Corner Brook was a total surprise

We left the park a little before noon and drove into Deer Lake to look for Colemans – to check out the seafood, as the locals tell us that is the place to buy it here. We found the BMO across the street from Colemans, so made a mental note for another day, just in case we need it. From here, we set out for Corner Brook, which is about a 30 minute drive west.  

 I am not sure what we expected, but we certainly did not expect what we found. Oh my goodness – the hills are unbelievable. I can’t believe how long and high these mountain roads are. We are definitely in the Long Range Mountains. Marble Mountain is a ski resort and the ski hills could be seen for miles before arriving at them.

Can’t imagine what the drive there will be like with the motorhome. Marcel has suggested when the day comes that I go in the back or put my sleep mask on as it truly is scary in the car and I am concerned about how I will handle these long climbs in our motor home.

There was a Walmart just down the road from the exit we took into Corner Brook. We decided to stop and look for a new pair of gummies for Marcel and bottled water for me. The water here has so much iron in it, even our ice cubes have a yellowish brown tinge.

A Viking ship in Lark Harbour

It was lunch time and as we drove around looking for a place to stop for lunch, we found a Sobey’s. We went in to get a sandwich to take out and eat as we went touring. A bonus was they had fresh cod on sale this week, so we bought some for dinner tonight and put it in our plug in cooler.  From here, we drove to Lark Harbour. This was a very scenic drive through the mountains and along the shore – breathtakingly beautiful scenery. 

Along this route is a place called “Halfway Point” and it really is the halfway point on this road. We passed “Blow me Down” provincial park. We just love the names of the places here (names like Witless Bay, Dildo, Come By Chance and Blow me Down.) 

At one 

point along this road, Marcel thought he saw a waterfall high up on a cliff on our left. To me, it looked like a metal structure. We pulled over in the parking lot for a walking trail and took out the binoculars. It was in fact, a waterfall. 

Corner Brook Pulp and Paper

We took the high road out of Corner Brook on our excursion and the low road coming back in on our way home. On the latter road, we drove by Corner Brook Pulp and Paper, which is a large mill located on the Humber River. What I noticed is that it did not have that distinctive smell of sulphur that remember from the Domtar Plant in Cornwall, ON

We didn’t get back to the park until after 5 p.m. I coated one pound of the fresh cod we bought today with flour, salt and pepper, made a herb and wild rice side dish and steamed broccoli.  I pan fried the fish in sizzling hot butter and it was absolutely delicious.

After dinner, Marcel sat outside – as it was still fairly warm. The high today was in the low 20s with a mix of sun and cloud. I sat inside and worked on the diary and blog again. We spent the rest of the evening watching the movie “You’ve got Mail” with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. Good thing we haven’t seen the movie before – as we are still limited to 2 TV channels here. These are the times when I wish we had satellite TV; but as most of our travel is in the U.S., we usually have lots to choose from with our antenna or have cable TV.

Where the Vikings Landed

We got up this morning around 7 AM to fog. We both showered (mine was cold, unfortunately) and went down to breakfast around 8:30. The dining table was packed with guests. They could seat 8 at a time and it turned out the B&B was overflowing last night. They have at least 5 bedrooms to rent out and all were full. As guests left the dining table, Marilyn cleaned up the spots and put down new placemats and napkins and re-set the spot for the next guest.
When we were seated, there was a couple from Morewood, ON just finishing and two young lads from Saskatchewan just about to be served. There was a plate of fresh tea biscuits, butter, home made partridgeberry, bakeapple and strawberry/rhubarb jams, a plate of fresh fruit, orange juice, apple juice and a pot of coffee on the table. We were asked if we would like a full hot breakfast, sausage, eggs and toast and we both said “yes”.  Marilyn chatted with and waited on everyone and her husband Lou, did all the cooking.
Shortly after we arrived at the table, the final guests arrived. They were a young couple, originally from Belgium, now living in Brampton, as she works for the school board there; and her sister, who is visiting from Belgium.We didn’t get back to our room until 9:20. We packed up, left, and drove the short distance to the L’Anse aux meadows Historic site to see the Viking settlement. 

