Labrador Conclusion: Last 24 Hours

After three great weeks in Labrador with incredibly hospitable people and awesome campers I'm back in Saint John. Now that I'm less than employed I have tons of time to do things and blog about them - lucky you!

But lets go back to the last 24 hours in Labrador. We had to end our time in Postville a day early to catch the only flight leaving the North Coast in order to catch our flight back to Halifax. That was a bummer as we had a rushed good-bye with campers. But at least we got to say good-bye!

We lazed around Goose Bay on Friday and decided to end our trip like we started, with hilarious drinks from Jungle Jims:

Strawberry Margarita & Chocolate Swirl
(or something like that!)

The next day was better, we got in touch with our camp contact from Nain who actually lives in Goose Bay and she showed us the town and we were even so lucky to make a homemade meal at her apartment - yay for cooking!

We visited this mish-mash of a store (it sold souvenirs, clothing, lingerie, toys, hunting/fishing gear and had a military museum in the basement!). So after some hilarious browsing we checked out the museum, here are some of our finds:

Bombs!

If there's a helmet lying around, I just need to put it on

Giant gun, doesn't it remind you of Walkers from Star Wars?

Front on view

NBD, moose antlers under a table

Moose head!

ROAR! Bear head!

After our romp in the store we headed down to an awesome craft store (Slippers and Things) that I actually had visited back in 2007 on my first visit to Labrador. And just like before the owner was one of the nicest people ever and fed us toutons (Brennen's first time) and encouraged us to eat as much as we wanted...YUM!

We headed to our new Goose Bay friend's house and made homemade spaghetti sauce and relaxed for a bit before heading to the airport.

Getting out of Goose Bay was a-OK, but we were flying through St. Johns then on to Halifax. That's where we encountered our troubles...sigh. Our plane was first just 2 hours late, mechanical issues from Ottawa where the plane was coming from, then it just kept getting later and later.

Top line of the screen, the plane wasn't schedule in until 1:05
so that meant we weren't going anywhere for awhile

Departure time, 1:30AM, note the time in the top right corner
it was already 1:36, but thankfully we were about to board

We eventually made it to Halifax, flew in at about 3:20 and I made it to my parents around 4AM. Despite this unfortunate ending to a great three weeks I had an AWESOME time and hope I get back to Labrador again!

Postville Update: Last Night in Northern Labrador

We found the boardwalk!

And took a walk to the end of it:

But first we spied an old boat:

And then had a hilarious photo shoot:

We tried to take the above picture once before, and the camera took a big lean to the side...

Brennen tried to take a photo of the bay but my camera was still set on the automatic 'take 10 photos' mode so this is what happened...

A pretty pink flower I spied on the way back, most of them here have been purple so hooray for another colour!

Postville Update: Radio Famous

So yesterday was a pretty media filled day as far as things have been going. In the morning the radio station from Nain which broadcasts all along the North Coast called and wanted to chat with us and a few campers about what exactly we've been up to at camp. It went really well, just questions over the phone, but the kids were great and excited to be interviewed.

The second interview was from the Postville radio station which broadcasts locally only. This was a sit down interview in the radio station, which is conveniently in the same building where we are holding camp. Brennen and I were asked a few questions to help explain what the camp was about and so it. Our interview was live (hooray!) and hilariously between a JLo and Kesha song...we're on their level.

Also, please be sure to take in our post-camp day glow as we are looking no doubt at our best at the end of the camp day, right?

Labrador Adventure Update: Phase 3, Postville

We boarded the twin otter for the second last time today and took a 10 minute flight from Makkovik to Postville for our last week of camp.

I'm not sure if it's because the town has a population of less than 200 or because it's Sunday, but it has been pretty quiet around here since we landed around 3:45PM. We took an adventure stroll after supper to check out where we'll be spending the next week.

It seems like we'll have another enjoyable time:

A smoker and the sea

I'm a giant in Postville, ROAR!

There was an old row boat down on the beach, so we did what any normal person would do and sat in it and took photos:

Like everywhere in Labrador we found dogs! This dog happened to have the bluest eyes I've ever seen, I couldn't get a good photo...yet. We're definitely going to pay this wiggle-bum another visit so I'll try again. Brennen and the dog are now best friends:

Postville also has at least one cat. This has not been a common sight for us so far, it seems that dogs run Labrador. This cat was SO friendly and the softest animal I've ever pet. It also has pretty eyes:

There were these concrete steps just hanging out on the beach, perfect for sitting. So I clambered down the side to take some photos. Since Brennen's knee is on the mend I decided on a timered self-portrait. My fist attempt left me headless:

My second attempt is a bit more successful, but with an unfortunate rock in the foreground and it's pretty crooked. I'm going to work on my self-timer skills and perhaps invest in a gorillapod:

Potentially my next camera related purchase, gorillapod SLR

Makkovik Update: Out on the Water

It seems everyone in Labrador has a boat, and we've been fortunate to be invited out on a boat in both Nain and Makkovik.

Today was a beautiful day for it, a bit of cloud and a great wind to keep bugs away.

The folks who run the hotel we're staying in invited us out on their boat to try our hand at fishing and to have a boil up. I only learned what a boil up is today and I'll explain when I get to the pictures. There was a hope that we might see seals, whales or ice burgs, but we didn't get to see any. Regardless we had an awesome time and even caught some fish!

Group Photo!

Brennen caught his first fish! It was too small so it went back, but it was still exciting!

This is jigging, you run a long line with a hook on the end into the water until you hit the bottom. You pull up the line about 6 feet then make quick tugs on the rope trying to keep it about 6 feet from the bottom. Eventually (and hopefully!) you will catch something and you can feel the change in the weight of your line. Then hand over hand you pull up your line and hope that it's something you were hoping to catch!

I caught a rock cod!

Trying to pose with another one without it flicking me in the face

Again, a little too small. Back in it goes

A happy fisherlady

From jigging we caught 2 good sized rock cod and one cod (Lori, one of our hosts caught the real cod).

Then we headed up the bay to try our hand at rod fishing for trout. We didn't catch any, but I had fun learning how to fish with a rod...I was afraid of hooking everyone with my hook but thankfully everyone was in one piece by the end of it.

We traveled further up the bay to "Gull Island", nicknamed for the large amount of seagulls who live there. Thankfully there weren't too many around today and we were spared from being pooped on.

Lori brought a ton of snacks for the boil up - which is when you are out on a boat and you head to the coast, start a fire, make some toast, tea and eat snacks. I like boil ups!

Char bar - smoked arctic char...AMAZING!

Here's our fire, behind this great big rock to keep it from the wind, it worked wonderfully:

Boiling water and toasting bread, life in Labrador is AMAZING!

Brennen burnt one side of his toast, whoopsie!

Eating toast self portrait...flattering I know

A just about ripe bakeapple...remember the pie I posted?
This is the berry it's made from

Seal skull

Seagull nest

A pretty view and an awesome dog!

This is Molly, she's a really hilarious and fun dog who came along with us for the trip.

She took a big stick from our pile and played fetch with it for quite some time...adorable!

From this trip to Labrador I've learned you say yes to every opportunity presented to you, and if it's a trip in a boat you're guaranteed an awesome time filled with salt air and great food!