St. Barbe, Newfoundland & L'Anse Au Claire, Labrador - July 8 - 9, 2015

St. Barbe, Newfoundland & L'Anse Au Claire, Labrador - July 8 - 9, 2015 

July 8, 2015

We left Port au Choix, Newfoundland this morning heading toward St. Barbe, and meeting with Elva Caddy, Veronica Stordahl’s Mother.  Elva is going to ride over on the ferry with us to Labrador and spend the night and come back on the ferry tomorrow.  Bev was worried we wouldn’t be able to make connection, but that was not a concern.  As we drove up to the RV Park at the ferry dock, there was Elva in her van waving and smiling.  

We had plenty of time to visit and introduce Elva to the others in the tour, before we loaded the ferry at 3:00.  We sat at the RV for a bit then when to the Restaurant for lunch. 

The trip across on the ferry was very smooth.  Elva was an immediate hit.  Since she has been on the ferry many times, she knew where to take us for the best view.  First it was just the three of us up there, but as others followed, and soon everyone was up on the top deck.   The rain was coming down pretty good, so we were glad to be inside.

The ferry actually docked in Quebec, but it is only a short bus ride to the Hotel. There was concern that when we exited the ferry to catch the bus for the hotel, we would get wet.  However, we soon found that the bus was backing onto the ferry to pick us up.  What service.

Elva Caddy with her niece Bernette

When we got to the hotel and settled in our rooms, Elva went scouting for her niece, Bernette, that worked at the hotel.  Before long we met up with Bernette, who was just getting off shift, but was due back at 5:00 am to ready the breakfast buffet.

There was a Basque dinner served at the hotel.  Once again we had a great meal.  We were all so tired that we turned in early because we had breakfast between 6:00 & 7:30.  We needed to be at the bus at 7:45.

July 9, 2015

We had a busy day on the bus tour.  Frank, the bus driver had lived in the area his whole life and was very informative.  We were taken to Red Bay, Labrador.

On the way, we saw a snowbank alongside the road, so Frank said it was a first for him, but he pulled the bus over and some of us, Bev included, had a snowball fight. 






 

Our first stop was the Basque Museum.  There we found about the Basque people and their arrival from their country between France and Spain.  The early Basque people were whale hunters.  They would go out in small boats and harpoon the whales, tow them back to the larger ship for processing.  They melted the whale blubber down for whale oil that was sent by the shipload to Europe.  It was very profitable, bringing about $900 - $1,200 per barrel. 

We were told of the ships that had been sunk in the harbor during that time.  Many lives were lost.

Following the Basque Museum, we had lunch at the Whaling Station.  We had time to visit the gift shop before we got back on the bus.

Point Armour Lighthouse

Our next stop was the Point Armour Lighthouse.  We were actually able to climb to the top of the lighthouse and look out.  It was an active lighthouse for many years with two families that lived in the lighthouse and maintained it.  Now it has a light that is run on power so no need to haul kerosene for the lights any longer.

Nina (Genge) Woodward & Elva (Hughes) Caddy

We caught the 3:30 pm ferry back to St. Barbe.  That turned out to be the most fun of all.  Elva was just sure that she would probably see people that she knew on the ferry.  Sure enough, we ran into her cousin Nina (Genge) Woodward and her husband, Ky.  Nina is a wealth of knowledge on the Genge family, so Bev was excited to meet her.  Wonderful people. 


Ky & Nina Woodward

 

Elva with our bus driver Frank

The bus driver, Frank, came over to join us at our table.  We got visiting with and found that his Aunt Winnie & Uncle Luke were friends of Elva & Orval.  They even traveled together to California, years ago, to visit Darin & Veronica.  After further discussion with Nina, we found that Frank might also be related.  Small world.  So much fun.






 

When we docked, Elva headed home, Stan & Bev headed to the coach to check on Monte & Max.  The cats were doing fine, but Marlene said they had not eaten while we were gone.  Their plates were still full – we through that out and gave them new food and they made up for lost time.



Ice Burg
 

Ice Burg