Day 12 - Pinware to St. Barbe

We have completed the  Expedition 51° portion of or trip—Baie-Comeau to Blanc-Sablon by land (otherwise known as the Quebec Labrador Highway) and have the window stickers to prove it.

It was a pretty easy day. We left Pinware Provicial Park under sunny skies, with a stop at their shower building and dump station where I was brutally swarmed by black flies while emptying our tanks. Thank goodness for permethrin-treated clothes and a head net.

It was then off the Point Amour and its lighthouse (2nd tallest in Canada by three feet). We had planned to spend the day there visiting the light and its museum and to do some seawatching from the cliff where it is located. We also thought we might spend the night there as well. It was not to be.

Port Amour Lighthouse - Before the fog

We had been to the lighthouse on our first trip to Labrador, but never spent any time in the museum. This time we did. The alternative was to again climb the 190 steps to the top (been there, done that). The climb up might work but the walk down seemed a bit excessive for the old knees. 

The museum featured the history of the light, the lightkeepers and their lives and of the shipwrecks that were the reason for this light and the series of lights that line the coast of the Straits of Bell Isle. There is also an interesting exhibit of the maps of the coast from the 1500s to the present.

As we were walking back to Speedy, Ellen spotted a pod of whales but by the time she got my attention (I was focused on a trio of Purple Finches, not quite the same), they had disappeared in the approaching fog bank. By the time we had our coffee and lunch, the fog was thick and looked like it was not going to disperse any time soon.

We took this as a sign and decided to end our Labrador visit as the ferry to Newfoundland was only 30km away. Driving inland a bit we got beyond the fog and when we looked back to the point we could see the sheet of fog climbing up the cliff and over the lighthouse. When we got to Blanc-Sablon, it was also poking in there, but by the time the ferry left at 6pm, it was long gone.

We were, once again, taking the ferry on stand-by (no reservations), but even with no guarantees, hope did prevail. The ferry trip was uneventful and there weren't many seabirds. The only one I saw during the trip was a Common Murre flying by. I spoke with a nice Swiss couple who had been taking the same route. They too were leaving a bit early due to the bugs.

As it was almost 8pm when we got off the ferry, we decided to just pull into the St. Barbe RV park, a truly unimpressive looking place but in the right location for weary travelers. It is primarily a large parking lot with central building with the office, toilets, showers and laundry. It also has a full  kitchen available, something we haven't seen since New Zealand, where most campgrounds have communal kitchens for campers to use.

We have already been north to the Viking site at L'Anse aux Meadows, so tomorrow we will head south with a stop a Port au Choix, another National Historic Site, then who knows.