Today was a busy day although we didn’t go very far.  We drove from Clarenville to Spaniard’s Bay on the Baccalieu Trail.  We stopped at a couple of lookout’s but didn’t do any hikes.

Our first lookout was in Sunnyside but since it was a cloudy grey day the view wasn’t very interesting.  We decided to drive to the end of the road.  The main road in Newfoundland goes from west to east but with all the peninsula’s and inlets there are off-shoot roads all over; a lot of which go a few kilometers to a small community and stop at the water’s edge.

At the end of the road in Sunnyside you could see the two hills on either side of the inlet and in the middle of the water between was a platform with five or six large cranes on it and many small floating platforms around it.  We couldn’t figure out what it was so John stopped on the way back and asked a fellow coming out of his driveway on his ATV (lots of people use ATV’s to drive around in their town and as soon as the snow falls they switch to snowmobiles). The big platform was a 4 1/2 year construction project of a gravity base for an oil drilling rig.  When completed it will be towed out to the Grand Banks and a rig will be put on it.  Newfoundland currently has 4 oil platforms and they are pumping 500,000 barrels of oil a day in the Grand Banks.

Our second lookout stop was at Arnold’s Cove.  We didn’t hike here but Poppy had to do a 1/2 mile of off-roading.  The view was over the Placentia Bay and on a clear day you could see many of the islands.  But today it was pretty grey and hazy so the view wasn’t too good.  The interesting part, especially for John, was the view of the oil refinery on one side and the six gigantic oil storage tanks and two oil tankers docked at the shore.  John loves that industrial stuff – that and nice farm land are his two favorite views, I think.

We were on the Trans-Canada Highway for quite awhile today but did a little jog south to the town of Whitbourne to see the railroaders memorial.  61 men lost their lives during Newfoundland’s railroad years. The railroad has been abandoned for years and no trains run here at all. But the railway line from Port aux Basques to St. John’s (900+ km) is now  the T’Railway walking route

.

Shag Rock Our next stop was by far the most interesting.  We were at Heart’s Content about halfway up Highway 80 on the Baccalieu Peninsula and stopped at the Provincial Historic Site Cable Station.  In 1866 the trans-Atlantic cable came ashore at Heart’s Content from Valencia, Ireland and linked Europe with North America; thus providing instant communication between the continents.

Heart’s Content was a two-class town pretty much – the local fishing families and the cable families.  The Cable company built housing, provided entertainment, arranged outings and events and did many other things for its employees but the local people were not invited or offered any of the benefits.  During the war with so many of the young men overseas they began to hire women and they were so good at the work typing the messages and relaying them to other stations that they continued to keep them and hire them even after the war was over. The women were given the same wages, benefits and advancement opportunities.  One 15 year old girl became a supervisor at 17.  But…you had to quit if you go married.   At the heyday of the Cable Station it employed 300 people.  When the station closed in 1965 (Marconi’s wireless made cable obsolete) there were only 18 still working at the Station.

All the equipment was still in the original building as was the pool table in the lounge.  There was tons of equipment with knobs and dials and wires and who-knows-what-all.  I have no idea what most of it did but it was amazing engineering.  SwitchboardThe wires attached to the switchboard!

The last stop was at Salmon Cove to see the 500′ heart-shaped grey sand beach.  By then there was a bit of blue sky and the steep cliffs and rocks in the bay made a lovely scene.  I took off my hiking boots and socks and waded into the Atlantic.  It was freezing but crystal clear.

 John didn’t do as well!

Horror of horrors we had to get up early today!  Well, not really early, but earlier than I usually get up.  The lady at our B & B in Bonavista serves breakfast between 7 and 8 am.  I usually get up between 8 and 8:30!  But we made it to the table at 5 to 8.  Actually our host Preston had said it would be fine to come to breakfast as late as 8:30 so we did well I think.

We only had 100 km to drive today although we had quite a few things to see.  But we wanted to see a couple in Bonavista before we left town.

First we went over to the Mockbeggar Plantation, a Provincial Heritage Site.  No one is quite sure why the property has this name but the name is found in several places in Britain and the first owner was an out-port merchant, Joseph White of Poole, England from 1685-1771.  There were several owners of the house; the last being Mr. F. Gordon Bradley and his family.  Mr. Bradley was a politician as well as a successful merchant – fish, cod liver oil and various other enterprises – and was a strong proponent of Newfoundland joining Confederation.  The house is restored to 1939 but was originally built in 1871 probably from timbers used in a previous dwelling.

