Part 4

The ferry to Labrador actually docks at Blanc-Sablon in the Province of Quebec. It is then a short drive eastward to the Province of Labrador. Our first stop in Labrador was at the L'Anse Amour Burial National Historic Site. About 7,500 years ago an Indian youth was buried with reverence and ceremony at this site. The body was wrapped and placed face down with the head facing the west. Ornaments and some spear heads were placed next to the head.

The area from St Anthony and up the Labrador coast is renown for whale and ice burg sightings, known as ice burg alley. We had seen some whales from the Newfoundland side but were yet to sight any ice burgs. So we were on ice burg watch from L'anse Amour to Red Bay which would have been our last opportunity to make a sighting. Thankfully, just out of L'Anse Amour we sighted, almost on the horizon, a white blob in the Atlantic Ocean. Yes, it was an ice burg. Not really a Titanic monolithic nemesis, but a large piece of ice none the less. As mentioned earlier as we headed further north the amount of snow on the ground and ice on the bays, rivers and lakes was gradually increasing. It appeared that spring was at least up to three weeks later here than Ottawa.

Red Bay was another small fishing village, less than 500 people, with plenty of ice still in the bay. All the literature on Labrador has images of large Inukshuk, prominent on the horizon, directing First Nations peoples toward caribou herds and village locations etc but unfortunately we were not fortunate enough, or travelling in the right locations, to see any of these. Weary, bored or stranded travellers seem to have made some effort to duplicate, in miniature, these distinctive rock structures along the road side and again someone has constructed some small ones at the Red Bay Tourist Information Centre. From Red Bay the road leaves the coast basically until Port Hope Simpson, which was our destination for the day.

Red Bay is also the end of the bitumen road, barring a short 100km section at Happy Valley- Goose Bay and through the townships of Mary's Harbour and Port Hope Simpson, until you get near Labrador City. The road we had heard so many horror stories about turned out to be a good gravel road. This is obviously determined by the prevailing weather. Prior to our arrival it had been dry, with no rain to speak of, for the previous couple of weeks. So, with the ever present road graders being able to do their work, the surface was quite good.

About 115km out of Port Hope Simpson the road junctions to either Cartwright in the north or Happy Valley Goose Bay to the west. From here to Happy Valley Goose Bay is a recently constructed section of road. This new section provides a road connection to the east coast from Happy Valley-Goose Bay. The scenery was amazing and the feeling of isolation was ever present with little sign of human intervention except the road. Wildlife was also sparse but occasional sightings of moose, just when you thought there was nothing about, kept us vigilant. You never know in this country what might be around the next bend in the road. Birds that appeared to be a type of red finch, maybe a red crossbill (?), were common on the road and occasional red grouse (?) was seen. We were in theory travelling across the south western end of the Mealy Mountains, soon to be the next National Park of Canada. As it usually happens - just as you think nothing is about - a black spot appeared on the road a long way ahead. As we got closer we realised it was a black bear. Wow, the first ferocious wild black bear I had seen in Canada! Once it saw the vehicle it took off and headed for cover along a creek. As we watched it was obvious it wanted to be on the other side of the road to what it was now on. So we waited for a couple of minutes while it tentatively approached the road behind us and continued in the direction it was travelling before we disturbed its passage. Fantastic, what a thrill to see a bear in the wild!

We had lunch next to the Kengmu River (I think. Some signs on their river crossings in Canada would help). It is just incredible the size of the rivers in Canada in general and the volume of water raging downstream heading for massive lakes and eventually the sea. The mere creeks we call rivers in Australia pale into insignificance.

We rolled into Happy Valley-Goose Bay, a town of approximately 7,500 people, strategically an important town in in Labrador. Self described as the "hub" of Labrador because of its air, sea and now road access to Churchill Falls and Labrador City. A town boasting many tourist attractions such as hiking, kyaking, skiing, snowmobiling, hunting and fishing, as well as the Labrador Heritage Society Museum at North West River a short drive further to the north. We were not in the position to take advantage of the many attractions on offer so we decided to head to the Heritage Museum. The museum had only just opened up for the summer tourist season, something we find a bit frustrating coming from Australia where attractions are not restricted so much to the seasonality of snowed in winters, but it was well worth the visit. Interestingly the exhibits were annotated in three different languages, Innu, Inuit and English.

We move on from the museum and check out a Hudson Bay Company store. Now closed as a trading post but still stocked with typical stores as would have been available during its 100 year operation starting from 1836. It was most interesting. Also on exhibition was a display depicting an ill fated inland expedition by Leonidas Hubbard, an editor for a New York outdoors magazine, and the incredible work done in the area by Sir Wilfred Grenfell.

It was time to decide whether we stay the night here or try to make it to Churchill Falls for the night. We were not under that much time pressure to have to travel at night and neither of us really wanted to travel at night when you cannot see anything anyway. Because of the long hours of day light at this latitude we decided to try for Churchill Falls. We had seen most of what Happy Valley-Goose Bay had to show us and we hoped to get a tour through the Churchill Falls hydro power station the next day.

That night we stayed in a hunters lodge in Churchill Falls. The hunters in Canada know how to look after themselves. Basic but with a fully appointed kitchen, big open fire place in the lounge/dining area, two separate bathrooms and multiple bedrooms. A bit more palatial than a tent next to a swamp! The next day we tried for a tour of the power station but the morning guide had decided to have the day off. So rather than wait for the afternoon tour we decided to try for a tour of the iron mine at Labrador City instead. The power station was not visible from the local roads, mainly because it is an underground power station, but the digital sign outside the entrance told us they were producing 3616 megawatts of power at the time. The station has a capacity of over 5,400 megawatts when in peak production. The majority of the power, I believe, is all sold to America via Quebec. The volume of water exiting the plant is amazing and the Smallwood Reservoir, created by not one single dam but 88 separate dykes, covers an area of approximately 7,000km2. Although we were also unable to see the actual Churchill Falls they are reported to be 75m high (Niagara Falls are 52m high). Although, since the diversion of water for the power plant, water only occasionally runs over the falls.