Four and a half hours on The Freedom Road in the middle of the wilderness. That was our journey from Goose Bay to Churchill Falls. Before leaving Goose Bay we picked up a satellite phone from the Hamilton Hotel for the journey. This is a phone that you can get free and it is programmed to dial 911 only. It is useful since there is no cell phone coverage between Goose Bay and Labrador City – not that our Rogers’ cell phone has worked since we left St. John’s. We thought it best to pick one up as I couldn’t imagine lying by the side of the road waiting for someone to come along if there was an accident and the car went off the road! Its called the “Freedom Road” because it has provided Labradorians with the freedom to travel to other centres in Labrador (mmmmm, where are they? – Churchill Falls, Labrador City and Wabush?) and other provinces by road as opposed to traveling by air or sea.
The road was a gravel road, which on the whole was not too bad. On the first part of the 294 km journey, maybe the first 50 km, there were road works which made it a little rougher, but the rest was OK. We could just imagine the people working with the “Stop/Slow” signs looking at us and thinking to themselves: “…and they think they are going to do this in a small car!” Everyone here drives a pick up truck! The road wound through the fir forested Mealy Mountains with huge drops on either side as we went over some of the gulleys. At one point the road workers were working on supporting the sides of one of these gulleys. We watched the dump truck reverse up to the edge, then unload. What a precarious job! If he had gone just a little too far it would have been a few hundred feet drop. The worst part was the dust. It was like a white out only with dirty mustard dust when we met a vehicle coming the other way. Fortunately, we only met about 10 or so. Nothing passed us and we passed nothing. We still had tons of rock, but in this area there is a deep top layer of sand. We were surprised to notice little cabins along the way. Some of them were obviously the road workers’ cabins, but others looked as if they might be for trappers, or fishers. They were always located just off the road. Also, running parallel to the road was the TLT for snowmobiles (Trans Labrador Trail). I think it will be easier to get around Labrador in winter and everyone has a snowmobile.
So what do we do in the car on such a journey? Well, we listened to music – the Beatles, Celine Dion, The Chieftans, some Newfie music, some Spanish music; we have discussed all the economic and social problems in the world; we have agonized over the current position of Mountain Springs; we have slept for short periods; we have analyzed and talked about what we are seeing and experiencing; and we have talked incessantly about our friends…. I am joking of course! But its amazing just how quickly the journey went. We are lucky, we get on very well together and always have lots to talk about – well almost always - So, I think that’s about it. Not much more. Ray and I decided after a conversation about the thickness of our finger nails that it was time to come home! But joking apart, it is so great to be here. Its easy to become isolated living in Toronto/Uxbridge. There are so many other communities and cultures in Canada that you can only experience when you take a trip like this. I think it’s true that Torontonians will relate better to people from other cities around the world than to many of the people in our own country.
We arrived in Churchill Falls around 2:15 p.m., checked into the Midway Travel Inn, and ate a belated lunch. Then we went out exploring. Churchill Falls is possibly the last known company town in Atlantic Canada, and it’s quite fascinating. Construction of the town started in 1967. Its residents operate one of the world’s largest underground hydroelectric plants. We hope to tour it tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
It took us about 15 minutes to drive around and get our bearings. We filled up the car at Stricklands, a gas station, garage and convenience store. We looked at the satellite reflector but couldn’t figure out a way up to it. Maybe tomorrow. The building the hotel is located in also houses: a restaurant, a supermarket, a department store, a library, a pool, a gym, an exercise room, a theatre, and a post office. Can you imagine. One stop shopping! Its really very cost effective when you think about it and seems to me to be a good model for small towns. Then we parked the car, braved the black flies and walked. We were walking up one street and heard some whistling – like a bird, but not quite. I asked Ray what he thought it was: “I think its two kids playing with each other and making whistling sounds to each other pretending they are birds; but I’m not sure where they are” said Ray. It was beginning to emabarrass me. I thought some kids were watching us and trying to fool us with their “bird songs”. Then I saw it. It was a parrot in a cage sitting outside one of the houses. My theory is that the parrot picked up the sounds of all the birds around and was repeating them as we passed!! We saw the church, and went down to the shore of Blueberry Lake. You have to be a little cautious because of the bears. They like to walk down the paths and are a common sight in town and at the garbage dump!
Anyway, we are off to dinner, then tomorrow we do the tour in the morning and drive to Labrador City in the afternoon. Note that if you have a copy of our schedule, we are one day off. We only spent one night in Goose Bay, not two. But we have booked 2 nights in Tadoussac.
