Labrador historic sites

2010.08.28

We drove along the coast to L'Anse Amour, current population less than 10. While literally the name means Cove of Love, before the PR spin it was known as Anse aux Morts, meaning Cove of the Dead because of all the shipwrecks along the coast here. This is along the Labrador Straits, also known as Iceberg Alley. The sea route through here for ships going to Europe around the North of Newfoundland have, despite some tricky currents, about 200 miles less to travel.

At Point Amour, just North of "town", is a lighthouse that's a National Historic Site and been in operation since 1858. I walked up to the top to see it in operation. While it now uses an incandescent light bulb, it still uses the original Fresnel lens. There are four light bulbs, one in use and the others as back-ups to be automatically positioned at the focal point if a bulb burned out. The light pattern of this lighthouse is 16 seconds on and four seconds off.

The museum had copies of old maps for the coastline including one used by German U-boats.

The wreck sites of HMS Raleigh and another British warship are just South of the lighthouse.

The other site of interest near L'Anse Amour is a Maritime Archaic Indian burial mound that goes back some 7,500 years. It is the earliest known funeral monument in North America.

After lunch, we went to the town of Red Bay and the National Historic Site there. From 1540, and for about 80 years, Basque fisherman had been coming to this area to hunt whales, primarily the Right whales. The name, we found out, comes from the fact they were not the "wrong" whales. The Right whale is not only docile and easy to kill, but is also so full of blubber it floats after being killed. The museum has many artifacts that go back to that time.

Underwater archeological work located in Red Bay harbor the remains of a 16th century galleon believed to be the "Saun Juan" that broke anchor and sank there in a storm in 1565. It had on board 800-1000 barrels of whale oil at the time. Only a 1/20 scale model of the ship is shown. However, they did have a fairly complete "chalupa" that was also recovered. The chalupa is a smaller hunting boat.

Overnight, we stayed "off the grid" at the somewhat buggy, but otherwise nice beachfront site, in Pinware Provincial Park. Interestingly, the name comes from the French "pied noir" for a black rock resembling a foot at the mouth of a local brook.

Odometer reads 68,274.

On to Labrador

2010.08.27

Gusty winds and rain buffeted our rig all night and kept us from sleeping well, so we were a bit slow in the morning.

We drove to St. Anthony to look around, buy some groceries, and gas up. We decided not to go to the Grenfell Historic Poperties museum because we had seen an extensive Grenfell exhibit at "the Rooms" provincial museum back in St. John's. We did drive over to the scenic fishing village of Goose Bay.

We then drove to St. Barbe which is the West terminus of the ferry to the mainland, in this case the province of Quebec. The ferry goes to Blanc Sablon which is just West of the Labrador border.

On the way over to St. Barbie, Brenda snapped a picture of what we have been seeing from day one on Newfoundland. It is a picture of a power or telephone pole surrounded at the base by a box full of rocks. We think we have figured out why this is so. When they augur holes for the power poles and hit a significant rock they quit and make up for it with rocks above ground. For sure, Newfies call this island "the Rock".

We booked a spot on the next available ferry which was at 6:00 pm. That meant we had a 3 hour wait. This ferry terminal is attached to a motel and restaurant. So, to get Wi-fi, we went to the restaurant for coffee and dessert. The food was fine, but the Wi-fi must have been connected to a cranky dial-up line. Not a good investment for us. Well, at least I got to read more of "Charleston" on Brenda's iPod Touch.

The ferry, on time and as scheduled, took an hour and a half to get us to Quebec. Their roads were terrible, but perhaps it's because it's a short distance and it leads to Labrador.

Given that the sun was setting, we stopped at the first available campground. It is run by the Northern Light Inn in L'Anse au Clair, Labrador. After all the rain, the campground was on the muddy side.

Odometer reads 68,196.

Historic Sites

2010.08.26

In the morning we went to the Port au Choix National Historic Site. The site has a museum as well as archeological sites where migrations of different cultures to the area can be seen.

The oldest were the Maritime Archaic Indians who came from Asia to North America over the Bering Strait over 12,000 years ago. They reached Labrador about 9,000 years ago and Newfoundland about 5,500 years ago. They disappeared about 3,200 years ago.

Next were the Groswater Palaeoeskimos, who were arctic-adapted and came across the Bering Strait 5,000 to 4,000 years ago. While some remained in Alaska, others reached Greenland 3,800 years ago and Newfoundland 2,800 years ago. They were replaced by the Dorset Palaeoeskimos, who lived in larger communities, 1,900 years ago. The Dorsets left about 1,200 years ago. The Port au Choix site has had the largest and richest Dorset archeological site.

Sometime between 2,000 and 800 years ago the Recent Indians appeared. They were different in that they lived in smaller family groups, were nomadic and harvested not only the sea and coastal areas as their predecessors had, but also went inland to harvest the wildlife there. These people were known as Beothuk by the Europeans who lastly showed up. Contact with the Europeans, in a variety of ways, wiped out the Beothuk.

Port au Choix is on the French Shore which by the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht allowed the French to fish and process the fish on shore but not to settle it. This treaty gave the British sovereignty over Newfoundland.

We drove North towards St. Anthony, NL and the L'Anse aux Meadows (the Meadows part of the name not being French) Historical Site. It is also a UNESCO World Heritage site. It is here that around the year 1000 AD the Vikings for a decade or two had a settlement. They came from a colony they had established in Greenland.

