A Veendam Lifeboat and Tender
The title is accurate and misleading. At Red Bay, Labrador, there is no cruise terminal. The ship anchors off the coast and some lifeboats double as ship-to-shore tenders to shuttle passengers back and forth.
Red Bay is where this trip became interesting. You do not get to places like this easily. This village of 170 inhabitants was overwhelmed by the 1200 passenger cruise ship. No more warm weather, mostly a tundra landscape, and only here and there some stunted trees. The weather was generally gray, with some occasional sunny and foggy periods, temperature just above 50F (10C), but no rain. Got out the winter coat, but it was actually very good walking weather.
Red Bay Harbour
We got up fairly early to catch a tender to meet our “Lighthouse Tour”. This was a 75-minute ride at a pretty brisk pace over a very bumpy road in a school bus. Occasionally you were ejected from your seat, only to come crashing down again.
Point Amour Tour Schoolbus
The scenery was not spectacular, but very impressive. If this does not make sense, it was the utter desolation and stark beauty of the landscape. This is about as isolated as it gets.
Pinware River
If you are going to the store, prepare for a three-hour ride there and a three-hour ride back again. You better make sure you don’t forget anything important. In winter, people travel by snowmobile. Not like (hardy? ha, ha, ha) New Englanders who do this for sport, but out of necessity, and you carry a survival kit. Oh, yes, gas is about $10 gallon out here.
At the end of the ride was Point Amour, where the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada stands. This romantic sounding name may have actually evolved from the original French Point aux Morts (Place of Death) because of the numerous shipwrecks there.
Point Amour Lighthouse, Labrador (by Arjan Post)
One was the British HMS Raleigh, which in 1922 was the flagship of the North American British Navy and shipwrecked trying to avoid an iceberg, killing 11 sailors. We spent 100 minutes walking around the area. There was a nice shore walk. We saw some left-over wreckage of the HMS Raleigh.
Wreckage from the HMS Raleigh
Wildflowers on the Trail
After the return to Red Bay and visiting the information center and a small museum, I wandered out of town over some paths into the tundra until there were no fellow travelers left. I was alone with the tundra wild flowers, and sea urchin and crab skeletons. Walking on tundra is like walking on something that is a cross between a sponge and a trampoline. I stumbled on a local cemetery. I have never seen such a well and lovingly tended graveyard. There was an abundance of flowers at every grave.
Red Bay Cemetery (by Arjan Post)
We took a lot of pictures. We will upload what we can as soon as we get to a decent Wifi spot.
Photos © 2014 P.J. Gardner & Arjan Post. All rights reserved.