As far as we can go.

We woke up this morning to an iffy looking day, after a night of stronger winds than we’ve seen in quite a while. The trailer next to us ended up with torn slide topper covers due to them slapping in the winds all night. As we were having our breakfast, we saw a news story about Rick Hansen being at Cape Spear this morning. That was all we needed to convince us that we should head that way. From the looks of all the jackets people were wearing, we decided to wear jeans and bring our jackets with us. That was a mistake. The winds made the clouds scoot away pretty quickly and we ended up with a spectacular, and very warm day, although it did remain quite breezy.

We took the scenic route to Cape Spear, and drove through Bay Bulls. This appears to be a bedroom community for St John’s, as there are several subdivisions being built in the area, with some very nice homes.

From there we drove on through Petty Harbour which is the home of the first Hydro generation facility in Newfoundland. This involves a very little dam, a very little pipeline, and a very little power generation plant, but it serves the purpose. At least they didn’t ruin the town or the harbour. As you can see, the clouds are starting to disappear already.

Soon we were on the road up to Cape Spear which is  the point where Rick Hansen began the cross-Canada leg of his around the world tour 25 years ago, and where he began the 25th Anniversary Commemorative Relay today. As we were heading up the access road, we passed one of the first relay riders, and ended up seeing the convoy a couple of times later in the day in St John’s.

The view from Cape Spear was terrific, and the weather was suddenly warm and sunny. This is the most easterly point in North America and as far as we can get from home and still be in Canada. It’s also the site of the first lighthouse in Newfoundland, and a terrific vantage point to see the ocean and St John’s.

Next stop was St Johns for a look see, and it was pretty congested in the harbour area. Quite pretty in some areas though, and we saw many streets lined with vibrant coloured row-houses.

Next stop was Signal Hill above the harbour, and another great vantage point for pictures. It was very breezy by this time, but the day was quite a bit warmer than we were expecting. I guess it’s still summer!

Signal Hill is the location that Marconi first heard a wireless transmission from England in 1901, and this building ended up being the headquarters for his communication company for many years. This site was the relay point for communication between Europe and North America until the trans-Atlantic telephone cable became viable in the 1950’s and the telegraph business finally passed into history.

Heart’s Content, Desire and Delight not to mention Cupids

This morning we woke up to fog and cool temperatures which was not surprising, but at least not the rainfall we were told to expect. We took off early this morning for the Baccalieu Trail, which covers the peninsula between Conception Bay and Trinity Bay. It’s a 230km drive, so we set out with the intention of seeing quite a bit of pavement. Our first stop after winding through several small coves was at Brigus. This spot is typical of most of the towns we saw. The streets are narrow and windy, with most of the houses situated right at the water’s edge. The water was very calm in the bay, and we walked around the waterfront for a while. In the 1860’s this tunnel was blasted through for easy access to the harbour. It must have been quite the work party to get this done in 4 months.

Next stop was at Cupid’s and we thought we’d just do a quick drive through after seeing the sights. As we were driving down the waterfront street we noticed a number of signs commemorating the 400th anniversary of Cupids last year. We ended up stopping right in front of the Cupids Legacy Centre which was built for last year’s anniversary, and decided to see what was inside. It turns out that Cupids was the sight of several firsts in British North America.

Sir John Guy arrived with a small party in 1610, and as the sign says, set up the first settlement. It proved to be quite successful, and stayed a viable community until 1697 when the French attacked and burnt the place to the ground. There were few people there for the next 100 years, but eventually the town prospered again. In 1995 an archaeologist from St. John’s decided to search for the original site, and found the foundations of John Guy’s dwelling underneath a local’s potato garden. They have spent the last 16 years uncovering the various foundations and have catalogued over 156,000 artifacts so far. Some are almost complete plates and cups, and some are just little shards of pottery. While we were visiting the site, one of the workers uncovered a small piece of pottery, one of several pieces found every day. We had a great time at the dig and were guided through the site by a local interpreter who was very enthusiastic about the site and all the secrets they’ve been able to uncover.

The structure on the left is a shell of the original Guy home built full size to show how large a structure a big wig required, the spot on the right is the recently uncovered graveyard.

After spending almost 3 hours in Cupids we didn’t have time to finish the trail, but did see some more quaint towns nestled in pretty little coves, including Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire and Heart’s Delight on Trinity Bay.

This last shot is of Shag’s Rock near Dildo at the base of Trinity Bay with the Bonavista Peninsula in the background. There are just so many great places to see here.

This evening the winds picked up quite a bit and the rain came with it. This storm is the remnants of the system that caused the tornado in Goderich on the weekend. We were in Goderich in July, and it’s sad to see how much destruction has happened to such an interesting place.

