Last Day in Newfoundland

We had a late breakfast before we headed towards the western ferry terminal at Port aux Basque. Our departure time was 23:45. We had about a four hour drive passing through Deer Lake, Corner Brook and Stephenville on the way.

To stretch out the drive we chose to tour the Port aux Ports peninsula near Stephenville. This is an area of French speaking people. The peninsula is quite rugged.

We arrived in Port aux Basque around 7:30 and managed to find a great meal at a local hotel. S had her third or fourth meal of fish cakes and we both enjoyed Quidi Vidi Iceberg beer.

Finally we lined up for the MV Highlander ferry for our overnight trip to Sydney. Here she is here:

And so it ends.

Gros Morne

From Twillingate to the Gros Morne Nation Park is about a five hour drive on not the best of roads. We arrived in Rocky Harbour in the middle of the park mid afternoon. Gros Morne encompasses a region of 800 meter hills and includes a fiord or two. Most visitors are hikers. Not so long ago I would have joined them. This year no so.

 We chose to take it easy through lunch the next day. Then we head north to the village of Cow Head noted for its Warehouse Theatre. We were hoping for  matinee but no such luck. Here is a photo of the Heritage Garden at the Anglican Church:

The name Cow Head refers to the shape of the island connected to the mainland by a built up beach. The fishing harbour is located at the mouth of the head:

On our way back to Rocky Harbour I got this hazy picture of one of the fiords:

Twillingate 2

We had intended to take it easy our second day in Twillingate. However we stopped for a coffee at a wharf-side restaurant that happened to offer whale watching tours. We said what the heck! Here is the vessel:

The tour was about two hours with no promises of a siting.
Anyway we did manage to briefly see two whales: a mienke (sp) and  fin whale. Of course by the time you uncover the lens to shoot its too late. Anyway there was a bit of a swell and it was a beautiful day so S and I really enjoyed it. Here is a shot of an island off shore:

For supper we had tickets to a dinner theatre. We had a tasty lobster and laughs till we cried. Lots of fun.

I'm forever fascinated by the fishing boats. I learned thatwhile the cod have come back from the brink from 1992, the principal fisheries these days are shrimp and crab. Both require sailing for  five to seven days to get to the fishing grounds.

Twillingate

Thurs
This is a driving day. It's over four hundred killometres to our next destination Twillingate, on island on the northern coast of Newfoundland. The driving is about one third TransCanada highway and the rest secondary roads. I had been warned before our trip that the secondary roads were rough. As soon as I think to myself this isn't so bad the advice is proven correct. All this is to say that google's estimates are pretty optimistic.

 We arrived in Twillingate at arround 4 o'clock and after a bit of gps hicups found our new B&B. This home was purpose built a few years ago. Our room is good if a little tight. Twillingate is a large fishing port with several largish trawlers tied up. We suppered at a spot favoured by locals then headed out to explore.
Here is the port:

Here is Wild Cove where S found some treasures:

Continuing on we came to Crow Head and then the Long Point Lighthouse. Here it is:

We might have seen another sunset if it weren't for the cloud on the horizon.

On our way back we stopped at a hotel and caught the first set of a local folksinger. I'll try to get his name. He was a great story teller ang guitar player but he kind of overplayed his voice so I can't give an opinion on that.

Off to bed.

Bonavista

Wed
We had a wonderful nights sleep in our B&B and a good breakfast as well. Off now towards the Bonavista peninsula. Here this usually means turning back towards the Trans Canada Highway No 1 which is the backbone of the Newfoundland transportation system. At Clarenville we turned off No 1 heading towards Bonavista. For quite a while we just passed trees drive up the spine of the peninsula as we headed towards Trinity, a must see according to our last host. Finally as we aporoached the eastern coast signs for Trinity appeared. It was off on a cork screw side road nestled in its own harbour. No longer active as a fishing port the village is being restored as a tourist destination. Many of the homes beautifully restored are available for rent. Here are a few pictures.

We lunched in a B&B there and then pressed on with our journey.
A few kilometres down the road we came across a craft shop run by the womens' institute. S enjoyed admiring the handwork and discussing techniques an ideas with the two ladies on duty. They told us we shouldn't miss the puffins to be seen after supper at Elliston outside Bonavista. Back in the car we arrived in Bonavista some time later, a busy fishing port with rugged landscape. Our hostess wasn't home so we headed back to the mainstreet for coffee. S said she wanted tea so we were directed to Miftins Tearoom. We happened to park the car infront of three young ladies selling lemonade. We discussed their offerings which included knitted toques. These were raising money for a boy with brain cancer. I'm all set for next winter.

After our tea and coffee we headed to our lodging to meet our hostess who also worked lunck and dinner at a restaurant. After a bit of r&r we headed back down town for supper and then headed to Cape Bonavista first, then Elliston and then back to Cape Bonavista to catch the sunset.

Cape Bonavista has a lighthouse quite similar in design to the one at Cape Spear. Here it is:

Just off the promitory there is an islet, a hunk of rock, this is also home to puffins. Here is the rock.

 If you squint you may be able to spot puffins. They are one of these extraordinary seabirds that basically live on the open ocean most of the year coming home to their birthplace to breed.

Next off to Elliston. Here there is another rocky islet just off shore home to hundreds of puffins. We could see lots off puffins but none came to our side of the cliff. Here is the islet.

Back to Cape Bonavista to see the sunset. Here it is:

All for now.

To Spaniards Bay

Tues
Drove the coast road around Conception Bay. We passed close by a beach and noticed several oen boats just off shore. We stopped and asked about and we told thefishermen were squid-jigging.  On the side of the boat were four to six reels ganged together with crankhandle. The reels had long lines of unbarbed hooks withe a weight at the bottom. The fisherman lowered the group of lines into the water until he felt the weight hit bottom. Then he cranked the lines back up to the boat. As the hooks came over the reels any squid on the hooks fall into the boat. They are evidently able to bring up hundreds of pounds of fish at a session. The squid come into the cove in July and stay for a few weeks.
We drove on and as lunch time approached we pulled of into the village of Brigus. Restored fishing village. Ate lunch in a diner with the best blueberry dessert. Caught in some rain fall. On to Spaniards Bay to our B&B. S was not impressed but relented. We drove on up the coast to Carbonear. It clearly had seen better days but it did have abusy ship yard with a numer of vessels under repair. We stopped at a gallery - coffee shop. S enjoyed the art and the artist an riobos tea. I had the coffee. We didn't find any promising places for supper so we decided to head back to Brigus where we had a wonderful pan fried cod diner at the North Street Cafe.Here are pictures of the village.

St John's Day 3

The first order of business was to check out the shops in the old downtown. Thankfully we found parking much better this morning. It's always a bit of a challenge shopping when you don't actually need anything. S found a few things to buy. Me, I had my eye on a sou'wester rain hat. I had a bit of case of sticker shock so I'll have to take a day or so to recover before acquiring same.

The city is famous for the colourful housing. Here is an example:

Our next stop was Signal Hill where Marconi sent the first trans Atlantic radio transmission. The hill was much steeper than I had imagined. Here are a couple of shots:

For lunch we proceeded to the little harbour of Quidi Vidi. We found fish and chip truck and also sampled some brews at the craft brewery. More pictures:

After some R and R, we ventured west rather than east to Portugal Cove. There we had an early supper of scallops at the Landings restaurant and watched the ferries come and to to Bell island visible off shore. Here is the restaurant:

There were two ferries the older MV Flanders and the very new MV Legionaire. I was interested to learn that the MV Legionaire was built in Romania to a Canadian - Danish design. Here is photo:

That is it for now.