Colder in the South!

We awoke to an absolutely gorgeous sunny day. “Another beautiful day in Paradise” , to coin a phrase. When we ventured into the house for showers at 7:30 a.m., it was warmer outside than in. It will be a great day for Mike to get more roofing done. Because of that, Judy decided to stay at the house today and keep the boys (Mike and his young helper) watered and fed and work on her garden. So, we ventured out on the Irish Loop drive on our own.

We Left the house around 9:30 a.m. and took Hiway 60 south along Conception Bay to the TransCanada. We travelled on it for a short distance to Hiway 13 to Bay Bulls and then headed south on 10 to Witless Bay, where you can take a boat tour out to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve – home to 2.5 million seabirds and the largest Atlantic puffin colony in North America. We decided not to do this as we weren’t sure we would have enough time.

We continued onto Ferryland, founded as the Colony of Avalon in 1621 by George Calvert, better known as Lord Baltimore. Baltimore stayed only a few years before transferring his energies into another colony in Maryland.

The village survived and prospered despite a raid by the Dutch in the 1670s, until the 1690s when French raids drove the English away. Because the Colony of Avalon was close to rich fishing grounds, it was too good to be abandoned, and was soon reoccupied.

Today, it is an archaeological dig site and you can watch them uncover the foundations of houses and a cobblestone street built in the 17th century. Thousands of discovered artifacts are on display at the interpretation centre. We stopped at the Ferryland Visitor Centre and browsed some of the artifacts on display there. Judy told us they had the best chowder in Ferryland and we realized when we got there, we didn’t know where to go for it, so asked at the desk. There were a couple of differing opinions initially, but then all the ladies decided the best chowder was served back up the road at Squid Jiggers in Calvert. We drove the short distance back and each ordered a bowl of excellent, thick and creamy seafood chowder that came with a fresh baked roll for our lunch. We shared an order of the bacon wrapped scallops as well and although they were a little pricey, they were perfectly done, sweet morsels and I enjoyed every bite.

We returned down the road, and had planned to stop at the Ferryland Museum, however, there was a sign on the door which led us to believe it was closed. Our next stop was Fermeuse. Wherever there was a look-out and/or a tourist information plaque along this route, we stopped, got out, took some pictures and took advantage of the view.

From Fermeuse we headed inland across the southern tip of Newfoundland. The further inland we got, the foggier it got and the less we could see. From what we could see there were numerous rock ponds, lots of scrub like vegetation, a few small cabins or huts with outhouses and not much else until we reached the coast again at Biscay Bay. By the time we reached Biscay Bay, the outside temperature had dropped from 22C to 13C, and the fog started to clear at the shoreline.

We drove around Trepassey Bay and headed north to the beach at St. Vincent’s where we stopped to pick up an assortment of lovely smooth round and sometimes flat stones from the beach. We were both happy we had our wind breakers as the winds were strong and the roar of the waves crashing on the beach meant we had to stay close together to hear each other talk. The rest of our drive took us along Hiway 90 along Salmonier Bay and then we followed the Salmonier River for a piece before heading north to Conception Bay and back to Paradise. We arrived back to warmth and sunshine and guys working on the roof still at 5:20 p.m. Our round trip today was 310 km.

Judy made a fabulous pork stir fry dish with orange zest, spinach, baby bok choy and cilantro that we both just loved. It was 8:30 by the time we finished dinner. Matthew (who had stopped in for a visit and dinner) and Mike went up on the roof to cover it (in case of rain) and Marcel , Judy and I cleaned up the dishes.

We spent the next hour looking at our map of the island and discussing amendments to our itinerary, before heading to bed around 10:30.