While the archaeologic site has been re-buried, there are nearby reconstructed sod buildings with period re-enactors to show how they lived. What surprised me most was they smelted local iron ore to make iron nails.

The Vikings, despite being much more advanced technically, were far outnumbered by the hostile stone age natives and had to abandon the settlement.

We stayed at the Viking RV Park in Quirpon, NL.

Odometer reads 68,079.

A down day

2010.08.25

We took advantage of the full hook-ups and took long showers and then dumped our holding tanks. Of the half dozen campers, we were the last to leave.

We then drove to the motel down the road which happens to have the only laundromat in town. The electric driers were quite slow. Anyway, we got some reading in and had our afternoon coffee before we left.

We then continued North on the coastal highway up to Port au Choix. There is National Historic Site here we'll be going to tomorrow.

There is a seaside campground run by the Lions Club where we'll stay overnight.

Odometer reads 67,922.

For a change, the post is done on the day it describes.

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Western Brook Pond Boat tour

2010.08.24

In the morning we went to Rocky Harbour to pick up our Western Brook Pond boat tour tickets. They only issue tickets on the day of the tour for fear of potential weather issues.

On the way to the parking lot for the boat tour, we stopped by the park's Green Point campground because they have Wi-fi. In retrospect we should have stayed there the night before. While it was a few miles further from Rocky Harbour, it was cheaper and closer to the shore.

We then drove on to the parking lot for the boat tour. It was chock full of vehicles, including folks on ours and the prior tour as well as those that hike out to the boat pier w/o taking the tour. Anyway we had to park on the periphery outside of parking slots, partially off the pavement. We put our levelers down to make sure the fridge would be happy and sealed off the front of the cab to make sure Tsing wouldn't make a nuisance of herself barking.

While it would have been nice if the boat tour was cheaper, it was very nice. The West Brook Pond is a fjord carved out by glaciers that has been cut off from the sea for some time. The water is unusual in that it has a very low concentration of minerals and is electrically almost an insulator. It is surrounded by cliffs of ancient insoluble rock. For that reason, it is very clear, but does not sustain a large variety of plant or animal life. Besides tourism, the main pollutant to the water is air borne.

We did get to see some moose on the shore of the pond (but a lake to me). It was a mother and a youngster moose. Moose is not native to Newfoundland, but was introduced by settlers in the early 1900's. Not having any natural enemies they have thrived and there are over 5,000 of them in Gros Morne alone. Snacking on saplings, they are gradually changing forest land to meadows. Periodically, there is an effort to thin them out.

Overnight, we stayed at the Sea Breeze B & B and RV Park in Cow Head, NL. Full hook-ups and Wi-fi were nice.

Odometer reads 67,846.

A trek to the Western side

2010.08.23

We decided to pick up the pace a bit and travel to the West side of Newfoundland and Gros Morne National Park.

In the Grand Falls-Windsor area we stopped by the public library to use their Wi-fi. We collected our emails and were amazed at how much of it piles up in a few days. Also, I posted a prepared post to the blog from days ago.

I have to blame Brenda's iPod Touch for being responsible for my tardiness in preparing files for blog posting. I had mentioned to her how when I was in 9th grade, I had read an assigned novel by Rudyard Kipling, a British author and poet, called "Captains Courageous". Much of the story takes place on a fishing schooner on the Grand Banks off Newfoundland. The copyright having been long expired, the book was available for download for free from the Apple iBooks store, which Brenda did. Well, I've finished that book and am now reading a book Brenda paid for. It's a historical novel called "Charleston". It turns out that we can both read the same book at the same time. Brenda is reading on her new Apple iPad which is synced with the iPoD Touch. In October, we have a get-together with other folks with Lazy Daze motorhomes near Charleston, SC.

We ran into some construction on the TCH (recall Trans-Canadian Highway) including lengthy stops. Brenda drove the rig when our direction started moving as I was "indisposed" in a little room in the back.

The ride in the Gros Bourne National Park is truly scenic. Going up and down on mountain roads without anything near by to block the view.

In Rocky Harbour, a town that's part of an occasional shoreline patch of land that's outside the park, we made arrangements for the boat tour of the park's Western Brook Pond for tomorrow. It was recommended to us more than once. There would be a 3 km walk to the tour boat dock from the parking lot. The posted picture was taken on the boat tour.

We camped at the national park's Berry Hill campground, off the grid which is the only choice. At $25.50 CDN, it was expensive especial on top of a park day pass of ~$9/head.

After we set up camp, we hiked around Berry Hill Pond. It was supposed to be only a 2 km trail, but did not apparently include the trail to the loop. The walk wore out the dog who had to be carried some of the way.

Odometer reads 67,811.

Leaving Fogo Island

2010.08.22

After breaking camp, we tried to get on the internet at the Fogo Island Library, but that did not work out. The library was closed on Sunday and while we could connect to the Wi-fi network, it was not connected to the internet.

We went on to the Irish fishing village of Tilting. It's hard to believe that there could be an Irish village these days, but we were told to expect a distinct brogue. This is not a big island!

On the way to the ferry terminal, we got to see a caribou that inhabits the island. But, no sign of Newfoundland ponies.

On the the ferry, we chatted with a couple from Ottawa who are in Newfoundland on a two week vacation. They flew in and are driving around in a rental and staying at B & B's. We got to compare travel notes as well as make suggestions to them. The lady had just finished a novel and gave it to Brenda.

We drove on to Notre Dame Provincial Park where we had stayed two weeks earlier. We were assigned a much nicer site this time.

Odometer reads 67,597.