Newfoundland Labrador ~ the Labrador Part

30 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

Tags

Basque Whalers, Icebergs, Labrador, Pinware River, Port Amour Lighthouse, Red Bay, Trans-Labrador Highway

When we started out on this summer’s adventure we always included Labrador because, well seriously how could we not drop in when this close? What we did not actually register until being up here in Newfoundland, is that they come as a team. This province is Newfoundland Labrador, and we now even have the flag sticker on the back of Whack-A-Mole Wheels to prove it 🙂

Driving to St. Barbe we bought our ferry ticket ($48.75 Canadian) for the 1 hour 45 minute ride to Blanc-Sablon which is actually in the province of Quebec.

Ed watched in astonishment as water poured out of the mouth of the ferry, MV Apollo into which we were about to drive.

However, literally a few miles up the road you’re in Labrador and shortly L’Anse au Clair. Not putting to fine a point on it, the roads are CRAP! We thought we’d seen the worst roads ever in Newfoundland but it turns out they’re running in second place!

Typical and it does get worse.

Hey, it’s an adventure 🙂

In L’Anse au Clair we checked into the Northern Light Inn & RV. The “RV” part is actually just a gravel parking lot, with water, electric & sewer across the street from the Inn and restaurant behind another building, but it works and once again we pretty much had the place to ourselves.

Campground view includes an iceberg, so all is good.

Still being mid-afternoon we headed up 510 to see what we could find. The first thing that caught our eye was, L’Anse Amour. Well yeah, “Love Cove” is a place to stop! Turns out sometime back in the day the name was corrupted from the earlier name L’Anse aux Morts “Cove of the Dead” which probably is in reference to the many lives lost due to ship wrecks. Interestingly however, the oldest known ceremonial burial in North America is found here. Dating back 7,500 years is the stone burial chamber of a Maritime Archaic Indian adolescent. Carefully wrapped and placed face down, with a large flat stone on his lower back fires were lit around his body and offerings; a walrus tusk, harpoon head, painted stones and a bone whistle place alongside him. Clearly he, or his death, was significant but no one knows why.

Completely innocuous, you could drive right past and never notice the oldest ceremonial burial site in North America.

Further out this potholed, narrow dirt road we came to the remains of one of the many shipwrecks in the Strait of Belle Isle. The sort of fun part about this one is that just pieces are what are left after the British blew it up!

Bits and pieces from the shipwreck… sort of. Oh and if there is a picture of ocean water look for the white bits because it’s an iceberg. See it?

On August 8, 1922 the HMS Raleigh was either: running too fast and hit the rocks avoiding an iceberg OR the ship’s officers were drinking in celebration of their impending salmon fishing trip with the captain asleep elsewhere, when they ran aground not 200 yards from shore ripping a great gash in the belly of the ship. Eleven lives were lost, but the remaining 680 officers and crew spent the night in every nook and cranny of the nearby Point Amour Lighthouse and surrounding buildings. For several years after, the ship sat there looking fine (except for the 360 foot long tear in the bottom) and newspapers would run critical and humorous stories complete with pictures, about the negligence of the British officers. Finally the Admiralty had had enough and sent the Navy to destroy it!

At the end of the road is Port Amour Lighthouse. The second tallest in all of Canada it was completed in 1857 and is 109 feet tall. We arrived to discover not one, but two tour buses! Being late in the day we chatted with the nice lighthouse tour guides about when they opened and said we’d be back in the AM.

The Point Amour Lighthouse complex. If you look carefully at the horizon, you can just make out Newfoundland across the strait.

We absolutely loved the red and green doors into and out of the lighthouse.

The next morning after our visit with the light we headed on northeast along the horrible potholed 510. The Pinware River on its way to the Atlantic is a popular fishing challenge and we spent some time just enjoying its incredible beauty from the bridge high above.

Looking upstream into the hinterlands of Labrador from the 510 bridge notice that the Pinware River foam is brownish. That’s from the peat bogs. Even our drinking water was stained tea-color.

Looking downstream from the 510 bridge, the Pinware River flows out to the ocean.

Red Bay was our destination and we arrived just in time for an early lunch at Whalers Restaurant where the fish ‘n chips are pretty darn good.

Red Bay, Labrador. Our friend Suzanne who is also traveling in an RV like ours, came here a week behind us. She wisely took the tour over to Saddle Island across the water there to view the old Basque whaling site and village.

Fortified with food, I told Ed what I really wanted to do was head out the TLH (Trans-Labrador Highway). Just under 775 miles long this is THE road in Labrador and vast amounts of it, particularly the eastern half where we were, are not paved and wild…. seriously wild, they’ll lend you a satellite phone if you’re traversing from one end to the other 🙂 We set out and WOW it’s pretty country!

Along the TLH looking out into beautiful country. The white is snow not iceberg 🙂

Back in Red Bay we went to the Right Whale Exhibit Museum which is excellent and like so many places we’ve been, we had it to ourselves. Red Bay was a major and important 16th Century whaling station for Basque fisherman starting in 1530. For seventy years they came here in the spring hunted whales, processed the oil and returned back home for the winter! Can you even imagine?…

This is a nearly complete chalupa, a boat used by the Basque whalers to hunt and kill whales. It was found in the harbor.

This is a flipper of the Right Whale. They were called the Right Whales because they swam slowly, were easy to kill and floated when dead hence the “right whale”. The mannequin is wearing attire copied from bits of clothing found in excavations here in Red Bay. The barrels for the oil were all made onsite across the way on Saddle Island.

Labrador is basically uninhabited; really, we’re talking about 113,641 square miles of land with a population of 27,197 people! It’s wild and beautiful and empty, and someday we’d like to see it all, but unless we add a boat, plane, ATV, snowmobile and snowshoes to our collection and Inuit or Innu knowledge of the land it’s not likely to happen 🙂 For now however we suggest you put it on your MVL (Must Visit List).

The Captain slowly maneuvers the ferry into the dock in Blanc Sabon, Quebec avoiding the growler lurking beside us. I asked him if he went to school to learn how do this and he said, he had done this 15,000 times…

Almost all buildings in Labrador and Newfoundland, young and old have these holes or an open slot at the bottom of the storm windows to control condensation. One of the wonderful things about almost all the buildings in this part of the world is they have lace curtains.

The obligatory picture of Marti at the top of the lighthouse. Some day she insists, it will be Ed.

Sometimes a photograph is better as black and white and besides it my photographic roots.

The walls at the base of the tower were six feet thick laid cut stone and narrowed as the tower went up. The tower is a cone shape but the interior space remains the same width rising up. It’s a pretty amazing piece of construction.