The plaque at the entrance to this site says “ Discovered in 1960, this is the first authenticated Norse site found in North America and could be Leif Ericsson’s short-lived Vinland camp. Some time about AD 1000 Norse seafarers established a base here from which they explored southwards. The traces of bog iron found – the first known example of iron smelting in the new world – in conjunction with evidence of carpentry suggest that boat repair was an important activity. The distance from their homelands and conflict with Native people may have led the Norse to abandon the site.”

We went on a guided tour and we were very fortunate to have a local fellow, who has always lived in this area and now works for Parks Canada, as a tour guide.
He was a very interesting character. He told us that he played on these mounds when he was a kid. They thought they were old Indian mounds. He also helped out during the archeological dig and became very knowledgeable about the site which led to his employment with Parks Canada. We spent about 2 ½ hrs exploring the site. 

It was noon and we decided to forego Norstead and drive back to Lighthouse Point in St-Anthony one more time for a final glimpse at some of the 120 icebergs that are supposed to be in this area.  As we were driving back, I said I felt like one of those people in the show “tornado chasers”, only we were chasing icebergs. It was just as foggy at the site as the day before, but we did see one iceberg. Before beginning our 5 hour drive back to Deer Lake we had lunch at Pizza Delight.  It was 2:30 PM when we left St. Anthony. 

 
The scenery on the drive back was once again simply breathtaking. A couple of times today, I found myself choked up; a lump in my throat and tears in my eyes – just in awe of the beauty of this country. I was looking at a beautiful blue/green body of water on my right with the sun glistening on the water and the rays spreading out in a fan at the horizon; and beautiful green tree covered mountains on my left; our favourite music playing on the MP3 through the car speakers, and driving with my honey. There were a couple of spots along this road that we picked out as the perfect spot to build a house.

We took a lot of photos on the drive back. As we drove, both yesterday and today, we noticed quite a few vegetable gardens along this route. There wasn’t a house or building anywhere near them – and it appeared that people just found a patch of fertile soil, put a fence around it and planted a garden. Many of them had plastic bags hanging from lines surrounding them to keep the birds away. We never saw anyone working in any of these gardens and Marcel kept joking that perhaps they were grow ops!

 
We also saw numerous locations along the roadside where lobster pods were stacked and huge stacks of wood. 

Sometimes there were stacks of very long logs (the length of a tree). In other places 8-10 foot logs were stacked to form tee-pees. Our best guess is this is how they dried the wood. We also spotted a wooden sleigh oln the side of the road, used to carry wood in the winter.

About 3 km up the road from our RV park, we found a country market. We had heard about this place from Marcel’s niece Christine and her husband Van. We were told we absolutely must stop there and were pleased that it was still open. We bought a jar of Partridgeberry jam, one of black currant jelly and a container of fresh cream for breakfast tomorrow. We also bought a package of home made sausages – that will be dinner one night this week. 

We didn’t get back to the RV park until 8PM. Total mileage for this trip to the tip and back to our campground is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 1,000 km. We reset our trip odometer part way up the road and when we looked at it when we were nearing our campground again we had put on 940 km. I have to say it was definitely worth the drive.

Chasing Icebergs

We left the park a little after 9 a.m. for our drive along the Viking Trail. The scenery as we drove through Gros Morne National Park is spectacular. It reminded us of Arizona, but with trees! The drive up the coast reminded us of driving parts of the South Carolina or Florida coast, minus the high rise buildings. It was hard to believe the water we were looking at was the Gulf of St. Lawrence – it was as blue as blue could be.  As we headed further north, the channel narrowed and we could see Labrador. 

Arches Provincial Park

We stopped at The Arches Provincial Park and several points along the way to take photos and in one little town for lunch. As the day and the kilometres marched on, we became anxious to get to our destination. It was still a very sunny day but the temperature was dropping as we headed north. We decided to head to the lighthouse at St. Anthony’s before going to our B&B in L’Ans-aux Meadows, as we heard this is where all the icebergs are right now. 

Daniel's Harbour

Icebergs at Goose Cove

It was 4 p.m. as we neared this location, and it became evident we weren’t likely to see anything – the fog was rolling in thickly and quickly. We parked our car and ventured out the to farthest point only to hear the fog horn within yards of us. All we could see were a few bergy bits. There was one larger piece, but nothing like we hoped to see. As we were returning to the car, and while Marcel was taking a picture of the sign at this location, I noticed a coast guard vehicle entering the parking lot. We stopped it and asked if they thought the fog would lift. We explained we had just driven almost 500 km to see icebergs and were quite disappointed that it was so foggy. The fellow told us to drive to Goose Cove. He said there are lots of bergs there and he didn’t think the fog was heading in that direction. 