Admiral’s Coast and Killick Coast

We took the time to travel two scenic drives today. The Admiral’s Coast drive starts very close to our RV park, and continues from Holyrood through Conception Bay South and several small communities including the aptly named Paradise. We couldn’t believe the colour of the water, as it is almost a turquoise colour. It turns out there is a phyto-plankton bloom happening, and it does look impressive.

The whole drive is pretty, and provides quite a few spots to get to the water, including the Topsail beach area where we stopped for lunch and some kite watching.

The kite was being flown by a grandpa for a couple of kids under 7, and they didn’t keep their attention on it for too long. Too bad, it was a very cool kite.

From there we drove on to the Killick Coast drive which covers the tip of the peninsula above St. John’s. This is Portugal Cove which has a ferry terminal that accesses Bell Island.

Further on we drove down, and I mean Down, to the town of Bauline. We’re glad we did, as the place was great a spot to take some pictures. We just couldn’t get over how perfect the sky and seas were.

From there we drove back up the hill, and around the point to Pouch Cove, Flatrock, Torbay, and Middle Cove. At each spot there were lots of places to point the camera.

Torbay

Pouch Cove

Flatrock

And Middle Cove

This was a great day, with wonderful scenery and terrific weather. Who could ask for more.

St. John’s

We made it all the way to Holyrood near St. John’s this afternoon, a total distance of 1100 km in the last 2 days. We’re kinda bushed after all that driving, so we took it pretty easy once we arrived. The weather has warmed up substantially since our Iceberg watching days. On the day we spent at L’Anse aux Meadows, the temperature never got above 12 and during our travels yesterday we saw 29 on the thermometer. It was 22 when we left this morning, and topped out at 25 this afternoon. Much nicer weather, and it’s nice to be back in shorts and T shirts again.
We have no Wifi here at the park, so no pics. I’m posting this via our IPad and it does present some challenges for writing and editing, but at least we can communicate.

A couple more items we learned on the Northern Peninsula. An adult moose will eat 27 kilos of vegetation each day. With 4800 moose in Gros Morne park (we only saw two) they have a real problem with them overgrazing and they’re planning on culling the herd this fall. 500 moose are expected to be dispatched, so I think the locals will be well fed this winter. Also, there are one set of traffic lights in St. Anthony, and we didn’t see another set until we got to St. John’s. They don’t have many issues with traffic congestion.

A coupl’a t’ings we learnt

We made the trip from St Anthony to Grand Falls-Windsor today, so we’re kinda tired. There’s also no wifi, so no pics to add. I thought we’d pass on the sum of our knowledge learned on the Northern Peninsula.
First, about 40% of the population of Cow Head has the surname of Payne. This phenomena seems to happen in most of the towns, as everyone in an area of L’Anse aux Meadows has the same last name. Mind you there’s only 28 people in the whole town.
Second, most of the people on the peninsula drop their H’s when they speak, so a play about Ed and Ed from Cow Head can be confusing.
Third, bull moose are camera shy. Right after we left the RV park this morning and before I’d even got up to highway speeds we came across a magnificent moose. Once I stopped the truck and Sylvia got out the camera, the moose took off running along side the road, and though I shadowed it for a while it took off into the bush before we could get a picture. Too bad!
Fourth, Icebergs are awesome, and watching them break off pieces is impressive.
Fifth, Gros Morne can be translated to say Big Gloomy, and the name can fit sometimes. We figured that if the weather was decent today when we drove by, we might stop for an extra night or so to see some of the spots we missed. As we drove up to the park we were in the midst of a massive thundershower, and even when we got past it, the mountains were pretty socked in. Once we turned inland the temperature went up about 10 degrees, and the sun came out. Oh well.
Sixth, moose and caribou don’t eat potatoes. As there is no topsoil in most of the Rock, people plant gardens wherever they can. This includes right along the edge of the highways, as that’s where the best soil is if you can believe it. We ran across little fenced gardens in the middle of nowhere all over the northern peninsula. A lady we spoke with said they were all safe from being poached, and that the wildlife in the area leaves them alone too!
Seventh, the locals can harvest firewood with a permit, and they leave it stacked on the side of the road with their permit number on a small sign so no one takes it. That wouldn’t be safe in BC, the wood would be stolen in a heartbeat. The last thing is the locals pick wild Bakeapple berries and use them for baking or preserves like we would do with blackberries.

A couple more pics

I ran out of time last night to add these shots. The first is a fella we stopped to see in L’Anse aux Meadows. He was drying cod for his own use. They have short openings these days and he says the cod are coming back.

The second is a reproduction of one of the stained glass windows in the Washington DC Cathedral. It depict Louis Pasteur and Wilfred Grenfell. He really is a big deal.