 Located around the house are several outbuildings that housed Mr. Bradley’s businesses.  One in particular, a two and a half story triangle-shaped structure is considered the oldest building in Newfoundland.  It has been examined by archaeologists and dated about 1730.  There isn’t even a hint of sway in the roof!

Our next stop just down the road was Ye Matthew Legacy. The Matthew was John Cabot’s ship that made landfall at Bonavista in 1497.  In 1997 a replica of the Matthew was build in Bristol, England and sailed by 20 men (the same size as Cabot’s crew) for 34 days to make landfall in Bonavista to commemorate the 500th anniversary of Cabot’s historic journey.  Queen Elizabeth II was on hand for the ‘landing.’  The ship was sailed back across the Atlantic and is anchored in Bristol.

The citizens of Bonavista decided after this event to make their own Matthew.   Local shipbuilders and craftsmen took 18 months to build her.  The ship usually is berthed in the bay each spring and summer and housed in the specially built boathouse during the winter but she needs some repair work done and, for now, stays inside.

Look at these stats.  That ship was not at all big.

We were able to wander around on the vessel and go below.  It is tiny!  The crowsnest is 76′ tall (BC tree) but it is a little over 63′ long and only 18′ wide.  The captain and the first mate had miniscule cabins, the rest of the crew would sleep on the supplies and the rock and gravel ballast in the hold.  What adventuresome fellows!

What I didn’t remember from my school history lessons is that two years after Cabot’s first voyage to the New World, British King Henry VII, also authorized and financed Cabot’s second trip.  Cabot never returned and was never heard from again; his fate unknown to this day.

We left Bonavista at about 11;30 and drove down Highway 230 toward Clarenville.  Our plan was to stop at the little town of Trinity where there were many things I had made notes to see.  However we missed the signs and the turn and had almost reached Clarenville before I commented on how long it was taking to get to Trinity.  By then we were 70 km down the road and we decided not to go back.

We did go back as far as the turnoff to Random Island though; a backtrack of about 7 km.  We drove across the causeway and to the end of the road, past Britannia and onto a nice little bay at Petley.

  We were blessed with another lovely day and interesting sights.  But I found one sight distressing today: a tree turning color!  Well 1/2 of it is anyway.  But nevertheless it is a reminder of the coming change of season.

Day 73 was a down day.  We did nothing and went no where.  Day 74, Labour Day, was sunny and warm all day.  Yay!

We left our hotel in Gander at 10 am, stopped briefly to see the mural at Gander airport, then continued east on Hwy 1, driving through Terra Nove National Park.  We made two stops within the park boundary – both to lookouts.

First was Blue Hill which was located 7 km from the highway up a gravel road.  There was a great view over the forests punctuated with lakes and ponds (Ponds in NL are small lakes, not marshy water – although some places called Ponds are bigger than some places called Lakes – go figure).

Parks Canada places these nice red chairs at many of their lookouts.The second lookout was Ochre Hill; this too was a lengthy drive up a gravel road.  From the parking lot we walked up the path and the steps and along the boardwalk looking out over the forest and to the open Atlantic water at the end of Clade Sound.  There is a forestry fire watch tower that we were able to climb as far as the last stairwell below the tower hut.  With the day so lovely it was well worth it.

More red chairs.

   Not too far from the park’s southeastern boundary we turned off onto Highway 233 drove up the Bonavista Peninsula.

We arrived in the town of Bonavista at 3 o’clock so had time to check out the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse.  The light keepers two story house was built around the base of the lighthouse tower – first time we have seen that.

The light was first used in the Isle of May lighthouse in Scotland in 1816.  When Scotland was changing their lights to a newer kind Newfoundland bought the catoptric light and set it into the lighthouse at Harbour Grace Island in 1837.  It was moved to Bonavista in 1895 and used until 1962 when the light was automated – 146 years of service.  It is the only remaining light of its type and one of the few lighthouses in the world that you can see an original seal oil fueled light as was used in the 19th century.

We saw so many lovely boulders and rocks in the shallow shore waters on Saturday but today’s rocks created huge cliffs or stone islands. The coast around Bonavista Lighthouse is very rugged with sheer drops of 100′.  Wandering around the clifftops was really cool.

