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Published: September 18th 2009
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Artsy Fartsy....
Scotts creative photo of the rope coiled up on deck of M.V.Apollo. The ferry ride from St Barbe, Newfoundland to Blanc Sablon, Labrador took almost 2 hours. Whilst on the ferry ride Scott met a surgeon who travels around the country filling in for other doctors on leave. He told us the day before he met someone who had done the same ferry crossing and saw 60 whales, we were so excited thinking we might see a few whales. It was not to happen, I saw just a glimpse of the back of a Minke whale but that was it.
When we reached the other side, the excitement of driving down dirt roads and having 18+ wheeler trucks flying past us was almost unbearable. Yippee!! We headed for the tourist information centre which was in all of the brochures, it was an old church that had been restored. Unfortunately, when we got there it was closed so we didn’t get to have a look inside. So we then headed to the next township which was famous for having the largest lighthouse on the east coast and also there was an archeologically dig that found the oldest indigenous body in North America, it was 4000 years old. We took our token photos, bought
A Labrador in Labrador...
Well, who would have ever guessed that we would meet a true local & she is blonde & blue eyed!!! some souvenirs then headed onto our first bit of gravel road and the end of the bitumen. Things were starting to get exciting for Beast. We drove along the windy dusty roads until we needed to stop to camp. We pulled over in a township of about 600 people called Mary’s Harbour. Scott had negotiated a deal with the hotel manager that if we stay for dinner & have breakfast could we camp on their premises. She agreed, so we got Beast ready for bedtime and then went to the pub. The locals have a poker tournament every Sunday night so we sat at the bar watched them play and spoke to the bar lady Doris who was born & raised in Mary’s Harbour and had worked at the Hotel/Motel for 30 years. We also met a Innu man who was a king crab fisherman, he had been drinking quite a bit that night and I unfortunately upset him by talking about sustainable fishing. He informed me I was Bristish and that he has the right to fish as much he wants. So, I bit my tongue smiled and waiting until the wrath had past. We all became friends again,
Library or Tin shed! Lucky we could read the sign out the front.
If anybody who has seen the library in Vacouver you will notice no resemblence here. he offered to buy us a drink but it was bedtime. So we said goodnight and went to the carpark to sleep. About 3am I woke up to the sound of hoofed animals running around the back of the truck. Scott woke up and was wondering what I was doing staring out the back of the vehicle in the middle of the night. I said to him ‘ I hear hoofed animals! ’ He listened for about 30 seconds, and then thought I was mad then went back to bed. I must have stayed awake for about 30 minutes trying to see these damn things that were running around. The next morning, grainy eyed, we packed up the truck and were about to go inside the restaurant for breakfast when Scott says to me. ‘ I hear hoofed animals! ‘. The he stated to laugh. He pointed to a flag pole next to the vehicle, the flags were flapping and it was my hoofed animals. Yep, word of advice, when a Canadian tells you that it is not the sound of moose, believe them. I am an idiot! We had a bit to eat then headed north for Cartwright. Cartwright
Caripoo!
Hmm....I have eaten alot of unusual things and Caribou is a very strong flavour. Not going to eat that again. is as far north as the road will take you. So the 400klms on dirt track ended in this little fishing village. We stopped at the Cartwright Hotel and I had my first Caribou burger, which I must admit was very gamey. The taste was very powerful, I am glad I tried it but I don’t think I would eat it again. After lunch, we went to the ferry terminal, booked in our vehicle picked up the tickets then Scott asked the lady where the closest beach was. Yes, Scott was going swimming in the Atlantic Ocean. Insane! We got towels, dry warm clothes ready for him when he got out. So Scott physic himself up, walked out to his knees then realised he could not feel his knees nor his feet and decided to come back in. I couldn’t help laughing at him as he almost fell in a few times. So I decided to put my foot in to feel the temperature. Oh my hat, my foot instantly began to burn. I definitely wasn’t going in. So once we got dry we then went to a shop and had an ice-cream, read our books then waited for the
Scotts secret weapon
Read the top tag line of his deodorant!
He is definitely the neither whilst camping! ferry to arrive. We noticed our ticket didn’t state 2 adults, so we queried them at the terminal and everything was alright. Phew!
About 5:30pm we drove onto the ferry, got all of our stuff for the 14 hour trip to Happy Valley Goose Bay. The purser welcomed us onboard and one of the crew showed us to our dormitory. So we are all excited about the trip and then FAGANISM attacks again! We only have one bed! Scott & I were livid! We checked the ticket on the mainland as we knew it wasn’t right. So we complained until the cows came home and then we went to a common room, watched a movie and wondered where Scott was going to sleep for the night. We were halfway through Castaway, which may have not been the most ideal movie to watch when you are travelling on the ocean when we hear ‘ Mr LesCAK!, please report to the purser office’. Yeah, Scott got a bed and if was right above me. So we were happy little campers again. We had free internet on the ship also, so overall it was a really good trip. Fourteen hours later we
Dirt anyone?
This is all we saw for over 1500klms. were docking in Happy Valley Goose Bay. We drove to the information centre, met a Innuit lady who told us a bit about her background and how the missionaries had influence her people in both a negative & positive way. She gave us directions to an arts & craft shop and some good sightseeing things along the way to Labrador City. We bought some xmas pressies & then headed to the next township which was called Churchill Falls. This place has one of the largest underground hydro water systems in North America. It supplies electricity for Quebec & some parts of America. Unfortunately, we couldn’t go in to have a look as you need to have prearranged tours. So we had a quick look around the township then headed to Hamilton Falls for a hike. The trek to the waterfall has the most amount of weirdest mushrooms I have ever seen. We must have seen at least 15 different kinds of mushrooms. We finally got to the lookout where there was a plaque stating when the first European man who worked for the Hudson Bay Company discovered the waterfall in the early 1800’s. Since then it had become a tradition
Dust....Dust...and more dust
This is the kind of road conditions were experienced whilst driving the 1500klms. The vehicle ahead of us is about 2klms away. for all travellers who make it to the bottom of the falls to put their name in a little glass bottle that had been left there. The local council in the early 1900’s decided to put the bottle in a museum to keep it safe, so the tradition no longer exists. After the hike we then drove until we needed to stop for the night. We drove down a track off the main road which was situated next to a river. It was such a windy night that we had to put our fire out as we were afraid we would set the forest alight. So it was an early night.
Next morning we headed to Labrador City, this was a quite a large town which must evolve around mining. It was one of the largest cities we had seen for almost a week, it had traffic lights! We picked up a few more supplies, had a bite to eat and headed south to Quebec. Our journey along the dirt roads was almost finished and Beast was superb, we were travelling in comfort. Our next destination will be Manic 5 in Quebec.
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