For an affordable ferry ride, go to Labrador
If you’re a British Columbian whose idea of a dream vacation includes a ferry ride, forget the outrageous prices on B.C. Ferries and take a trip to Labrador.
It costs almost $100 for two adults to take their car to Vancouver Island.
Compare that to the ferry from St. Barbe, N.L. to Blanc Sablon, Que. — an equivalent time and distance, but only $47. Both routes have a $10 reservation fee but, if you actually show up for the Labrador ferry, the $10 is included in the fare.
OK. So, there is the air fare to Newfoundland and car rental fees, but it’s a small price to pay for a cheaper ferry ride! But, why go to Labrador at all? Janis and I have visited Newfoundland half a dozen times, touring mostly on the eastern side, though we did venture southwest to the Burrin peninsula and north to Twillingate a few years ago.
This time, we wanted to visit Gros Morne National Park and L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.
When I discovered how short and cheap the ferry ride was to Labrador, it was a no brainer. We had to go.
We arrived at tiny St. Barbe in plenty of time to catch the 1 p.m. ferry. The challenge was not in finding the ferry dock. The challenge was figuring out how to pay for it.
It seems you have to go to the “terminal” attached to the Dockside Motel just up the hill, then drive down to lineup.
The ferry is not on the scale of a Coastal Renaissance or Spirit of Vancouver Island, but the MV Apollo is fascinating to watch as it docks and the bow lifts up like a great yawning jaw, then mats are laid on the ramp before it unloads.
There are no fancy dining halls and gift shops like you have in B.C. but an almost deserted “lounge” upstairs offered soft seats and a great view of an iceberg-free stretch of the Strait of Belle Isle.
Once on the Quebec side we took a right turn in Blanc Sablon, and quickly entered Labrador.
Scenically, Labrador is much the same as Newfoundland — lots of trees and rock and glimpses of icebergs — and way more potholes.
There was one stretch — maybe 10 kilometres of “pavement” — where there seemed to be more potholes than asphalt. We travelled in late June and were told pothole repairs do not start until July.
Sure, we could have slowed to 10 km/h, but we had a room to get to before dark and we enjoyed the challenge of driving with some speed — swing into the oncoming lane (why not, there’s hardly any traffic), sharp turn back to the right shoulder, head for the open space in the middle.
Finally, we got to Red Bay and the relief of turning north onto a good, wide, gravel road that goes Happy Valley-Goose Bay more than 500 km away with a connecting road to Baie Comeau, Que.
Our destination was only 90 km of gravel to the fishing village of Mary’s Harbour (population 474). We stopped at the downscale, bright green Riverlodge Hotel. It was clean, quiet and had a stunning view over the St. Mary’s River.
We had tasty fresh cod for dinner, not gourmet dining, but satisfying, and the staff and clientele were very friendly.
At 11 a.m. the next day we joined Harold on his 25-foot, 12-passenger boat. We were joined by two other couples (one of which had driven out from Vernon) for the 45 minute trip to Battle Harbour — occasionally slowing to get as close as safely possible to some of the icebergs heading down Iceberg Alley.
Pulling into the modern-looking dock, the fog lifted and the sun shone with a modicum of July 1 warmth. There are more than a dozen fully restored, brightly coloured buildings. Some are exclusive guest houses. Others function as museum pieces.
Once dubbed the “capital of Labrador,” permanent fishing structures were established in the 1770s and Battle Harbour thrived as the cultural centre of Labrador for most of two centuries.
A fire that destroyed the general store and hospital in 1930 along with the drop in cod prices led to its slow decline. It was finally abandoned as a permanent settlement in the 1960s although some families maintained homes into the 1990s when the Battle Harbour Historic Trust acquired the property.
While it’s called a harbour, it’s actually two islands with a “tickle” in between. Battle Island is on the north side with the restored mercantile buildings with Great Caribou Island on the south where most residents lived.
At one point, there were 300 permanent residents. With the schooners filling the tickle in the summer, the population jumped to about 1,000.
After docking, we wandered the island, including over the hill to the remnants of the first Marconi telegraph relay station in Canada.
Then it was a sit-down lunch of hearty bowls of homemade pea soup, delicious desserts and delightful conversation with the kitchen staff and other guests.
After lunch, we joined Cyril for a three-hour tour of Battle Harbour, that included a flake (fish drying platform) that was once the largest structure in Labrador.
Cod needed four days of sun and wind to properly dry, and had to be quickly stacked under cover when the rains came.
There’s a huge salt house that held up to 1,400 tonnes of salt, a church, a local resident with a pet fox and plenty of artifacts.
The tour wrapped up just in time for Janis and I to catch a solo trip back to Mary’s Harbour. The other guests, as most tourists do, opted to stay over at least one night. With rooms starting at $195 and being on a long vacation we, regretfully, had opted for the day trip.
Battle Harbour turned out being one of the greatest highlights of our many visits to Newfoundland and Labrador.
It was back to Riverlodge for dinner and, early next morning we resumed the battle of the potholes as we headed back to the ferry.