Memorial commemorating John Cabot’s landfall at Bonavista May 1497 After we left the Cape we drove 2 km along a gravel road to The Dungeon Provincial Park where there is a collapsed ocean cave; creating a huge bowl with two open arches to the water.

We then checked into our B & B but only stayed long enough to drop off our stuff.  Our host had recommended a couple of restaurants and had explained some of the sights around Bonavista he thought we may be interested in seeing.

The one that caught my attention immediately was a spot just down the road past Elliston at Marberly where there was a good chance we could see some Atlantic Puffins.

We had planned to go to Elliston after dinner because when we had stopped in Summerville to have some lunch (parked in front of the Cenotaph) the fellow from across the street, who had been mowing his lawn, came over to chat.  After he heard we were on our way to Bonavista he suggested we go a few kilometers further to Elliston.  “There is a very nice memorial to the Sealer’s at Elliston,” he said. “It is well done and definitely worth a visit.”

John had stopped at the restaurant Preston had recommended to make a reservation but the lady said she had a table available now if we wanted to eat right away.  It was 5:30 so we ate first and then drove to Elliston and the Sealer’s Memorial.

The Sealer’s Memorial commemorates two separate disasters that claimed the lives of 251 men in the winter of 1914.  March 30, 1914 166 men left their ship, the SS Newfoundland, to walk 7 miles across the ice to the SS Stephano.  A storm blew up and 34 turned back. The rest decided to press on and were lost in a vicious blizzard for two days during which each of the two captains assumed the men had reached safety on the other vessel.  78 died.

The second disaster occurred during the same storm when the SS Southern Cross sunk with all hands.  The names off all who died and all who survived are engraved on the two sides of the memorial and the statue shows one of the men holding his dying son in his arms until he too perished.  There were many father’s and sons names engraved on the stone.

Typical Newfoundland-style ‘Salt Box’ house.

After visiting the memorial we drove another kilometer to Maberly. We walked the path to the cliff edge as the sun was beginning to set. Just off shore there is a gigantic rock that is a popular hangout for the Atlantic Puffin (also known as the common puffin) who breed and nest in Newfoundland every spring and summer.  They are small members of the Auk family.

The sunset was pretty nice too.

Today was a rocky day.  Rocks, rocks and more rocks.  There are a whole bunch of photos of rocks in this blog.  Consider yourself warned.

We slept in this morning.  No loud talkers, no door bangers, no trucks starting outside the window.  A comfy bed, a squishy pillow and a sound sleep.  Doesn’t happen in my life very often so I really appreciate those nights when it does.

After a late breakfast we headed east of Gander to drive around another of Newfoundland’s coastal bumps.  We made two stops outside of town before heading up Highway 320 – both to grave memorials.

The first was the Commonwealth War Graves.  Beginning in 1936 Gander became an important part of trans-Atlantic flight; the town was perfectly situated to be a refueling stop.  During WWII many flights originated from here to attack the German U-Boats that were trying to destroy the supply convoys sailing out of Halifax and other Canadian ports on the way to Britain and Europe.  There are 100 graves in the Commonwealth War Graves part of the cemetery up on a hill 1/4 mile from the TCHwy; 80 are for Canadians, 18 from the UK, and 2 Australians.  They are the 94 servicemen and 6 soldiers that died off the coast of Newfoundland during WWII.

The second memorial site is called the Silent Witness.  It is located a 100 meters down the road and on the other side of the highway from the Commonwealth War Graves.  It commemorates the 256 people (248 members of the 101st Airborne from Fort Campbell, Kentucky and 8 crew) that died on the site Dec. 18, 1985 not long after take-off from Gander Airport after a refueling stop.  The plane was an Arrow Air Charter transferring American peace keepers home from the Sinai to their base in Kentucky.  There were no survivors.

 An unarmed soldier and two children holding olive branches. The statue was designed by a Newfoundland artist and made by a sculpture in Kentucky.

The cross atop the pillar was made from the emergency exit door of the plane.  It is engraved with the words, “Rendevous with destiny.”

After visiting the grave sites we took the turn up Highway 320 to make a counter-clockwise loop around the coast; connecting with Hwy 331 that we drove yesterday on our way back to Gander.

We made a stop at Joey’s Lookout overlooking Gambo Pond and Triton Brook. The little town of Mint Brook right down the road was the birthplace of Joey Smallwood, the first premier of Newfoundland after it became the 10th province of Canada in 1949.

