logo in the beautiful TV ads we’ve seen. It’s quite large; the bloom is about the size of an extra-large egg.

We also saw buttercups, meadow sweet, cotton grass and stately purple iris flowers, plus twisted pine trees and junipers with tiny red cones on the branch tips that looked like miniature roses.

When we finally made it to the end of the trail, before us, all we could see was the pond and a few feet up the hillsides, capped with a heavy shroud of fog. Soaring cliffs? Not so much. Consternation festered among the hardy souls who had made it this far, but about 10 minutes later the captain announced that the boat would sail in spite of the fog, and if at the halfway point we were still socked in, we’d turn around and our money would be refunded.

Lucky for the captain, the ceiling did begin to lift as we moved further into the deep gorge. Western Brook is a landlocked fjord with walls that reach higher than the CN Tower, carved in ancient times by glaciers. Silvery waterfalls tumbled from the heights in places, and each time we turned past a point of land, new vistas came into view. We know it would have been nicer if the weather had been clear and sunny, but we were glad we got to see this beautiful spot anyway.

An after-noon nap was definitely on the agenda after our hearty work-out across the bog. Then we got changed and headed north, past the Western Brook, to Cow Head to see the Gros Morne Theatre Festival production of “S.S. Ethie”. The dinner theatre show tells the story of a shipwreck off the coast in 1919 when a winter gale blew in. Told with pathos and humour, the play was all the more engaging because the site of the wreck is here. Val and I took the trail down to see it on Thursday – the rusted frame and parts of the Ethie are still scattered on the beach.

We took a short tour over a causeway to the Cow Head island after the show. The lighthouse was at the end of a walking trail so we didn’t see it (did enough of that already today!), but I did get some good shots of fishing huts, lobster traps and boats before we headed home. On the highway we spotted a moose on the roadside, but he loped into the bush before we got too near. Whew!

Of rocks, lobsters and ugly sticks

[We were unable to post yesterday. This is our report for Friday, June 3, 2015.]
Rocky Harbour, NL – Our first destination today was to Green Point, where the Gros Morne Park literature told us a naturalist would be on hand to tell us about a geological site unique in the world. The seaside location was a 20-minute drive from our campground, so we got there in plenty of time. No green-shirted park naturalist was in sight.

The only other person we could see was down at the shore near some fishing build-ings, so we went to see what he could tell us. Roger was there with his pickup truck and his dog, and was getting ready to take his boat out, loaded with lobster traps and chunks of fish for bait. He pointed to where we should go, but we paused for a bit, since we were early, to ask him about his traps. He had the newer rectangular ones made of coated wire, and he told us this was the best year in a long time for lobster. He also told us he was the last lobster fisherman around; no one else was carrying on the tradition.

We left Roger to his preparations and wandered along the shore to the rock formations. Great high cliffs jutted up from the shore, with hundreds of sedimentary layers positioned vertically, like huge stripes of different widths, from paper thin to several inches wide. The short description of the site said this was a unique place where two geological eras stood side by side, exposed for examination. A handful of other visitors were looking at parts of it some distance from us, and a few more people arrived after we climbed the stairs to the top of the cliff, but none of them were there to explain to us what we were looking at.
We chatted with some of the other people for a while, but finally gave up. Turns out the 
naturalist had called in sick, but we didn’t know that at the time.

We had another destination: in Cow Head, the Anglican Church was hosting a lobster festival, with serving beginning at noon! We’d heard about it last night at the moose supper in St Paul, from one of the men who would be cracking the shells today. Sure enough, he was there, as well as a bevy of church ladies who invited us to start at the salad bar, an ice-filled boat holding great bowls of salads. Shortly after, we were presented with one pre-cracked lobster each at our table. The meal was rounded out with tea biscuits and molasses buns and bowls of bakeapple, partridge berry and blueberry jam. It was a delicious treat!

Back at the RV, we took a break, waiting to hear whether or not we’d get in to see “Anchors Aweigh”, a musical Newfoundland show at the hotel in town. It had been highly recommended, but we’d  only made the waiting list. To our delight, we got the call that tickets were available for us. We drove in to Rocky Harbour later on for the show, and what a great presentation it was!

A four-man group delivered Newfoundland songs, old and new, peppered with jokes and lore, for three hours with energy of epic proportions! The highlight for me was the demonstration of the ugly stick, a Newfie instrument used at kitchen parties for people who couldn’t play anything else. A broomstick is fitted with a boot at the bottom, a mop at the top and jangly bottle-tops nailed to the shaft for some makeshift percussion.  It was a terrific performance – worth staying up past our bedtime to see!

The nanny-baas and the rabbit

Rocky Harbour, NL – Today, after a stop at the Visitor Centre for suggestions on what to see, we set off along the shore high-way to see the lighthouse at Lobster Cove Head.  The “head” was the point of land where the building stood high on a rocky outcropping and visible for more than 20 km out to sea.

