Mary’s Harbour and Battle Harbour are linked by geography, history, and politics. After a fire in the 1930s destroyed much of Battle Harbour, including the hospital, the Grenfell Mission decided to rebuild the hospital at Mary’s Harbour. At the time there were three families here.

With Newfoundland and Labrador becoming part of Canada the decision was made to try to consolidate the many fishing outposts into central villages. Battle Harbour residents were then induced to move across the bay to Mary’s, as were other small outposts in the area.

That policy was (and is) controversial. With the collapse of the cod fishery, the folks hanging onto to their outposts were forced to move to the bigger centers or out of the region entirely. As partial compensation, most of the locals have a waterfront view of the harbour…

…With their own fresh water river and lake, abundantly stocked with trout and for part of the year, Atlantic Salmon.

Mary’s Harbour industry consists of a small fish packing plant – currently finishing up on the crab catch; government jobs; and a few small businesses catering to the locals, amongst which is the Acreman’s Store, which moved from Battle Harbour in the early 1960s, and is now run by the son of the original owner.

It is small, as you can see above, but carries the basic necessities including a modest selection of fresh fruits and veggies. There are two other small establishments as well.

Our move to Mary’s Harbour was to find an Internet connection so we could update ourselves more easily on ice and weather conditions, and pick up/send various drawings for the FPB 64 to New Zealand.

Diane (right) and Hailey (left) work in the Battle Harbour ferry office and interpretive center. Their wireless signal is unencrypted, and available in the harbor. They are also a font of local information. So we asked if there was anywhere around we could buy a bit of caribou meat, having now developed a taste for this local delicacy.

"No, there isn’t anywhere to buy it," came the reply, "But we have some we will give you." Turns out Hailey’s family had a freezer stocked with caribou. The immediate result, caribou steak, is seen above – followed by caribou and eggs, and caribou chili.

The indigenous fauna includes black bears (pesky but not usually dangerous), polar bears (they like to tear up cabins – but do not seem to bother people), a variety of biting insects, the aforementioned caribou, moose, and Labrador retrievers.

Walking through town we came upon this gentlemen and his truck loaded with seedlings.

The local growing season is very short, maybe three months in a good year, and he has a business selling seedlings which he starts in his greenhouse. We learned that you can parboil small potatoes and then freeze them, You can also freeze the green leaves of scallions.

Nothing emphasizes how hard this land is better than the way in which power poles are supported. Since most of Labrador is rock – there is little soil – you typically see cribs like these filled with rocks to support the poles.

Since food is a big deal on this cruise ship, we thought we would include this photo of last night’s dinner, much of the ingredients having come from the local markets. It tastes as good as it photographs too.

It is looking like we have some time to kill before we find the right weather, so we are going to work our way up the coast and take in a bit more of Labrador.