Crossing Strait of Belle Isle into Newfoundland

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Trip Start Sep 08, 2011 Previous
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  St. Anthony, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada
Saturday, September 17, 2011

We left Labrador City toward Churchill Falls. Unfortunately, the tour of the iron ore mine, which is the largest producer in the world, is only during certain days of the week and we missed it on our schedule.  We did see some of the operations just outside Labrador so that was fine by us.  We travelled through gravel roads which are surprisingly well maintained, sanded and graded often.  Roger spotted a black rustling in the trees and we saw a large black bear crossing the road, but retreated as we back-tracked to take a photo.  We camped out on a spot overlooking a river and valley and managed that evening to catch a small glimpse of the Northern Lights which was just a blaze of green across the sky.  If in fact there is a Yetti (aka Big Foot/Sasquach) he would surely be found in this area!

We reached Churchill Falls and chatted with the local gas bar/grocery/everything general store.  The town is run entirely by the hydro company and all land and property owned by them.  The resident paycheques are deducted for housing at $30 and hydro at $11/month.  Speaking to the lady there, she was born in Brampton (small world) and moved out to BC and then was in the army for about 5 years  and somehow ended up in Churchill the last 2 years.  She commented that people were afraid of retiring because they have never had to pay a mortgage/property tax, etc., much like convicts are afraid to leave their prisons after their long sentences.  The entire concept of an industry town like this one conjures up images of the book "The Brave New World" where people are essentially robots governed by a single entity.

We stopped for some fishing along the road and had a fox approach us clearly looking for food.  He certainly was not intimidated even when Roger yelled out and tried to scare him off.

On our way towards Happy Valley-Goose Bay we reluctantly picked up a hitch-hiker from Finland whose name we think was Tomik.  He was clearly stranded as not much traffic comes through here and the road worker almost pleaded with us to take him.  Apparently he was living in the forest off of berries and mushrooms (not funny type that some college students live off of).   We offered him some granola bars.  He ate one and bagged the other but refused an apple (clearly not hungry enough).  He was a strangely odd character and we were happy to only take him the 26 kms or so.  Once we reached the crossroads of Happy Valley and Goose Bay we asked where he was going and quickly decided we were going the other way.  We dropped him at the info centre and moved on after picking up groceries.  We had 390 kms to go from Happy Valley to Port Hope Simpson.  The landscape changed often throughout Labrador and in this area small trees and sub-arctic shrubs were the norm.  We were in awe of the expanse of this country.  Vast forests, rivers and lakes as far as the eye can see.  One is truly on their own out here and the thought of what this place must look like in t he dead of winter makes our home seem like the tropics.  The junction on this road that leads to Cartwright has very few places to pull out so we had to choose a spot to camp that warrants no comment.  In the morning we found a beautiful river so Roger pulled out his $20 Crappy Tire fishing rod and tried his luck.  On first cast, he hooked an enormous brown trout (5+ lbs) but alas the crappy line gave way under the weight of the massive river monster and snapped. This is trophy fishing country and people from all over the world come here to fish, clearly better equipped and skilled than we are.  So much for our trout dinner!

We made our way to the quaint town of Mary's Harbour.  We chatted with a local fisherman whose heavy Labrador accent allowed us only to pick up three-quarters of the conversation (yeah bey de crab seasinz ovr).  We had wanted to take an overnight boat trip to the island of Battle Harbour which is a historic shipping village but the boat schedules again did not correspond with our trip schedule.  We headed to the Pinware River Provincial Park and camped for $20 on a stellar spot on the Strait of Belle Isle at the foot of the Atlantic Ocean.  We walked the beach along the oceanfront at sunset and had the water been a little warmer we would have waded in to collect the litttle neck clams and mussels pulled in by the tide.

We pulled into Red Bay and visited the National Historic Site here where archeologist divers discovered what they thought was the remains of the San Juan, a Basque ship sunk in the 16^th Century.  They spent 5 years on the site, unearthing the vessel which had been well preserved in the silt and cold waters.  This site remains one of the largest and most significant archeological discoveries in the last 20 years in Canada.  Across on Saddle island, they also found the remains of a whaling operation and burial place of the over 1,000 men who worked here 9 months away from their families in Basque (France/Spain region) in order to provide the whale oil that lit the lamps of Europe.  They recovered over 25,000 artifacts, some of which are in the museum and are extremely well preserved.  They have now re-buried the ship and covered it with silt and a large tarp.  Their intention is to preserve it until they are able to develop better methods of long-term preservation in order to keep this historical item for future generations.

