Day 8 - Labrador

It was a chilly start; 47 degrees this morning as we headed north. The forecast for eastern Newfoundland was still poor through the weekend. Our target for the day was the vicinity of L’Anse aux Meadows.

On the way out of the southern section of the park, we noticed the big patches of snow still on the upper slopes of the Tablelands. This is in mid-July and not even a 1000 ft above sea level. It would be even more eye-opening later in the day.

The road through the northen part of Gros Morne started out as really great road, smoothly paved and swooping through the hills. After a short stop at the main visitor center, the road leveled out as the land between the mountains and the sea widened and flattened out.We could see the mountains receding inland as we progressed north. They remind me a bit of the mesas and buttes of the west, but rounded off on the edges and covered in green and surrounded by thousands of ponds...on second thought, there is no real comparison.

We were soon out of the park and continued along the coast on Hwy 430, the only road north, until we reached Port au Choix, another National Historic Site and a fishing port. We stopped for a decent lunch at the Anchor Cafe, cod fish and chips and seafood chowder for me and the fish sandwich for Ellen. They were all made with fresh local fish...and tasty.

After lunch, we did a quick visit to the historic site which is on a barren point outside of town. It is an archeological site that has traces several groups of native peoples that inhabited the site in the past. The area has always been rich in sea creatures and fishing and sealing were done here as the people came to where the food was in the summer.

It was back on the road after lunch with a new destination in mind. We had been going back and forth about going to Labrador. Our original plan was to come up to the Northern Peninsula at the end of our trip and, if there was time, go over to Labrador for a short jaunt. But now that we’ve reversed our itinerary, it was a question as to whether we should take the time, not knowing what time we will have later. But the weather is nice and we are not sure we’d ever get up this way again, so we decided to go to Labrador.

We turned off at the road to St. Barbe hoping to get on the 6pm ferry without reservations.There was plenty of space. It was couple of hours waiting, but the ferry left on time at 6pm. Time for another try at pelagic ferry birding. We actually saw our first interesting birds before even leaving the dock, a pair of Common Loons in the harbor.

It was windy and chilly on the way across, but we spent much of the nearly two hour crossing outside. Part of this was because the veiw was better, but it was also because the interior of the ship was pretty gross in oarts. They made a big deal as we were leaving St. Barbe that there was No Smoking anywhere on the ship, but as soon as yiu stepped inside, the smell of stale cigarette smoke was overwhelming. Either the smoking ban is recent or they hadn’t cleaned the interior in years. Also, the windows in the lounges were so dirty that you could hardly see through them. Fortunately, it was a short voyage.

We were a bit more successful birding, although most birds were almost to far away to identify, but we are pretty sure of Northern Fulmars and Thick-billed Murres. There also large rafts of gulls near the end of the crossing;we hope that we can identify them from Ellen’s photos.

The ferry lands at Blanc Sablon, which is actually in Quebec, but less than 5km from the Labrador border. As we entered the harbor, we could see more patches of last winter’s snow on the hills behind the town. These looked to be only a few hundred feet up.

We continued north into Labrador, stopping at the first town, L‘Anse au Clair, at the Rv park associated with the Northern Light Inn. It is just a gravelly patch of land across the road with electricity and showers, but it was now after 8pm and the nearest (and only) provincial park in Labrador was about an hour away. We also decided on dinner at the inn as well. They had a salad special with smoked salmon that was just about enough for us.

We will continue further north tomorrow, but we don’t know how far. We might make the Red Bay historic site our ultimate destination in Labrador. It is not as far as tye coastal road goes, but we don’t know how long we want to stay...and it looks like it might still be fierce black fly season here.