And the stones were all cut by hand and keyed together. That’s a lot of tink tink tinking…

Here is where the Pinware River flows into the ocean. Notice the icebergs?

The Pinware River from the TLH on the way to Red Bay.

The Trans-Labrador Highway is actually being paved slowly section by section. The section we drove on was being prepared for paving this late Summer. We gave up 51 kilometers into it but our friend Suzanne kept going all the way up to Lodge Bay, 77 kilometers away.

The recovery and restoration of this chalupa is amazing and the simplicity of its line is beautiful. It’s very hard to imagine chasing down whales in a boat so small.

This is a diorama of the whale oil rendering ovens found on Saddle Island.

Fishing stage in the harbor of West St. Modeste.

A pull off alongside 510…

In the Whaler Restaurant in Red Bay we are invited to pin where we are from.

Back at the ferry landing we wave goodbye to Labrador and you until our next post.

Cod Jigging and New Friends!

02 Monday Mar 2020

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 9 Comments

Hello! I have just finished building a new computer and am in the process of reviewing and culling thousands of photos from over the years. In so doing I came across one that triggered a special memory of a very special day in a special place. For whatever reason, we never blogged about it, but have decided it was too good not to share even at this late date.

As many of our faithful readers might recall, back on June 21^st of 2017 Marti and I arrived in Newfoundland and Labrador, where we spent most of the summer. It was a glorious time in a beautiful place filled with wonderful people! This story takes place in the small town of Winterton, off Trinity Bay on the western side of the Avalon Peninsula on Newfoundland’s east coast. Located there is the Wooden Boat Museum which our friend Suzanne, had told us was a must see. We arrived late in the afternoon on a Saturday, 15 minutes before closing time. We decided to wait until morning when we would have plenty of time to see everything. Hoping to stay the night in the tiny parking lot, we asked inside and the two young people covering the museum said they thought it was fine. Just to be certain, when we saw an older gentleman just coming outside and clearly part of the boat building staff we asked him too. Typical of Newfoundlander’s friendliness, he laughed and said, “Why not, it’s just a bit of space!”

The next morning, because the museum didn’t open until 10, we went for a walkabout the town to see what there was to see. I noticed a couple of men cleaning fish down on the docks and so we wandered over.

Cleaning fish, which in Newfoundland means cod.

About then another guy, two kids, and a woman showed up and they were all joking and teasing with each other. As I love a bit of teasing myself, and as they acknowledged us, I started in with a comment or two of my own. Very quickly, we were all laughing and having a good time! I asked all about what they were doing and how the fishing was, and like most engagements with folks in Newfoundland, we soon felt very welcomed. Mike, a big guy, and Ed not so much, had been out that morning on Mike’s boat and caught their personal limit of 5 cod apiece. The woman who had shown up about the same time we had wandered over was Mike’s wife Wanda. Next thing we know, Mike looks at us and asks if we’d like to go cod jigging? Immediately I thought no way is Marti going to get in a fishing boat on the open water (she doesn’t like boats of any kind) so I hesitated to look over at her. To my great surprise, she enthusiastically said “Yes”! The other man laughing immediately says to us, “You know Mike’s just asking you ‘cause your worth 10 more fish, right?” Ed (not me, the other Ed) laughing says, “Nah, with Wanda, it’s 15 more fish!” We didn’t care, this was an unexpected treat for us!!

Wanda, Ed, Marti and I boarded Mike’s boat, which had plenty of room for all five of us, and everyone put on a life preserver as we headed out into the bay. Did I say it was a beautiful day with calm seas that looked like glass?

Ed 1 and Ed 2.

Well, it was and pretty soon each of the three of us was set up with a rod. Using no bait on the heavy shiny hook, they told us to just throw the line over and let it drop until it hits bottom, about 50 feet down, then reel up the slack. The jigging is rhythmically and repeatedly jerking ~ jigging ~ the line up a couple feet and letting it drop down again. While getting the rhythm right takes practice that’s really all there is to it. The cod will hit the shiny hook and you just drag them up to the surface. They stop fighting very fast, but they are still heavy, and 50 feet is a lot of line. Mike or Ed netted our catch, slit their throats to bleed them so they taste better and tossed them into the bucket.

Serious fish!

With a great deal of laughing and teasing, we got to know each other a bit and in under an hour, we all three had our limit! Then Mike took us on a short tour of the coast. One place Ed (not me) wanted us to see was a naturally occurring quartz figure “77” in the cliff so we motored over to that spot before heading back into the dock.

Winterton is just inside the cut in the cliffs.

Marti’s Titanic moment! and no sinking was involved.

The 77 is dead center just a little bit above the waterline.

Back on shore, Marti and I followed Wanda’s directions and helped empty and clean up the boat while Mike and Ed went about cleaning and filleting the cods. Fresh out of the ocean, they were the loveliest snow-white filets, much prettier than the color we see at our home grocery. Mike and Ed made quick work of the 15 large cods and generously offered us our share, but having very limited refrigerator and freezer space we only take a few filets and some cod tongues. I asked if I could take their picture to commemorate the day while Marti ran to the RV where she put together a small packet of our photo blank greeting cards as a thank you. All too soon, we needed to say our good-byes & thank-yous for our wonderful adventure with new friends. Ten miles up the road, I suddenly realized we didn’t get their emails and regretted it tremendously.

The following winter while we house-sat for friends in Maryland, I had an email from Mike. He had found my website info on the back of the cards and reached out to us with the sad news that Ed had suddenly become very ill and passed away that winter. Mike and Wanda realized that in all the time of their friendship they had no photographs of the three of them together. Then they remembered I had taken one and hoped we still had a picture. I did and was so pleased I could send it to them.

Mike, Wanda, and Ed.

We are good Facebook friends now and surely hope to see them again when we go back to the Rock next summer 2021. Wanda says the beds are made!

We did eventually get to the Wooden Boat Museum but for some unexplainable reason, I only took this one photo.

Marti and Wanda in transport mode.

That night’s dinner, YUM!

Quebec, the North Country

11 Saturday Aug 2018

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Baie-Comeau, Dolbeau-Mistassini, Ferme Tournesol, Godbout, Hydro-Quebec, Manic 2, Quebec, Route du Fjord

Having made the decision to continue our travels in Quebec on the north shore of the St. Lawrence, we headed for the ferry docking town of Matane. From here the ferries do the run across (and back) to either Baie-Comeau or Godbout, with either trip lasting just over two hours. Ed had researched the ferry schedule a couple of days earlier and said that the 8AM ferry ran to the more northern town of Godbout and the later 2:30 ferry ran to Baie-Comeau. As we had no specific camping plans and consequently thinking we might need extra time to find a place we thought to catch the earlier ferry and work our way south. However, arriving in Matane at about noon we decided to go ahead and try the 2:30 Baie-Comeau run and while we waited, I’d get online and see if I could find a campground. We checked in and they put us in the no reservation line but we know from experience that if you’re there early enough this generally means you will get on board. We were early and close to the front of the line and after a few unsuccessful phone calls, I did find us a spot about 30km (18+ miles) north of the Baie-Comeau terminal on the other side. We loaded on the boat, had a very quiet crossing, even getting to see a large pod of porpoises, offloaded and headed up the coastal road 138.

