Wow! What an adventure today!

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

  

We are heading over to Labrador for a night, and leaving Elbroko at the campground, we'll find a place to lay our head down somewhere. I made reservations on the Internet for the 10:30 a.m. ferry.  We still needed to check in at the ferry office early.  We found out from our new friends that the larger Apollo ferry was in dry dock undergoing some propeller repairs.  We would more than likely be flown over and Hemi would go over on a ferry.  How awesome is that?????  Apparently the temporary ferry can only accommodate 12 passengers.  I was so excited. I woke up bright and early at 6:00 a.m., actually, I’m not even sure I slept. I showered and ate my breakfast right away. At 7:00 I decided I had lots of time to do a couple loads of laundry.  The ferry wasn't leaving for another 3 1/2 hours.  8:00 a.m. Doug walked across the street to the ferry office to check in, and came back in a panic….we had to get over to the ferry office right away, we were going to be shuttled to the St. Anthony airport 45 minutes away and fly to Labrador while the truck goes over on the ferry.  You gotta be kidding me….my laundry was not dry yet!!!!!  Well, we had do some scrambling, lookout The Dickinson’s were on the fly!  I grabbed the half dryed laundry out the dryers, and tossed it around the trailer, so it will hopefully dry while we are gone. 

YIKES!!!!!

Doug threw the breakfast dishes in the sink.  Oh my, the oatmeal pot and dishes will be just lovely when we get back. Threw our grocery bag suitcases in Hemi, grabbed the computer, oh man, what coats do we need, should I take extra shoes. Quick grab the camera, lock up Elbroko, let’s go!  We drive Hemi down to the loading dock, leave her unlocked with the keys in the ignition, computer in the backseat (yeah I know unlocked) and get into the waiting van that has our new friends from St. Thomas in it.  50 minutes later we are walking up to a 7 seater airplane that is going to take us to Labrador.

All this for the low, low price $30.25. Pinch me, I can’t believe this is happening, truck ferried to Labrador, both of us flown over, for $30.25 total!  It actually took longer to warm up the plane than it did to fly across the Strait of Belle Isle.  15 minutes in the air and we were descending into Labrador.  The flight across was so cool!  It was amazing to see the bogs and ponds from the air. 

We could even see icebergs, how amazing was that!  We were then shuttled to the ferry terminal to wait for Hemi.  Our driver took us on the scenic route past a fairly large iceberg that had just come into the bay yesterday.  I am now beside myself.  It was about 15 degrees, warm and sunny, and I am standing here looking at this beautiful iceberg in Labrador. 

The ferry was an hour late getting into port, which was OK, gave us more time to visit with our newfound friends, and enjoy the nice day. 

Finally we get Hemi and head out around 2:00 to explore Labrador.  Red Bay, 55 kms away is our destination, but you know the way Doug and I travel, we will be lucky to get there by 6:00.  We drove through all the little villages Forteau, L'Anse au Clair, L'Anse Amour. We stopped at the L'Anse Amour Lighthouse which is the tallest lighthouse in the Atlantic.  

L'Anse Amour Lighthouse

Grabbed a quick bite to eat at a little café/bakery in L'Anse au Loop.  Yummy.  The terrain in Labrador was quite interesting.  

The most surprising thing was there were beautiful long sand beaches in between huge cliffs.  

There seemed to be way more trees than we were expecting, but this did eventually give way to more barren, rocky mountains as we got closer to Red Bay.  We passed this beautiful Pinware river which was violent after all the rain in the past couple of days. 

Pinware River

We like to drive into the villages to see what we can see. This fisherman was getting crab pots ready. 
We arrived in Red Bay around 5:30 and decided we had better see if we can find a room, of course we never booked anything, we are flying by the seat of our pants!  You will not believe this, but we got the last room, at Whaler's restaurant and cabins, it was a wonderful place. 

The Strand - our cabin

It was actually a cabin that used to be an old shed on the wharf, and was built from the lumber of a shipwreck in the 1940’s.  It was purchased for $500 a few years ago, moved to it’s current location and renovated to be a beautiful cabin on the bay.  We had a small kitchen, table and chairs, couch, even a TV with satellite (we haven’t watched TV since we left home on May 27^th) and a loft with 2 queen beds and a million dollar view.

Our view looking straight out the front window

Our view looking north

All this for $100.  


There was a trail on the other side of the bay that went up to the top of the hill overlooking Red Bay, 1436 meters and 670 stairs.  Yup. you guessed it.  I had to do it.

The view from up there was unbelievable.  You could see for miles and miles. The Labrador coast looking north was dotted with icebergs, you could see Newfoundland to the east and nothing but rock and ponds to the west. 

Absolutely beautiful!!!!  We had another great cod fish dinner and enjoyed a nice quiet evening back in our cabin looking out over the bay with a full moon shining on the water. 
How can it get better than this?  


We are truly blessed!!!