We only made one ‘official’ stop but a few unofficial photo stops to take shots of rocks (and one of the weeds in the water).

The planned stop was in Newtown to see the Heritage Village.  Before we found the village we stopped to take some photos of the church and houses along the inlet and the Tickle (Newfoundland term for a creek).

We toured the village, had some lunch and drove the rest of the way around the coast and back to Gander.  It seemed that every third or fourth bend in the road revealed a little bright blue bay full of rocks.

This house was lived in by two families; father and son – one with 10 children and one with 9 children. They shared the common rooms and had bedrooms for each family on the second floor.  

 

The stair rail came from Britain in three pieces.  It was made by the same firm that did work on the Titanic.     Jelly fish

We got back to Gander at 6 pm, had dinner and returned to our hotel for the evening.  It was a beautiful day; warm sun, lovely vistas and interesting people (we had a great chat with a young man in Newtown, toured the Village in Newtown with a friendly couple from Edmonton, AB and our 18-year old guide was an aspiring thespian so her presentation of the Bourbor family history was quite entertaining).

I’m not even going to discuss the weather!

Except a brief mention of  the temperature (9 C – 48 F) and the wind (strong enough to almost blow you backward – honest).  There.   Done with that.!

We left Grand Falls-Windsor at 10:30.  It wasn’t a good night.  We were on the first floor of an older hotel with no soundproofing.  We could hear every step in the room above and the people, especially the young fellow next door, felt no need to latch their door quietly rather than let it slam behind them; even at midnight, for heaven sake.  And the rain beat loudly against the window off and on all night. Good thing there is always coffee available at breakfast.

We had thought of traversing the Bishop’s Falls 972′ trestle bridge, now a public boardwalk, but it just spanned the Exploit River so we decided a two-sided view of water did not justify the freezing we would receive while we did it.  We were driving out of town and spied a hydro-electric plant.  We followed the flying flags to the Bishop’s Falls Park which overlooked the dam site and braved the wind long enough to take a few photos. There’s lots of water running over that dam. (Of course it has been raining for days and days so that would account for it I guess)

We continued driving along Highway 1 East until the Route 340 turn-off north to the area know as the Bay of Islands and, particularly New World Island right at the end.  We crossed four causeways, hopping from island to island.

Near the end of New World Island, is the favorite ice berg watching town of Twillingate.  We are too late for ice bergs – we were very fortunate to have seen the two on the horizon at St. Anthony – but we wanted to check the place out anyway.  We drove to the end of the road; a little place called Crow Head which is 2 km further on from Twillingate and chanced upon the Long Point Lighthouse.  There were three trails you could take along the coast at the lighthouse but because it was SO WINDY and SO COLD we were not doing that.  It was all I could do to brace myself against a railing to take some photos.

The former light keepers house is now a small museum about the by-gone days of wooden boat building in Newfoundland.  Because we were freezing we decided to go and look around and have a chance to warm up inside.  When we bought our ticket for the museum we were asked if we also wanted to climb up to the light.  I love lighthouses and we hadn’t done our stair climbing yet today so I said we would.  It was only 55 steps to the top, so not too arduous.  The view was lovely even with the dark clouds and the wind was so strong you could hear it batter the glass. The poor flagpole was arcing back and forth and a third of the flag was wrapped around the top thrashing about.

The lighthouse was built in one year between Dec. 1875 and Dec. 1876.  The mortar between a bunch of the bricks beside the stairs is cracked due to an earthquake in 1929.  But the lighthouse is still sound, the wooden stairs don’t even creak and the light still warns the ships and boats about the rocky coastline.

Little islands and upthrusting rocks are common all around the Newfoundland coast but the Bay of Islands has a lot of them and if the water is churning (like today) the rocks are submerged and many a boat has paid dearly when they hit one.

After we warmed up in the lighthouse we rushed to the car, turned the heat on and drove into Twillingate.  We parked at the Foodland store because it formed a good blockade against the wind while we made a PB&J sandwich and hopped back into the truck to eat it.  Then we drove back across all the causeways and islands and turned onto Route 331 south to Gander.  We are spending the next three nights in Gander and will do some further exploring from here.

 

I think this is a Minke Whale skeleton, but I am not totally sure.

I am glad I decided to not go on about the weather in this blog.   It just gets tedious, don’t you think? There are so many more interesting things to talk about.  Like; where else but Newfoundland would you have Dildo Park just up the road from Virgin Arm?  I’m not kidding.

