July 26, 2006

L'anse au Clair, LB to Port au Basque, NF

We were up and out early to look for our final geocache. We brought the Leaping Lizard Travel Bug and our own Travel Bug: VegasBound. http://tinyurl.com/rhaxd. We really wanted to find this cache. It was the final goal we had planned for this trip. We hiked about 3 miles along the rugged rocky coastline and up a waterfall to find it, but we did find it. We put the Leaping Lizard and our VegasBound Travel Bugs into the cache. Way cool! There were little 'gnats' swarming us and they turned out to pack some nasty bites. Another rider we talked to later that day was from Canada and told us the little 'gnats' were black flies. He described them as a tooth with wings, a very sharp tooth.

We had a couple of hours before we had to be at the ferry, so we road around Labrador for a short time. There are only so many miles of paved road here, but we didn't ride far enough to find the end. The houses were all along the shoreline and in clusters that made up the small villages. A very different way of life here. God bless them if they can live here with those pesky tiny flies!

We took the ferry back to Newfoundland along with quite a number of people with huge coolers and fishing nets in the back of their pickup trucks. Probably bringing a fresh catch our to the rest of the world. We rode the 6 hour drive to catch the next ferry in light rain and fog for most of the ride. Once again, finding premium gasoline was a problem and we had to fill up with regular. The bike complained about it when accelerating uphill, but judiciously applying the throttle kept the pinging to a minimum. Once we reached Port au Basque, premium was readily available again. We stopped for some seafood in town before boarding. The midnight ferry ride was very quiet. People attempted to sleep. Some, judging by the sound of their snoring, had no problem!!

Miles Traveled: 350

This was the start of the trail to get to the geocache.

The trail ran up and down this rugged coastline.

The waterfall at the end of the trail.



We had to climb to the top of the waterfall to find the geocache.

Joyce, at the end of the hike, shaking black flies out of her hair.

Ferry from Labrador to Newfoundland.

Fishing Boats

Canadian Coast Guard ships.

A snowplow for a train at a Newfoundland exhibit.

Click here to go on to:   July 27 2006  --Port au Basque, NF to Truro, NS

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