By Barry Zander, Edited by Monique Zander, the Never-Bored RVers
The Point d'Amour Lighthouse, overlooking L'anse aux Morts, where many ships went aground
Labrador (LB) and Newfoundland (NF) merged into one province in the 1980s, primarily to save money since it doesn’t seem to
Just to give you an appreciation of the size of the ferry, this is a Kenworth 18-wheeler exiting,
be a complicated area to govern. Looking at Labrador on a map, it looks like an eastern appendage of Quebec Province. It shares the Canadian mainland with Quebec, as opposed to having to take a 2-hour ferry ride across the Strait of Belle Isle or hop a plane to reach it from Newfoundland. Culturally, however, NF and LB are very similar (pardon my use of abbreviations; those are long names to repeat). I found it interesting that the ferry landed in Quebec, but a few minute after boarding our Prevost bus, we were in Labrador.
Fishing is still the leading employer as it has been for 500 years. The wealth of the area is from minerals and natural resources, and from those industries the province fares well. Many local men travel to the oil patch of Alberta Province to earn enough money to get them through the year back home.
Two interesting comments from Frank, our tour guide. Years ago the only bank in the lower coastal area was taken over by the Bank of Montreal, which later shut it down. The locals came together and opened their own credit union, which is flourishing. A true example of their pioneering spirit.
Frank also explained that the government built the roads in the 1960s “and hadn’t been back since.” In other words, the blacktops could use some repair.
The cove-hugging town of L'Anse-au-Loup
This visit was a bucket list item for me. Its remoteness has stimulated my imagination; yet, I found out that it’s not a lot different from other small-town rural areas, although the coastline with its numerous coves, outlined in clear blue-green water, and villages of mostly white rectangular houses is picturesque.
LOST & FOUND IN LABRADOR — As mentioned in an earlier blog, the Newfoundland and Labrador residents say
Found at the bottom of the inlet was this 400-year-old Norse chalupa
“everyting.” After spending several hours in the company of our Labradorean tour guide, I now realize that the sound of the letter “H” is an elusive thing. Frank misplaced the “h” in “tunder” and “tirty,” as in “We haven’t had a tunderstorm in tirty days.” Good news! I found those “h”s in the month of H’ugust, the Mighty H’eagle River and H’animals that roam the province.
Our impressions of LB were formed after seeing it primarily from a bus window for a few miles we traveled along the coast. Inland are the big cities of Happy Valley-Goose Bay and Labrador City, which, from the sounds of it, are towns rather than metropolitan. To reach them would have taken two days on narrow roads, with probably not a lot to learn.
The idea of touring in a 70-passenger bus is, no doubt, a turn-off for most RVers, as it is for us. It does have advantages, though,
If you’re looking for new experiences, Labrador is probably not the place you need to visit. I sense that the best reason to go there is to get a feel for the laid-back attitudes of the people there. No rush, no conflict, no real excitement that I could discern. It’s more of a step into a slow-down culture that deserves more than a few hours to absorb.
From the “Never-Bored RVers,” We’ll see you on down the road.
© All photos by Barry Zander. All rights reserved
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