Got a sunset last night:
and a glimpse of a Whisky Jack (Gray Jay):
We also saw two Juncos (they’ve been gone from our house for months, so we were happy to see them here). We set out on this sunny day to new territory:
AND we saw a Moose (okay, it was dead in the ditch on the highway), but a start. As we headed south on Highway 432, we saw bigger and bigger roadside gardens but they were miles away from any civilization. And we started to see “Moose Management Area” signs a figured they managed to keep us from seeing any Moose. But we did see two hawks in flight, the first here. There were also many hunting cabins and “resorts” (several beater trailers with porches and additions gathered together in gravel lots).
We stopped in Roddickton, “The Moose Capital of the World” (self-professed) and we had the best conversation with Guy, his buddy and cousin about how we have been in Newfoundland for 11 days and not seen a Moose! Well, there WAS that dead one and a stuffed one in the Town Office.
We drove around this rather large centre (1,200 people) and found “The Farm”, a picnic area and trailhead that would be great for free camping:
We moved further south to Bide Arm, saw two interesting “shipwrecks”:
some free camping potential and a few houses and buildings that had been “towed” from elsewhere during resettlement:
Oh, we couldn’t forget this strange way of hoisting a car:
Next was Englee, at the bottom of this peninsula. Friendly Ray and Ambrose offered to take us Cod fishing (for a cheap $50) and told us to park anywhere. We would have stayed at the trailhead to the Bar’d Island Trail (up 164 stairs) until a worker told us, during our lunch, that he was working on it and we couldn’t go up. Interesting since there was no sign and we might have gone up BEFORE he showed up! But a good place to camp.
Though we would have liked to go down to the French Shore, the roads were gravel, so we headed up to the Underground Salmon Pool and Trail. We started with some trepidation since there wasn’t much info at the trailhead, but we ended up spending a long time on the gravel and wooden boardwalk (a little worse for wear and some felled big trees):
finding the Salmon Pool (and seeing several jump):
a fern “garden”:
and a lot of Moose poo and one footprint (we’re getting close):
Time to head west again through the centre of this Northern Peninsula lined with forests, rocks and big lakes. We hoped to stay in Bird Cove on the West coast and went and found a great spot, but the winds were very high. We had a coffee and decided to move on.
We ran out of steam in Hawk’s Bay and decided to stay behind the Irving gas station. It was a great day, though we put on more miles than we had planned. In fact, the last two days, though amazing, were not what we were expecting, so we’re three days ahead of the original schedule. Some more planning!
Here’s the view from my chair (can you see the mountains?):
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