L'Anse-Amour, NL >> Red Bay, NL >> Blanc-Sablon, QC >> St. Barbe, NL (via ferry) >> Sir Richard Squires Memorial Provincial Park, NL
288 miles/7 hours (+25-mile, 2-hour ferry)
Woke up, folded and packed soggy clothes this morning. (I guess clothes dryers serve some other function in Canada.) Skipped breakfast so I could hit the road ASAP and catch the first ferry to Newfoundland. I rode out to Red Bay, where the road into the interior of Labrador certainly didn’t look paved, so I made a U-turn and headed back to the ferry.
Despite being overcharged for laundry (and the job not being very well done), my good luck streak continued: an 11a ferry was added to today’s schedule, so I won’t have to wait an extra two hours for the return trip. And it’s sunny, so I should have no trouble making it to Deer Lake in 4-5 hours, then pushing a bit east on the Trans-Canada Highway toward St. John’s ‘til nightfall. There’s a campground about an hour east near Birchy Lake that looks like it might be a good place to stop; or possibly up north by Flatwater Pond.
Might be smarter to stay on the TCH in case it rains tomorrow; then I can more easily bolt to St. John’s, which would only be a few hours on the highway. We’ll see.
Spotted two whales breaching on the ferry ride back to Newfoundland. Photos don’t do it justice as it’s a little hard to predict where they’ll surface. Also saw a pod of killer whales; about five jumping up and out of the water like dolphins, but their distinctive markings eliminating any potential confusion. Now my wildlife menagerie is complete! It was also impressive to see Labrador from the Newfoundland ferry terminal and both provinces during the crossing.
The most curious thing about Labrador – in my very brief experience – was that the coffee shop/bakery didn’t open until 9am, which is when everyone has to be at work, right? Those seem like pretty strange hours for a breakfast place…
