And we keep going and going and going…..
We apologize that it’s been a few days since you have head from us, but we are in the phase of the trip that we have very little cell/internet service because we are out in the middle of nowhere, and have been for several days. Let me pick up from where we left off: The overnight ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port of Basquex, Newfoundland. We selected to do this overnight ferry, as it lasts 8 hours and with the amount of area we still have to cover, this was a way to save a day.
Ferry #1:
We paid almost $200 to sit in first class style seats on this refurbished cruise ship. It was extremely uncomfortable to sleep upright in the chairs, even though they reclined. What I will tell you is that this definitely was not your regular cruise ship. While Matt was out wandering around taking pictures of who knows what, I made friends with my neighbor in the seat next to me. He was a Catholic priest that was sort of a “traveling priest” if you will. He was responsible for some parishes in the Halifax area, but he was coming north to go to Gros Morne National Park for a few days of hiking and then to do his substitute priest thing in a couple different cities. We had a great time talking with him as we drank some wine/beer. I wanted another glass of wine, when Matt sadly informed me that the bar closed at 11:30 pm. What? What kind of cruise is this? Also, by midnight, everyone wanted to go to sleep…we were just getting started..what party poopers.
After our last debacle with the rain, I just wasn’t sure I could handle any more rain. I do not understand how these people live in these conditions of cold, rainy, foggy, and early darkness every day. I found myself having some sort of seasonal depression, after we got off of the ferry, only to find ourselves faced with another day of rain. I can’t handle this! Wait, it only gets better. We drove to Gros Morne National Park, which was really beautiful in the few hours that we had sunny conditions. We made it through most of the west side of the park (headed north) when once again it started pouring rain. I was ready to throw in the towel, but had I had a towel to throw in, it would have been soaked too. This just wasn’t a light, regular rain, it was like we were driving through a tropical storm. The winds were extremely intense (40-50 mph) and the rain was coming in sideways and never stopped. Oh, and it’s cold still. I wish I would have had the Go Pro camera on, so you all could have experienced this craziness with us. So you guessed it, we rode in the rain again, this time for 2 hours until we came across the Sea Echo Motel in Port au Choix, Newfoundland. We brought our fully soaked selves into the motel, hoping they had a room. After we changed clothes, ate a terrible dinner, we went to bed, sleeping for somewhere around 10-12 hours.
We finally woke up to sunny weather yesterday, which helped my mood. It also helped us enjoy the rest of the coastal drive up to St. Barbe, where we would be catching another short ferry to go over to Labrador. The drive up the coast has been very pretty, as it is a mix of woods, ocean coastline, and small stops in all the little fishing communities along the way. We got our tickets and got in line to drive on to the ferry. We boarded the ferry and found ourselves once again eating gross food. Let’s talk about what everyone eats here: Poutine, which is french fries covered in brown gravy and cheese. It’s everywhere and just so nasty. They also use Cheez-whiz as a spread for sandwiches like mustard or mayo, which is also very strange to me. While we were eating this gross food, we happen to miss the whales that were apparently frolicking through the ocean behind our boat. How does this happen? That’s one of the things I wanted to see, but apparently that’s not going to happen on this trip. After our short 2 hour ferry ride, we got off in Blanc Sablon, Labrador and started up the Trans-Labrador Highway. We stopped in Point Amour to see a real-life working lighthouse and then that’s when it hit me, this is what we drove all the way up here for.
Let’s talk about the Trans-Labrador Highway (google it if you want a lot of information, this is just the cliff notes version of what it will say). It’s a “highway” that runs from Blanc Sablon to Labrador City. It’s approximately 1100 miles, which in many parts is not at all paved and is just gravel roads. You must pick up a satellite phone on one end of this and return it on the other end, as there are only four major cities along this route, and they are separated by several (5-7 hours) apart from one another. This means no water, no food, no bathrooms, no help if something were to happen, hence the satellite phone. We started up this said highway yesterday, making it to Port Hope Simpson, Labrador, where we settled in for the night. But, before we could settle in, Matt tipped the bike over with me on it. How do we drive almost 3500 miles and have no incidents and then Matt thinks the kickstand is down and it really wasn’t, so he goes to lean the bike over and away she went. He abandons the situation like a criminal and leaves me stuck sideways on this bike, which is now on the ground. I sustained a slight scrape on my left knee, but nothing major. After that, I was done for the night. Why me?
We are headed out from Port Hope Simpson and our goal is to make it to Churchill Falls today, but that might be a little overzealous. Happy Valley Goose Bay is our first stop which is about 5-6 hours from where we are now. Let’s hope for safe travels with no incidents, as this is the last part of the highway that is still just gravel.
Happy Friday Everyone!
