Labrador . . .

As, I am sure most of you know, we've been back in Kansas for the last month or so. We've been busy with Jake and Jessica's wedding as well as a couple of Blue Grass festivals and being the procrastinator I am, I've put off doing the blog until it's become an embarrassment. I apologize, my friends, and hope you enjoy our memories and pictures of this awesome trip.

August 10th we took the ferry from St. Barbe, Newfoundland to Sablon, Quebec. The sky was overcast and the crossing was a little rough, but I managed the crossing without losing my breakfast. :-) We were in Quebec about 20 minutes between the time we were unloading and the time we crossed into Labrador.

At this time we were unsure as to how long we were going to stay in Labrador. Les thought it would be really fun to drive way up and around to Labrador City and then through Quebec, down into Maine and on home from there. I wasn't all that excited about going through Quebec, knowing that most of Labrador was connected by gravel roads (all I could think of was our experience on Nova Scotia) and furthermore - they speak FRENCH in Quebec - my high school French, learned a couple of centuries ago, wouldn't hold up and we'd heard all sorts of stories on how they pretended they didn't understand/speak English - I was pretty reluctant to face that, and besides, we wouldn't be able to revisit Nova Scotia if we went that route. So we'd thought we'd play things by ear, so to speak.

We headed on down the very nice, paved road paralleling the shoreline. After hearing about the wonderful sandy beaches at L'Anse Amour, I was eager to check it out. Maybe I'd get lucky and find sea glass. What we did find was a quaint little coastal village boasting of 9 residents. In the picture to the left you can see the houses this side of the bluff - on the right hand side of the road is the city park. We stopped and made lunch by this park and then went for a nice walk on the beach. I found a couple of sea urchins shells and snapped some pictures of beach flowers. We drove down the road through the town and checked out the houses that were there. Then proceeded on to the way to the Point Amour Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse and out buildings were awesomely picturesque and I enjoyed tromping around here snapping numerous pictures of them and the flowers and the reefs. http://www.pointamourlighthouse.ca/home/ According to signage by the lighthouse . . . "L'Anse Amour
Point Amour Patch Reefs - The mound like formations present along this shore are composed of the calcite skeletons of an extinct group of sponge like animals called Archacocyathids (arc-ae-o-sy-a-thids). The Point Amour Archaeocyathid reefs, which were formed about 530 million years ago, provide evidence that this was once in a warm shallow sea near the equator." That's sort of a mind blower!

We left the L'Amour area :-) and headed toward Red Bay, Labrador, where the paved road ran out and the gravel road began. We drove and drove and mostly saw God's Rock Garden. Okay, so that's not REALLY a place in Labrador, it's the name I gave it... just now! There were miles and miles of rocky terrain. After bouncing along for a while, Les and I turned to each other and just said, "We're done" and turned around in the first wide spot in the road and headed back to Red Bay. This picture to the right is the road not taken.

We arrived in Red Bay in time to get a spot to camp and then Les took me out to dinner to a nice restaurant, where were treated to some culinary de-lights: Caribou and a Three Berry Sundae. The berries were, Bakeapples, Partridgeberry, and I can't remember that third type of berry, it very well may have been Raspberry! And they really know how to make the ice cream up there as well! The Caribou was not what I expected at all. I guess I thought it'd be a little stringy and tough, but it was wonderfully tender and tasty!

The next morning we drove back up the coastline. Have to admit, there were some pretty, green, wooded areas along the way. I, however, will always remember Labrador as been awfully rocky and desolate.

We arrived in plenty of time to purchase our tickets for the ride back to Newfoundland. While waiting for the ferry office to open I was plagued by the biting flies we had heard so much about. Not fun. The ferry ride was short and sweet. Then Newfoundland was within site.

Newfoundland II should be forthcoming...

Joy

Les's Readers Digest Version:

- Put the Jeep and Camper on a ferry at St Barbe Newfoundland.

-Went across Strait of Belle Isle to Blanc-Seblon Quebec.

-Drove to Labrador and up to where the pavement ends, a
little north of Red Bay Labrador.

-Came back to Red Bay and stayed the night.

-This is as far north as we made it. We are heading back to Toto land now.

-We were closer to Greenland and Iceland than to Wichita. And about the same distance to England as to Wichita.

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City park in L'Anse Amour Labrador. Population 9 to 11. Seating in the park for at least 20???