Leaving Gaspe and Matane behind we were intrigued by the rip-rap in the shape of children’s toy jacks.

That’s a lot of prop wash… but it’s a big boat.

The campground directions had indicated that we should pretty quickly come to RT389 where we’d head north. Well…..no…there was no road 389 and our phones weren’t working to try and figure out what was going on. Ed suggested we keep going a bit. After a few kilometers he put the campground into the Garmin and it said we were 68km from our turn onto 389!! Well, clearly that was wrong so we drove on. A couple of minutes later my phone works and shows we’re north of Godbout!! Turns out my darling husband misremembered which boat went where and we’d taken the Matane to Godbout ferry! Life is an adventure 🙂 but we made the campground in time, had our cocktails, a good laugh, dinner and settled in for 2 nights at Camping Manic 2.

After the rainy morning and a load of laundry, we explored up Rt 389 about 107km (67miles). This is actually the road to Labrador City where it’s then called the Trans-Labrador Highway and we toyed with the idea of heading up and across it to Red Bay and on to Newfoundland but realistically we were not prepared so we decided that’s for another time. 😦

Along the side of RT 389 to Manic 3, the traffic on this road, which on the map is in the middle of nowhere was amazing, Logging trucks sure, but mostly non-stop Hydro-Quebec cars and trucks.

Electric power for the province is generated by hydro-electric generating plants from this area. There are 5 dams along the Manicouagan River that are only a small portion of the 63 hydro plants in Quebec. Our campsite was just up the road from the station called Manic 2, the second dam in the system here. This photo is just some kind of electric thinghy in that system.

Back down to Baie-Comeau and out 138W along the St Lawrence the tide was out (seems like we’re always along the water when the tide is out) and we were once again struck by how shallow the shoreline is.

No boats allowed! The rocks featured in this picture were brought to you by the retreating glaciers and dropped in place as the ice melted.

At Cap-de-Bon-Desir the shoreline comes to a hard coast and deep water which results in excellent whale watching, so of course, we paid the fee to go have a look.

Lots of people waiting and watching for whales. Of course, none came while we were there. The Park Service has done a lovely job of building natural stone walks and bridges to make it easy for folks to come out.

And here comes the fog.

We were decided that Thunder Bay, Ontario was our goal and we wanted to take a northern route in the hopes of less company on the roads and easier camping. To that end, we took RT 172 on the north side of the Saguenay River. This is labeled as Rue du Fjord and for many miles, it runs along the Sainte-Marguerite River.

Ed has a cool wade in the St. Marguerite River next to our campsite. This is not the fjord the Route du Fjord is referring to. That would be the next river over to the west, the much larger Saguenay.

As you might expect, this part of the province is world famous for its salmon fly fishing where it is all catch and release. This photo is just upstream around the bend from the above photo.

And guess what’s growing wild and ready to be picked! not just here but everywhere.

Not feeling like doing cities we passed Saguenay and were soon into pretty farm country where we stopped at a wonderful farm market, Ferme Tournesol.

Marti says she never looked like this after picking veggies out of our garden.

We didn’t buy nearly enough from these folks. The produce was just beautiful.

Yum!

Driving through Dolbeau-Mistassini we spotted a wonderful chute (waterfall) where RV’s were clearly camped and Ed immediately turned down the road. Being a Saturday, in a town, I was not expecting to get a spot, but the nice man said yes he had 3 sites and we should select which one we wanted 🙂

We think we just happened to get the best site in the park.

The Chutes

We continued north taking RT167 and then RT113 to Camping Opemiska where we stopped for the night and next morning headed toward TCH 117 (Trans Canada Highway) and Val-d’Or.

All across the northern parts of Quebec, the roadside wildflowers were a riot of color and especially the Loosestrife, Pearly Everlasting and Goldenrod interspersed with lots of Cattails.

Of course, there are lakes everywhere.

and Birch trees many of which grow to over 100 feet tall in dense groves.

I will be honest and admit this entire trek across Quebec has been unplanned and completely “by the seat of our pants” traveling. A lot of it was as Ed says, “just so we can say we’ve been there” and while I am looking forward to seeing Thunder Bay, Ontario where I actually have looked for things to do, we do have one more “just so we can say we’ve been there” on our horizon before that. 🙂

Looking towards the bow and what Ed thought was Baie-Comeau but turned out to be Godbout.

We waited for several minutes behind this truck with possibly the largest pipe we have ever seen on the road for a single lane traffic light at a construction zone. There is lots of construction on these roads because they only have about three months to make all the repairs and improvements due to the heavy trucks that tear them apart as well as the harsh weather.

North of Manic 2 on RT 389 when the Sun came out.

The lighthouse at Cap-de-Bon-Desir.

Carrots! More beautiful produce at Ferme Tournesol.

Crackerberry or Creeping Dogwood, (Cornus canadensis) and Indian Pipe.

Guess what else is growing wild in profusion and is ripe for the picking? Bleuets! Oh yum!

Turns out to our great amazement not only do they mine iron ore up here but gold. At Malartic, Quebec this pit mine is the largest open-pit gold mine in Canada. The pit measures 1.34 miles across in the long dimension and a half mile across. We only know this because of the biggest pile of tailings we have ever seen anywhere. The current vein they are mining is estimated to contain 9 million ounces of gold and it’s only one mine. Think about that.

We are currently in Ontario on Lake Superior and will keep you posted soon!

As always, thanks for coming along!

Newfoundland, Part Seven~ St. John’s, The Big City

31 Tuesday Oct 2017

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

Blue Rodeo, Cabot Tower, Cape Spear, Jelly Bean Rowhouses, Newfoundland, Pippy Park, Quidi Vidi Brewery, Royal St. John's Regatta, Signal Hill, St. John's, The Rooms

Waking to a sunny day, we continued north on 10 except for side trip one, to Bauline East. A small, pretty harbour in a tiny town we got our first look at what happens to cod after folks cut out the fillets and tongue.

Bauline East Harbour

After the fillets and tongues are taken, there is a lot of waste which goes right into the water to eventually be consumed by various bottom creatures.

