September 9, 2025
After finishing a breakfast of leftover donair pizza, we packed everything back into the car to hit the road again. We passed through several small towns, L'Anse Amour, L'Anse au Loup, Capstan Island, Pinware... Each community similar in some ways, but completely unique in their own rite.
In Red Bay, we stopped for lunch at the Whaler's Restaurant. Red Bay was a fascinating community built on the shores of a bay once used by Basque whalers to process their catch before shipping it home. Saddle Island, located inside the bay, is a Parks Canada historical site that features, in addition to former lighthouse keepers' homes, several excavation sites, and a half-sunken ship. It was my bad luck, however, that there would be no tours today, and the wind would not allow me to fly my drone in such a picturesque area. Perhaps on the return trip I would be luckier.
From there, we moved inland through a barren, almost alien, terrain devoid of trees. Rocky hills and random boulders the leftover playthings of ancient glaciers. We found a side road that turned out to be one of the highest quality dirt roads I've ever driven on in my life. Soon, we found ourselves in Mary's Harbour thinking about gas for the car, and food for ourselves. Strangely, it didn't appear that this community offered either. A missed opportunity, in my mind, given the number of tourists who pass through here to get on the boat to Battle Harbour.
Instead, we continued on our journey until we arrived in Port Hope Simpson where we found fuel for the car, and accomodations at the Alexis Hotel.
September 10, 2025
After breakfast at the hotel, we bid farewell to Carol, the owner / front desk clerk / cook, and resumed our course which took us about 100km before finding the turnoff to Cartwright. This was another amazing dirt road that put many paved roads in Northern Ontario to shame.
Before long, we saw a sign for Paradise River and decided to turn in for a look. We immediately saw a large building with a sign from the Federal Government proclaiming, "Paradise River Airport". Indeed, it was colored in a pattern distinct to all of the other small airports we'd seen in Labrador so far. The problem was, there didn't appear to be a runway...
We continued past the hanger to the end of the road before returning without any indication of a runway, past or present. It wasn't until taking a look at Google Maps, in satellite mode, that I realized a small cross-street was, in fact, the runway.
We continued on to Cartwright and found dinner and accomodation at the Northside Motel. One unit was available, and a restaurant / local watering hole was located in the basement below. Several lottery machines, typical of the maritimes, were quiet on one side of the room. The meal was simple, but good. After a quick look around the community, we turned in for the night.