A PS to yesterday’s blog: I discovered today that in November of 2000, the Sheshatshiu community, which we visited yesterday, along with Davis Inlet, asked the Federal government to help them with a local addiction crisis. Due to a number of factors, including economic factors and racism, alcoholism and gas sniffing were rampant in the community affecting children as young as five years old. I do not know what happened.
The road was a gravel road, which on the whole was not too bad. On the first part of the 294 km journey, maybe the first 50 km, there were road works which made it a little rougher, but the rest was OK. We could just imagine the people working with the “Stop/Slow” signs looking at us and thinking to themselves: “…and they think they are going to do this in a small car!” Everyone here drives a pick up truck! The road wound through the fir forested Mealy Mountains with huge drops on either side as we went over some of the gulleys. At one point the road workers were working on supporting the sides of one of these gulleys. We watched the dump truck reverse up to the edge, then unload. What a precarious job! If he had gone just a little too far it would have been a few hundred feet drop. The worst part was the dust. It was like a white out only with dirty mustard dust when we met a vehicle coming the other way. Fortunately, we only met about 10 or so. Nothing passed us and we passed nothing. We still had tons of rock, but in this area there is a deep top layer of sand. We were surprised to notice little cabins along the way. Some of them were obviously the road workers’ cabins, but others looked as if they might be for trappers, or fishers. They were always located just off the road. Also, running parallel to the road was the TLT for snowmobiles (Trans Labrador Trail). I think it will be easier to get around Labrador in winter and everyone has a snowmobile.
So what do we do in the car on such a journey? Well, we listened to music – the Beatles, Celine Dion, The Chieftans, some Newfie music, some Spanish music; we have discussed all the economic and social problems in the world; we have agonized over the current position of Mountain Springs; we have slept for short periods; we have analyzed and talked about what we are seeing and experiencing; and we have talked incessantly about our friends…. I am joking of course! But its amazing just how quickly the journey went. We are lucky, we get on very well together and always have lots to talk about – well almost always - So, I think that’s about it. Not much more. Ray and I decided after a conversation about the thickness of our finger nails that it was time to come home! But joking apart, it is so great to be here. Its easy to become isolated living in Toronto/Uxbridge. There are so many other communities and cultures in Canada that you can only experience when you take a trip like this. I think it’s true that Torontonians will relate better to people from other cities around the world than to many of the people in our own country.
We arrived in Churchill Falls around 2:15 p.m., checked into the Midway Travel Inn, and ate a belated lunch. Then we went out exploring. Churchill Falls is possibly the last known company town in Atlantic Canada, and it’s quite fascinating. Construction of the town started in 1967. Its residents operate one of the world’s largest underground hydroelectric plants. We hope to tour it tomorrow at 9:00 a.m.
It took us about 15 minutes to drive around and get our bearings. We filled up the car at Stricklands, a gas station, garage and convenience store. We looked at the satellite reflector but couldn’t figure out a way up to it. Maybe tomorrow. The building the hotel is located in also houses: a restaurant, a supermarket, a department store, a library, a pool, a gym, an exercise room, a theatre, and a post office. Can you imagine. One stop shopping! Its really very cost effective when you think about it and seems to me to be a good model for small towns. Then we parked the car, braved the black flies and walked. We were walking up one street and heard some whistling – like a bird, but not quite. I asked Ray what he thought it was: “I think its two kids playing with each other and making whistling sounds to each other pretending they are birds; but I’m not sure where they are” said Ray. It was beginning to emabarrass me. I thought some kids were watching us and trying to fool us with their “bird songs”. Then I saw it. It was a parrot in a cage sitting outside one of the houses. My theory is that the parrot picked up the sounds of all the birds around and was repeating them as we passed!! We saw the church, and went down to the shore of Blueberry Lake. You have to be a little cautious because of the bears. They like to walk down the paths and are a common sight in town and at the garbage dump!
Anyway, we are off to dinner, then tomorrow we do the tour in the morning and drive to Labrador City in the afternoon. Note that if you have a copy of our schedule, we are one day off. We only spent one night in Goose Bay, not two. But we have booked 2 nights in Tadoussac.
A PS to yesterday’s blog: I discovered today that in November of 2000, the Sheshatshiu community, which we visited yesterday, along with Davis Inlet, asked the Federal government to help them with a local addiction crisis. Due to a number of factors, including economic factors and racism, alcoholism and gas sniffing were rampant in the community affecting children as young as five years old. I do not know what happened.
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