Side trip two was to Bay Bulls where Pennecon Limited clearly must be the biggest employer in town.

Bay Bulls and the Pennecon Limited yard.

We wanted to go to the easternmost point in North America so we took Petty Harbour Road off 10 to wander the long way around to Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site. The second lighthouse built in Newfoundland, it began operation in 1836. Similar to the Cape Bonavista lighthouse, the light tower centered in the surrounding square wooden keepers house was built first with the house constructed around it. The light apparatus was seven oil burners (Cape Bonavista light had six) set in silvered reflectors with the whole apparatus being turned by weights that needed frequent rewinding. Fun fact: the copper-domed lantern room and the lighting apparatus, which had already been used for twenty-eight years in the Inchkeith Lighthouse on the Firth of Forth in Scotland, was designed and provided by Stevenson and Sons, Stevenson being the grandfather of author Robert Louis Stevenson!

The original Cape Spear Lighthouse. There is no access to the tower itself unfortunately.

We thought the way they stored the glass globes for the light’s oil lamps was interesting.

After enjoying the views at Cape Spear we headed the last 18 miles up to St. John’s and the Pippy Park Campground & Trailer Park. With no reservations, there were no hook-up sites available but there was a small, mostly empty overflow spot where we could boondock. St. John’s is the provincial capital city and Newfoundland’s largest city so we knew this was going to be a switch from the quiet we’d been enjoying for so long.

Opened in 2005, The Rooms houses the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Rooms. Everywhere we have been in Newfoundland and Labrador we always saw references to The Rooms holding artifacts from whatever Interpretation Center we were visiting. We had to go.

We figured it was a good place to start our exploration of St. John’s, so we rang for a taxi, driving and parking an RV in the city not being high on our list. 🙂 Jumping into the cab, the driver who is just as friendly as everyone in the province, says, “So ya here for the regatta tomorrow?” “Ahhhh, what regatta?” say we. “Ya donna know ‘bout the regatta? The Royal St. John’s Regatta? It’s huge, the whole island comes, 40,000 maybe 50,000 people!” WELL…..surprise!!! No wonder the RV park was full! BUT….we went on to The Rooms.

On the very top floor of the exhibit, these canoes and kayaks were laid out on the rafters.

Having done pretty much all of The Rooms and had a lovely light lunch in the museum, we headed down towards the harbor in a zig-zag fashion looking for the famous Jelly Bean Row houses. Pretty quickly it becomes apparent that these wonderful colorful houses (which by the by we have noted in previous blog posts are all over The Rock) are not just one row, but street after street of multi-hued homes, many accented with potted bouquets of magnificent flowers.

Jelly Bean Row Houses are a common and fun feature of St. John’s.

Flowerboxes add even more color.

The next morning, Wednesday, August 2^nd dawns a bit raw and grey, but we’ve decided that after we run a couple of errands we’re going to join with all of (or at least a whole lot of) Newfoundlanders and go to the 199th Royal St. John’s Regatta, It’s the oldest annual sporting event in North America. Guess what….it’s a local holiday and pretty much nothing is open not even the grocery stores because, well, everyone is down by Quidi Vidi (kiddy viddy) Lake! So we call for a taxi and he takes us as close as he can. WHAT FUN!!

Bang! at the shot of the starter’s gun, the rowers are off for a half mile leg before turning around and finishing here at the start line. The most strategic part is executing the turn properly.

Winners! Racers of all ages from young kids to grey hairs, everyone used the same boats.

Having enjoyed ourselves with “all the rowing” and the famous French fries at Ziggy Peelgoods (four lines and nearly half hour wait) we hiked via Kings Bridge Road into downtown. Down at the harbour, we had an “okay” steak dinner at The Keg Steakhouse & Bar overlooking the ships tied up just outside across the way. Afterwards, we wandered around a bit, heading back up the hill. Note: St. John’s was built on a steep hillside so from the harbour most everything else is up, so good exercise! 🙂 As we got up to just below George Street all access was blocked, there were “event people” and “event security” everywhere and music could be heard. As we walked up around the perimeter I asked what was going on and they said “Blue Rodeo is playing tonight” “OK, who are they?” “One of the top bands in Canada for the last 20 years!” When we got to where they were taking/selling tickets I reminded Ed Life’s an Adventure and we handed over our cash, went in and had a BLAST! Blue Rodeo is GOOD!

Blue Rodeo! It was a late night but what a blast. The aroma of weed lingered in Marti’s sweater for a week. No, she didn’t, it was just in the air.

Next day was an oil change and check up at the St John’s Mercedes dealer and errands. In the late afternoon our friend, Suzanne Anthony a fellow full-timing, blogging RV’er also living in a View similar to our rig, joined us in camp. We had been sharing notes and suggestions all around Canada so it was great fun to finally meet.

The following morning the three of us drove over to Quidi Vidi Village in our RV. A neighborhood of St. John’s once known as a fishing village, Quidi Vidi Village is now a major tourist attraction because of the Quidi Vidi Brewery. They are famous for their Iceberg beer which I have mentioned before as well as seven other beers. Unfortunately, there are no tastings without a tour, and all the tours were booked. Oh well, Ed had tried a number of them already 🙂

The green building is the brewery.

The Quidi Vidi harbour is almost a lake with a tiny narrows, visible on the right, as the entrance to the ocean.

Next on the list of St. John’s attractions was Signal Hill, the site of Marconi’s first transatlantic wireless communication and Cabot Tower. Overlooking the harbour and the Atlantic Ocean this high hill has been an important defensive position since 1640 and even held anti-aircraft and anti U-Boat defense guns of the United States during World War II.

Cabot Tower on Signal Hill.

The view of St. John’s and the harbour from the top of Cabot Tower. You can see what a perfect defensive position this hilltop is.

We dropped Suzanne at The Rooms where she would spend the afternoon and with plans to meet later in town for drinks and dinner, we went back to camp to do laundry. With another taxi ride into town, we walked around a bit and then had a good meal at Oliver’s, which we recommend.

We had actually been a little uncertain about going to THE BIG CITY after all the quiet villages and no crowds we’d been experiencing. As it worked out, even with the regatta, country/rock concert and all, it did not feel overcrowded and we had a lot of fun! Plus, there is the bonus of meeting a fellow RV traveler and absolutely now having a new friend! It’s an adventure!

Leaving Bauline Harbour we saw this really cute yard ornament.

In Bay Bulls, this drilling rig is at the head of the harbour, coming or going we couldn’t tell.

Like it says on the side of the ship, it’s a heavy lift crane…

…to lift heavy stuff like all this anchor chain. Look at the size of the links and the anchors compared to the trucks in the yard.

