Posts from — July 2016

July 14th and we are headed from Rocky Harbour to Deer Lake.
This morning we started with a walk along the water front and stopped in at a couple craft shops. One last chance to add money to the Newfoundland economy.

After leaving Rocky Harbour we took a side excursion down to Norris Point. It is a very picturesque area where the Bonne Bay Tours go out of. In fact as we were there a morning tour was just coming back in and the some of the crew on the tour boat were performers at last nights concert. The Captain of the boat played the accordion and two of the deck hands played guitar and one played the drums.

Also while at Norris Point we started on a hike to Burnt Hill, but turned back as there were reports of an aggressive moose in the area.

We then drove to Deer Lake.
Once in Deer Lake we found a hiking trail around the lake and so went for about an 1 1/2hr, after that we went out for dinner and then it was to bed early as we had a 4:15 a.m. wake up call to catch our flight home.
Well after being in bed asleep for about 2 hrs the fire alarm went off in the hotel at at about 11:45 p.m.. Deer Lake has a volunteer fire brigade so it took them about 15 minutes to arrive and 20 minutes to assess the problem, which was a false alarm. So, it was back to bed by 12:30 a.m. and try to catch some sleep before the alarm at 4:15 a.m…… Oh the joys of travel.

The long trek home starts tomorrow! But stay tuned for more adventures in August.

July 13th we are off from Plum Point to Rocky Harbour.
On the way down to Rocky Harbour we stopped again at the Thrombolite viewing area to see these very interesting rock structures. For lunch we stopped in Cowhead at The Shallow Bay Motel, where we met Brenda’s friend Nora and her husband Roger for lunch. They are from Kamloops and have been traveling across the Maritimes for 6 weeks.
We also took the time to take a hike out to Big Hill and the Lighthouse at Cowhead which gave us a great view of the bay and out towards the St. Lawrence Seaway. The lighthouse was closed down in 1979, it was restored in 2002, but now the trees are taller than the structure and it is no longer in use. 
Tonight we are staying at The Ocean View Hotel….. luxury accommodations, view of the bay and entertainment this evening.
Tonight’s entertainment was a local group called Anchors Aweigh and they were fantastic. Lots of sing-a-long, hand clapping and fun music and songs. The surprise here was that the show did not start until 8:00 p.m., however we ended up going to the lounge/bar where the show was at 5:30 p.m. so we could get a good seat. Here is an older You Tube clip of Anchors Aweigh to give you an idea of the entertainment we enjoyed. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCouZiogZLk

This evening was as much fun as the night we arrived in St. John’s and saw The Fables.

July 12th and we are headed from St. Anthony to Plum Point.
Before we left St. Anthony we decided to do a hike up to the top of a lookout point. Well the sign says it is 476 steps to the top. We’ll have to take their word for it as we did not count them all, trust it’s lots of steps and a good hike. However once you are at the top the view is amazing out to the sea, back towards the land and especially of the small town of St. Anthony.    

However, the wind was howling and so it made it a bit cool once at the top.
Coming down from the hike we could see a very small iceberg near the shore and some even smaller chunks at the shore. So, I hiked down to the rocky waters edge and was lucky enough to grab a chunk of iceberg. The ice is very dense and the local owner of the Tim Horton’s told us that if you put a chunk in a drink that it is so dense it will last though two drinks without melting.
From St. Anthony we headed to Plum Point. We arrived into Plum Point after a side trip to St. Barbe to see the ferry leaving for Labrador. Tonight we stayed at the Plum Point Motel, which is also a Tour Bus stop, so they are very busy and the Tour Bus folks get the better rooms. We ended up with a small cabin that would fit very well at a remote fishing lake….. Oh Well, it’s just one night.

July 11th and we are off to St. Anthony.