The wind combed through the long grass along the path to the lighthouse and made the flags crack to attention on the pole next to its white tower. Old photos of the original lighthouse keeper and his family were displayed in a small side building, where Bonnie-Lou, the Parks Canada guide, waited to chat with visitors.

Born into a fishing family in Sally’s Cove, Bonnie-Lou knew all about the hardships and challenges of eking out a living by the sea – and her accent charmed us both! She talked about getting stuck in the “hoice” (oh! We said: ice!) in winter, and the time her mother got caught in the middle of a herd of “nanny-baas” on the way back from the store. These were sheep that had got loose and were curious to see what her mother had in her paper bag.

Then there was the time her mother leapt out of the truck to catch a rabbit hopping along the road, so that Bonnie-Lou could have the pet rabbit she always wanted. She kept it until out of pity she let it go. We could have listened to her all day.

A little further up the coast, we turned off for the interpretive presentation about fishing at Broom Point. The site used to be the home of three brothers who fished these shores from the 1940s to the 1970s. When they retired, they sold their property to Parks Canada, to tell visitors about Newfoundland’s early days when they thought the cod would be there forever. Dry wooden lobster traps and musty-smelling nets were on display in the building by the water, along with canning equipment, ropes and a couple of sturdy wooden dories that once took to the waves.

Bill, our guide, told us that the international fishing waters were changed from a 12-mile limit to a 200-mile limit about 20 years too late. By then industrial fishing gear had hauled fish by the millions from the water and destroyed the spawning grounds on the sea bottom, so that a recovery, since the moratorium in 1991, would be almost impossible.  Strict limits are set on “by-catches” of cod, picked up inadvertently by fishers of turbot and halibut. This is where the cod on restaurant menus come from today.

Some late-arriving visitors came in and told us they’d just spotted a caribou on the property, so we went out for a look. There on the hill was a fine-looking beast, trotting about nervously as a tourist tried to get closer for a photo. We got to watch him for several minutes before he loped into the trees.

Bill told us about a moose-meat supper up the road at the Anglican Church in St.Paul, and what better place to do it than in a church basement where they served it up with mashed potatoes, carrots, turnip, peas and a slice of partridge berry pie for dessert? A great ending to a great day.

Oh Canada!

Gros Morne, NL – We’ve had a sunny, warm summer day to enjoy Canada’s 148^th birthday, with a 300 km drive through some spectacular scenery, and glimpses into local celebrations in three different places on the way.
If you picture the Newfoundland map as a triangle, we traveled about half-way up the left-hand side of it today. For the early part, we were by the water, turning inland later on but still seeing lots of brooks and lakes there too, with some major mountains thrown in -- some even with snow on top.

We took a detour off the TransCanada to have a look at Stephenville, a pretty seaside town. We noticed that every cross street was named after one of the US states, and then we came to a US Air Force fighter jet mounted on a pedestal. We figured Stephenville must have been a strategic military location during the war years.

Just then, to our left, we saw a crowd at the local cenotaph, where a memorial ceremony was under way. The Canadian and Newfoundland flags were at half-mast and wreaths were being laid by uniformed personnel – in Newfoundland, July 1 commemorates the decimation of local boys at Beaumont-Hamel, near Vimy Ridge, in World War I, as well as Canada Day. It was a touching sight.

Back on the main road, we passed the turnoff for Corner Brook, which we may visit at another time, and at Deer Lake, we turned left off the TransCanada (which will take us toward Gander and St John’s later in our stay) and headed north on Highway 430.

More great vistas of rocks and trees awaited us at every turn. At one point, after passing many warning signs about moose, we saw a dead moose by the roadside. It reinforced our vigilance in a way signs cannot.

On entering Gros Morne National Park, the attendant told us it was free today, being Canada Day, so we continued on our way. The familiar yellow-orange KOA sign can’t be used within the park boundaries, so we missed the turn. However, we took a roundabout route through Rocky Harbour and eventually located the RV park. This was not before we passed the town’s park where the entire population was gathered for a decorated bicycle parade and games and fun for the kiddies. A happy sight!

Once settled in our site, we explored Rocky Harbour and Norris Point in the car, locating a good spot for a seafood dinner to end the day. We had our first taste of cod tongues as an appetizer, and Val had halibut while I chose the Fisherman’s Catch – cod, scallops and shrimp! Delicious!

As we were turning back into the KOA park, the junior division of the park guests all filed by, dressed in red and white with balloons and flags and decorated bicycles, headed for a weenie roast on the beach! We’re told there will be fireworks in Rocky Harbour at 11 pm (the sun doesn’t set till quite late here) but I think we’ll be sound asleep by then.