We arrived in Newfoundland on August 18, in the rain.   Here we are 10 days later and we are still getting rain – we have had three days of sunshine since arriving.  They had 6 straight weeks of sunshine and above average temperatures through all of July and early August.  I guess they used it all up because the forecast for the next week is still mostly rain.

Well, you can’t do anything about the weather.  You either hole up in your hotel and do nothing or you go see the things you want to see.  We chose the latter.

Newfoundland has 29,000 kilometers of coastline, not because the island is gigantic (although it is very large), but because there are several peninsulas with numerous inlets and bays so the coast meanders and winds in and out all the way around.  We drove to the tip of the Braie Verte Peninsula today.  At one time there were several copper mines on the Braie Verte and as we drove up we came across huge hills of tailings and then the old open pit mine could be seen through the trees.  Since the closing of the mine the rain, and probably ground water too, has made ‘lakes’ in the deepest pits and the color was gorgeous.  Even on a cloudy raining day like we had the blue was very vibrant.

The tip of the Braie Verte Peninsula was 89 km from the main TCHwy.  At the end was a little town called Fleur de Lys and there is an historic site on the far side of town.  It is an ancient Dorset Paleoeskimo Soapstone Quarry.  There were several archaelogical digs there in the mid-1960’s to determine which peoples used the quarry and what uses they made of the stone.

Many stone tools carbon-dated to the age of the Dorset people were found.  It was determined that the main use of the soapstone was cooking pots and bowls.  Soapstone retains heat even after being removed from the fire and it is quite easy to carve so utensils were often made from it when it was available. There are a thousand indents in the quarry face where pieces were removed between 500 BC and 500 AD.

After we checked out the quarry we continued up the trail and climbed to the lookout which had a 270 degree view of the Braie Verte inlet and the town of Fleur de Lys.  We stopped for a light lunch at a picnic area in the town of Braie Verte.  It was called Rattling Brook Park, which was stange as the Rattling Brook Falls are located quite a few kilometers away; they were on our to-do list for today.

We decided to investigate and climbed through the woods along the creekside to see the waterfall.  The trail was really a worn track and ended at a huge boulder.  John scaled it easily,  I climbed about 1/2 way up and decided that was far enough.  I had no problem with going to the top, my issue would have been getting back down the slippery wet rock.  It took too long to get my hip replaced, I am not about to risk wrecking it.  I gave  John my camera and he took a few shots for me.  Then I slid down the boulder on my butt bracing my feet in the crannies as I went.  Needless to say I sat on a wet bum for awhile.

  A slippery slope at the top of the trial.

We drove back to the TCHwy and went a bit further east before turning north again on Highway 391 to Rattling Brook and King’s Point.  Rattling Brook Falls is the most scenic waterfall in Newfoundland and has a straight drop of 800′.   It was a 1 km hike in but there was a really nice boardwalk and flights of stairs all the way (270 of them) to the very top.

There was a new viewing platform at a lower level than the original because a rock slide had come down the cliff and ripped a chunk of boardwalk out.  We decided that it was still possible to navigate the broken bit and climb to the top of the highest viewpoint.  The waterfall flows down a narrow crevice between two bare rock cliffs.  It was quite impressive.

 I love the moss!

We had driven through King’s Point on our way up to Rattling Brook but stopped in on our way back to see the Humpback Whale Pavilion.

There is a Great Whale Tour in Newfoundland where, at various places, there are skeletons of different whale species to view.  King’s Point had a 52′ Humpback Whale.

The whale was a mature female.  In 2001 she and her calf got trapped in fishing lines.  People were able to free the calf but the mother drowned.  A group of people in King’s Point had been wanting to get involved in the Whale Tour and got permission to use the whale.

The community where she died was quite aways from King’s Point and the plan was to carve the flesh off the bones at the site.  However she was frozen so the body was towed by boat to King’s Point, lifted out of the water with an excavator and taken to the local dump where a bevy of community volunteers had the smelly, dirty task of removing all the bones.  They were then crated in containers and placed back into the deep water for a year where the bones were cleaned of all remaining tissues by the crabs and other sealife.

