Nfld & Labrador - Garia Bay

 We landed at Garia Bay the following day and was immediately struck by the spectacle of huge slabs of pink granite.  It certainly reminded me of our Georgian Bay rocks in Ontario - only wilder.  The 380 million years old pink granite, with veins of quartz and feldspar, together with the many wildflowers on the heathland made for a very pleasant hike and quite a treat for the eyes and the photographer.  We spent a very pleasant morning exploring the area, at our own leisurely pace (or not).  I will let the photos do the talking.

You can see the vegetation at the bottom of these tide pools

Beautiful colours on the rocks

Hiking on the heath yielded many wild flowers - since we have to watch our footsteps, it wasn't hard to spot the flowers and always a treat to find a new one.

White fringed orchid found on the heath

Cloud berry

The carnivorous Pitcher Plant 

The one lone tree among the rocks and a closer look at it

Feldspar or quartz in the granite

Green ponds and orange ponds, depending on what's reflected or what's in them...

A wide angle to emphasize the size of the rocks

The zodiac taking us back to the boat did a side cruise to show us another side of the bay which has more trees than where we landed, but less rocks.  But there was an amazing rock stack with vegetation on top which made us wonder how it came about.  

I missed Dr. Marc St. Onge the geologist on our NorthWest Passage trip.  He would have volunteered all the details about how this would have been formed.  

Newfoundland & Labrador - Francois (town)

 Francois, (pronounced "fran-sway" by locals and spelt without the cedilla found in the French word "francois") is a small village on the south shore of Newfoundland.  With a population of 64 (2021) it is inaccessible by road and only accessible by air via helicopter or by sea.  It had rejected resettlment programs proposed by the government several times including most recently in 2021.  We had a fun afternoon visiting the quaint fishing village.  It is small but colourful and with a lot of personality.

I went on a photo walk along the boardwalk with the ship resident photographer, taking photos of things that caught our eyes.  There were quaint houses, beautiful flowers and even a sizeable waterfall, among other things.  Have a look for yourself - it's a refreshing change from what we're used to...

Francois from the sea

This is the first time I have seen the ship moored by rope to shore instead of dropping anchor.  The crew had to take the rope by zodiac to shore and tie it to a big rock.

Spring flowers welcomed us on the hillside, including some beautiful foxgloves

Green ropes tossed over some antlers or casually draped on a fence - there must be an artist living here!

Multi-use antlers

  

Rock art  that make you smile can be found along the path - I suppose you do need a sense of humour to survive in this remote place

Charlie's Angels??

And colour...

Waterfall in the centre of town

View at the waterfront

Clearly a fishing village

Big boats small boats

Complete with jelly fish in the water

As night falls, it took the town a long time to lit up enough for a night shot.  We were wondering if all the 64 residents actually live here or if some of them are vacation residents.  They are supposed to live in only 28 of the 47 dwellings here but certainly less than half the houses have lights on.  It was certainly an interesting afternoon visit.

Newfoundland & Labrador - Chaleur Bay

After almost a month of travel and adjusting back to a routine at home, I am now trying to catch up on writing up this trip to tell you about some remote areas of Newfoundland and Labrador we visited on the Ocean Endeavour.  From St. Pierre we sailed up to the south short of Newfoundland and stopped at Chaleur Bay.  It was a foggy morning and we got our first zodiac ride of the trip.  

It was a magical ride into the bay where the mist-covered tops of rocky spires reminded me of common subjects in traditional Chinese brush paintings.  There were also interesting rocky outcrops on the sides of the cliffs.  There were birds watching us move into the bay, including a pine grosbeak - a brilliant dot of red among the lush greenery on the cliffside.  

We were treated to a surprise concert on the water by the musician in residence.  It was particularly enjoyable to hear Newfoundland songs with the cliffs of Chaleur Bay as a backdrop.  The ship continued to sail towards Francois in the afternoon and we passed quite a few fish farms in the fog.  It was an interesting first day on board.

First view of Chaleur Bay from the ship

The crew taking out the kayaks for the kayaker's first run

The ship photographer circling the first zodiacs on the water

Seeing the rock outcrops  and caves up close from the zodiac

Mist shrouded cliffs reminded me of Chinese brush paintings

A cliffside waterfall

Interesting rock stacks on the cliffs 

Magical mists along the coast as we sailed towards Francois

Fish farms along the way

A Newfoundland folk concert at the foot of the cliffs