Rob-n-Hild, Eastward Ho!

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Red Bay and Labrador Coast 136 km. 2:19 hours. Elevation maximum 244 metres

There-and-back today - driving and walking followed one-way tracks, but it was fun to see it both ways. It was also snowing for a lot of the day (when it wasn't raining), but it didn't stop us exploring along the Labrador coast.

First up was Red Bay - an historic whaling village established in the 1500's by Basque sailors and pretty much forgotten about until 1975! It is interesting to note that there are places that were lost still being discovered. The museum buildings were all closed at this time of year, but we peeped into the Right Whale Museum and saw some of the exhibits.

We sort of knew the museum would be closed and Hild had found some nice walks to do here, but before that we had to celebrate 17th May! We bought ice-cream and "Solo" and managed to find a covered picnic table (to shelter from the snow) and ate the ice-cream.

We did the Tracey Hill hiking trail - which is wooden board-walk with 689 steps (covered in snow today). There were lovely views of the bay for the first half before we got into the clouds, but we enjoyed the walk anyway. At the bottom we took off on the Boney Shores trail which led to the rocky beach and a lot of old whale bones. You can't say either of these walks were not as advertised!

The next stop was in West Saint Modeste - separated from East Saint Modeste by another village called Pinware (we don't know why). Here there was another board-walk climb, but only 683 steps. Easy-peasy so Hild did bunny-hops up one section! What was fun on this walk were the interpretive signs giving details of how people lived here in the early 1900's - cutting wood, collecting berries and hunting/trapping.

These are the maps of the walks. Over 7 k, with about 400m ascending - in the snow! I think we deserved the ice-cream, pop and chocolate today!

Did we mention the snow today? Well, that wasn't the biggesr weather shock because when we got up this morning, the bay outside our cottage in Forteau Bay was almost full of ice! Overnight the wind (helped by the tide perhaps) had brought hundreds of growlers into the bay. The inset is this section of beach yesterday... We figured it was because the little guys we had photographed yesterday had felt lonely and told their pals that it was fun here because weird people (us two) talked to them, but whatever the reason the difference was incredible - in just one night.

Coming up: Ferry to Newfoundland - if the ice lets us through!

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