The new light at Cape Spear which came on in 1955. It’s a pretty place with lots of boardwalk and paths around the cape and cliffs.

A view from the cliffs at Cape Spear. Marti thinks the white foam looks like a bridal train.

The lightkeeper’s office which is restored to the period of 1839. Note the flags used for sending messages and weather status. In Canada, the job of lightkeeper is often passed down from father to son and so, the Cantwell family were the keepers of the Cape Spear light for over 150 years with only two short intermissions.

There are two heavy gun emplacements on Cape Spear to help defend the nearby convoy routes to Europe during WWII. The 10″ M1888 guns were Lend-Lease batteries on disappearing carriages. The emplacements are currently under restoration.

The current light, 45 feet tall with a visible range of 20 nautical miles, went into service in 1955 and is automatic.

The interior space at The Rooms is as beautiful as it is functional. History, culture, art and the archives of Newfoundland and Labrador are all housed here in one building.

As we waited for a table in the cafe at The Rooms, we had a lovely view from the balcony of downtown St. John’s and the harbour with Cabot Tower and Signal Hill in the distance.

What kind of chowder? Fish Chowder of course… delicious too.

Mailbox detail from some of the jelly bean houses.

Newfoundlanders use color everywhere to brighten up their homes and lives.

At The Keg Steakhouse & Bar, they store the wine in these immense walls of temperature controlled movable racks.

Quidi Vidi Lake on the right and St. John’s Harbour on the left from Signal Hill.

Yours Truly at the Blue Rodeo concert on George Street with thousands of our new best friends and their weed… 🙂

Bonavista Peninsula ~ Newfoundland Part Five

22 Tuesday Aug 2017

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 21 Comments

Tags

Bonavista Peninsula, Elliston Newfoundland, Humpback Whales, Lighthouses, Puffins, Root Cellars, Smallpox Vaccine, Trinity Newfoundland

When one leaves an island to go back to an island I guess “returning to the mainland” isn’t exactly accurate. In any case, we off loaded from our Fogo ferry ride and headed off for 330 East and the village of Newtown where the Barbour Living Heritage Village is located. We did the tour but in all honesty having been in Newfoundland some time now, we didn’t really learn anything new. There is however a lovely church here. Ed went to take a photo of it but the shot he wanted required walking into someone’s yard. They happened to be outdoors and so he asked permission. The delightful, elderly lady not only said of course, she then walked him back up the street to show him the house where she was born and raised. Turns out it’s the oldest house in Newtown.

St. Luke’s Anglican Church, 1895, Newtown.

Not only the oldest, but maybe the cutest.

Next morning continuing south on 320 we took a side trip out to Greenspond, a small village settled in 1690. We stopped to walk around and got to chatting with 3 men building an outhouse (although they said it would have a flush toilet) next to a walking trail, because “when you have to go it would be good to have a spot to do it in” 🙂 One of the men told us that many of the houses in town are now summer homes, including his, and because they are on a steep hill, on the wrong side of the prevailing winds, winter can be especially hard. In fact he said the mayor last year had to phone for help because his home was finally covered half way up the second story. He said a “crowd of men” had to come dig him out!

Greenspond is an island community made up of several other islands. The part of town where we chatted with the men is off to the left out of the picture.

We camped the next two nights at Newman Sound in Terra Nova National Park where I made great use of the laundry. Fellow RV’ers this is a big campground and the sites have pretty good vegetation screening, but it is very busy and there are lots of small children on bikes so watch out!

The Bonavista Peninsula is one of Newfoundland’s most visited locales and we were especially looking forward to our visit here. While our weather was not the best we did take the side road 235-20 out to Keels on our way to Paradise Farm RV Park near the town of Bonavista. We based out of there for a couple of days and recommend their boondocking sites particularly.

Lobster pots and a squall headed our way in Keels.

The lighthouse on Cape Bonavista is the 4^th oldest in Newfoundland and houses a rare catoptric light.

The light is on a stone column around which was built the keeper’s house so each room has as one of its interior walls the round stone tower.

An array of six parabolic (bowl shape) reflectors, in this case highly polished silver, reflected the light from lamp wicks burning seal oil. This whole apparatus was turned by a weight driven mechanism similar to the weights of a pendulum clock, only this one required the light keeper to rewind the weights EVERY TWO HOURS!! If you are a lighthouse lover you must put this one on your MVL (Must Visit List).

This is the catoptric array. Not only did the windows have to be washed constantly, but the polished silver bowl had to be constantly cleaned. You can see the modern light through the window.

This is the winding mechanism which turns as the weights pull down thus turning the gears and spinning the light, just like a clock.

There are paths around the light where we found many, many bird wings that were the remains of meals a Silver Fox and her kits enjoy when not getting hand-outs from tourists.

A very relaxed and unconcerned Silver Fox soaks up the sun as people walk by just below the lighthouse.

Near Bonavista we also drove in to Dungeon Provincial Park where there was actually a sign labeling the area as pasture and there were horses and cows!

The dungeon is a collapsed sea cave with twin entrances. Pretty cool.

As I said in our first Newfoundland blog post, icebergs were at the top of our list of things to see, second was PUFFINS 🙂 Elliston is famous for their root cellars (which are actually all over Newfoundland but there is a high concentration of them here), and, the Atlantic Puffin which come to nest each summer.

Very cute but I think it’s a sad face…

The males generally dig the burrows where one egg is laid. They share in tending the nest.

Also on the Bonavista Peninsula is the village of Trinity where fisherman set up summer stations as early as the mid 1500’s. This charming village is situated on the hills above a protected harbour. A delightfully walkable town we spent several hours poking about before a nice lunch at Dock Marina Gift Store & Art Gallery. Trinity was also the shooting location for the 2002 TV mini-series, “Random Passage”.

The Trinity Museum is chockablock full of interesting stuff about fishing, sealing, life over the last 200 years and the first experimental use of the smallpox vaccine in North America. Rev. Dr. John Clinch gave the first vaccines here in Trinity to his nephew and children in 1798 to prove their efficacy.

A vigorous Rosa Rugosa bush. They were in bloom everywhere on Newfoundland and the magnificent fragrance just filled the air.

St. Paul’s Anglican Church (#3) built in 1892. The first two burned down.

Across the bay from Trinity is Fort Point which entails a drive out a rather horrible narrow dirt road, but oh what a trip worth taking!

The lighthouse at Fort Point is not open for tours but you can walk around the grounds and learn all about the fortifications built by the French and British to defend the harbour.

After walking around the grounds of the light we parked here for the night and watched whales all afternoon and evening until dark.

