Wednseday July 20, 2016 St. Barbe, Newfoundland, Canada

We were up at 7 in order to go to the ferry ticket office with Art and Sharon.  We wanted to make certain of getting back this evening.  Everyone we had talked to seemed to say something different.  We were assured that they saved 20% of the space on the ferry for last minute arrivals.  We had a reservation, so we purchased tickets after being fairly certain of return.

We boarded the ferry through the raised bow.  The hour and a half ferry ride wasn't as bumpy as we expected.  It turned out the ferry port we came into is in Quebec Provence.  Labrador was a couple miles east of the terminal. Even though we had been assured of a place on the return ferry, we waited until tickets went on sale at 1 PM.  Return tickets in hand we started out see what we could see.  

First stop was a welcome to Quebec sign, the second was a welcome to Labrador sign.  We stopped at a veterans memorial which overlooked Battle Bay where we could see blue shapes in the bay.  As we got closer we could see that it was the remains of three icebergs.  We stopped at a visitor’s center located by the bay.  It was an old Anglican Church.

A little past the church we turned on a dirt road leading to the tallest Atlantic Canadian light house.  Art and I walked down a path toward the beach and found a cache.  My first find in Labrador.   On the way back to the main road we saw a whale surface.  Art and Gerri got some pictures.  There may have been two whales.  

Art and me at a cache

At a cache in Quebec Provence

We stopped at another spot and found a cache near an overlook above the bay where we saw the whales.  We headed back toward the ferry terminal and out to a local airport.  We found another cache.  This one was in Quebec Provence.  My first in Quebec.

On the way back to the ferry Gerri spotted a fox.  Then on the way down the hill to the ramp we saw another whale.

Irises grow wild everywhere

Whale sighting

We were lined up for the ferry ride back to St. Barbe at 5 PM.  This trip we boarded the ferry from the stern via a dropped ramp.  On the ferry we stopped at the souvenir shop and then went to the cafe.  While Gerri was waiting on line to order our food she saw some whales blow in the distance.  We all had cheeseburgers, Gerri and I split an order of Poutine.  We sat in the cafe area the entire trip back.  The crossing was a little smoother than it had been in the other direction.

It was still cold and windy when we got back to the park.  Gerri played a card game named 99 with about a dozen others of our group.  I talked to Moe, he hadn't had a good day trying his hand at geocaching.

Gerri read for a while, I did a few things on the computer.  It was lights out at about 10:30. It was a good day with friends and visiting beautiful places.