Black flies and Midgies!

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Today we drove every kilometer of paved road in Labrador, and still had lots of time to eat, sleep and sightsee. One very obvious annoyance are the biting black flies and “Midgies” (tiny flying insect that also like to bite), they are everywhere and just waiting for fresh meat. We have our bug shirts with face/neck screens, and long pants, so off we go to hike the Battery Trail. This trail is not used a lot and it was like bushwhacking, so we cut our hike short and stop at a museum, Labrador Straits Museum. It provided a glimpse of local family life for the past 150 years, not an easy life.
Red Bay, our destination, is also where the pavement runs out. Red Bay National Historic Site of Canada tells the story of the Basque whalers. The Basque galleon, believed to be the San Juan, was discovered at the bottom of the harbor. It is the best preserved 16th century shipwreck north of the Caribbean.
We took a small boat out to Saddle Island for an interpretive walk recounting the history of this area. It was a nice trail and with the wind, just a few buggies. We were doing fine until we reached the seagull sanctuary, we were definitely invading their turf and they were very protective of the baby seagulls. I began to feel like I was in a Hitchcock Movie, “The Seagulls”. Bob thought maybe it was my white sun visor, but they were after me.
Away from the seagulls, we spent the night at Pinware Provincial Park. Rates at the Provincial Park are the same as private RV parks but this one had no services.
July 12, 2006. The ferry we planned to take back to Newfoundland leaves at 8AM. So we were up early, drove to the dock in Blanc Sablon (actually in the edge of Quebec) to get tickets. Well, it didn’t work out, this trip, was designated for dangerous cargo, and the few slots opened were all taken. So the ferry at
1 PM took us back to Newfoundland. We drove south, back to Gros Morne National Park.

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