Icebergs at Goose Cove

Icebergs at Goose Cove

Goose Cove

We jumped in the car and made a bee line for Goose Cove which was about 11 km away. As we drove closer to it – it looked promising and we were not disappointed. We turned the corner and went over a hill to see fantastic icebergs. We parked the car and walked the trail up the hill and across a field to a gazebo where we could get a better look – one was the size of a large house – and the blue halo that surrounded it was stunning. Another looked like a piece of an airstrip – very long and low to the water. Another looked like it had been a massive iceberg that had recently split in two on top, but was perhaps still attached below water. 

Fog rolling in at Goose Cove

All you could hear from the two of us was oohs and aaahhhs and the clicking of our camera shutters. There was a path that led to the top of a steep hill to the left of us overlooking the bay. We decided to walk it to get a closer look at the one with the blue halo. As we neared the top, the fog began to set in – and it came quickly. As Marcel aimed at one iceberg to get a shot – another would disappear into the fog. We couldn’t believe how quickly it completely hid the bergs from view and they were quite close to shore. 

View from our B&B

We returned to our car and headed for Marilyn’s Hospitality House (our B&B in L’Ans-aux Meadows).  I could see the fog in all directions, but once again as we rounded a corner and the bay came into view, there in the middle of the bay sat a huge block of ice!  We arrived shortly after 5. I apologized for interrupting their dinner. Marilyn gave us a choice of rooms. We took the room with a queen bed. an attached 3 piece bathroom and a private entrance.  There is no TV in our room, but we do have wi-fi. The bonus is – I can see that iceberg from our bedroom window. It couldn’t be more perfect.

Marilyn asked if we had eaten. We told her we had not, and were hoping to find something in the area, she recommended a restaurant a few km down the road that offered fresh seafood and had entertainment tonight. We settled in our room, had a “before dinner” drink and set off for the restaurant. We arrived to find all tables had a “reserved” sign on them and we were told there was no availability as all tables had been booked for the show.  When I told the waitress, we were staying in the area and the lady who owned the B&B had recommended it,  she asked if we would be willing to just have dinner and not stay for the show (eat and run, so to speak). We  agreed, and they seated us. We both ordered the special of the night – a seafood platter – and we were not disappointed – shrimps, scallops and cod, of course all was deep fried (which we didn’t realize) – some with a heavier batter than others, but I am learning that seems to be common in a lot of restaurants in Newfoundland. 

After dinner we drove to the L’Ans-aux Meadows historic site. It was closed for the day, but we read enough of the signage there to decide that we would rather do that now than an iceberg boat tour. We returned to the B&B. Marilyn met us outside at our door and asked us about the entertainment. We explained all tables had been booked for the show, but we were able to have dinner. We asked her if we could cancel the boat tour that she had booked for us – and she told us she already had – as she didn’t think we would be interested in going out of this location, given that all the icebergs were now in St. Anthony.  We were pleased as now we will visit the historic site and then perhaps go to Norstead (a re-enactment and re-creation of a Viking village) before heading back to Deer Lake tomorrow.

Deer Lake - Home for the next 7 days

We left Woolfrey’s Pond RV Park a little before 9 a.m., drove to the dump station and got on the Trans Canada Hiway (#1) heading west. Our destination today is Gateway to the North RV Park in Deer Lake.  As the story goes, this place is called Deer Lake because, the locals saw what they believed to be a herd of deer swimming across the lake. It was later determined they were caribou, as there is a large herd in this area.

It was another beautiful, sunny day with a high of 23C and actually felt warmer than that by the time we arrived at Gateway to the North RV Park in Deer Lake, around 1 p.m.  We noticed the scenery in the central region of Newfoundland is different from the Eastern and Avalon Regions. Vegetation along this section of the Trans Canada seemed to be thicker and greener with a lot more deciduous trees.  There is also a lot more up and down as we approached the Long Range Mountains.

