The Big Land

My ride to Labrador

I'm now in Labrador and settled in at Pinware River Provincial Park campground. It's the only Provincial Park in Labrador, and I will certainly miss using these great facilities that both Newfoundland and Labrador have provided - it will be over 1200 miles before I will see any similar campgrounds in Quebec! Yup, 1200 miles, it will boondocking for at least the next week as I make my way across Labrador.

My ocean view campsite

 

With Pinware River as my base I've had a nice couple of days. Today was sunny so I got some hiking in, drove my first (but not last) Labrador gravel road, and visited a lighthouse.

My first Labrador gravel road

Point Amour Lighthouse

 

The most interesting thing, however, occurred Tuesday, late afternoon, shortly after I parked in my ocean view campsite. Spoiler - sorry, no way to capture this with the camera! The water was calm, lots of birds just offshore and in the water (turns out they were Cape Gannets) that were fishing - diving from 30 feet or so and disappearing underwater. I noticed some bigger splashes, got out my binoculars and spotted several seal - apparently also having dinner. Then I just start looking around, and . . . whales, they were, maybe, a half mile from the Gannets. For the next two hours I watched the show, then suddenly the whales are nowhere to be seen. Shortly thereafter, the birds vanish. Shows must be over, I go in back to get something to eat. Eating my dinner and I pick up the binoculars for one last look around - something is happening out where I last saw the whales. The sea is white with thousands of Cape Gannets on the water and more diving to join an apparent feeding frenzy, must have been a very large school of fish (or something) and the whales had left some. Fifteen, or so, minutes later the whales return and the birds depart, shortly thereafter the whales disappear - guess dinner was over. One of the more unusual things I've seen while observing nature at work.