The Route We Took: Rte 510 S (paved and comfortable)
Lodging: Oceanview Resort Hotel, West St. Modeste, NL, CA
Food: Restaurant within hotel.
Joke of the Day:
This couple went on their honeymoon. Unbeknownst to the bride, her mother had substituted a pink, silk neglige for the white one she had intended to bring.
As they were getting ready to go to bed, her groom said to her, “This being our first night together, I’m feeling a little shy. Would you, please, turn your back while I get undressed?”
The bride said, “Sure, I’m just going to unpack while you get ready.”
She opened her suitcase and discovered the substituted neglige, which had been shoved into her luggage in her mother’s haste. She exclaimed, “It’s pink and all wrinkled!”
The groom said, “I thought I told you not to look!”
These are the jokes, folks.
If you get gas down the road from Riverlodge Hotel, remember how much you pumped because they’ll not know inside.
After leaving Mary’s Harbour, we were looking forward to Lodge Bay, which the guidebook described as one of the most picturesque towns on the Labrador Coastal Drive.
I’m thinking we missed something, such as a road, because we couldn’t find anything other than a residential area on either side of the river. While it was charming, it wasn’t different than anything else we’d seen. If you figure out where we went wrong, please let us know!
We stopped for a snack at Whaler’s in Red Bay. The food was decent, though there wasn’t much fish in the fish cakes, the service was friendly, and the t-shirts read “I survived the Trans-Labrador Highway”, which is true, so we bought one. I was going to pass, thinking we’d get another chance to make the purchase. We didn’t.
Serious fog had set in, and there was no visibility. We missed out entirely on the ferry to the island, Red Bay harbour, and any of the trails. We chose not to pay the $7.80 / adult entry fee for the interpretation center.
Pavement returns in Red Bay, which may have been my mom’s favorite part. I was sad to leave the dirt road behind as I knew this meant a return to civilization, even if gradual.
The drive from Red Bay to West St. Modeste, where we would spend the night, was quite stunning, even if we only got occasional glimpses.
When we got to West St. Modeste, we stopped for gas and checked into our hotel before parking on a side street. We took a walk down to the harbor, which didn’t provide much of a view due to the fog. There were plenty of crab shells, sea urchins, and whelk shells all over the dock.
A stroll on West St. Modeste's pier.
Leaving town for the water's edge.
Fog as far as the eye can see.
The lines of the piers
The walk was interesting, and continued past a dilapidated sawmill (O’Dells, who now has a mink farm down the road a piece) before turning around and retrieving our car.
I ordered caribou steak for dinner, and was served two slices. The waitress explained this was because the cuts were thinner than they liked to serve. Yum!
A few words on Labrador gifts and souvenirs, if you see something you like, buy it. I suspect this will improve as the roads improve and tourism grows. At the moment, however, with the exception of Moulder of Dreams pottery and some preserves / tea offerings, I haven’t seen the same thing in more than one place. So don’t kid yourself, you will not be able to pick that item up further down the road; and you will not be able to get it for less.
Credits:
Papered Pixels Studio