What a day!! Another day at the ferry terminal in St. Barbe, Newfoundland waiting for ferry updates . . . none of them good so far. As I sit here pounding this out to you, the news is that the ferry will sail from Blan Sablon in Quebec Province at 6:00 PM tonight. Sometime during that sailing, the Captain of the ferry will tell the nice folks in the ferry terminal here whether or not they will return to Labrador tonight at 8:30 PM . . . or return in the morning. So here we are, milling about, waiting (yet again) for positive news . . . as the wind continues to blow, no less as vigorous as it has all day.
However, during one of the periods of time between the announcements of updates, I made a mad dash on Highway 432 South, over the mountains that separate the northern peninsula coasts, in hopes of seeing a moose or caribou . . . and I had some luck.
This is Highway 432 that crosses over the northern peninsula. As you can see, the weather has been miserable! Yes . . . that is snow alongside the road, temperture is at 39 degrees with a howling wind. This road is not great, with numerous teeth rattling potholes hidden by accumulated rain water and the road has very narrow, very soggy, shoulders if I need to pull over.There are some areas with higher accumulations of snow. The last 24 hours added a bit, but then the rain melted it today!The rain and snow runoff has created hundreds of small lakes across the peninsula. I slow every time I pass one hoping to see a moose standing waist deep in the water and smiling over at me!! I apologize for the quality of this photo but I broke the top of a hill and there were three caribou crossing the road, headed into the trees. I stopped as quick as I could safely, grabbed my camera off the seat and clicked this pic just as they trotted into the woods. You can see that they are already losing the winter white coat and are changing back to their normal tan-brown coats.This was the heart stopper!! I was dodging some incredible potholes in the road when I looked up and here was this wet brown mass standing on the side of the road. Seeing this moose was truly a thrill and for a few seconds I was frozen just looking at him and braking to a stop. The moose was watching me very intently, and as I slowed to park the moose started to make head movements, looking to see which way was the best route to move away from me. I sat at a stop for a few seconds and we were in a standoff! LOL As I opened the car door, camera in hand, the moose gave me about three or four seconds before it pivoted and quickly moved on down the road . . . and with those long legs, it moved impressively fast! I tried to follow it at a safe distance in the car, hoping it would stop and let me get ahead, but the moose moved swiftly across the road, gave me a final look over its shoulder . . . and then it simply disappeared into the trees.
Well DAMN!! I was just told that the ferry has been cancelled AGAIN! LOL I am going to head back to the B&B I was at last night . . . but now I know where the moose are hiding, so I may be up and out tomorrow at sunrise to go see if I can get a better photo!! Have a wonderful night!!
What the Walrus said . . . 