The campground isn’t much to look at. It is right beside Route 430, The Viking Trail to Gros Morne National Park and L’Ans-aux Meadows. Sites are gravel, mostly pull-thrus and ours was long enough for us to park our car behind our rig and still have room. There are some low shrubs and unkept grass/weeds between the sites. Most sites have a picnic table and fire ring. We do have 50 amp and we have pretty good wi-fi, still not good enough to make Skype calls but fast enough for everything else we want to do. We are staying for 7 nights and they only charged us for 6 and gave us the 7^th night free. It is a Passport America park but they do not accept it in the summer months. They did give us an additional discount for our Good Sam membership. 

Once we were settled, we spent the rest of the day enjoying the weather.  We drove into Deer Lake to check it out and see what was in town. We found the local Foodland grocery store. They said there are 9 restaurants but we didn’t find them. We did find the Tim Horton's, the KFC with a sit down area; a Chinese Food restaurant, Pizza Delight and as we were driving back, realized we missed a section of town that may have more on it. 

RCMP Musical Ride is Here

It is another beautiful sunny day. Marcel made breakfast this morning and then made some calls and booked a B&B (Marilyn’s Hospitality House) in L’Anse aux Meadows for Thursday night.We left around 11 am to go exploring. As we were driving through town (on our way out) we saw a large tractor trailer that said “RCMP Musical Ride” on it. We stopped at the visitor centre just outside of town and they confirmed the RCMP Musical ride was performing that night in Lewisporte. We drove back into town and bought tickets for it. 

From there, we then drove to Gander to get more cash from the BMO - ATM and then drove to Rogers Cove and back to Lewisporte. We drove many of the bay roads today. It seems the majority of these towns survive on the fishing industry. We drove through Birchy Cove, Baytona Cove and Comfort/Newstead Cove. We returned to our RV at approximately 3:30pm and just enjoyed the day for awhile. 

Marcel called Marilyn’s B&B again as we had been thinking about changing our overnight to Friday night. After several phone calls and conversations, we decided to leave it at Thursday, stay at Marilyn’s and take White Island Boat tours on Friday morning out of L’Ans-aux Meadows. Marilyn told us she would book it for us.

For dinner tonight we had cold chicken, ribs, bean salad, and pasta salad. We left our RV around 6:15 pm to go to the RCMP ride show. We arrived a few minutes later as the entertainment grounds were less than 2 km from our park. We didn’t realize it at the time, but they had us park about ½ km from the show site – and it was all uphill. We were hauling our coats and folding chairs. The area around the field was packed with people sitting and a lot standing. After hauling our chairs, we wound up standing for the entire performance – as there were people standing in front of where we put our chairs and there was nowhere that we could put the chairs where people weren’t standing already. The temperature was about 27 C and with all the body heat from all the other people attending the show, there really was no need for our jackets either. 

Nothing like driving >1000km to see something we can see at home! And to top it off, the show was disappointing. It should have been better organized, so people could see. I think, they should have told those without chairs to sit on the grass; put those on chairs behind them and then put those who insisted on standing behind them. There were bleachers, but not enough to accommodate anywhere near the number of people who bought tickets for the show.  We could not hear the announcer – partly because the sound system was so poor and partly because people talked through most of it – and that may be because they didn’t realize someone was talking. 

During the show, I noticed a couple behind us and the lady was about a head and a half shorter than me.  I knew there was no way she was going to see anything where she was. I spotted a gap in front of me and suggested she move up. At first, she was reluctant. I told her, I could easily see over her head.  She was very grateful and I found out after the show, that she is the wife of the local United Church minister and her sister lives in Russell Ontario, so they go to Ottawa regularly. 

We were very disappointed as it lasted only 25 minutes and cost us $10 each.  It seemed to me when we saw a dress rehearsal years ago in Ottawa, on the RCMP grounds, it lasted much longer than that - and it was free! I can’t imagine the cost to bring all those officers and horses and gear in the transport trucks over on the ferry for less than a 30 minute show! These are our tax dollars hard at work again.

The walk back to the car was thankfully downhill. We got home early enough for us to spend some time working on our trip diaries and this blog. Tomorrow, we leave for Gateway to the North RV park in Deer Lake.

Twillingate and our First Glimpse of Icebergs!

YES, we saw icebergs today!  I was so excited because we called some of the boat tour operators the day before and they told us the last one in the area had broken apart on Sunday. We stopped at the visitor centre on our way to Twillingate and asked if there were any around. One of the girls there, called her friend who works on a boat to see if she had seen any earlier in the day. We were told the last one had drifted out - so there was nothing within 10 km of the shore and the boats didn't go out that far.


