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So far, the north is the most untouched area of Labrador, a region where the nomadic Inuit and Naskapi have managed to escape the clutches of modern Canadian society - though the production of souvenirs such as the soapstone carvings available all over Canada is now an intrinsic part of their economy. Few visitors venture this far: once you've reached Happy Valley-Goose Bay from Lewisporte on the Sir Robert Bond, it takes a further four or five days for the coastal boats to reach their northerly limit of Nain - and a sudden storm can leave you stranded for days in one of the tiny settlements. Most of the coastal villages beyond Happy Valley-Goose Bay began as fur-trading posts in the nineteenth century, though some date back to the eighteenth-century establishment of missions by the Moravian Brethren , a small German missionary sect. Their old mission - consisting of a church, residence, store, storehouse and small huts to house visiting native peoples - still stands at Hopedale , 150km south of Nain (July-Sept by appointment; $5; tel 933-3777 or 623-2601), and at NAIN the mission has been converted into a museum called Piulimatsivik - Inuit for "place where we keep the old things" (July-Sept by appointment; donation; tel 922-2327 or 922-2158). From Nain you can travel onwards to the flat-topped Torngat Mountains , the highest range east of the Rockies; contact Nunatsuak Limited at the Atsanik Lodge (tel 922-2910; $80-100), whose owners charter boats for up to five people at $600 per day. They will take you wherever you want to go and pick you up when you've finished exploring, but you need all your own equipment. An astounding trip is to the Nachvak Fjord , near Labrador's northernmost extremity, where the razorback mountains soar out of the sea at an angle of nearly eighty degrees to a height of 915m. En route you're likely to spot grey seals, whales, peregrine falcons and golden eagles.
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