But first it is a day of discovery at the Viking Village National Park visitor centre.
After a short video we headed out on a guided tour of the entire area including an area that they have recreated to the best of their knowledge based on known Viking settlements in Norway.  The recreated buildings include living areas, wood workshops, metal/forging shops, etc. it was all very interesting. All the buildings were made from the peat bog surrounding this area. The inside walls were all made of small logs and/or branches/sticks. The walls on the larger buildings are 6 ft thick, once inside it was quite warm even though it was a wet rainy and windy morning.
Probably the best part was that our guide who was in his early 60’s grew up in L’anse aux Meadows and as a child he played in this area and they always thought that these were native indian settlements. It was not until the early 1960’s that a Danish archeologist discovered this site with help from a local fisherman. So, as a child he said they had “front row seats” to watching the archeological dig take place. Then as a young man he helped reconstruct all the buildings and the settlement to where it is today.
Finally on the way out of the area we came across a cow moose and her calf, unfortunately the calf was hidden too well to get a good picture.
After this we headed back to St. Anthony, hoping to see the large iceberg in the harbour. Well when we arrived there was noting but a bunch of small chunks and some remnants of it floating around the harbour. When we asked around folks said it had broken up the previous afternoon, after we had left. Fortunately someone caught it on YouTube and posted it, take a look https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qtlholi6qYU.

We did see other large icebergs on our way into town so we backtracked to see if we could get closer to them. No real luck getting much closer than the one from the harbour but we did get to see more large icebergs from a distance.

July 10th we left Cowhead and headed for L’Anse aux Meadows.
As we left Cowhead we headed over to Shallow Bay beach which is very impressive as to the size of the beach and the sand dunes.

After this we hit the road and our next stop was at “The Arches” which are part of a Provincial Park. These are really neat as to how the sea and winds have washed away the rock formation to form the arches.

Once back the road our next stop was at a small place called Flower Cove where they have Thrombolites. Thrombolites are microbial structures – living organisms that look like rocks. You can see from the pictures that the larger ones are about 3′ high and about 15′ in diameter.  These are only found in two places in the world. Here in Newfoundland and Hamelin Pool in Shark Bay Western Australia.

Now back on the long coastal drive up to L’anse aux Meadows. Look at this for beautiful scenery.

However before driving to L’Anse aux Meadows we took a bit of a side trip to St. Anthony and are we glad we did.
First off there is a Tim Hortons in St. Anthony with the only Iceberg Donut in Canada.

But even better than that there was a very large iceberg right in the middle channel of the harbour and wow was it huge. 
We found a spot to park and headed out on a short hike to get a closer look. We estimated that the iceberg was probably about 100 ft tall at it’s peak. So, after lots of pictures and talking with some local folks who felt that this one would be here for a couple weeks we headed to L’anse aux Meadows for the night.
L’anse aux Meadows is where the Vikings first landed with Leif Erickson about 1000 years ago. There is a National Park here but it was late in the day so we checked into our B&B and would visit the site tomorrow.
After dinner at a local cafe we took a short walk in the are of Hay Cove and found a fair size iceberg grounded on the rocks. 

July 9th and it is off to Cowhead with hiking excursions in Gros Morne National Park.
We drove for a couple hours through Deer Lake and then headed into Gros Morne National Park. We talked with the Park Guide at the visitor centre and we decided to do a hike called The Tablelands.
The Tablelands are really interesting as it is an area of the world where the Mantle or centre core of the world has been pushed to the surface and you can actually see the change in the colour of rocks surrounding this area compared to other areas nearby. The hike is fairly easy with a slight grade but the vegetation is very interesting. We also saw the Provincial Flower of Newfoundland, which is called the Pitcher Plant.
From here we were back on the road to do a hike into an area called Western Brook Pond and to view the Fiords from a distance.

The walk in to the Western Brook Pond is across a bog and beside the river, so lots of walkways and supports paths. Once at the head of the pond there are tour boats to take you up the fiords but it was later in the day and we missed the last tour.
Oh well, it is off to Cowhead for the night and a musical performance at the Gros Morne Theatre. Our B&B was right on the ocean and the sunset was spectacular. This is also where we discovered Iceberg Beer in the Blue Bottle……… good stuff.