It was a beautiful sunny day and we continued our drive, stopping at a local roadside fish market near Summerford, for lunch. I had a lobster roll and Marcel tried cod tongues here - and we both agreed the cod cheeks are better. We had tried those at Bonavista a couple of days earlier and we both liked them. Before leaving the fish stand, we bought two large lobsters that had just come out of the pot. They sold them for $7.25/lb cooked, which we thought was a good price. We also bought a package of cod cheeks - they were frozen. We let the lobsters cool in a bag on the floor of the car, but put the cheeks in our plug in cooler in the car along with an ice pack we had brought from home. 

Taken with our Nikon

As we rounded a corner in Twillingate (on our way to the Long Point lighthouse), I spotted an iceberg out of the corner of my eye. We enthusiastically drove straight to Long Point and I am so glad we did. When we arrived at the lookout, there were, in fact, 4 icebergs; one triangular, one long low and flat rectangular, one large block and another smaller one. The triangular one was the closest to us and we could see it quite clearly with our binoculars. This time we had our Sony Handycam and were able to zoom in to take a photo. Although we could see the other three way off in the distance quite clearly when we arrived, they quickly drifted further out, mixed with the haze of the horizon and became hard to see. We decided not to take a whale watching and iceberg quest boat tour as we have already had some great views from shore and so, will save that for a later expedition on the west coast of the island. 

Zoomed to 60 x on our Sony Handycam

We stopped at the Auk Island Winery for some tastings and bought a few of their wines. We spent the rest of the day enjoying the sunshine and views in Twillingate and surrounding area.We stopped for a drink before dinner at North 99 – a local lounge overlooking the bay. At 5:40 we began our drive to Crow Head.

We spent the evening at the "All around the Circle Dinner Theatre" in Twillingate. I had the salmon dinner, Marcel had the cod and I have to say, his was better than mine. I found the salmon a little overcooked. His was perfect. Two other couples were seated at our table and the conversation was fun and lively. One couple was originally from Switzerland, lived and worked in Toronto for many years and are now living in Bancroft, Ontario. The lady of the other couple is from Pembroke (and had also lived previously in Bancroft) and her partner is from Newfoundland (near Twillingate). He is a teacher in Nunavut and she is going to relocate with him in September.  The dinner and show were well worth the cost of admission. The show ended about 9:30 p.m. and we arrived back at our campground in Lewisporte just before 11 p.m.

We’re surrounded by water!

I heard the rain in the night but had no idea how much it had poured until I woke this morning and realized we were surrounded by water. It wasn’t everywhere – just our site. And it wasn’t a little. There was easily 3” of water totally surrounding our rig – and spread about 2’ beyond our rig on all sides. We wish we had brought our rubber boots with us.

The internet shut down about 10 p.m. last night, and still wasn’t working this morning. Marcel donned his gummies (trying to jump the water around us) and walked over to the office to mention this to the lady there. When he returned, I was just in the process of putting our little white step stool out to give him a step half way between dry land and our coach. 

We decided to have a quiet day today. After our neighbour moved, we moved into site 30 – at least it is dry here and our cord will now reach to give us 50 amps. I defrosted the freezer, we swept and then spent the rest of the day watching the entire first season of "Republic of Doyle", the TV series that Mike and Judy loaned us on DVD. I took advantage of the down time too, and cooked some turkey thighs in the slow cooker (for another day) and made Schnitzel for dinner.

Sometimes a Wrong Turn is a good thing!

23 years ago today, Marcel and I said “I do”.  I was awake at 6 and spent a little over two hours catching up on our trip diary. Great way to start the day.

We left Cabot RV shortly after 9 a.m. and arrived at Woolfrey’s Pond RV Park sometime after 1 p.m. Our drive was uneventful until we reached Lewisporte, when we had trouble following the GPS, got turned around in the Price Chopper parking lot – and ended up on the wrong road out of town.   

