St. Mary's Harbour to L'Anse au Clair.

The next morning (Saturday) it was pouring rain and foggy, so we decided not to take the passenger ferry to Battle National Historic Site, but to continue on our journey south towards Blanc Sablon (QC) and the ferry to St. Barbe NL.  I have not had cell phone service or internet access on my I-phone since we left Happy Valley - Goose Bay, so we were not able to check the weather forecast. 

It continued to rain as we approached Red Bay, 100 Km south on the really pot-holey and wavy gravel road, through barren rocky terrain and ponds (lakes) with little vegetation again.  Red Bay is another National Historic Site, this time for Basque History in the area dating back to the sinking of a whaling vessel in 1546.  A reconstruction to scale of the vessel, and many artifacts were on display, from the sunken vessel and sites on nearby Saddle Island where they butchered the whales and rendered the fat to whale oil, which was put into barrels they made on site.  Whale oil was a precious cargo and much in demand in Europe for oil lamps at that time.  Basque fisherman from the French/Spanish border area had decimated the population of whales in the Bay of Biscay, and sailed further afield to Terra Nova to hunt for whales.

Red Bay and Saddle Island seasons

the whaling ship that sunk in Red Bay

Red Bay

Barrel for whale oil

Red Bay is also the start of asphalt road again - hooray.

As we approached Pinware Provincial Park, the rain stopped, but on higher ground it was misty.  Pinware has a nice sandy beach and is a good spot for fishing and bird watching (neither of which kept us there). We were allowed to use their showers, their dumping station, and fill up with fresh water for a small fee after several days of dry camping. 

Beach at Pinware  Provincial Park, Labrador

We stopped briefly in L'Anse-au-Loup to pick up some groceries (raining & misty again), and decided not to go and see the L'Anse Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historic Site, and L'Anse Amour Burial National Historic Site because of the weather.  Instead we drove across the barrens (rocky hills with little vegetation visible) to L'Anse au Clair for the night which is 7 km from Blanc Sablon (QC) and the ferry to St. Barbe, NL.  The weather finally cleared up and we were able to get onto the 8:00 am ferry the next morning.  

Beach at L'Anse au Clair

The ferry ride on the S.S. Apollo was about 95 minutes, quite smooth, just a bit of rolling. We sat chatting to a couple that had stopped to see if they could help us when we had problems with the trailer wheel.  They have no fixed address, their furniture is in storage, and they are travelling in their camper van across North America, stopping to visit family along the way. 

SS Apollo, ferry from Blanc Sablon QC, to St. Barbe NL

Lining up for boarding the ferry

Labrador Coastal Drive - Cartwright to St. Mary's Harbour

From Cartwright to the Coast

One thing I haven't mentioned about Labrador is the BLACK FLIES.  Even in September the pesky insects are biting but not as voraciously as in July and August when bug jackets that enclose your head with netting, and Deet are recommended. Some Labradorian expeditions in the early days had deadly consequences because of black fly bites as recorded at the Labrador Interpretive Centre in North West River.  We have been bitten a little bit especially around the hairline, and they don't disappear quickly like mosquito bites, they are hard lumps for several days.

Back to our travels, on a sunny and windy day, we left Cartwright and backtracked to the junction with the Labrador Coastal Drive (route 510) and turned south towards Port Hope Simpson, 98 km away and the next opportunity to get gas etc. This is the older portion of the gravel road, and it was in much worse condition than the newer portion we drove on yesterday.  The scenery changed from forests and lakes, to sparsely treed  bogs (moor-like) and rocky terrain with low growing vegetation.