We never tire of watching the humpbacks.

We cannot believe how very much we are seeing and how beautiful it all is. This is now post five and we expect to probably have two more about “The Rock”. Ed & I thank you for being armchair travelers on our Newfoundland adventure and hope you will keep “riding along” with us.

Bonavista Lighthouse.

The kitchen in the Bonavista Lighthouse. Notice the weight in a cubby next to the small table behind the stove. This opening runs up in the stone column to the winding mechanism that turns the light. Every two hours it needs winding. Nobody got much sleep.

A rare sight on Newfoundland, pasture and a horse.

Our last iceberg on this trip in Port Rexton. Ed managed to grab some more iceberg bits for his cocktail glass.

Also in Elliston is a nesting colony of Black Headed Terns. Constant non-stop activity as the mates brought little fish to the nest to feed the family.

Puffins are seabirds and spend most of their time on the water except when they come to land to build nests and raise their young. This site near Elliston is considered the very best and almost only place one can see puffins this close up.

Marti is about to bust with excitement but you would never know it…

Beautiful, comical and sad, they fly astonishingly fast.

One of hundreds of root cellars where root veggies and cabbages are stored over the winter months.

The sanctuary of St. Paul’s Trinity.

We love the wide range of the painted colors of the houses of Newfoundland. When’s the last time you saw a pink, yellow and green house? Note the root cellar behind the garden.

Can you imagine the response of an American homeowners association to the delightful palette of these houses?

Inside the Trinity Museum… Most items have a tag explaining what it is and who donated it.

English Harbour on Bonavista Peninsula.

The sea stack is known as Naked Man. This scene is just to the right of where we overnighted on Fort Point.

Night falls on Fort Point and the light shines.

Fogo Island ~ Newfoundland Part Four

13 Sunday Aug 2017

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 16 Comments

Tags

150 Canada, Fogo Island, Fogo Island Inn, Icebergs, Joe Batt's Arm, Kissing the Cod, Newfoundland, Nicole's Cafe, Screeched In, Tilting

On Fogo Island, the Town of Fogo Island is comprised of several small villages which used to be separate and unique defined largely by either their religion or ethnicity. The villages: Fogo, Joe Batt’s Arm, Barr’d Island, Shoal Bay, Tilting, Seldom and Little Seldom were all amalgamated in 2011 forming one community in order to more efficiently provide services and a stronger regional voice politically.

Fogo Island

The ferry to Fogo Island (round trip $22.25 Canadian!) operates on a first come, first served basis. We headed out really early from Twillingate and the hour long drive to the village of Farewell to hopefully be in line for the 9AM ferry. It turns out I failed remedial reading and departure was set at 8:30AM. However, we did get there with lots of time to spare and easily made it on board.

The MV Legionnaire is a brand new ship and was nice and shiny.

On the Fogo Island side, the ferry docks just outside the village of Stag Harbour where we off-loaded and headed for the only RV campground on the island. Within 10 minutes we were both grinning ear to ear already in love with this rocky place! Getting to the campground we found a lovely spot on a rise overlooking Banks Cove in a mostly empty park. Bordered on one side by Brimstone Head and a much smaller rocky hill on the other this place is only lacking WIFI, although it can be had up by the Lions Club rec-hall at the top of the park.

First thing we did after hooking up was to hike the very steep, but largely staired, 338 ft climb up to the platform perched at the top of Brimstone Head.

Brimstone Head on the left with Banks Cove and our campground on the right. Notice the stairs leading up to the platform. Stairs and boardwalks are built all over Newfoundland and especially on Fogo to provide access as well as protect the bogs and fragile plant life.

On the way up we stopped and had a long chat with Lorne Simms who pointed out her home near the trail just over on the other side from Banks Cove. As we have already experienced, folks from Newfoundland are beyond friendly. She told us to stop in for tea if we came by on a hike and offered her canoe if we wanted to paddle around the cove! In chatting with Newfoundlanders, Ed likes to say that in two minutes you are friends and in ten, family.

It was a very warm day, near 80*, hot by Newfie standards, and Ed decided he’d go for a swim just to prove he could. After warming up he broke a chunk off the bit of iceberg just on the edge of the water and we had 15,000 year old ice for our cocktails 🙂

Marti insists that I did not swim but just dipped. Call it what you will, it was cold. There was a Newfie fellow who did actually swim around for a good 15 minutes. This chunk of bergy bit provided us with a freezer full of ice for our cocktails. The ice is so dense it does not absorb salt from the ocean. Just rinse it off with fresh water and it’s good to go.

My legs are not normally purple. It was COLD.

When we woke the next morning we could see a big iceberg just off the point of the next cove so we hiked out to take a closer look. We sat for a long while just watching the icebergs. Giving different ones names so we would know which one was which, we talked about them as if they were dear friends.

We called this one the Matterhorn and it was with us for the entire week as it broke up and finally melted/floated away.

After about an hour we walked on around the point looking for the continuation of the trail we’d been told was there. Not finding any kind of path Ed surprised the heck out of me and said let’s just go up and over!

It was remarkably steep and unlike most climbs we have done before, Ed found the footing very easy and secure and I did not.

When we first got to the campground I had a nice chat with the gentleman registering us. He informed me that there was a kitchen party here at the Lions Club Wednesday night and we should be sure to come as it was lots of fun with Newfie music, Newfie food (JamJams) and a 50/50. Oh, and of course we could also then be Screeched-In. Ed in particular is always ready for a good time and so of course we headed up when the doors opened about 8:30.

Part of the Screeching-In ritual is reciting Newfie sayings and phrases. For the life of me, I had no idea what Denny had said to me and my efforts to repeat it caused gales of laughter from the locals.

The final step in the initiation to become an Honorary Newfoundlander (being Screeched-In) is to “Kiss the Cod”. He was frozen solid but still fishy. You do what you have to do… We had a blast and have certificates to prove it.

Fogo Island is the largest of the Newfoundland Labrador offshore islands. Originally a part of the French Coast, by the mid 1700’s the English and Irish were settling here and indeed the small town of Tilting on the northeast corner is to this day uniquely Irish and Roman Catholic. In Tilting we visited the Dwyer Premises which offers a close look at the salt cod fishery process of old (for individual consumption the basics of the process has not changed).

Looking out from the Dwyer Premises to see the fishing stage and decking poles which are called longers, that make up the stage platform. The building is where the cod was split and salted, then a few days later the salt was washed off and the fish flakes laid out to dry in the sun and wind. Every night the pieces of fish were stacked and covered and laid out again the next day. The fishing of cod, salt preservation and extracting of cod liver oil was the whole reason for being in every village on Newfoundland.

