Blanc Sablon to St. Barbe ferry (8/11/23 Fri)

On a late night bathroom stumble I was awestruck by what appeared to be light leaking through the walls and ceiling of the bathroom. Once back in bed and thinking about it I realized there was no way it was light leaking from both the above and side rooms. It had to be some form of BioLuminescent mold/fungi. At that point I grabbed my phone and tried to capture a photo of it, with very limitted success. I did get Anne up to see it so its real. I googled awhile and suspect it to be FoxFire fungi. I almost want some for my home bathroom. OK maybe not, but it was really cool.

We woke up around 0700 and made coffee in the room microwave. Anne also made herself oatmeal, just in case we found no food. We used the last of our water for coffee. A sign in the room indicated this area was also under a boil order for drinking tap water. But we had no way to boil in our room. They had provided two water bottles for the coffee maker, but we had used those the first morning. With dinner last night we bought two more bottles of water so we could have coffee and oatmeal this morning before the restaurant would be open.

A new iceburg had floated into the mouth of our bay. Anne watched it move from one edge to the other as we packed up. It also seemed to calve off a large chunk that continued along together but tumbled independantly. At times going nearly all below the surface, and other with a nice high fin jutting out.

The ride back south down the coast was just as scenic as our ride up was. A few towns seemed to be lit from the heavens, but mostly things stayed gloomy looking. We took more photos and stopped for gas at the Ultramar in Forteau. They didn't have premium, so I used the last of my octane boost. The gas price was 1.92/L, one cent more than I payed on Newfoundland. Inside we purchased more water, coffee, cinnamon rolls and a sandwich for my breakfast. The cinnamon roll was really good, the owner said they make everything there and really appreciated the compliment.

At the ferry terminal we purchased tickets for the 1300 crossing from Blanc Sablon, QP to St. Barbe, NL. Yes the mainland side ferry terminal is actually in Quebec Province. You ride out of Quebec and into Labrador just the other side of town. There is a nice sign when you cross into Labrador, on our way up we took pictures infront of it.

While waiting inline at the ferry we talked with other travelers. The first was a woman from Deer Lake who rides, but was in a car scouting for a future ride. She had hoped we had come around by land. But we talked for quite some time before the truckers behind us walked up to talk. One of the truckers help build Manic 5, 54 years ago. He just drove a truck over that land route and said three days of rain on the dirt section made it horrible. He claims it's much better in November at -33C. Anne was happy to meet a real ice road trucker. We have a photo of his red semi truck parking at the front of the boat. Next I walked over to talk with the only other biker on this ferry. A woman on a older Suzuki bagger. She works at Churchhill Falls and was on her way home to someplace in Newfoundland to swap to her other bike (a 1400, she was on a 1200?). She owns a DRZ400s that is back at her place in Labrador. But she doesn't like the DRZ because it's too tall. She liked the Strom 650 and suspects that will be her next bike. She is limping home on a bald rear tire, all the way down to the threads showing. When I looked the tire wasn't turned so I could see the threads, so I figured she wasn't there yet. When I said that she rolled it to reveal about a foot of treads down the center 0.75in wide. She suspect worst case was riding on threads in the rain, so she was traveling today to remain on dry pavement.

The ship loaders completed the unload and told us bikers it was time to load. Including the half dozen or so on bicycles on this crossing. Our three motorcyclists quickly suited up and headed into the ships belly. The other woman was quickest, with Anne just behind her, while I took up the rear. Once below deck they sent the women to the right and me to the left. None of us expected that, but it worked out fine. Anne had one of her straps on before I had my bike strapped down and went over to help her. The other woman just played the woman card and let them do it for her.

Before finding seats in the food service area we took some photos from each of the ship's bows. The ship is semetrical so it can nose into the dock. Empty out it's payload of cars and trailers driving out the front. Then load new cars driving in that same ramp, but facing the opposite direction on the ship. Then they pilot the boat facing the other direction so they can dock with all the cars facing forward to drive off the boat by using a second set of ramps on the other bow. Pretty efficient for drivers. Bikes could easily turn around inside the ship, and often park horizontally in the front. I do wonder if they have controls on both sides of the cockpit area, so they have all the charts and guides setup for the port they are facing. Kind a cool setup to be able to sail facing either way, and have redundant exits if they had some mechanical failure of the ramp system.

The ferry cossing seemed a little rough in parts. With the boat rocking side to side enought to make the horizon drop above and below the windows when sitting dead center of the approximately 100ft wide ship.

Once off the ferry we headed for Shallow Bay campground at the Northern edge of Gros Morne park. They had a campsite for us. If they hadn't we could have them lookup who did, and ride to a known campsite someplace else in the Gros Morne Park system. We bought firewood on the way in,because last year they closed up early.

The host at Shallow Bay, and signs around the bathroom areas told of a bear sighting in the campground. I setup the tent for Anne and went to the store for pork, boursin cheese, wraps, wine, carrots, chips, cresent rolls, wine and paper towels.

It took a little splitting to get a cooking fire going, but the meal turned out great. Six cubes of bourbon to a pork round tasted amazing. Especially after the pork was cooked with Montreal Maple spices. OK, not every crescent role was fully cooked, but close enough.