Boggy, moor-like vegetation

Rocky terrain, with lichen

We had driven about 40 Km when the "trailer failure" light came on the dash.  Stopping to investigate, Cecil noticed that that there was a burning smell coming from one of the wheels on the trailer. A bearing cover on the hub of one of the wheels had fallen off with all the jiggling on the rough road, allowing the grit and gravel to get in so the brake and bearing had heated up and seized.  The only solution was to remove the wheel once it had cooled down and limp to Port Hope Simpson  58 km away, slowly,  with only three wheels bearing the trailer weight.  Many people again stopped to see if they could help while we were parked, and one couple let us know that there was a garage in Port Hope Simpson.

It was very fortunate that the garage at Port Hope Simpson could fix the bearing for us, but did not have the right parts to fix the brake.  Tom at the garage said this fix would get us to Corner Brook where there would be an RV dealer that would have the necessary parts.  He was not surprised by our predicament, he sees a lot of flat tires etc., coming from that stretch of road.

Fried wheel on the trailer

Port Hope Simpson from the garage

Back on the gravel Labrador Coastal Drive again, we headed slowly for St. Mary's Harbour for the night. We drove through a rain shower and had to take a picture of the double rainbow that kept moving in front of us.

double rainbow

Rainbow further down the road

St. Mary's Harbour is where you can catch a passenger ferry to visit the Battle National Historic Site, a reconstructed whaling village.  With no campground there either, we parked on a newly constructed parking lot next to a boat launch ramp in the sheltered harbour for the night.

Parking spot for the night

St. Mary's Harbour

Labrador Coastal Drive to Cartwright

From Happy Valley - Goose Bay to Cartwright

285 km of gravel road (route 510) opened in 2010 connecting to the existing Labrador Coastal Drive to L'Anse au Clair and side branch (route 516) to Cartwright (another 87 km), with no gas stations, food or lodging, no cell phone service, and a recommendation for borrowing a satellite phone for emergency use (provided by government), but none were available in Happy Valley - Goose Bay on the day we were leaving. It had rained most of the day before so there were pot holes and areas of "washboard", so it was a slow drive around the Mealy Mountains, passing by lakes (ponds in NL) and rivers (brooks in NL), through bush, some forests of black spruce, white spruce, tamaracs, and some aspens, and some barren areas of rocks with lichen and low scrubby bush (caribou country).

It had rained most of the day before so there were pot holes and areas of "washboard", so it was a slow drive around the Mealy Mountains, passing by lakes (ponds in NL) and rivers (brooks in NL), through bush, some forests of black spruce, white spruce, tamaracs, and some aspens, and some barren areas of rocks with lichen and low scrubby bush (caribou country).  The colour of the gravel on the road changed from pink to black to grey and back to pink as we passed by the "quarries" beside the road with the local rock they had used for the gravel.  Also along the road there were groups of boxes on sleds which we learned later was for hauling wood out of the bush in the wintertime.

Brook with Mealy Mtns in the background

Lichen

Where's the moose or caribou?

Sleds for wood

We arrived in Cartwright which is spread around Sandwich Bay and has no campground, but the local RCMP officer Mike suggested parking beside the outdoor arena, which was a nice flat area, for the night (no services).  Cecil had hoped that we could get a boat tour to see the Viking named "Wonderstrands" a 56 km stretch of golden sand beach about 10 km to the north and only accessible by boat.  Unfortunately the tours ended Labour Day weekend.  

We had the opportunity to chat with some fishermen on the wharf folding up their nets.  They had been out about 154 km in the ocean for a week fishing for turbot, the last trip of the season.  They also fish for king crab in season.  All their fish/crab goes to the local fish plant at the other end of the wharf, for freezing and shipping.

Fishing vessel Cartwright

King crab pots

Boats moored in Sandwich Bay

Outdoor arena and our parking spot for the night

Note the wild looking sky at sunset that night

Happy Valley - Goose Bay

Onwards to Happy Valley - Goose Bay, most of the road is now paved, but there is a 60 km gravel section and that is where the low tire pressure message appeared on the truck dash, and we found that the rear driver's side tire was flat once we pulled over and stopped.  Many people stopped to see if they could help, we were carrying two spare tires, so it didn't take long to change, especially since it had started to rain a bit.  

