Day 14 - Red Bay to Cartwright, via gravel

When we arrived in Red Bay last night, it was close to 1:00 AM, thanks to our late night ferry experience. As a result, we didn't get to see much of the town. When the sun peeked over the hills, though, we were delighted to find a really nice little fishing village (not that we hadn't seen any of them thus far). We had been directed the night before on the ferry by an enthusiastic local to go to yet another Canada National Historic Site. This one, though, was generally for the Basque fishing heritage in the bay, but specifically for the discovery of a Spanish galleon from the 16th century, the only one known like it in the world.

It seems there was a lot of discovering going on in this part of the world in the 60's and 70's, as some documents uncovered at a Spanish university led researchers to believe there was a significant shipwreck in the bay. Since a recent wreck had happened in the vicinity under similar conditions (which is still there, by the way), they were able to approximate the location of the Spanish wreck. Sure enough, under roughly 10m of water, lies an almost perfectly preserved Spanish galleon in pieces, to this date. This led researchers to discover an entire settlement, and smaller wrecks as well. One of which, a smaller whaling vessel, has been recovered and preserved and is open to the public. We geeked out appropriately, and enjoyed the morning soaking up this piece of history, in a very nice museum setting.

16th century Whaler Boat on display. 

Model of the Spanish Galleon located at the bottom of Red Bay. 

Local Fishermen.

Shipwreck which helped locate the Spanish Galleon on the bay floor. 

Inukshuk at Red Bay. 

Finally we left, topped off with gas, and made the turn onto the Trans Labrador Highway.

The Trans Labrador Highway, or TLH, is basically the only public road through the province. It is largely dirt and gravel with portions through the larger towns paved with asphalt. There are still areas of Labrador that can only be reached by ferry or plane. The TLH was constructed in three parts. The first, connecting Labrador City to Happy Valley - Goose Bay, was completed in 1992. Additional efforts in 1999 and 2009 completed a full highway system from Red Bay to Labrador City. Paving efforts continue on the Labrador City - Goose Bay stretch, but from Red Bay to Goose Bay there is nothing but dirt. You can read a bit more
here or here.

Along the roads lie a number of wooden sleighs, presumably to pull wood out of the forests in the wintertime, we still need to pose JD with one, since he is our sled dog.

We hit some of the smaller towns along the road, Mary's Harbour, St. Lewis, and Port Hope Simpson, none of which really offered a lot in the means of tourism, save a boat tour at Mary's Harbour to another island. When we pulled into Port Hope Simpson we had a bit of quandry: continue for a while or stop for the night. After fueling up we decided to check out the local "accommodations". There's a hotel that looks closed, a B&B that looked OK, and supposedly an RV park. It's such a stretch to call this an RV park that we completely missed it on our fist pass, and had to get directions back to it. When we pulled up we found a few sites in an over-grown lot, and what looked like a temporary office trailer. Not certain that they even had a bath house, we checked in the office, which was also the local hardware store, where we met the most useless and unfriendly person to date on this trip. After an awkward hello, the conversation spiraled down hill to the point that I wasn't even sure she wanted to rent us a site for the night, and I was determined not to pay this lady to stay at her crappy campground. So we pressed on...unsure of where we were actually heading for the night.

Port Hope Simpson also has the distinction of being the last place to get gas before Happy Valley - Goose Bay, another 415km away. About 100km in we found the turnoff for Cartwright, which is a ferry stop 100km off the highway on a bay. Since it was getting late we opted to head north to Cartwright, which is also the farthest north we can drive on the east coast, and find a spot for the night.

The Skamper, on the other hand, wasn't sold on the idea, and voiced its opinion by jettisoning the propane door out into the highway. Luckily I heard it breaking free, saw it out of the corner of the mirror and was able to get back to it before one of the other vehicles on the road could smash it into an unrecognizable shape. A little worse for wear, I made a hasty duct tape repair and we were back underway. Unfortunately, this would not be our last incident on the highway....

The landscape here is completely unbelievable and indescribable. We have never seen such blues and greens in our lives. It is amazing to think that this land was nearly inaccessible prior to the TLH, and is virtually untouched as a result.

 

Inukshuk and dog. 

A friendly local warning in St.Lewis... still now bears to be seen!