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.

St John's Day 2

This being Sunday, S and I went to church at the St John's Salvation Army Citadel. We enjoyed the service; the message was a bit stronger than we typically hear at home. The congregation was just a bit older as a whole than ours.

Next we headed to The Rooms, the provincial historical museum. It looks like this:

Our first stop was the restaurant where we had a pleasant lunch. We particularly enjoyed the art gallery, the historical displays of the early peoples and the natural history sections.

The early white settlers of Newfoundland were Irish Catholics while the Dominion or territory was governed by the English. Conditions were pretty hard.

We didn't want to return downtown for supper so we found one of our favourite chains for supper.

St John's Day 1

Despite our fears, we had quite a pleasant crossing to Argentia on the Atlantic Vision ferry. Our room with two berths was very comfortable and very clean. The food was good though pretty expensive. Here is shot leaving North Sydney NS:

We arrived at Argentia at around 10 in the morning. There isn't much to it but the ferry terminal.

We drove towards St John's about 150 kilometres. The land is rocky and quite hilly. It reminded me a bit of Cape Breton. The tree cover was mostly evergreen, fairly short and wind-swept. As we approached St John's we decided to take a bit of a detour to visit a picturesque village, Petty Harbour. We had been told ofa geat spot for lunch.

Petty Harbour is nestled in a natural harbour surrounded in hills and is an active fishing port. There is not much more than one street through the village and every foot of it was filled with parked vehicles. We saw the one restaurant but could not stop. Here is a shot from a lookoff some ways away:

We continued along the coast road to another historic spot, Cape Spear. The site of a lighthouse dating from the 1830's. The original lighthouse is this:

After the first keeper gave up in 1848, it was operated by 5 generations of the same family. Unfortunately, there was no food on offer there so we motored on to St John's.

The city is sighted at a very snug harbour with a narrow mouth and surrounded by higher ground. Lots of picturesque shops and houses. I would have liked to have proved pictures but I couldn't find parking anywhere. Then when I did a series of torrential down pours started. S and I managed to find a packaged lunch to share without getting to wet.

We gave up on the downtown and headed out to the airport where our hotel is located.

Bye for now.

North Sydney

Well. Here we are at the Sydney - Newfoundland ferry terminal.
Our ferry is here:

We have an hour's wait till boarding and two and a half hours wait before sailing.

We have had a lovely visit with S's daughter and family outside Halifax and also had a good visit with my two sisters. Yesterday we were downtown Halifax. Wow! Great changes happening. The waterfront is being rebuilt with condo's and apartments.

As usual we look at realestate listings. There is quite a pull to the old stamping grounds.

We have a berth on the ferry so the 17 hour trip hopefully will go well.

Our next report will be from St. John's.

All for now.

Edmunston

We had a perfect day driving yesterday. Bright and sunny. Traffic was a lttle heavy leaving the Montreal area heading towards Quebec City. The traffic lightened as the day wore on.

We had packed sandwiches which we enjoyed just before Levis. The next stop from there was a rest area just before Riviere du Loup where one leaves highway 20 and turns southeast on 85.

I have been driving this route from Ontario to Nova Scotia since the 1970's. Quebec initially with federal federal funding  has been working on improvements on 85 virtually the whole time. This year we see a major section being developed beside the existing road on the Riviere du Loup end.

For many years the New Brunswick part of the Trans Canada was also under construction. Thankfully this work was completed some years ago.

We arrived at our destination, Edmunston at about 5 o'clock Ontario time. We are staying here at the Days Inn.

When we got our room and settled for a bit we checked the web and got a report on Betsy's stay at her 'resort'. She is doing fine. Her she is:

She has just had a swim. Thanks J and B!

All for now.

Getting Ready

Tomorrow we leave home for our adventure to Newfoundland. S has been packing for us all week. I have confined myself to locating power cables, charging batteries, sweeping out the car and downloading a couple of freeby books to read on our way. I also bought a lenscap for our camera and loaded a bunch of music on the old samsung tablet that happens to support the microSd card I bought to hold it. The newer Amazon Fire tablets don't support the card.

We plan to drive to Edmunston NB tomorrow then on to FallRiver outside Halifax on Monday. After some visits to old haunts , friends and family we travel to Sydney on Saturday to take the ferry to Argentia NL.