Trippin' along with Lin & Maryke!: BLOG 17

On 5/20 Wed. AM we had a Drivers Meeting to prepare for the day's run south to Port au Choix, (pronounced “Port a Schwa”) our next stop! We stopped first at Flowers Island Lighthouse for photographs. This lighthouse came on line in 1877 and was automated in 1968.

Down the beach on Flower's Cove, we stopped to look at a large accumulation of many hundreds of “white rocks” on the beach. Several that I picked up crumbled and exposed a center smooth black pebble. Others remained intact. I later showed an example to a geologist who couldn't be certain, but thought they were small corals that had washed up!

Then we headed to the small town of St. Barbe to inquire about the ferry service to Labrador.

The terminal was unmanned between ferry departures so we used their pay telephone to make reservations for the Friday 5/22 10:30AM sailing to Blanc Sablon, Québec,with a 5KM drive to the first town in Labrador, L'Anse au Clair, where we had made reservations online for their campground Friday night. Leaving St. Barbe, we continued onwards to Port au Choix with a stop at several coves along the way.

We saw the ferry which had just left St.Barbe

We had lunch at Pond Cove harbour then a stop at Plum Point to photograph Old Ferole Island Lighthouse on a small island offshore.

Next was Shoal Cove with a lot of old buildings on shore.

Some of these old wooden fisherman's sheds needed a lot of repair!

More typical marine pix and a gull who could hardly sit still in the wind!

Near the road, we spotted a male caribou with prominent horns.

We drove thru Port Saunders, a large fishboat port just 5 KM from Port au Choix.

We finally got to Oceanview RV Park right on the beach in Port aux Choix.

After relaxing a while, we were off for the caravan dinner at Sea Echo Motel Restaurant with a terrific lobster dinner, even better than the last one! Back at the campground, heavy rain and high winds started about 9PM Wed. and continued all day Thursday so we stayed in the rig all day and read and worked on the blog. We later learned that Port a Choix is considered one of the windiest places in Canada!

Our only caravan activity on Thursday was to visit Port au Choix National Historic Site, but it was still closed for the season and the weather was so blustery and rainy that most everyone stayed in their rig. After dinner, we drove up to the campground office and took hot showers that felt very good and got good wifi in the office so we could post 2 finished blog posts. We were worried about the weather for Friday but the future weather forecast sounded good!

Local restaurant with a marine themed entrance

So Friday morning we went to Labrador on the ferry and returned on the Sat. morning 10:30AM ferry back to St. Barbe. See the upcoming separate Labrador post for all the exciting details!!

We returned to Port au Choix from Labrador about 2:30 PM Saturday afternoon with improved weather although still some wind.

We drove through Port Saunders to see the town and the boats then drove out to Port au Choix National Historic Site, where we found the Visitor Center closed and the muddy dirt road full of potholes. We continued driving to the end of the road and Point Riche Lighthouse. The current white lighthouse with red top was built in 1892 to replace an earlier 1871 lighthouse that burned down in 1890.

This 8 square kilometer site preserves remains from 4 different indigenous cultures from as far back as 6000 years: Maritime Archaic Indians (7500-3500 BP-before present), Groswater Paleoeskimo (2800-2000 BP), Dorset Paleoeskimo (2000-1300 BP), and Recent Indians (2000-300 BP) The Beothuk, classified as Recent Indians and also called Red Indians, were present 1500-200 BP before their presumed extinction in 1829, when the last several people died of tuberculosis.

Fifteen separate archeological investigations in many areas in or near to Port au Choix began in 1929 with the most recent in 2002. At least 3 Maritme Archaic Indian cemeteries including one 4000 years old have been discovered along with many artifacts. About 1/3 of the site consists of limestone barrens. All of these people lived off the land and the sea.

Artist impression of the archaeological sites in the barrens

While driving along the waterfront, we found another archeological site across from the fish processing plant and alongside the French Rooms Cultural Center, which was closed. This was another very rich Maritime Archaic Indian burial site from 4400-3300 years ago where they found 4 burial sites with 117 skeletons in 56 graves. These burials were accompanied by “grave goods” with red ochre sprinkled on top. Grave goods found were great auk (bird) bones, combs and pins, gull bones and carved bone pins.

A place to walk and think of how the Indians lived thousands of years ago---We liked the pattern in the stone wall

Driving back to the campground we noticed that Ben's Studio was now open. This local artist, Ben Ploughman, specializes in very interesting folk art, most of which has a Newfoundland fishing or marine connection.

We really liked his art, especially when he told us that most of the wood used in his art is recycled from old lobster traps no longer in service. Ben offers a custom option where you can insert a whale, cloud, puffin, iceberg or fisherman into any one of his pieces for a slight charge! That's an interesting option that I've never heard of an artist offering!

This was one of our favorites! Notice the recycled wood from old lobsterpots

Ben's Studio in the recent past was called the Museum of Whales and Things since Ben has a longtime interest in marine mammals and has collected a skeleton from a sperm whale and dolphins and has them exhibited in a large separate shed. This was a very good personal visit!