When they were brought to the surface again they were pressure washed, loaded onto a truck and sent to Drumheller, Alberta to the Dinosaur Museum.  At the museum experts teated the bones and created a steel frame for the skeleton, put it back together, made a pattern for the pieces, took it apart and sent it back to King’s Point where it was reassembled and placed into the Pavilion for display.  The community got some government grants to cover the cost of sending the skeleton to Alberta and building the pavilion but everything else was done by community volunteers and the pavilion is staffed by volunteers. The $5.00 per person charge pays the utilities and building maintenance.  Great project and really well done.

  Some of the baleen from the whale’s mouth. It is just like long hair and is made of keratin, the same as our hair and fingernails.  It grows throughout the whale’s life. They use it to strain thousands of gallons of water per mouthful for krill, shrimp and other small fish.  The throat of a humpback whale is the size of a grapefruit so they don’t eat anything large.  Just LOTS and LOTS of small stuff at a time.

  Close up photo of the baleen in the top of a whale’s mouth.  The big pink part is the tongue.

We arrived at Grand Falls-Windsor for the night at 6:30.  I think that is the latest we have been on the road our entire trip.  It was a wet day all day but we enjoyed ourselves nontheless.

 

We had a destination day on Tuesday.  We drove down the northern peninsula to Rocky Harbour to complete our want-to-see things in Gros Morne National Park before we begin our journey eastward.

It was a lovely warm sunny day and we made good time.  We left Roddickton at 10 to 10 and arrived at the parking lot for the Western Brook Pond at 10 to 1.  We could see the cliff tops today so we decided to hike in again and perhaps catch the next tour boat if there was room.  We thought it left at 2, but it left at 1:30 and we missed it by 5 minutes!  Rats.  It would have been lovely down the fjord .

We rested awhile, soaking up the warmth of the sun and headed out along the loop trail where we met Momma Moose last week.  She and her calf must have been resting in the shade because we didn’t spot her.

We stopped briefly at the Lobster Head Cove Lighthouse just before we reached Rocky Harbour.  And that was all the excitement on Tuesday.

Wednesday dawned wet and cloudy.  I was not pleased.  Along with  Western Brook Pond the other thing I really wanted to see in Gros Morne National Park was The Tablelands, where a part of the earth’s mantle was shoved to the surface.  We had saved this hike to do on our return from the northern peninsula because the weather was not good when we went up and we were hoping it would be better when we came down.  I guess that was a false hope.

We drove from Rocky Harbour to The Tablelands trailhead in thick low clouds.  We decided to hike the 4km (round trip) trail and hope the clouds lifted on our way.  We hadn’t gone more than 25′ and the sky opened – rain like hail, blowing sideways.  Even with the umbrellas we were soaked to the skin in the 5 minutes it took us to get back to the truck.

 

A viewpoint along the road between Rocky Harbour and the Wiltondale turnoff to The Tablelands.

A cruise ship anchored off Woody Point.  We assume the people would be going to The Tableands on an excursion.  There isn’t very much else around.

Plan B – drive to the end of the road to Trout River and see if the storm passes while we are gone. Trout River is only a few kilometers down the road; we were there in 20 minutes.  It wasn’t raining anymore and we noticed a staircase built up the cliff face at the end of the town so we drove over and started climbing (136 stairs).  It was called the Eastern Point Trail and meandered along the cliff face above the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  There were lovely views of the little town arcing around the bay and the waves crashing at the base of the cliff.  We probably walked a kilometer or so before heading back.

 

 

The wave action was creating under water bubbles.

 

 

At the top of the Eastern Point Trail staircase.

 

The clouds seemed to be lifting and the sky looked lighter so we drove back up the hill to The Tablelands.  We had a bite of lunch and took to the trail.  The clouds never did lift but we didn’t get rained on again and at least now we could see the rock cliffs.

See the little white dot in the lower left?  That is a 6’2″ tall 16 year old boy who is about to climb the rock pile in front of him. 

I liked the pattern on this rock.

The place is really quite remarkable.  There are rocks and boulders lying everywhere, the cliffs are sheer golden rock and only a few hardy shrubs grow.  It is a huge area; a veritable mountain range of rock.  And yet, as you walk back along the trail, if you turn around and look the other way everything is bushy and green.

Despite the clouds and rain it turned out to be a pretty good day.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

There is nothing to report.

It started to rain last night and everything was still getting wet this morning.  We didn’t even go far today.   Tomorrow is a big driving day – all the way back to Rocky Harbour, about 390 km; and you don’t drive a consistent speed on these roads.  They are full of dips, potholes and just plain pits.  All of the Maritime Provinces smaller roads we have traveled have been very patched, bumpy, and in need of re-paving.