There was no place to turn around at all and we were on a 2 lane narrow route heading to Twillingate. I checked the map and found a village a short way down the road. I then noticed a sign with a picture of a very large lobster on it, indicating there was a stand ahead. We slowed down in anticipation and hopeful it would have a place where we could turn around. As we approached it, I doubted there was sufficient room, but Marcel thought we could make it. Had there not been two parked cars in the lot, we would have had enough swing space, but as it was we did not. By this point we were well in the lot and no place to go but to disconnect our tow vehicle from our coach.

While he disconnected, I went to check out the fish market. Well it was a stroke of luck. They had live lobsters ($7.99/lb); Mussels (5 lb bag for $8.75); Cod cheeks ($10/lb); Scallops, shrimp, crab, salmon and much more. We decided not to buy anything at this point, but told the woman we would return once we were set up. She gave us directions to the campground, so I led the way in the car. As we drove down the very windy gravel road toward the campground, I wondered if once again we had made a wrong turn. My only clue that we might be on the right road was that we passed a dump station near the entrance. Needless to say, I breathed a sigh of relief as we finally approached a clearing where I could see some trailers.

The campground is pretty much a gravel lot with good size sections of grass housing the water and electric hook-ups, picnic tables, a garbage can and a fire ring. There are no trees, but the campground is surrounded by trees and bush. We checked in and were told to go to site #29. When we got there, we found it was already occupied.  I drove back to the office and told the lady site #34 was free (which it wasn’t, but that was what Marcel told me). It actually was site 23 and she told me we couldn’t have that one as it was promised to someone who was checking in for a week.  After walking the campground with the proprieter, we discovered there were no empty spaces for us. There was a large space next to the utility house and I asked if we could park there. She was extremely apologetic and concerned our hoses and electrical cable wouldn't reach the closest hook-ups, but I assured her we would be fine. Our electrical cord could reach the utility pole on the opposite side and the site was long enough for us to fit. Marcel decided to drive back to the dump station before setting up. When he returned, I told him the fellow in the site next to us (site #30) told me he was leaving the next day, and I had already checked with the office and they had confirmed with me, we could have that site after they left.

Once we were set up we drove back into Lewisporte to check out the local restaurants and then drove to the local mall. We stopped in the Bargain General Store and found a white storage bench that will fit perfectly in our laundry room at home. This is a great find as I have been looking for months for just such a thing. Our next stop was Price Chopper where we bought the last loaf of French bread they had on the limited shelves and a large bag of frozen shrimp with cocktail sauce. We then drove back to the fish market, bought a lobster and although they normally charge $6 to cook the lobsters, she already had a pot on the boil for someone else, so threw ours into the pot as well and we weren’t charged. The cost is $6/pot, so regardless of the number of lobsters you want cooked, as long as they fit in the pot. We also bought a pound of cod cheeks (which were frozen) and a 5 lb bag of fresh mussels. We returned to the campground – had a drink and a feast of seafood for our anniversary dinner. I steamed the mussels, sliced the bread, melted some butter for the lobster, thawed some shrimp, added extra horseradish to the cocktail sauce and put the bag of cod cheeks in the freezer to enjoy another day.

After dinner we watched one of the two TV channels we get here. Our pick was the Winnipeg comedy festival before getting comfy with our books in bed about 10:30 p.m. We could smell the wood as neighbours all around us sat out with fires burning in the firepits.

Puffins, Whales and more!

Lupins growing everywhere

Love those colourful houses

St. Paul's Anglican Church

It was a slow morning this morning. We did not leave Cabot RV until 11 a.m. Our first stop was Trinity. We toured this small coastal town, and took photos of some of the historic buildings. We did not take a picture of the catholic church here – and realized later it is the oldest wooden church still standing today in Nfld. We did photograph St. Paul’s Anglican Church. Its records of baptisms, marriages and burials are the oldest in the province, dating from 1753. The oldest headstone is in the cemetery here – Francis Squibb, 1763 – a member of the first church congregation and one of the first Justices of the Peace.

Town Hall

Courthouse - now a Gift shop

We then drove to old Bonaventure before arriving at New Bonaventure. The claim to fame of this very remote location is that it was the set for the mini-series “Random Passage” with Colm Meaney.  It is the compelling story of Mary Bundle's journey from indenture in England to St. Johns, Newfoundland, and her subsequent struggle against enormous odds to carve out a life in the New World. It is a fictional story based on what life was like for those who left their native homes and settled here in the early 1700 and 1800s and the hardships they faced. We decided to have our picnic lunch at this location on a table overlooking the bay. This was enjoyable until the black flies found us.