On Penny Island in the harbour remain the old buildings of a fishing/cannery in operation in the 18^th century.  Sadly these historical buildings are falling to ruin as there remains conflict between the family who owns the site and the government.  While the dispute continues the buildings have very little chance of being restored before they fall.

A note to travellers along this coastline – be warry of the time zone.  Only Newfoundland would have a half hour difference from the Atlantic time zone.  We carefully planned our next day into Blanc-Sablon in Quebec to catch the 8:00 am ferry across to Newfoundland.  However, it seems that although the ferry dock is in Quebec and the map clearly indicates Atlantic time zone we missed our ferry and had to wait 4 unplanned hours for the next one (insert four letter word here).  To kill the time we had a full scrambled egg breakfast/brunch and Roger flew his kite and camera rig and captured the harbour and perhaps has the first photos taken by a kite photography in Labrador.  We headed back to the harbour ferry dock and watched fisherman unload their catch of "wrinkles" which resembled a giant snail.  On board we were fortunate to see Humback Whales breaching the water in the distance and were soon on "The Rock".

Wasting no time we drove northward towards the very tip of Newfoundland.  During the drive we both smelled something burning and I checked the engine and couldn't find anything.  An hour later as we pulled into Pistolet Bay Provincial Park I saw smoke inside coming from the back.  Very concerned after hearing and meeting people who have had their Westy's burn to the ground with their possessions as a result of fuel line failure, I hopped out, told Lea to grab the fire extinguisher and some water and started pulling things out from the rear hatch.  Inspecting the engine I found once again nothing but smelled the charred plastic.  I then looked up to realize that the rear hatch above my head was the culprit and we had burned out our rear wiper motor.  Very happy this minor part was not going to be the end of us or Etien, I unhooked the wiring and we found a site for the night.   After dark the park warden drove by and said that we had company.  Lea said "yeah, there are one or two other campers".  He said "no" as he shined his flashlight 20'-30' from our campsite on two massive Moose.  Lea was ecstatic and the confused creates were unsure which direction to run in providing us with a dancing moose show.  I have seen moose but never this close - it felt like you could pet them - but you WOULDN'T.  Jim, the warden, chatted with us and we asked about hunting and fishing in the Province.  He graciously explained the very complex practices involved in hunting and fishing both the management and administration as well as the actual kill and butchering of the animal.  Some of you may feel this is a cruel practice, however, moose need to be controlled here for they consume so much of the natural plants and trees and hunting and fishing is a way life here where they consume what they hunt/catch.

Unfortunately, the weather picked up overnight and in the morning we drove to L'Anse aux Meadow, perhaps one of the most significant archeological find in North America.  This site proves that the Vikings were indeed the first to set foot and settle in North America over 1000 AD.  The site uncovered not only iron works of the era but also a single bronze pin which was difinitively Norse and unique to the Vikings of Greenland.  The site has been reconstructed by Parks Canada and an interpretive centre with replicas depict life here 1000 years ago.  What's interesting to think about is that this time also marks when man finally circumnavigated the globe as Vikings would have met aboriginal people that had crossed the Bearing Strait in Alaska.

From here we headed south and the weather intensified.  We knew Newfoundland gets its share of adverse weather but this was something else.  Not having had any news, TV or access to the internet we thought to try the car radio and managed to get CBC Radio 1 as they described the landfall of Hurricane Maria.  Etien pushed through the 100km gusts and it was hard to keep us on the road.  We slowly made our way down the coast in severe wind but no rain.  This west coast is perhaps some of the most scenic we've seen as we watched massive rolling waves explode on the beach.  We now head into Gros Morne National Park and will be able to update soon.

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More Pictures

Wharf Fisherman	Rear Wiper Motor	Gourmet Salmon Steak Dinner	The Missing Link
Viking Backsmith	Viking Settlement	Strong Hurricane Winds	Viking Lea

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