We only drove about 100 km to Roddickton.  Had it been a nice day we would have climbed the hilltop trail at Englee to see The Pinnacle, a local mountain. We did drive through Roddickton and down to Englee at the end of the road but we chose not to do any hiking in the cool drizzle.

We were able to check into our hotel early so, here it is 2 pm Newfoundland time and we are settled for the day.

We  did see a moose though, so that increases the moose count to 7 so far.

The only other thing of note are the gardens.  I noticed these on our way up to St. Anthony from Port aux Choix a couple of days ago.  In the middle of nowhere – no little side roads, no village, no building of any kind in any direction; miles from anywhere – there will be a vegetable garden surrounded by a wooden fence.  We have seen a couple of dozen of them.  Lots have just potatoes, but others have cabbages, carrots, onions, beets, etc. as well.  They look well maintained for the most part.  I have no idea where someone would come from to tend them.  The fence, simple as it is, must keep out the moose and caribou I guess, but it wouldn’t take much for either of those large animals to tumble them over.  I keep thinking I will ask a local person about them and I keep forgetting.

Newfoundland, after all is called The Rock; and for good reason.  It is all rock.  Here on the northern peninsula if it isn’t rock, it is marsh or tuckamore forest.  I guess if you find some good soil along a roadside you use it to grow your veggies.

It was almost midnight before I completed yesterday’s blog for all of you faithful readers and we did not have a jam-backed schedule planned for today so we slept in!  Yea!  Well, until 9 anyway.  But by the time we were all washed and fed and John had caught the end of the FI race it was almost noon before we left town.

We drove about 49 km to the tip of the northern peninsula to L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.  In 1960 Helge Ingstad, a Norwegian, came to L’Anse aux Meadows in pursuit of authenticating some of the Norse Sagas that told of journeys by ship to new lands – Helluland, Markland, and Vinland – in search of resources not available in Greenland. (Helluland was Baffin Island, Markland was Labrador and Vinland was Newfoundland)

He asked all the locals if they knew of any unusual mounds in the area.  Everyone said no except one fellow who told him about the old Indian Village.  When Mr. Ingstad saw the mounds he was sure he had located a Norse settlement.  The next year he brought his wife, Anne Stine, an archaeologist back to L’Anse aux Meadows to begin a dig.  They discovered iron nails and other artifacts irrefutably from 1000 AD Norse culture. Thy had discovered the first authenticated European settlement in North America that could very well be Lief Ericsson’s short-lived Vinland camp.

The dig lasted 7 years and told the story of a camp used by the Norse as a re-supply center and boat repair facility while they explored the North American coast southward in search of iron ore and wood and other resources they needed.  They built a forge here and used bog ore to cast about 100 – 200 ship nails (the first know example of iron smelting in the New World).  The evidence showed that they only used the place for about 10 years then they gathered up anything of use or value, set fire to the peat-sod huts and departed.

Parks Canada took over the site and did archaeological studies for 4 more years.  The exciting thing for archaeologists was that this site was the last link in the chain of human migration around the globe.  It is not only a Canadian National Historic Site it is was also the first cultural site to be inscribed on the UNESCO list of historically important places.

 

 

The Interpretive Center up on the hill.

Parks Canada have built some replicas of the sod buildings like the Norse would have used.  You can also see the restored site mounds that unraveled the story.

  The forge hut

After we had checked out everything we walked the 2 km trail along the coast back to the parking lot.  The day was sunny and the views were gorgeous so the cameras were clicking this way and that all the way around.

 

They even had some of those nice red chairs to sit in and watch the water.

We were going to go to Norstead, a tourism replica of a Norse trading center with people portraying the explorers but, while we were debating about going in a big bus came along and disgorged 50 people.  We decided to go back to St. Anthony.

When we arrived in town we went to the Sir Wilfred Grenfell Interpretive Center.  Dr. Grenfell came to Labrador in the late 1890’s as a physician and missionary. He was very moved by the poverty and ill health of the people in the many scattered little fishing villages.  TB especially was rampant at the time.

Over the next 40 or so years Dr. Grenfell opened 4 hospitals, 7 nursing stations, 2 orphanages, several training centers, and had 2 hospital ships.  He did extensive fund raising in Britain, Europe, the US and Canada.  He was knighted in 1928 for his work.

