The weather caused a change of plans this morning. We woke up to rain and a forecast of more in northern Newfoundland so we packed up and headed to St Barbe and the Newfoundland Ferry.
We left the motorhome parked at the local municipal RV park across the street from the ferry terminal and caught the 1:00PM ferry crossing to Lourdes de Blanc-Sablon, Quebec which is a couple of miles from the Labrador border on the Straits of Belle Isle.The crossing on the Apollo takes 90 minutes and by the time we cleared the Newfoundland coast the sun was back out and we had a beautiful afternoon.
We checked into the Northern Lights Inn and headed up the coast to Red Bay, the end of the paved road on the Labrador Coastal Drive.
Red Bay is the site of a 1500's Basque Whaling settlement and includes the discovery of a Basque whaling ship that had sunk there 400 years ago. The site is a National historic Site for Parks Canada ad they have a beautiful exhibit there that displays information on the Right Whale that inhabited the area as well as the recovery of the wreck of the Basque whaler.
The Basques populated the Labrador coast for over 70 years beginning in 1520's with as many as several hundred men in 15 vessels in pursuit of whale oil, at the time a source of fuel for lights and in medicine.
They remained over the summer killing whales and rendering the oil.
The Basque ship sunk after losing its moorings in a storm and was discovered by Canadian archaeologists who recovered the vessel in pieces, constructed a 1/10th scale model, and replaced the wreckage at the bottom of Red Bay for preservation.
We finished the afternoon with dinner at the Whaler Restaurant there at the whaling site and then enjoyed a leisurely drive back down the coast to L'Anse au Clair and the Northern Lights Inn.
The weather caused a change of plans this morning. We woke up to rain and a forecast of more in northern Newfoundland so we packed up and headed to St Barbe and the Newfoundland Ferry.
We left the motorhome parked at the local municipal RV park across the street from the ferry terminal and caught the 1:00PM ferry crossing to Lourdes de Blanc-Sablon, Quebec which is a couple of miles from the Labrador border on the Straits of Belle Isle.The crossing on the Apollo takes 90 minutes and by the time we cleared the Newfoundland coast the sun was back out and we had a beautiful afternoon. 
We checked into the Northern Lights Inn and headed up the coast to Red Bay, the end of the paved road on the Labrador Coastal Drive.
Red Bay is the site of a 1500's Basque Whaling settlement and includes the discovery of a Basque whaling ship that had sunk there 400 years ago. The site is a National historic Site for Parks Canada ad they have a beautiful exhibit there that displays information on the Right Whale that inhabited the area as well as the recovery of the wreck of the Basque whaler.
The Basques populated the Labrador coast for over 70 years beginning in 1520's with as many as several hundred men in 15 vessels in pursuit of whale oil, at the time a source of fuel for lights and in medicine. 
They remained over the summer killing whales and rendering the oil.
The Basque ship sunk after losing its moorings in a storm and was discovered by Canadian archaeologists who recovered the vessel in pieces, constructed a 1/10th scale model, and replaced the wreckage at the bottom of Red Bay for preservation.
We finished the afternoon with dinner at the Whaler Restaurant there at the whaling site and then enjoyed a leisurely drive back down the coast to L'Anse au Clair and the Northern Lights Inn.
