Friday - August 10, 2007

It rained almost all night but we woke up at 5:45 to no rain, a partly sunny sky, and the Strait of Belle Isle was pretty calm – great the ferry will be running. We arrived at the ticket office about 6:40 and got our ticket for the 8 a.m. ferry, and by the time the ferry got there the parking area on the dock was full so I think they had a full boat going back and it looked like it was pretty full coming over going by the number of vehicles that came off.

Our trailer was only about a minute drive from the terminal so we were glad to see that it had weathered the wind okay. Of course it was the first time we have had a site without hydro (wouldn’t you know it!) so we were concerned about the batteries and fridge, but, although the batteries were down, the fridge was still running, much to our relief, as they hadn’t been charged since the sun went down on Wednesday. We got hooked up and drove to Port au Choix which was about 95 km down the road.

We are now parked right, and I mean right, on the water and it is a beautiful spot looking directly out into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The wind has picked up again so the waves are crashing in, gotta love that sound, but it is cool – only in the mid 50’s. I think tonight will be an electric blanket night!! With the wind John isn’t going to attempt to barbecue, we will do an indoor dinner tonight.

After getting unhooked we took a drive through Port au Choix and what a pretty town and very prosperous looking – apparently the shrimp fishing is really good here.

This is the area where the Maritime Archaic Indians and the Dorset and Groswater Paleo-Eskimos lived and hunted thousands of years ago and this area has yielded the most information about their habitat and way of life, and is regarded as one of the richest archeological finds in North America. We visited the Visitor’s Centre that has a really great display about their life and a lot of artifacts which they have uncovered including intricate carvings, hand-wrought tools and weapons.

We then drove out to the Point Riche Lighthouse that offers a beautiful view out into the gulf. The waves were pounding in out there and with the flat rocks and the water a real blue green colour, we were reminded of Lions Head. Now that we are back at the trailer we have a really good view of the Visitor’s Centre standing by itself out on the point, hopefully we will have a wonderful sunset tonight!!

Tonight’s job will be sorting out pictures – John has taken 120+ since we last downloaded them so he has the job of sorting them out and then giving me the best ones for my photo album plus for putting a few on the blog.