We didn’t have too long to read everything as it was near closing time but this man was a visionary who radically changed the lives of thousands of people.  The International Grenfell Society is still in existence and working with the Labrador and northern Newfoundland people.  After NL joined Confederation in 1949 the government took over all of Grenfell’s medical facilities for the price of $1; which is on display in the museum – signed by all the people involved in the transfer.  He was an amazing man who is still revered in this area and all along the Labrador coast.  The hospital here in St. Anthony was started by Sir Grenfell and is the major medical facility in the area, used by those from the northern peninsula and from Labrador.

Today we reached the top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland.  As we drove along it was interesting to see the coastline of Labrador across the water.  The Strait of Belle Isle that separates the Northern Peninsula from the south coast of the border between Quebec and Labrador is only 9 miles across at some points.  So on a beautiful sunny day like today it was easy to see.

But…before we got here, we had to leave there.  And before we left there – Port aux Choix – we had to check out the National Historic Site.  What makes Port aux Choix historically significant is a relatively recent archaeological find.

In 1967 a fellow was excavating a basement for a movie theater and discovered human bones.  Turned out he had found an ancient hunter-gatherer cemetery.  Further investigations in this area have located the remains of 4 distinctly separate peoples dating back 5000 years.  We spent an hour in the interpretive center looking at all the artifacts and reading the info.  These sites revealed a great deal to archaeologists about the early peoples who came to this area.

  Not too much out here

If you are into that stuff the groups are: Maritime Archaic Indians (9000 years ago in Labrador, 5000 years ago in Newfoundland), Groswater Palaeoeskimos (lived here 2800 years ago until 1900 years ago), Dorset Palaeoeskimos (residing here from 2100 to 1900 years ago), Recent Indians (arriving 2000 years ago and called the Beothuk People.  The last Beothuk man died in 1829).

And that is all of the ancient peoples information I am going to share.  Except one thing – although nomadic, the Dorset Palaeoeskimos lived here longer than just a singe season and it has been determined that they used the rib bones of whales to form the frames of their winter dwellings.  An interesting bit of trivia.

We took a little drive around the town and took some photos of the lovely local scenery.

Port aux Choix          Then John followed the “Car Wash Today” signs to a house several streets off the main road and arranged for Poppy to have a bath.  She was dirty from all the rain we have experienced since we arrived on the island.  I’m sure she feels much better.  I know John does.  And the fellow who had the car wash business was thrilled to have her in his garage.  He had seen us drive into town yesterday and actually followed us around to check out the truck.  (We get that a lot.  And requests for photos)

After Poppy’s bath we left town – at 1 pm and drove up Highway 430 to St. Anthony 193 km away.  We only stopped at one place along the way and that was Flower’s Cove where they have Thrombolites.  What are Thrombolites you ask?  They are ‘Living Rocks’ with an explanation much too long and complex for me to share so I will just put in the photo of the sign and you can read it for yourself if you care.  I think the bun-like shapes of these large mounds are neat.

It looks like the marsh grass was braided. 

We arrived at our hotel in St. Anthony at 5.   In our room was a handout about three short hiking trails located at the far end of town that run along both sides of the lighthouse spit; and a longer ‘strenuous’ hike that is actually a climb up 476 steps to the top of the hill where the radio tower is located.  Guess which one we did?

You got it.  Right up the stairs to the top.  Lovely, lovely panoramic views.

   Look for Poppy   Can you find her now?  How about now?  Or now?  At the top. We even saw a couple of icebergs.  They were way off on the horizon but glistening white in the sunshine.  These photos are REALLY cropped to show you, hence the grainy pics.

We wandered around up there for awhile taking photos in all directions and then made our way back down the 476 steps to the bottom.  We were walking along on our way to the parking lot and I caught movement in the brush to my right.  I thought maybe it was a weasel, but it looked too big.  Then I thought it was just a cat.  But no it was a fox and it came out of the brush right in front of me and hopped down the trail, climbed onto a sunny rock and lay down for a nap.  It didn’t care about us all at all. I told John it only had three legs.  He thought it was just injured and holding one leg up, but when it came off the rock and passed by us again it was clear to see it was missing the right front leg.  Poor little thing.  I was an old injury because it looked totally healed.  I guess it has managed to catch food as it wasn’t emaciated.

 

See the fox on the rock on the right.  That is how close we were to it.