From here we drove through Port Rexton, Trinity East, Melrose, Port Union, (the only union built town in North America); Catalina and Maberly before arriving in Elliston. 

Here near Sandy Cove Beach isone of the most accessible places in Newfoundland to view the Atlantic Puffin.  We took a 5 minute walk to the nesting area at Bird Rock,  which is home to more than 400 breeding pairs of puffins.  From here  we also saw  whales – what we believed to be a fin whale on one side and humpbacks on the other side. The whales were further away from us than at Cape Spear – as I could not hear their blows - and the wind was sending their sounds away from us.  There was lots of activity in the water and we could see whales surfacing in every direction that I looked. It seems we are more apt to see them on the bright sunny days and today is another pleasantly warm and sunny day here.  It was at this location, we realized we did not have our Sony Handycam – AGAIN– so could not zoom in. 

We took pictures of the puffins and tried to get some of the whales, but they were too far away. We took a few of root cellers as Elliston is home to 134 documented ones – some have been restored, others are in the process of being restored and others are in a state of disrepair.

Our next stop was Bonavista. We decided to head to Cape Bonavista to see the Lighthouse first. We were not disappointed. From here we were entertained for as long as we wanted to stand there, by a large number of whales in every direction. 

Jumping for the audience

Check out that splash! - and the boat is actually a decent size boat!

Really wish we would have had the zoom lens - as the binoculars gave us a Fantastic show

We spent the majority of our time watching a pair of humpbacks as they jumped and played in the water close to a boat, and not far from shore. They put on a really good show for us – we got some good shots – and had wonderful close up views through the binoculars. We are so sorry we didn’t have the zoom lens of the Sony Handycam.

As we got back in the car and drove from this site, I said to Marcel that we truly cannot be disappointed. We have not even been here a week and we have seen whales at 3 different locales, nesting Atlantic puffins, nesting Northern Gannets and I understand it is looking very promising for us to see icebergs this year.

After leaving the lighthouse, we stopped at the location touted for being the spot where John Cabot landed. There is a large statue here to mark this spot and the historical marker says “In early May 1497, John Cabot (Giovanni Caboto), a Venetian citizen bearing letters patent from Henry VII sailed from Bristol in the MATTHEW to seek a western passage to Asia. On June 24, he made land somewhere on the east coast of Canada. Although the sources do not allow unequivocal identification of the site, local tradition records Cape Bonavista as the landfall. From this, the first official English voyage of exploration in the Western Ocean, derived Britain’s subsequent claims in the New World and the beginnings of her overseas empire.”

Our next stop was a placed call Dungeon – which is marked as a provincial park and is home to a very unusual rock formation. It is a twin entrance sea cave with a collapsed roof. Here we saw a herd of goats wandering the rocky grounds.

It was close to 5 p.m. as we headed back to Bonavista for our tour of this pretty Oceanside village. While here we stopped for dinner (5:10-6:15) at the Ocean View restaurant. Both of us had seats that allowed us to look out over the ocean and it was absolutely gorgeous. The sun was shining and the water was a beautiful blue. We were here from shortly after 5 until about 6:15 p.m.  The food took quite a while to arrive, so we know it was all cooked fresh and made to order. I ordered the Cod Cheeks platter (came with rice and very good home made coleslaw). Marcel ordered the Cod Grautin (this isn’t a spelling or typo – that is how they spelled it in the menu). Both meals were delicious. He shared his cod with me and I shared my cod cheeks with him. We both decided we like cod cheeks.

After leaving Bonavista, we stopped in Duntara, which was disappointing. It was supposed to be a small village that has often been painted. We found it rather boring. It was pretty much a shoreline dotted with small white cottages – nothing nearly as colourful as the salt box houses we have seen elsewhere and not a particularly pretty coastline.

Our last stop of the day was Red Cliffs – and it is so aptly named – it reminded us of Sedona of the North.

It was along this route that we photographed wild azaleas. We have been so amazed at the flowers that grow wild here – lupins, iris and azaleas and all of them are in bloom right now. We arrived back at our campground just a little before dusk at approximately 8:20 p.m. We drove about 260 km today. So far, we have put at least 1500 km on our SUV since arriving in Nfld.