Friday, August 5, 2016, St. Barbe, NL (Labrador)

Day 69

Our planned 6:15 a.m. start was pushed up to 5:45 by someone’s car alarm. We had to register for our ferry to Labrador prior to 7:15 or we lose our reservation and go on standby. A ridiculous process but we had no choice in the matter. I even tried checking in the day before but no cigar! We also had to get our car in line by 7:15 for the 8:15 departure. The weather was miserable. Cold, rainy and foggy. The ferry departed late for the 90 minute crossing of the Strait of Belle Isle. The sea was calm so no problem with the motion. When we arrived the fog was so bad we could not see anything. We could barely see the road. I use the term “road” very loosely. There is 56 miles of so-called paved road to Red Bay, Labrador, but a better description would be lumps of asphalt patches between unpatched potholes. That combined with the fog and rain made for an exciting drive. We arrived in Red Bay around 11:45 and visited the Red Bay National Historic Site “The Basque Whalers of Red Bay”.  From about 1530 for about 70 years, the port of Red Bay was used by the Basque whalers as a base for hunting whales and also processing whale oil for sale in Europe. Among the exhibits is an original “chalupa” boat dating from about 1600. The site included a 5 minute boat trip across the harbor to Saddle Island where the Basque whalers “factory” was located. About a 45 minute loop hike along the coast of the uninhabited island has 12 sites the archeologists have identified. Although the fog situation had improved, the hike was cold and windy with off and on rain but still was a lot of fun walking among 500 year old ruins. I asked the boat skipper about the weather and he said they get ten days of weather like this for every one day of sunny “summer” weather. We left Red Bay about 3:15 and headed to the Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site. The lighthouse is the tallest in the Province at 109 feet. We climbed the 132 steps to the top for an outstanding view of the coast. Dinner at the Sea View Restaurant in Forteau, Labrador, was chowder and fish cakes (salt cod with potatoes and pan fried-yum!). Back to register for our return ferry by 6:15 (we could not register for the return trip at the time we registered for the first trip - I told you it was ridiculous). The ferry was an hour late making our return to the coach at 10:45 p.m. A long day but worth the trip.