No sunset again (tired and bugged!), but a great morning with plans to hike all the trails in all the fishing villages south of the park.
We took parts of the Oceanview trail in West. St. Modest and saw their lighthouse:
then dropped in on a small harbour in Capstan Island:
before stopping in L’Anse au Loup. And the Capelin Caper began. First, we walked a sandy beach, saw a lot of dead fish, and, as I collected a giant handful of beach glass, David watched the fishermen just off shore:
He started to chat with Art, worker at the Labrador Fishermen’s Union Shrimp Company Limited’s Cold Storage plant beside the beach. I joined them and learned that the company brings in capelin, flash freezes them, cold stores them and ships to Japan and China. Apparently, they’re sold for 10 cents a pound and the Japanese brine them, dry them and sell them for $1.00 a FISH as a bar snack.
Oh, and the “greenhouses” we saw on the way to Red Bay? Well, that’s a mink farm. AND this same company sells them their capelin.
As we continued to chat, we watched the whole process evolve:
Samples from each box are checked for male/female ratio, etc. then Nora fries some up for the boys:
We were invited to sample as well, and they were delicious. Much like the smelt I remember from long ago! It was a great experience being with these lovely people.
We headed next to Point Amour. First stop was the Maritime Archaic Burial Mound, where the remains of a child who had died 7,500 years ago were found:
Across the road was a cemetery where a memorial to seamen who died in the sinking of the HMS Raleigh AND of a 23 year old, Ernest Ginman, who died in the Marconi Service. Many stories here:
The Port Amour lighthouse is Canada’s second tallest:
Along the shore is the Raleigh Trail which houses many pieces of wreckage of the ship that was sunk in the 1920’s:
David found his next MoHo here too:
Next stop was the Overfall Brook Trail in Forteau. We hiked a while then turned back (our nothing to prove theory), but did finally get a shot of this elusive butterfly:
We next drove in to Quebec and found this parking area for the Ile Aux Perroquets Trail (Puffin Island) and, after a walk on the trail and an entertaining chat with two town maintenance guys, we decided to stay here for the night. It was a more angry sea here:
and we couldn’t see the Puffins clearly but knew they were there.
This was a great day in Labrador.
Here are three views from my chair:
this one is the Puffin Rock:
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