On a clear day you can see 17.6 km across the Strait of Belle Isle, a channel that funnels the icy Labrador current into the Gulf of St. Lawrence. Southern Labrador has been the traditional home os the summer fishermen who first travelled to the lucrative fishing grounds of Newfoundland centuries ago. Today this coast is inhabited by the descendants of those fishermen.

During the late spring and early summer icebergs and ice floes drift southward on the current to melt in the warmer waters of the gulf. These mountains of floating ice originate in the high Arctic and Greenland and offer some spectacular photo opportunities as they drift down the coast.

The ferry from St. Barbe lands at Blanc Sablon, Quebec. ferries that serve the North Shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec also stop here. Take Route 510 along the 80 km stretch of paved roads that connect the communities along the coast. The next community, L'Anse-au-Clair, was founded by the

Dick Lee's Beaver (I.O.C.) OIL ON CANVAS BOARD, 16" X 20"

By: Robin Ledrew

French in the early 1700s. Its name means "Clear Water Cove" and you will find lots of fresh, clear, cold waterways along the way. While you are in this small outport, you can check out the local craft store and take a walk along "Doctor's Path", where long ago Dr. Marcoux would search for herbs and medicinal plants to treat his patients in the area.

Along the Forteau and Pinware Rivers during the months of July and August, trout and salmon anglers should be prepared to challenge their skills on the pools, rattles, steadies and falls. Trout fishermen venturing on the far reaches of the Forteau River, and indeed any of the excellent angling areas in Labrador, should bring a reliable insect repellant. A small provincial park at Pinware River is an ideal base for exploring the entire area. At nearby L'Anse-Amour, a site of national Historic Significance, archaeologists have uncovered an unusual maritime Archaic Indian burial site 7,500 years old. It is the oldest known aboriginal burial mound in North America.

Aboriginal people lived here as early as 9000 years ago when it was on the edge of the retreating glaciers. A series of small campsites and burial grounds are all that remains of these early relatives of Paleo-Indian caribou hunters of eastern North America. These early inhabitants of Southern Labrador later became fishermen and whale hunters in the Strait of Belle Isle. The numerous kinds of fish and seabirds along the coast also supported later bands of Eskimos and even Newfoundland's Beothuk Indians who made their home here.

Just outside L'Anse Amour you will find the Point Amour lighthouse.

Later European peoples also came for the riches that could be found in the sea. L'Anse-au Loup, Capstan Island and West St. Modeste are outports whose ancestors first came here as "livyers" (I live here) from the island of Newfoundland to permanently settle in what were first only temporary summer fishing stations along the coast.

During the month of August, Forteau is the home of the annual southern Labrador "Bakeapple Festival." The event is named after the golden coloured berries, also known as cloudberries, that grow in abundance in this region. The three day festival has lots of berry picking, baking contests, traditional music, dance, song and storytelling. The distinctive crafts range from caribou skin mittens and rug work to tapestries, carvings and colourful embroidered clothing.

At the end of the route is Red Bay, the site of one of the earliest industrial complexes in the New World. Archaeologists have discovered the remains of a 16th century Basque whaling station and several shipwrecks from the same period, including the 300 t onne galleon San Juan which sank with a full cargo of whale oil in 1565. the Basque operation at Red Bay employed several hundred people each summer.

Archaeologists have uncovered an astounding number of tools and personal effects that confirm European habitation of this coast during the 16th and 17th centuries. They have also discovered an 18th century fur trading post nearby. Many of the artifacts are displayed in the Interpretation Centre.

Land of the Vikings

Turning north from St. Barbe you are headed for L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, where the Vikings established the first European settlement in North America about 1,000 years ago. Bjarni Herjolfsson was blown off course on a voyage to Greenland from Iceland in 986 and reported seeing three new lands, believed to be Newfoundland, southern Labrador and northern Labrador. They were the first Europeans to see North America.

L'Anse aux Meadows is believed to be where Leif Eiriksson founded a colony around 1000 A.D. Eiriksson had grown up hearing Herjolfsson's story and decided to see for himself. With his thirty-five men they found their way to "Vinland" and stayed for a ye ar before returning to Greenland. His brother Thorvald also came to the New World and settled in Lief's house but was killed by the natives.

Thorfinn Karlsefni led a later expedition and during the colonization the first European-North American was born, Snorri.