We got to Happy Valley - Goose Bay without further mishap, and got a spot with full services at Goose River Lodge & RV Park for two nights, about 15 Km outside of town, close to Gosling Lake. Close to where the Churchill River runs into Lake Melville and hence to the Atlantic Ocean (via Hamilton Inlet), the two communities of Happy Valley - Goose Bay run into each other like Kitchener - Waterloo but on a much smaller scale.  They have two grocery stores, and I was surprised to see that the cost of fruits and vegetables was not that high and gas for the truck was $1.42 /L.  They have a Home Hardware Building Centre, Tim Horton's (with Wifi), and several of the usual fast food restaurants. There was a very interesting store that we went into to look for souvenirs (fridge magnet).  In the lower floor it had a small museum of military paraphenalia dating back to the time when Goose Bay airport was used by the armed forces of several countries during and after WWII.  The store also sold guns, ammo, fishing rods, reels and flies, camouflage wear, and all the camping equipment you might need for a winter hunting trip.  The biggest surprise was a counter with drug testing kits and other drug use related items.

It took a good chunk of the day to find out that the truck flat tire was not fixable and to buy 2 new matching tires of the right size for the back wheels, for the next section of the Trans Labrador Highway.  In the afternoon (which was rainy again), we became tourists and drove to North West River, which is at the end of the asphalt road in this part of Labrador.  We visited the Labrador Interpretation Centre, which had exhibits explaining the history of the four peoples of the land, the Innu, Inuit, Metis and European Settlers. Interestingly they had an art exhibition and one of the paintings looked similar to our view of Labrador City /Wabush from Smokey mountain.  We also stopped at what used to be the Hudson Bay Trading Post which is now a museum.  Some photos below.

Labrador Interpretation Centre

painting of Labrador City dated 1971

Depiction of life in Labrador

Hudson Bay Company building, now a museum

A hunter's "tilt"

Note the size and shape of the snowshoes used in this part of Labrador

model of original Hudson Bay Outpost at North West River

Churchill Falls

Churchill Falls

 After two days at Labrador City, we got back onto Hwy 500, making sure the gas tank was full, and drove to Churchill Falls as we had booked a tour of the Hydroelectric facility for Tuesday morning.  With no RV campground available, we were told to park at the local arena parking lot for the night and use an electrical plug there for cars in winter if we needed electricity.  Churchill Falls is a company town according to our tour guide Karen.  Nalcor Energy is two thirds owned by Newfoundland and Labrador and one third by Québec.  Most people in Churchill Falls work for the company with the exception of the school teachers, store clerks and gas station staff.  Everyone either lives in a rented house ($100.00 a month rent and free electricity) or company dorm.  

From looking at some of the earth dams (there are 88 of them with a total length of 64 km ) and the switching yard at the surface it does not look very spectacular. Opening in 1971, it is one of the largest underground hydroelectric facilities in the world, with 11 turbines, 11 transformers (the older ones were built by Canadian General Electric in Guelph ), producing up to 5,428 megawatts of electricity at full capacity.  All this is housed in enormous tunnels cut out of the granite rock, including 16 Km of road to get equipment and people in and out. On the surface the main hydro transmission lines from the power plant immediately span 6,000 feet across the Churchill River gorge. It was a three hour tour and well worth doing.

Huge reservoir area

Earth dam that you can drive on

Entrance to the facility noting amount of power being generated

Turbine hall the size of 3 soccer fields

Transformer Hall, note the size of the truck 

Safety bus to get workers out in case of need

One of six pylons on each side supporting lines going across the Churchill River

Labrador City / Wabush

Labrador City / Wabush

Labrador City sits among several small lakes, with some small mountains, mainly forested, and then there are the open pit iron mines. There are a couple of indoor malls, one of which has a Metro grocery store, Canadian Tire, Walmart and a large Tim Horton's under one roof.  Further down the road is McDonald's with WiFi. The tours of an iron mine were stopped when RioTinto took over the Iron Ore Company of Canada's mines a few years ago, but there was a display of the process going from the mined rock to the concentrated pellets of iron at the Information Bureau Office, along with some history of the area.  We hiked up Smokey mountain, a local ski hill, which gave us quite a view of the area from the top.