July 8th we left Twillingate headed for Springdale.
Leaving Twillingate we decided to go on a hike called The Top of Twillingate. The road map and the GPS were not that good at getting us to the start of the trail, so we ended up stopping and asking a local for directions.
Prior to going to the main part of Springdale we drove over to Kings Point, as we had heard that there was a large iceberg grounded in the bay and we were not disappointed. It had been the size of a house and was still quite large, plus there were lots of chunks that had fallen off  and were drifting nearby.

While in Springdale we did a hike on a walkway along the Indian Brook River, it was amazing the amount of hiking trails they had built along the river and across the peat bogs to allow people to access this area.
Kings Point was so nice that we returned here for dinner after checking in to our B&B.
Tonight we stayed at the Indian River Brook B&B which was a lot of fun. The lady who cooks breakfast was very entertaining and she played the Ugly Stick and the Spoons and sang us some traditional Newfoundland songs.

July 7th we went from Port Blandford and the Serendipity B&B up to Twillingate.
Now Twillingate is supposed to be the place to see icebergs. However, it was so windy and stormy while we were there that all the ice berg boat tours had stopped and no one had not gone out for the past 3 days.
So, we visited the Twillingate Lighthouse and as we arrived the fog rolled in. So, where in the previous hour there was unlimited visibility it was now down to the distance of about 1/4 mile or less. Oh well, part of the experience.
Twillingate was a beautiful quaint little seaside town and we stayed the night at the Toulinguet B&B. Plus this is the first night we had Cod Tongues and Scrunchions for dinner.

July 6th we were on the road again from Clarenville up to Elliston. Elliston…… Where the heck is Elliston and what the heck is there to see in Elliston? Well, there are Puffins, lots of them.
We stopped in at the local Tourist Information office and craft shop for directions to see the Puffins. Well as luck would have it a local gentleman who was in his 80’s was there to give us detailed directions to The Puffin viewing spot. We think he hangs around there and mostly bothers the ladies that work in the tourism/craft shop, but he does help out with inquiring tourists.
Anyways, we headed off to the Puffin viewing site. Now, there is something you should know about Puffins as our tour director informed us. Puffins love windy, rainy, cold and wet days……. well keeping in the spirit of enjoying all parts of this Province we were not going to be disappointed today. The rain was pouring the wind was howling and the Puffins were having the time of there lives.
Us on the other hand were soaking wet after this adventure and we required the car seat heaters to dry out on the road to Bonavista.
Yes, Bonavista. You know “This Land is Your Land” – Canadian Version, this land is my land from Bonavista to Vancouver Island. Yes, we stopped at Cape Bonavista lighthouse to sing this song with ukulele accompaniment. Check out this link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PIOK3aaPnY8&feature=youtu.be

Also, while at Cape Bonavista we saw our first large iceberg fairly close to shore. Wow!
From Cape Bonavista we headed in to the town of Bonavista and had the best bowl of seafood chowder we have ever had at Mifflins Tea House.
Then it was off to Port Blandford for the evening, but first we passed through the Community of Princeton NL; not Princeton B.C..

July 5th we left St. John’s headed for Clarenville. However before getting to Clarenville we had a days adventure ahead which started by driving out to Cape Spear which is the most easterly point in North America. We joined up with a tour group which was interesting as the guide had a bunch of information about the area, geology and he took the time to point out the various plants that will have berries in August along the hike. Guess who was in the middle of the berry discussion?

However, we found out later that this was a private tour folks had paid big bucks to see all of Newfoundland and Cape Spear was their first stop…. Oops Ha Ha Ha!
From Cape Spear we headed towards the small village Harbour Grace. It is where Amelia Earhart started her cross Atlantic flight to Ireland. 

After this we drove through the towns of  of Hearts Content, Hearts Desire and Hearts Delight.

Then down through the communities of Dildo and past Come By Chance….. We are not making this stuff up folks!

In fact here is a sign listing a lot of the funny names of towns in Newfoundland.
Later in the day we finally arrived at the Wave Hotel in Clarenville.