A Norwegian team in 1960, led by Helge and Anne Stine Ingstad discovered the site while searching for Vinland, the first Viking settlement in North America. Helge met a local fisherman, George Decker, who showed him what locals thought was an

Salute to Jim Troke OIL ON CANVAS BOARD, 16" X 20"

By: Robin Ledrew

aboriginal camp. Excavation of the site later discovered the Viking settlement. During the 1920s, Newfoundland author W.A.Munn in his book "the Wineland Voyages" first suggested the L'Anse aux Meadows area might be the site of the Norse Saga's Vinland.

L'Anse aux Meadows was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1978. A recreation of sod houses lets the visitor experience life as it must have been, and an Interpretation Centre tells the story of the adventurers who came here years ago.

St. Anthony, is the largest town on the Northern Peninsula. This is the home of the Grenfell Mission established by the International Grenfell Association to provide medical services to the scattered and isolated population on the coast of Labrador. This Mission was founded by Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, who first served on the Labrador coast in 1892 and spent the rest of his life raising funds for hospitals, nursing stations and children's homes. Grenfell Handicrafts provide training and a marketing service for beautiful, hand-embroidered parkas and other unique products that can be purchased. A visit to this craft centre is a must for anybody visiting St. Anthony.

On the return trip , branch off Route 430 onto Route 436 and then along an unpaved stretch of road to Pistolet Bay Provincial Park at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula. The nearby lakes and pons over great canoeing and the park has hot showers and laundry facilities at the comfort station.

On Route 430, you head west across the top of the peninsula to visit the Watt's Point Ecological Reserve. Rare and endangered plants like calciphiles and other unique vegetation that you won't find anywhere else on the island.

The French Shore

Deadmans Cove is a little further on, and is one of the many Newfoundland outports where people have learned to overcome the many obstacles to make a living from the sea. The crush of spring ice would destroy their wharves, so the livyers devised an innov ative system to dismantle the wharves each fall and rebuild them the following year after the ice had gone.

The next community, Anchor Point, is the oldest English settlement on the French shore, dating from 1750. Its cemetery is therefore the oldest too. The local merchant family, the Genges, spent more than a century fending off French attempts to oust them from the area until the French fishing rights ended in 1904. Try some of the local shellfish delicacies while you watch the icebergs sail by.

Near Plum Point, partially paved Route 432 branches off to bring you to the east side of the peninsula and the small communities of Roddickton, Conche, and Englee surrounded by incredible wilderness. The river systems and large ponds are great places to canoe and there are many very isolated areas that you will be truly away from it all. You can fish for feisty Atlantic salmon in the scheduled rivers and tackle record-sized fish in any numbers of great trout pools.

These roads will take you across country and through an other-world landscape of glacial boulders,rocky bays and eerily flat sea-level terrain. There are extraordinary limestone barrens and caves and quarries at Roddickton.

Back on Route 430, you'll visit communities that were once part of the French Shore. In Plum Point, Darby's Island and Brig Bay you will find many relics of the French occupation. Old buildings, grave sites, tombstones and traditions are all that remain of the former French culture. A little further on is the Three Nile Lake Provincial Park where you can rest and have a picnic before you reach Bartletts harbour.

Another reminder form the days gone by are the place names that you will find. Castors River, from the French word for beaver, is just one that has survived. Anglers will enjoy the salmon fishing in this area.

South of Port aux Choix are Port Saunders and Hawke's Bay. This area is attractive to sportsmen with many lakes and two salmon rivers= East River and Torrent River. At Hawke's Bay the Information Centre offers guided walks across three kilometres of boardwalk known as the Hogan Trail. This takes to a salmon ladder on the Torrent River, when the salmon are migrating you can see them jumping up the ladder to the area where they will spawn.

Further south is the River of Ponds Provincial Park, located on a scheduled salmon river. It is ideal place for a meal or an overnight stay. River of Ponds has a number of upstream pools carrying trout up to 3.3 pounds.

As you continue south you will be back in Gros Morne National Park. The Visitor Centre has displays, movies and videos on the park. During the summer park attendants will offer suggestiOns and provide answers about Gros Morne.

Just south of the national park is a provincial park called Sir Richard Squires Memorial where you can see salmon attempting again and again to jump the falls to reach their spawning grounds.

Cormack is named after the Newfoundland explorer and was settled by World War II veterans with previous farming experience and were willing to relocate. They were given 20 hectares of land a six room bungalow and money to get started. Today their children are growing the sweetest vegetables and strawberries anywhere.

To Scenic Tours: Labrador Region