We've made it to Labrador

View of beach and Wabush Iron Mine from Duley Lake

View of Labrador City and Wabush from Smokey Mountain

View of Iron Mine from Wabush

La belle province

Travels East :  Day 1 - 4, through Québec, La belle Province

After a quick stop in Toronto to drop off some things Liz and family needed for their trip to Lindsay, we got onto the 401 and kept on going to autoroute 40 in Québec with a couple of rest stops along the way. We managed to manoeuver our way through Montreal in rush hour without taking any wrong turns and stopped at le Marquis RV park, Saint-Sulpice on the north shore of the St. Lawrence river for the night.  Nice quiet campground with all services overlooking the St. Lawrence river. Our neighbour had an interesting mode of transportation. The main shipping lane was behind the island across from the RV park as we did see one freighter slipping by.

Our neighbour at Saint-Sulpice

St. Lawrence River

Day 2 was less of a drive, from Saint-Sulpice to Québec City, via Trois-Rivières on the north shore. We parked our roulette (trailer) at Coop Camping St-Esprit just east of Québec City and drove into the Old City via autoroute 440, which runs along the shore of the river (very impressive).  Unfortunately the weather turned a little showery, but we did walk around the city wall, over to the Château Frontenac, the Promenade, the Citadelle, the Plains of Abraham, and the Québec Legislature building. From the Promenade there is a great view upstream and downstream of the river, the ferry to Lévis on the south shore, and the Bridge to the île d'Orléans  What we missed was the Rue de Petit-Champlain as we did not go down the stairs or funicular to the base of the cliff. 

Chateau Frontenac

Entrance to the Citadelle

View from the Promenade

Day 3.  Continuing on autoroute 40 and then onto Route 138, we stopped to visit the shrine of Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré, an impressive church dedicated to the grandmother of Jesus. It is the oldest pilgrimage site in North America (a shrine has been on this site for 350 years). The current Basilica was built in 1923 and is quite awe-inspiring with two towers, sculpted copper doors, mosaic floors, stained glass windows, and in particular a ceiling which has amazing artwork depicting the history of Ste-Anne. 

Ceiling of the Basilica

Door to the Basilica

Front of the Basilica

Sideview of Sainte Anne-de Beaupre

Back on the road again which became very hilly, with occasional magnificent views of the St. Lawrence we drove to towards Tadoussac where the road stops and everyone boards a ferry across the Saguenay River to continue their journey east.  Stopping at Portneuf-sur-Mer for gas for the truck, we also took a break for some ice cream, and no I didn't eat them both. 

We arrived in Baie-Comeau in the late afternoon, and found the information bureau at the harbor.  There was a ship being loaded with large rolls of paper from the nearby Abitibi/Bowater paper mill.  Four freighters were waiting in the sheltered bay to either load or unload their cargo at a nearby ore terminal (could have been bauxite for the aluminum processing plant at Jonquier/Chicoutimi).  This is where we turned off Route 138 onto Highway 389, a partly paved/partly gravel scenic route of 562 Km to Fermont (QC), changing to Hway 500 at the border with Labrador 8 Km further on.  There is limited gas available on this route so we made sure we topped up the gas tank wherever it was available.

We stopped for the night at Manic-2 campground, just past the Manic-2 Dam and Hydro-electric generating station.  We could hear the hum from the campground which was situated on a small lake with a sandy beach.  The campground owners lived in a typically Québeçois house with the curled gables which is needed for all the snow they get in the winter.