Labrador

I wanted to include Labrador on this trip, because it's as far as you can go on paved roads.  Yes, there is a gravel road that goes beyond the end of the paved section, but I decided long ago that I would consider Red Bay the end of the road.

That meant another ferry, this one about 1 ½ hours, from St. Barbe, Newfoundland, to Blanc Sablon, which is actually in Quebec, although it's only about ½ kilometer from the Labrador border.

I arrived plenty early for this one too, the sailing was at 3:30 and I got there about 11 AM.  Ah, the story of my life!  Hurry up and wait!

 

Fascinating to watch the prow of the ferry rise up and then watch the gangplank  go down. 

This time I knew where I was going when I got off the ferry – to Pinware River Provincial Park, the only campground in this most southern part of Labrador. I was a little concerned since I 

had not made a reservation and they only had 22 sites, but it turned out that not many people were camping; I think there were only about 8 sites in use.

It was cold, in the 50's, so I cooked some dinner and holed up in my camper to write a blog post and catch up on my journaling. Next morning it was really cloudy, windy, and threatening rain. It had rained during the night, but wasn't coming down when I woke up so I quickly made some breakfast.  When you are camping like I am, cooking in the rain is no fun!! I managed to get the dishes done before it started raining again.

This is what it looked like to drive!

 This southern coast of Labrador is only about 30 miles long – from the ferry to Red Bay. The main attraction is the town of Red Bay, which is the site of a Basque (Spanish) whaling operation that spanned about 70 years in the 1500's. Their ships arrived from Spain each spring, and left again in the late fall, laden with barrels of whale oil that they had rendered from whales caught over the summer. It was quite an operation, according to the artifacts and sites that have been recovered. The visitor center there is quite an operation, the people are as friendly and helpful as can be, and the views from the windows of the two buildings are just beautiful. You can almost imagine the operation in action.

 

One of the whaling ships they found submerged in the harbor

Red Bay 

Love these little stone figures!

Recreation of the whale oil processing station.

Of course by now it was pouring with rain and the fog was really thick – so much so that it was hard to see the road in some places.  But I did manage to do a selfie at the end of the road – that major goal of this part of the trip!

 

The end of the road! 

From here on, everything is "on the way home." Of course that won't be for quite a while, I have a lot of exploring left to do.