Because there was an unnamed walking trail sign by a short dirt road we drove out to the little pullout next to a narrow path along Oliver’s Cove that was to be one of our prettiest hikes on the island.

Oliver’s Cove. Marti just maybe might have found a rock she liked…

Our favorite village was Joe Batt’s Arm, and in all honesty it wins over Tilting because of Nicole’s Café! As you dear readers have probably noted, we travel by our stomachs 🙂 If you’re on Fogo, DO NOT miss Nicole’s! Everything is wonderful but the mussels are… WOW!

Fishing stages in Joe Batt’s Arm with the village across the water.

Just before heading to Fogo I had done a little Googling which is when I discovered that one of those really wonderful, off the beaten path, expensive inns I had seen one day while day-dreaming around the internet was actually here… on Fogo and in Joe Batt’s Arm! Ed would not indulge me 😦

Zita Cobb left her home of Fogo Island at the age of 16, but after making millions in the dot com industry she returned to help the islanders she loved. Long story short, she had this 29 suite inn built and decorated by local artists and workers. It offers employment for up to 70 islanders and profits are used in many ways to help Fogo. We have heard Newfoundlanders praise her efforts and express disdain that they could never afford to stay. Personally Ed thinks it’s about the ugliest thing he ever saw. The retired Coast Guard ice breaker is part of the recognition of Canada’s 150 year celebration . It is crossing from one coast to the other visiting communities along the way. It was in town for the annual Dory Races in Joe Batt’s Arm.

We did the hike out to the Giant Auk sculpture and sat for a long time just watching the ice, waves and birds.

The Great Auk was hunted to extinction so now it gets a bronze statue to remember it by. It is looking towards Iceland where there is a matching Auk looking back. No, while big, they were not this big, but about 30″ tall.

Back in Fogo the village, we did the hike at Lion’s Den and also the hike up to Fogo Head.

Along the Lion’s Den Hike looking back to Shoal Tickle. A tickle is a narrow and shallow passage of water that will “tickle” the bottom of your boat as you pass over if you aren’t careful.

Looking back at some of Fogo Village and Brimstone Head from Fogo Head. The pond is an old impoundment for the town’s water supply.

We watched icebergs for hours. We had long conversations with the nicest people with the most wonderful accents (not all of which we completely understood). We fell in love with an incredibly beautiful, quiet, rugged and magical spot populated with kind, caring, hard working honest folks. We stayed 8 days…..a record for us. This is a MVL (Must Visit List) place if ever there was one….but you must slow down and be content to just sit quietly for a long time to watch, see, absorb…..and to be rejuvenated.

That’s a big fishing boat, did you even notice it… there is a reason there’s a huge Facebook Group following the Newfoundland icebergs.

Watching them, waiting for the moment a piece breaks off or it splits, the sound, a cannon-shot and then they roll over. It becomes addictive, and peaceful.

Here, we happened to be looking in the right direction when a chunk fell off, we heard the sound and Ed started shooting. I wish you could hear it. Come to Newfoundland next June.

A bit of Joe Batt’s Arm.

The walk out to the Great Auk. A 4.6K round trip. Ed measured it.

Detail of a small pool and rock on our walk out to the Auk. The water is stained by the peat and reflects clouds and sky nicely.

The interior of the fishing stage at Dwyers Premises

From the trailhead of Lion’s Den looking back at Fogo.

At the end of the day, after an unusual thunderstorm the clearing sky over our cove.

With apologies for the length of this post we offer you a little Maker’s Mark over 15,000 year old ice.

Newfoundland ~ Part One

16 Sunday Jul 2017

Posted by Ed and Marti Kirkpatrick in Travels

≈ 27 Comments

Tags

Dr. Grenfel, Dr. Grenfell, Fog, Fossils, Gros Morne National Park, Icebergs, L'Anse aux Meadows, Lighthouses, Lightkeepers Seafood Restaurant, Newfoundland, Port au Choix, SS Ethie, St. Anthony, Vikings, Whales

Newfoundland (newfun LAND) is an island and when driving an RV to an island the only way to get to it is via ferry, so we reserved a spot online. Following the instructions to be there an hour before boarding, actually we made a point of being early, we arrived at the dock in North Sydney, Nova Scotia and were sent to lane 11 to queue up and wait our turn to drive onto the MV Blue Puttees bound for Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland.

Waiting in queue as the 18 wheelers are loaded on to the MV Blue Puttees. The vessel is named in honor of the Newfoundland Armed Forces in WWI who were nicknamed the Blue Puttees for the blue leggings (puttees) they wore over their boots.

After the 6 ½ hour crossing we off-loaded and headed straight for the nearest campground JT Cheeseman Provincial Park where the sites are huge, private, with electric only but on both sides of the space and at least when we were there pretty much empty! For you fellow RVers, the drinking water spigots all said boil before using, so we just didn’t use it.

The Long Range Mountains run up the entire Northern Peninsula and are an extension of the Appalachians.

We had decided to head for the Northern Peninsula and L’Anse aux Meadows first, so taking the TCH (Trans Canada Highway) to Corner Brook we picked up 450 driving out almost to the end of the road and Blow Me Down Provincial Park. The water here also required boiling. Before getting there however we stopped at the Blow Me Down Nature Trail between Frenchman’s Cove and York Harbour. A good distance from the parking lot is a lovely tall waterfall which doesn’t seem accessible but there is a trail that wonders off through the bog ending at what we’d call a river but the local kids we chatted with call a brook! We stayed there only long enough to get a photo as the blackflies were swarming near the water.

This is a very popular local swimming hole and we passed lots of young people coming back, some wet, some not. The water is cold snow melt. You can’t see the blackflies, but trust us, they are there.

The next morning the weather was not in our favor, but very typical for Newfoundland, VERY low clouds/fog and misty.

Just a little fog…

The route up the Northern Peninsula is 430 running right along the coast. There’s a lot of construction on the first bit but one has to remember that with the winters here there’s a very small window to do any type of construction/repair work. It was to our advantage actually because there wasn’t a lot of traffic and our short waits gave us a chance to look around before moving on up the road.

We could see the beautiful landscape even with the coming and going of the fog.

We stopped at the site of the 1919 wreck of the SS Ethie. All crewmen and passengers were saved, including a baby that was transferred safely in a mailbag to waiting hands on shore but the ship lost.

Rusting bits are all that’s left of the SS Ethie.

We arrived at Port au Choix (Port ah Shuwwaaa) as the sky was clearing and checked into the Oceanside RV Park run by the United Towns Lions Club. Situated right on the shore and with electric, water and wifi this is a no frills but wonderful location! After picking our spot and marking it we headed into town. Basque whalers in the 16th^th century fished here and gave it the name Portuchoa meaning “little port”.

