August 30, 2018

   The wakeup call came at 5:15 a.m. so that we could pack our luggage and leave it in the hallway for pickup while we went to the buffet breakfast at 5:45. Everyone was on the bus by 6:30, as the sun rose, for the short drive to the ferry terminal at  St. Barbe.  The passengers spotted two moose, the second young moose the whole coach saw. It took over an hour for the loading process to take place. The ferry took 90 minutes to cross the calm Strait of Belle Isle going into Blanc Sablon Bay to arrive at the Blanc Sablon, Quebec ferry terminal.  The cost for the coach, 39 passengers plus the driver & guide to cross on the ferry was $487.00. There had been rain overnight and there was drizzle or showers on and off day. The temperature hovered around a cool 13°C during the day with some wind in Labrador.

   There was a half hour wait in line before the ferry started to load vehicles – transport trucks, RVs, cars with trailers, pickup trucks and another tour bus from McCarthy Tours which had spent the night at the Plum Point Motel as we did.  We found seats on the top deck bow lounge to read since there was a mist and just the waters of the Strait of Belle Isle. Our coach was one of the first vehicles off the bus.  We drove about five minutes in the province of Quebec then saw the Welcome to Labrador sign and its unofficial tri stripe Labrador flag.  

    After a stop to unload the luggage at the Northern Light Inn in L’anse-Au-Clair, the coach drove onto highway 430 for the drive to Red Bay National Historic Site, a UNESCO World Heritage Site.  The latitude is close to that of London England. L’anse is the French word for cove or small bay. 

   Along the highway there were many piles containing several cords of wood of one meter long logs, for use during the coming winter in wood burning stoves and furnaces to heat homes, rather than expensive electricity, oil or propane.

    There were four or five encounters with road construction on the way, which caused to windows to get dirty from the dust and drizzle. The normal speed limit is just 80 km per hour on the narrow two lane roads. We crossed the wooden bridge over the deep gorge of  the Pinware River.  It was a gorgeous view of the rapids but no place to stop to get pictures.  

   Upon arrival at Red Bay National Historic Site, we had lunch first at Whalers Restaurant which had been ordered ahead – either Seafood Chowder with an egg salad sandwich or two pieces of deep-fried cod with french fries plus dessert and coffee or tea.  Then we walked over to the Visitor Interpretation Centre at the Red Bay Whaling Station site, operated by Parks Canada, and learned about the whalers from the Basque region of France and Spain bordering the Bay of Biscay, who hunted Right whales in the 1500s for eight month each year.  

      Right whales and Bowhead whales were hunted from small boats known as chalupas. Right whales float to the surface when killed and were easy to drag to shore. Once heaved on to the shore, the blubber was cut away in chunks, with a special knife called a flenser.  The blubber was then thrown to large cauldrons and heated to release the oil and processed until the whale oil was pure.  Coopers assembled pre-fabricated oak barrels which held 211 liters of whale oil to be shipped to Europe where it was in demand for lamps. During summer up to 15 ships would arrive in Red Bay with up to 1,000 men working either hunting the whales, rendering the blubber or making the barrels to hold the whale oil.  When the ships left they held from 800 to 1,000 barrels each worth about $10,000 in today’s money. To add to the oil, the whales’ baleen was also harvested for the flexible supports of ladies’ corsets. These were million dollar ships if they safely returned to Europe.  Even the lowest sailor received 3 barrels.  It was a dangerous but lucrative job, like today’s oil field workers.

     Either due to climate change altering the whales migration routes, depletion from over harvesting the whales or the conscription of Basque ships to fight with the Spanish Armada in European wars, by 1600 there was very little whaling done and the seasonal settlements were abandoned.  While studying old Basque documents in the early 1970s, archeologist, Selma Barkham discovered documents detailing the Basque whaling industry at the Grand Bay. She coordinated an archeological dig in Red Bay and found evidence of the seasonal structures and burials grounds of the first industrial complex in North America. The Information Center has a two-storey museum explaining the research and a 1:20 scale replica of San Juana whaling ship which sunk in 1565 that the archeology divers explored.

   We returned to the coach for an hour ride back along the highway to L’Anse Amour Lighthouse Station with its lightkeepers house and Marconi station.  The drizzle started again and a fog rolled in for a few minutes as we crossed the Pinware River gorge before arriving at the lighthouse.

    Point Amour Lighthouse Station, Provincial Historic Site, was constructed between 1854 to 1857 with six foot limestone walls covered in brick anchored to the limestone. The small windows at the landing at each of the six storeys is made from quarter inch glass to withstand the 200 kilometer per hour winds. We were among about half of the coach passengers who climbed the 102 stairs and 30 ladder rungs to the level of the light and had a good view of the point and bay since the rain had stopped at the time. The water at the point is dangerous especially in the spring when icebergs are present, but there is a five knot current and many days where the fog is so thick and the wind so strong that neither the light can be seen nor the fog horn heard.  

   A Marconi Wireless Company station was added to the buildings at the lighthouse station in 1904, three years after Guigliemo Marconi transmitted the first Atlantic wireless telegraph message from Signal Hill in St. John’s, Newfoundland.  The Marconi station could communicate with ships transiting the Strait of Belle Isle and warn them of its rocky shores and treacherous circuits. On April 12, 1924, a Junkers monoplane, TheBreman, left Baldonnel, Ireland with a crew of two Germans and an Irishman attempted to fly across the Atlantic Ocean.  37 hours later, on April 13^th, they made an emergency landing on Greeenby Island, near Blanc Sablon.  William Barrett at the Point Amour Marconi station informed the world of the plane success at being the first plane to fly from east to west across the Atlantic Ocean. The lighthouse keepers were on alert during World War II for patrolling German submarines.  We started to walk the old road trail to the wreck of a Royal Navy ship from the 1920s, but a light rain forced us back after just 600 meters.  We only had accumulated 6,492 steps so far. It was time to board the bus to return to the Northern Light Inn in L’anse-Au-Clair.

   It was nearly 5 p.m. and everyone was happy to relax after over 10 hours of travel and sightseeing today.  Dinner in the banquet room was a choice of soup or salad and selections of Arctic Char or Chicken with a dessert of cheesecake topped with partridgeberry sauce.

   There was still a drizzle falling after dinner, so we cancelled our evening walk.

    Total steps 7,509