We were up very early this morning (4:00) as the mozzies and black flies found their way around our screens and were busy buzzing our heads. After the requisite morning coffee, we were back on the bumpy gravel of Quebec Route 389 for the last 25 km to the Mont Wright mines and then finally onto pavement again to the new-town of Fermont.
The areas of Fire lake and Mont Wright are a plundered landscape with huge mesas of mine tailings rising above them and lots of heavy truck traffic and ore trains in constant motion. This is where we had finally stopped late last evening and spent the night in a roadside pull-out. Several trains passed by us in the night as well as a number of heavy trucks. As we drove along the road very early this morning, a train of open cars loaded with ore ran beside us, no shoulder just the railroad cars smack beside the van. We were glad to finally get past the mines, a reminder that much of the Canadian economy is based on extractive industries.
We got to Fermont around 6:00 am and stumbled into the local Tim Horton's for breakfast. The coffee shop is one of the businesses in the mile-long Fermont Wind Wall, a four-story block of apartments (over 300 of them) with municipal services and stores on the ground floor, which protects the rest of the city from the strong north winds. The tourist office was not yet open but we circled back later to take a couple of photos of the giant ore truck they have outside.
Onward to Labrador. After breakfast we drove the 20 km to Labrador City and their tourist office when it opened. We were looking for three things, the gas station, a car wash and showers. The gas station was just down the street, but a car wash did not seem to exist, except in Fermont. So it was back to Fermont.
Speedy was completely covered in mud from the trip up 389 and we wanted to get it off so we could use the propane and gray water dump valve (both encrusted in thick layers of clay) and also see out the side and rear windows. The Fermont car wash was one of those DIY pressure washer places, but unlike the ones we see at home, this was in a garage so you couldn't just drive through. It also made it dark. Five cycles later, the big encrustations were gone and the sides seemed clean until it dried later on. We then drove around Fermont looking for possible places to stay. The Fermont tourist office pointed out two campgrounds in town that turned out to be an unappealing commercial one a and a free town site that was a small lakeside parking lot. We decided on neither and continued back to Labrador City.
The tour around Fermont and also Labrador City really showed how much they were both company towns. They were mostly small one an two family bungalows and duplexes with just enough infrastructure to maintain the inhabitants. Virtually everyone we talked either worked for the mines or was associated with someone who worked for the mines.
On the way back to Labrador City, we looked into the Daley Lake Family Campground which was just acres of seasonal campers mostly quite far from the lake. We nixed it and went off to the showers at Workout World. They offer free showers in pristine shower rooms, which were much appreciated.
After a quick lunch and coffee at the excellent Well-Bean Cafe and a perusal of the Jean Lake recreation area as a possible overnight stop, we decided to just continue onto the Trans-Labrador Highway. It is quite a different road from Quebec 389. Newly paved and mostly straight, it was a much more pleasant drive.
Unlike 389, which is mostly boreal forest, the Trans-Labrador runs though sub-arctic forest (or taiga) which is much more open with lower growing evergreens. Both routes have lots of lakes, and we were never out of sight of one on the Trans-Labrador. We ended up at the Churchill River Rest Area just before Churchill Falls. It is also the trailhead for the trail out to the actual falls (what is left of them since the river was dammed for the hydroelectric plant at Churchill Falls). We hope to hike the trail in the morning, depending on the bugs.
We are actually traveling much more quickly that we had anticipated, but the towns and planned stopping places were not as interesting as we thought they would be (or were just too buggy to enjoy). Hopefully this will change as we get closer to the coast where there are more towns, an interesting coastline and we hope fewer bugs.
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