The Chaloupe, a vessel of Basque origins was used for hunting whales and fishing cod in the 16th century. In Newfoundland, they have long disappeared. The knowledge to construct them is still in use in Basque country in Spain, so in 2004 an association of Basque Maritime Heritage came over and three boats were built. This is one of them.

Later this area was part of the “French Shore” given to France as exclusive fishing rights, but not as land for settlement, in the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht, and hence the French version of the name which translates to Port of Choice. We stopped for dinner at Anchor Café where we not only had excellent fish chowder and really good pan fried cod, our friendly and fun waitress Norvalee told us about Pointe Riche Lighthouse.

The wooden “pepperpot” style Pointe Riche Lighthouse in Port au Choix built in 1892 to replace an earlier light.

Back at the campsite we walked around the huge, flat rocks that are the shore and discovered they are covered with fossils! All in all, put Port au Choix on your MVL (Must Visit List).

One of hundreds of fossils we saw in the rocks of Port au Choix. Ed thinks it is a bill of a swordfish-like billfish. Marti is waiting for an expert’s opinion.

The next day was just plain ugly weather wise, and not much better the following day, but we headed on north anyway towards Eddie’s Cove where we saw our first iceberg!

It’s easy to get excited when it’s your very first iceberg. Marti was very thrilled. Little did we know what was coming up North. This size is called a Growler.

At this point the road turns east inland where the fog and rain slowly faded away, then up to the northern tip of Newfoundland, splitting into four fingers of road. We drove up 437 to Cape Onion where we saw more and bigger icebergs.

She’s a Happy Camper at Cape Onion the northernmost point in Newfoundland.

Then back down and out 436 to Quirpon and Viking RV Park where we settled in for the night.

To our great relief we woke to find the beautiful sunshine had remained and we quickly headed on up 436 to L’Anse aux Meadows a place that I was very excited to see. Discovered in 1960 when Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine came to this area following their study of the Norse Sagas. They asked the village residents if they knew of any mounds or unusual shapes in the surrounding landscape. Local George Decker took them to an area they all called the “old Indian camp”. Excavations began and with the discovery of an unquestionably Norse made cloak pin the first European settlement in North America was confirmed, dating from 1,000 years ago!

L’Anse aux Meadows National Park. The boardwalk leads you through the settlement excavation site over to the recreated village. Once excavated and documented the sites were covered back up with dirt to preserve their integrity for future study but the outlines of the building foundations are quite clear.

…as you can see. Yes, that is snow on the hillside.

Walls constructed of peat are based on the foundation excavations, the roof design is taken from known styles recorded in Iceland. They are very substantial and on this nice day pretty cozy feeling.

Back down the south arm of 430 we went to St. Anthony where we discovered Lightkeepers Seafood Restaurant. Put this on your MVL! We had lunch here twice and even stayed an extra day to try their dinner menu!

Located on Fishing Point, the Fox Point lightkeeper’s home is now a restaurant.

Amazing Seafood Chowder, the best yet for lunch one day and Cod Tongues for dinner appetizers the next. The Cod Tongues tasted OK but had a chewy texture. BTW, they’re not really tongues but a muscle from the cheek. Did we mention the Iceberg Beer… oh, oh, oh and Moose Sliders. Yum!

There is a gift shop and museum across the way as well and we had a wonderful time chatting with the owner as well as purchasing some of his mother’s homemade jams. On one of our visits I also walked the short trail behind the restaurant where a large white X was painted on a rock.

Do you see it?

Turns out the “X Marks the Spot” where on August 10, 2009 Francis Patey threw his 2 page message about his hometown, inserted into a plastic soda bottle, into the ocean. For 544 days it traveled along an unknown journey until being spotted and picked up on a Brittany, France beach by Joy Nash! Francis had included his contact information and Joy did just that! FUN!!

We visited the Grenfell Center where we learned about the amazing Dr. Wilfred Thomason Grenfell who in the late 19th and early 20th centuries fell in love with Newfoundland and Labrador and spent the rest of his life, along with his wife, doctoring, educating and supporting the peoples in these two incredibly remote and difficult environments by building hospitals and schools.

We sat and watched on a foggy wet Sunday as men worked at the end of a newly constructed rock pier doing something in the waters of St. Anthony harbour. Watching through binoculars, I asked Ed “What do you think that yellow broken tube thing is?” one of the guys had taken out of a box, my clever husband says “Dynamite, that’s what they were doing, they’re going to blast under the water!”

Boooooom! Only when under the water it wasn’t much of a shock but lots and lots of bubbles. The drilling rig is shown on the right side of the photo. A platform on the end of a long arm attached to a tracked vehicle. They are blasting away a huge rock shoal to make the harbor deeper for container and cruise ships. Good for the local economy but we are afraid it might destroy the charm of this small town.

Newfoundlanders call their island “The Rock” and true there is precious little soil on it, but we are having a wonderful time and hope you are enjoying our window into this beautiful place. There’s a lot more to come and we can’t wait!

Bottle Cove at the end of 450 near our campground at Blow Me Down Provincial Park.

Pointe Riche Lighthouse.

Pointe Riche Lighthouse, again…

June 25th, and almost 11PM this far north and it’s still very light in the western sky. This is from our campground in Port au Choix.

There are small cemeteries all over Newfoundland. We think it’s because they are by denomination and most villages have at least two churches each with its own burial ground rather than community cemetery like at home.

A small tableau on a hummock in Cape Onion. We have no idea who built it but it sure is cute and real looking.

The interior of the big house at L’Anse aux Meadows is fully outfitted with reenactors who answer your questions and perform the daily duties of life in the year 1000AD.

Some of the accoutrements of daily Norse life. We are told they are only Viking if they are off killing and pillaging. 🙂

Detail of an entrance and the sod construction. They cut the peat four miles away so as not to disturb the integrity of the site. The walls are three feet thick.

We saw what we think are Minke (minky) whales feeding in the bay of St. Anthony Bight. These are the only whales we have seen because as we have been told, the capelin are still out at sea and the whales are there feeding on them. There is no cod inshore yet either for the same reason. The local fishermen are getting very restless.

Evening at the harbor of St. Carols, near St. Anthony.

Marti went for a walk after dinner at the Lightkeepers. Fog, as usual is coming and going which makes for beautiful light, sometimes.

Ed looking very Viking-like. Kevin says, “Keep your shield up or I’ll ring your bell Dad!” For those who don’t know, our son Kevin was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism and participated in the Pennsic Wars as a teenager.