Flying down the coast with Air Labrador
For this vacation to the Lower North Shore, we decided to take a new flight that Air Labrador as added from Montreal to Chevery. Instead of the regular smaller plane, they are using a Dash-8, which goes from Montreal to Chevery without the need to get off the plane in Sept. Iles. The nicest part about this change, is that the flight does not leave Montreal until 11:10 a.m. Last year, we had to leave at 6:30 a.m., which meant that we had to get up really early to catch the flight, and had to stay at a hotel near the airport. On this trip we decided to stay at a friend’s house on the South Shore the night before, spend a nice evening with them, and then and have a nice breakfast before we went to the airport.We still made the usual stops in Quebec City, Sept. Iles, Natashquan, and finally Chevery. The flights from Montreal to Sept. Iles were not very full, and we were able to change our seats around so that all of the kids could have window seats. After we landed in Sept. Iles, the remaining seats filled up with people speaking with people from the Coast. Hearing their Coaster accents again, always makes me feel like I am just a little be closer to home. Because the plane was starting to fill upto fill up, we moved back to our assigned seats. This turned out to be a waste of time, since nobody paid seemed to pay much attention to the seats on their boarding passes, and everyone just grabbed whichever seat they felt like.
Besides that, the flight from Montreal to Chevery was uneventful, and we arrived at all of the towns on time, or early. The kids also handled the multiple hops very well, and were very well behaved except for a few arguements about whose turn it was to have the window seats again (after Sept Iles.)
To get from Chevery to La Tabatiere we needed to take a smaller Twin Otter, and after landing in Chevery we were told that fog was starting to close in around Tete a la Baleine, and La Tabatiere. The first flight left for Tete a la Baleine, but could not land because of fog, and had to return to Chevery. The report from La Tabatiere was that the weather was holding, so we were still hopeful that we would be able to make it to our final destination today. On all of our previous flights to La Tabatiere, we had not been delayed, so I was also hoping that maybe we would also bring some good luck to this attempt to land.
Just before leaving the airport in Chevery, there was an announcement that we might not be able to land in La Tabatiere because of fog, and if that if we could not land, then the plane would continue on, and we would then land in Blanc Sablon. All of the other people flying to La Tabatiere told us that this was still our best chance, since even if we had to fly to Blanc Sablon, there is a flight from Blanc Sablon to La Tabatiere first thing in the morning, and we would still arrive earlier than if we stayed in Cevery, which is actually closer.
I was actually thinking that it might be a good idea to stay in Chevery, since there were some friends and relatives in Harrington that we really wanted to see, but had not had the time for a stop over in Harrington on this trip. If we stayed in Chevery, and the weather was clear tomorrow, we could take the helicopter over to Harrington, then spend the following day there, and then fly back to catch our afternoon flight. I also knew that if we did make it to Harrington, there was a ride on Jim’s sail boat waiting for me, which would have been great. After thinking about it for a few minutes, we decided that since there was a 50/50 chance that we would make it to our final destination, we might as well try the flight to La Tabatiere.
We flew over the fog all of the way down the coast, and after about 30 minutes, we started to slowly decend down through the fog. I kept looking for a break in the fog, and I could see a few black patches of ground, but could not make out any details. I guess the pilots were having the same problem, and they pushed the throttle forward, and we started to ascend again. One of the pilots came back and told us that we would be flying on to Blanc Sablon, since it was too dangerous to land in La Tabatiere. It was interesting that I had actually exchanged a few e-mails with our pilot a few months ago, since he had posted some twin otter videos on Youtube, and I had asked him to post some on the Lower North Shore web site. I was glad that he had agreed to do that, since the Twin Otter is such an important part of the Coast, and it was nice to actually meet him in person on this trip. I spend much of my spare time building web servers, and creating web sites, but I am always amazed at how prevelant the Internet is now, and how it allows people with similar interests to connect with each other.
The rest of the flight to Blanc Sablon was uneventful, and the lady at the Air Labrador desk in Blanc Sablon, made reservations for us at Motel Blanc Sablon. The motel is a nice place, and has a great gift shop with lots of nice souvenirs from The Lower North Shore. We purchased some Tee shirts, sweatshirts, and a some stuffed baby seals for the children. We also met someone that we new from La Tabatiere, and her younger daughter had a great time playing with our kids while we were in Blanc Sablon.
The nearest restaurant was Pizza Delight, which was a 5 minute walk from the motel. It turns out that this restaurant is part of a chain in the atlantic provinces, which was a surprise, but it was very nice inside and the service was excellent. We were also told that the seafood dishes were made with local seafood, which met my requirements for my first meal on the Coast. The seafood pasta was excellent, and was even better with a few beers to wash it down. The kids ordered kitty cat pizza’s, which came in the shape of a cat’s face, and even had licorice on them for whiskers.
When we got back to the motel, the room was a little hot, so I opened the window and we could actually hear the ocean across the road. There wasn’t much traffic on the 138 in front of the Motel, and the sound of the ocean, and the cool breeze allowed us to sleep like babies.