Red Bay, LB

Basque Whalers came to Red Bay for about 70 years in the 1500s. It was very big business as a successful season for one ship could take back a cargo of whale oil that was worth about $10 million in today's dollars. The area is now a UNESCO World Heritage Site as well a Canadian National Historic Site. Besides the standard Interpretive Centre, a small boat takes groups over to a nearby island where a guide takes groups around to explain the site, the history, & the process of whale oil production - fascinating. In addition, the town sponsors a museum on the Right Whales themselves, which includes a huge whale skeleton. 

The local folks here are so friendly & so proud of their heritage. A restaurant serves local seafood & goodies such as bake apple pie (tastes like a combo of apples & apricots to me). I was scheduled to take a whale watching boat tour tomorrow, but due to predicted winds & rain, they asked me to go on the harbor tour this evening instead. Schools here just finished up on Friday, & it's still pretty chilly, so the tourist season just getting started; as a result, about 2/3 of the folks on the harbor tour were locals/friends of the tour operators. 

                                        






   

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

boat tour to wildlife & glaciers

Image
I can now die a happy woman! The boat trip was fantastic in every way. (Major Marine 8.5 hour tour on Orca Song from Seward to the Northwestern Glacier in Kenai Fjords National Park) We saw SO MUCH wildlife, including several rare sightings & behaviors.  Here is the first of 3 sea otters we saw.  This is the sea cave & rocks where we got very close to see sea stars & jelly fish - many, many of each.  A dozen Dall's porpoises swam & played near our boat for a while. They swam so fast that they were hard to photograph, but we saw each one many times. This group of Stellar's sea lions is typical of what one sees in Alaska, that is no babies, just a group of adults hauled up on shore.   Though humpback whales are often seen in this area, they are mostly seen alone or perhaps a mom & baby. Not only did we see a whole pod, we saw them engage in what is called bubble net feeding. Many pods around the world do not engage in this type of feeding. There are...
Read more

Alaska!

Image
Top-of-the-World Highway This road runs from Dawson City in the Yukon into Alaska. The 110-mile drive today was a dirt road with the exception of a 9-mile long paved stretch in the middle - seems odd to have a short paved stretch in the middle of a long dirt highway.  arrived in Alaska! I've wanted to come to Alaska since I was 14. My day trip to Skagway last week was to a small corner of Alaska, but that corner isn't connected to this main part of the state, so this feels like my official arrival.                                         Chicken, Alaska Apparently, the original residents here wanted to name the town after a chicken-like bird called a ptarmigan. However, they couldn't agree on how to spell that, so they compromised on "Chicken". It became a small town when the Pedro Dredge (now a National Historic Site) was set up here to dig for gold. Besides a few crazy tourists who...
Read more

Gros Morne: Trout River area

Image
Exploring this little town, I first walked up a headland to the lighthouse; the old lighthouse was charming, but, like many, it's been replaced by a functional red & white modern little tower.                                    Then, I walked up the headland on the other end of town. A late lunch of pickled herring with onions & sour cream along with a bowl of Newfoundland pea soup (split pea soup pureed with lots of carrots & potatoes) topped off my visit. Adirondack chairs are quite popular here, & many folks have their own version.                                  After returning from my hike yesterday, I was wiped out. The walk was only 4K & not too steep, so I couldn't figure it out. Then, in the evening, I developed a throat tickle that I just couldn't shake - kept me awake for hours. It h...
Read more