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Published: September 10th 2012
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Point Amour Lighthouse
Supposedly this used to be called Point Amout which means point of death. Re-branded it to being less sinister. There had been a lot of shipwrecks here, so it was aptly named long ago. We drove to St Barbe, Newfoundland and booked passage for us, and the RV. Lizzie was able to stay in the RV for the 1 hour and 45 minute ferry ride. We opted to leave the car at the dock in St Barbe for the 1-2 nights we planned to be in Labrador and just use the RV as our mode of transportation. As you can see from the photo is was a lovely day with beautiful blue sky and not too windy. They really know how to pack in the cars, campers and semis onto the ship. Our one mirror was actually in the next lane behind a semi. They initially had our door next to another vehicle’s mirror and we couldn’t open the door enough to get out. Fortunately they keep track of people and their being able to exit their vehicles, so once that became apparent then they had us move up just a few inches. That allowed us just a little more room to open our door and squeeze out of the RV. When it came time to get exit the ship we weren’t going anywhere until the semi moved. It really is important to follow the
directions of the crew and it does require some trust that they are watching closely and know what they are doing.
We set sail for Blanc-Sablon Quebec. It is just a hop, skip and a jump from there to Labrador. The exciting part of the crossing of the Strait of Belle Isle was that we were fortunate enough to see a whale. We heard that it is unusual at this time of year as they have already started their migration south, so we were extra lucky in our siting. It was a distance away, so there are no photos to share in this blog. It was visible for a long time and we saw a lot of tail, tail, tail, and blow….over and over and over again. Later we looked at a poster of whales and their tails and behaviors….and determined that it was a Humpback.
Boondocking seemed like a good option while in Labrador. We headed to the Point Amour Lighthouse to check out the feasibility of spending the night in the parking lot. We arrived after it had closed for the night, so we had plenty of room in the small parking lot to turn around
and be ready to head out the next morning. We walked around and checked out the grounds. Our evening entertainment was watching the Gannets. These birds are amazing as they are flying and then dive straight down into the water. They must hit the water with some force as they make a splash. The novelty of watching them did not wear off even though we got to witness it many times during the evening. As dusk turned to darkness the lights across the strait began to appear. The distance between Labrador and Newfoundland at this point is about 9 miles (or is that 9 km?), so it looked like a little fairyland of twinkling lights along the distant shore. The fog horn started at one point in the evening and I was really wondering about being able to sleep if it kept up all night. Fortunately it lasted for a brief while and that was the only time we heard it. The next day we learned that it has a beam and a sensor that monitor the strait at this point and automatically sounds when conditions are right. We also learned that there has been a name change in the
past and that Point Amour used to be Point la Mort (I didn’t quite follow the explanation of what it used to be in French so forgive me if I got it wrong). Re-branding it to Point of Love from Point of Death certainly makes it sound more appealing, but historically there were a lot of shipwrecks, so the old name would have been a good reminder of the perils in this area.
In the morning we hiked out to see some of the remains from relatively recent shipwrecks and then we were back in time for when the museum opened. The two tour guides at the lighthouse were excellent. We learned not only about the lighthouse and some of the keepers, but also of herbs, teas and local remedies of the era. The lighthouse is 109 feet and is the tallest in Atlantic Canada. For more info you can check out this website:
http://www.pointamourlighthouse.ca/home/ We then drove out to Red Bay which is where the paved road ends in this section of Labrador. It was a scenic drive along the 48 miles of paved road. While in Red Bay we had lunch at The Whaling Station restaurant.
RV at Point Amour
We spent the night boondocking here. We had the gannets to provide us with entertainment as the dove straight down and made a splash in pursuit of their dinner. We shared an order of fish and chips, so we would have room for soup and desert. The soup was a traditional soup and had various root vegetables and beef. The desert we chose was Bakeapple Berry and Partridgeberry Crumble with ice cream. I wasn’t familiar with either berry and we wanted to try something traditional to this area. We certainly enjoyed all our food, including the desert. Here’s a website that has info and pictures of the berries:
http://newfoundsander.wordpress.com/berries/ Also in Red Bay we did more than just eat. Park Canada has two museums that are full of information about the whaling industry that was here in the 16
th century. I imagine the waters were much more populated with numerous and a variety of whales than is present today. I was surprised to learn that there used to be a Basque country in Europe and that their language is unrelated to any other language. Another thing we learned was that the cod that they caught long ago was much larger than what we are familiar with in today’s age.
Odds and Ends
Labradorite comes from near Nain, Labrador and is the gem of Newfoundland and Labrador.
RV at Red Bay
This is where the paved road ends. There was a nice lot for parking the RV while we had lunch across the street. We also walked to the Parks Canada museums and watched their movie and toured their exhibits. It is beautiful and I ended up buying a pair of earrings of it. I visited many gift shops just to see the variety of looks the stone could have depending on the rock and how it was cut. I could get in trouble if I stayed where it was available, as I’m certain I could find other pieces of jewelry that I just had to own. There is a legend that a little bit of the Northern Lights is trapped inside; that added to its allure to me.
We had heard that the people of Newfoundland and Labrador were friendly and we have to agree with that statement. I’m sure that if we stayed long enough and met enough people we could eventually find someone who was wasn’t but it might take a very long time.
One of the friendly people we met was Leon. Leon is a shrimp fisherman who also helps at the L’Ance-Amour lighthouse. After talking with him, he promised to give us some shrimp and cod the next day if we stopped in L’Ance-a- Loop. Unfortunately there were road construction vehicles where we had planned to park. We parked nearby but didn’t see
Leon. We did our tourist stuff the rest of the day, and then headed back to the Lance Amour lighthouse to boondock there for the night. After setting up, we see Leon driving in with his son. He had seen us going into the road that led to the lighthouse, driven home, and returned with two bags of shrimp, some cod, and some bakeapple for us to try. THANK YOU LEON! The food was delicious and we have been enjoying it. There aren’t many “Leons” in this world.
It’s time to head back to Newfoundland and finish up what we want to see. It is the last day of August and it is starting to feel like fall is just around the corner. We’ve been fortunate with the weather, but it could change suddenly. Many people have told us that this has been an unusually warm and dry summer for this area, so we are counting ourselves as lucky for having come this year.
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