Back on the island

Welcome to Labrador

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It turned out that we had the b&b all to ourselves in Labrador. When we got back after visiting Red Bay (and cracking Chuck's head on the beach), the house was empty - and unlocked, something that would never happen in Ontario, for sure. So we had a big party and trashed the place (see pictures). In reality, we stayed in our room, fired up the laptop and found out that they had a wireless high speed connection up and running. A house to ourselves with WiFi for $38? Cool.

The night before we had considered staying at the only provincial park in south Labrador - Pinware River. Supposedly that's and Anglicism for "Pied Noir", but it seems to be a stretch. It has a gorgeous orange/brown sandy beach and we figured we'd dive into the frigid North Atlantic just for fun. We pulled up to the gate and after a few minutes of standing there, a grizzled guy with half of his front upper teeth remaining, and the opposite half of his lower front teeth still in place chased us down, apparently bothered by having to talk to someone. His beard was enormous and Chuck was pretty sure he could see a week of fish and chips detritus scattered through it. When asked if we could camp, we got a grunt in reply. When asked if we could day-use the beach for a quick dip, he said "We gots a real problem wit black flies and mosquitoes." Chuck said: "But there aren't any today." Reply: "Today's the exception and not the rule." We left.

Moose in L'Anse aux Meadows (the tiny speck in the center)

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It was very bright and pretty cold and windy when we headed over to Blanc Sablon to see the Quebec side of the "near north". Blanc Sablon is by far the largest settlement in the area, probably about 1000 people or so. It's as desolate as the Labrador side - no trees, lots of open ground with a few mountains in the distant (also bare). So after touring through there we headed for the 10:30 ferry and another cheap ($30) crossing. No big whales in the Blanc Sablon harbour this time, but a school of about 10 danced across the bow shortly after we left the dock.

Off the ferry, we steamed north for St. Anthony and L'Anse-aux-Meadows, an English-ization of "Meduses", as in medusa jellyfish. It's the site of the oldest known European settlement in North America. The foundations of a few log huts were discovered there sometime around 1960 and excavated, proving that some Vikings landed and settled there around 1000 A.D. They sailed as far as Gaspe and brought some native plants from there to the L'Anse-Aux-Meadows site. There's a re-creation of a few of their huts and some period-correct dudes walking around in spikey helmets sharpening swords. It was definitely anti-climactic; we were glad we'd gone to Labrador and would recommend anyone deciding between the L'Anse site and Labrador go to Labrador instead if you have to make the choice. Chuck was disappointed, especially after years of seeing the CBC vignette on the place.

The road up the "Great Northern Peninsula" as they call it is perfect - wide and smooth with nobody on it. Newfoundland, although getting better, still has a ways to go to make their highways tourist-friendly; our 2007 "Traveller's Map" was wrong more than once, and signs announcing towns or turn-offs are often poorly labelled or just plain wrong. The positive side is that Chuck made up his own speed limits.

We hoped to reach Gros Morne again before nightfall but only got as far as Hawkes Bay/Torrent River, which is the only gas station between Deer Lake and St. Anthony that sells Supreme unleaded gas (princessy German cars require it). The good news is that the Audi got 6.3L/100km on the drive, or about 45 mpg on the northern road. Pretty darn good, considering the all-wheel-drive hardware and the full load of gear we had wedged inside.

It was pretty late when we got to Torrent River; before that we drove out to the Port au Choix National Historic Site (www.pc.gc.ca/lhn-nhs/nl /portauchoix/index_E.asp) but it was closed when we got there - no luck. The two "campgrounds" on the way were little more than gravel RV parking lots on windswept points of land. NFLD is not called the "Rock" for nothing - it's pretty much impossible to anchor your tent. If we camped in the wind between RVs, we'd be blown to PEI pretty darn quickly, along with the rest of NFLD's topsoil.

Magda spotted a municipal campground in Hawkes Bay open to 8 p.m. We go there at 7:45 and it was locked up tight. Huh. That happens a fair bit there too, things being closed before their time, but it's not big deal. Part of the laid-back charm. So we figured, we'd been making up our own speed limits all day, so we'd go ahead and squat on the campground, grabbing a choice RV site. Chuck figured we'd just pay in the morning. About 10 minutes later a VW bus came in and squatted next to us. Shortly after, the campground administrator showed up, busting everyone concerned. No biggie for us since we were going to pay anyway (and did), but the VW folks packed up and took off, so we ended up with the place to ourselves.