Saturday, September 1, 2012

Ferry ride from Blanc Sablon to Natashquan, Quebec

The ferry, or rather the cargo boat would be a better choice of words, departed Blanc Sablon at midnight, giving us time to climb the road to the east and step foot in Labrador. Labrador would definitely be a neat place to explore, but that will have to be some time in the future. Blanc Sablon is basically two towns separated by 5k, a French speaking side and an English one. Needing to find a bank machine, we rode the 5k and thankfully found one that carried our symbol from Charles Schwab. Traveling internationally can be a bit tricky with exchanging money. Before leaving Colorado, we did some research and discovered that one of Charles Schwab's accounts does not charge any ATM fees throughout the world. This has saved us quite a lot of money and as long as an ATM has a "plus" or "interlink" symbol, we get that days exchange rate and are reimbursed for any fees charged by the local bank. We rode into town for money and to load up on food for the day and a half boat ride to Natashquan.

Sitting along side the ferry terminal building tucked between two walls to stay out of the gusty winds, we cooked a delicious pasta dinner, adding the jarred moose to the sauce. The moose was absolutely delicious. It tasted similar to bison. Not chewy or grainy in the least. An entire pot full of bowtie moose pasta. Yummy.

Although the ferry did not leave until midnight, we were able to board the boat at 8pm to situate ourselves and our gear. Rather than pay the extra $40/person for a shared bedroom, we slept the two nights aboard in the common area. The seats reclined a bit and we could move the armrests up making for fairly comfortable beds. It was nice to take a day off the bikes, eating, reading and looking at the beautiful scenery go by without any effort from us for once.


The boat makes a weekly trip back and forth along the Quebec coast, stopping at all harbor towns between Blanc Sablon and Rimouski, resupplying the towns without any roads connecting them to the outside world. The ferry continues all the way to Rimouski (an additional two days) that sits on the south side of the St. Lawrence river, stopping at ferry port towns after Natashquan.

Our favorite port town was Harrington Harbor, a boardwalk town with no cars and only 4 wheelers. We could not understand the use of even 4 wheelers. Why not just go with bicycles or walk? It's not like any building is more than half a mile from each other. The locals use snowmobiles in the winter months, so 4 wheelers do not seem necessary. Then again, people seem obsessed with getting from point A to point B with the least effort. A recent study of human transportation shows that most people are unwilling to walk more then 1/4 mile, preferring to drive for any distances greater than that. That is three blocks. Come on people!

After 36 hours on the boat (it was delayed a few hours because the crane that lifts the shipping containers on and off broke and needed to have the cables re-strung), we were both ready to get off and start riding again. Right out of the gate, the wind was directly in our faces, making for extremely difficult pedaling. The strong winds blowing at 15-20mph (30kph) with gusts up to 30mph (50kph) made for slow miles, sore legs and demoralizing moments. The fact that we were riding across the tundra did not help either as there were large sections of no trees making it difficult to get out of the wind. Although the riding was difficult, we were surrounded with fresh blueberries and raspberries. It was amazing. We would ride a few kilometers, stop to pick and eat berries, ride a few, stop and berry pick. I would imagine we ate at least a gallon of blueberries and over 400 raspberries within the first 24 hours. The blueberries travelled well and were added to our cream of wheat in the mornings and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for a few days, while the raspberries were eaten by the handful on sight. The blueberries could be picked 15 at a time simply by running our hands over the low branches. The berries were plentiful all the way through to Havre-St. Pierre.

2 comments:

  1. “It was nice to take a day off the bikes, eating, reading and looking at the beautiful scenery go by without any effort from us for once.”-- I would definitely agree with this. It's really great riding on a boat. You can have fun just by looking at the beautiful view around you, no effort! ;) You were on a boat for 36 hours. So, what are the other things did you do there? I’m sure, there were a lot! There are a lot of things you can do aside from sleeping in a cozy bed, right? ;)

    Lilia Dyal

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  2. Well, we opted to sleep in the common room. No cozy "bed" for us! Our 36 hours were spent just watching the scenery, taking walks at the port stops, reading, and chatting with the others onboard. To be honest, the boat was great for about 6 hours......I don't sit still very well:-) It felt great to get off and back on the bikes!

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