Wrapping Up Labrador

We can't believe it.  Our nine days in Labrador are at an end.  Today was our last full day and we used it to visit some nearby locations that interest us.

We started with a drive down to Lourdes to visit the puffins. The Baie de Brador Migratory Bird Sanctuary (MBS) is located near Blanc-Sablon, in Québec, just across the provincial border from where we are camped in L'Anse au Clair. It is comprised of two islands -- Greenly Island and Île Aux Perroquets (literally, "Island of Parrots").  Together, these two island preserves are an important habitat for many seabirds to nest. Six major species of seabirds flock to the sanctuary’s two islands during the nesting season. One of these species is the Atlantic puffin.

Tourists are offered an observation point about half a mile from Île Aux Perroquets, which is not close enough to get a good view of the puffins.

Had we had good weather and been courageous, we could have paddled our kayaks out to the island, and perhaps we would have seen puffins like these:

 

But we did not.

We decided to salve our sad emotions by walking the nearby beach and hunting for sea glass:

Our view of Île Aux Perroquets was graced with some boulders peeking out of the waves:

We moved on to another beach for sea glass.  This time, our view of Île Aux Perroquets was graced by a small iceberg:

We won't say our haul of sea glass was massive, but we found a few choice pieces.  It was time to move on.

The nearby town of Lourdes, while small, has a religious attraction.  Our Lady of Lourdes Parish, a Catholic church, contains a grotto which was built in 1987. A local stonemason, Michael Flavin, offered to carve a grotto into a natural outcrop of rock near the parish church. Flavin was reportedly inspired by the famous site in Lourdes, France, where the Virgin Mary had appeared to a young girl, he built a series of terraces and niches, creating a place for reflection and devotion. The Catholic Women's League of Our Lady of Lourdes Parish began raising funds, adding life-size statues of the Blessed Virgin Mary and Jesus the Redeemer. Later came a walkway, benches, and delicately carved Stations of the Cross. A rosary made of donated fishing buoys provides a nautical link between the parish and the sea. The site is a tourist attraction. 

Here is the view we had of the shrine as we climbed up to it:

From the top, at the shrine, we had a view of the rosary surrounding the boat, presumably in memory of those who had died at sea:

We also had an expansive view to the northeast toward Blanc Sablon:

Having explored Lourdes, the Quebec portion of our outing was at an end.  We drove up to eat lunch at a pullout on the border of Quebec and Labrador.  As it happens, this is the trailhead for the Labrador Gateway Trail, a newly-constructed trail which leads down to the Jersey Trail:

As the Labrador Gateway Trail wound steeply down the cliffs toward the shore of the Gulf of St. Lawrence, it gave us a view of the point, in the distance, which we would round as we finished the 3.2 mile hike ahead of us:

We spotted this immense tabular iceberg grounded in the waters just outside L'Anse au Cotard, where we were hiking.  Kathy got a good photo of it and posted it to the Newfoundland Iceberg Reports Facebook Group Page while David marveled at the field of immense boulders we would have to navigate to get down to the shore opposite the iceberg:

As we descended, we got better views of our new best friend:

Nearing the bottom, we got a good view of the southwestern end of the Jersey trail below us:

From here, the Jersey Trail heads northeast toward the outskirts of the town of L'Anse au Clair, around the point in the distance in the photo below:

The Jersey Trail is a developed 1.5 km walking trail between L'Anse au Cotard, where we started, and nearby L'Anse au Clair. Interpretive panels along the route tell the story of the Jersey fishermen & settlers who made this place home.  Jersey is part of the Channel Islands, which are situated between present-day and England and France.  They have a rich and varied history shared with those countries and their cultures, as well as influence from Viking raids during the 9th Century.

Beginning in the 1770s, Jersey merchants established operations on the Labrador coast. One of the first was DeQuetteville & Co, a Jersey company that left their station at Harbour Grace, Newfoundland and moved to Blanc Sablon. In the decades that followed, several other Jersey firms followed. These merchants were engaged in the lucrative cod fishery and, secondarily, the seasonal seal fishery.  Along with the merchants came fishermen and their families to settle the harbours of Blanc Sablon, L'Anse au Clair, Forteau and L'Anse au Loup. The Dumaresq family were the earliest permanent settlers at L'Anse au Clair.  James Dumaresq was the first to arrive, probably in the 1810s. James chose L'Anse au Cotard as the site for his homestead.

In 2004-2005 archaeological research was undertaken at L'Anse au Cotard, where one can see the remains of stone building foundations and flagstone pathways.  Archaeological excavations focused on a partially exposed, mortared stone foundation that measure about 22 x 33 feet, with a small outbuilding extending off the western side.

We found the old ruins of the foundation, nestled at the bottom of the cliff, with door lintels on the front wall and back:

The structure is believed to have been a dwelling house built during the 1830s, possibly by James Dumaresq for one of his sons. The structure was apparently destroyed by fire in the 1880s.  The Dumaresq family comprised the sole inhabitants of L'Anse au Cotard.  Eventually, they moved into L'Anse au Clair (their winter home), abandoning this site entirely.

We reached the northeastern end of the trail in L'Anse au Clair and started our return walk.  As we rounded the point and started into L'Anse au Cotard, we spotted the Newfoundland ferry winding its way around icebergs as it left Blanc-Sablon for its destination at St. Barbe, Newfoundland:

It reminded us that we will be leaving Labrador ourselves tomorrow.  This time in Labrador has passed too fast.  We're hoping, however, that we'll see more icebergs as we move north and east around the northern coast of Newfoundland.