NL August 1

Hiked 3 km

It was foggy last night so no sunset shot. And this morning, there was still fog, but we headed out towards Cape St. Mary’s (intending to check on ferries as we went).

Best sign: Down Ohm Electric

We stopped at the Rocky River Fishway near Colinet. It’s a Salmon Ladder and a beautiful falls:

We had great chats with a woman worker and a man. This has been a real talking tour! While we were chatting, we saw a Bald Eagle (too quick for pics, but what a huge bird). It’s been Salmon fishing of late.

We also were sort of on the Bakeapple hunt. The equation is “Car on Roadside + Bog + Pitcher Plants = Bakeapples”. No joy for us on this windy road.

In Branch, there’s a small village with sheep and horses grazing right in the tidal bed area:

We even saw a guy herding sheep in his ATV (moments before, I saw a Border Collie snoozing in the sun-yes it came out-at a house!):

We saw the ground scraped in one large area (learned it was a sod farm which is so funny here) and in another smaller one (a Cranberry Bog which failed its first year last year when the rains came before the plants could take root).

Up the road we went to the St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve (birds!) and saw our first cattle since we got here:

There are 16,000 pairs of Gannets nesting in the cliffs as well as Kittiwakes and Murres. It’s noisy and stinky and amazing. I’ll let the pictures speak. First, the amazing Gannets:

And Murres:

And the little Kittiwakes (cutest chicks):

We drove this rugged coast to Placentia and the Regatta Grounds (it is this Saturday, weather permitting). Looks like a great place for the night. We’ll try for the Saturday ferry one more time tomorrow, then move on to an extra few days of Newfoundland. We have been able to watch some practice right from the MoHo, so...

…here’s the view from my chair:

NL July 31

Here’s last night’s sunset (a little ominous; a preview of today!):

Not much to report, but here’s the day:

9:00 Left Portugal Cove South despite fog

10:00 Pulled over in Trepassey at the highway Interpretive Site (set up for Caribou watching, ha!); worked on booking a ferry until we saw that there was a “mishap” with the Blue Puttees (ran aground into a wharf as it was leaving Port Aux Basques). SO our planned three-day window we were watching all week fell apart. We couldn’t book from Argentia, so booked as soon as we could from Port Aux Basques (Tuesday) and just let it go; it does mean driving across the province again.

12:00 Still pulled over and kept looking for Caribou, but no self-respecting animal would be out in this fog and rain!

1:00 David went Blueberry looking but only found these Caribou Berries (we think, so they MUST be out there laughing at us):

3:00 Decided to try driving

4:00 Pulled in to St. Vincent’s (Whale Capital…). Great pebbled beach but still fog. we did some rock hunting. Then Eric, a local, showed up and we talked about everything under the sun (well, there was no sun) for two hours. Eric is 70, I think a bachelor (he never mentioned The Missus), an  accordion player (even at two funerals which he thought was funny), and a great storyteller. Loved it. We decided to stay here.

7:00 Sun sort of came out and there were people fishing for Cod, a couple from there ATVs. Seemed you cast three times then left. And I found some more lovely, polished rocks:

Here’s the view from my chair (of David and Eric):

NL July 30

Hiked 6.9 km

Here’s last night’s sunset over the trees:

Up early again and took the 3.5 km hike to the waterfalls in the park. It was a nice trail through the woods and the end was beautiful:

Along the way, we saw Moose footprints, but, of course, no Moose. But these Ravens were having a noisy feed on some Spruce buds or something:

We continued south towards the bottom of the peninsula. We stopped in at Ferryland and took a shot of the oldest church in Newfoundland made from local stones:

We decided to forgo the Interpretive Centre, but we do know that this is the site of a 17th century British Colony and that archeological work is being done at the site. We decided, instead, to take the drive and hike to the Ferryland Head Lighthouse. It was built in 1870 and manned until the 1980’s. Now, it’s the site of “Lighthouse Picnics”, a restaurant (closed today). But we had a great hike, explored the lighthouse’s exterior and sat and saw some Minke whales! And some more grazing sheep. The parking area for the lighthouse would make a great free camp site

:

We ate lunch there and before we headed on, saw a Humpback spout and tail in the distance..

Over Fermeuse, we saw actual Wind Turbines, nine of them working, and continue to wonder why Newfoundland doesn’t invest in this technology. There’s plenty of barren land and wind:

In Fermeuse, we got this great harbour view from the Ultramar gas station:

Renews has a beautiful cove and lookout (another possible camping area) and even had a “Devil’s Foot” to go with our “Witch’s Foot" in Fogo (sadly, no photos). But we did snap this beautiful salt box:

We thought we’d stay at Chance Cove Provincial Park, free camping allowed. We headed down the 6 km gravel road, but we decided to turn back after about 1/4 of the way. This was a bad road.

The landscape here is very barren. And there are Caribou around (yeah, right):

We ended up in Portugal Cove South. The women in the Interpretive Centre gave us some advice about the sites there. There is the Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve here; it’s a beach full of fossils that are protected, and access to the Cape Race Lighthouse and Marconi Site (now a museum) which were used to relay word of the sinking of the Titanic. However, the 20 km road is gravel and they advised against driving out.

But they DID advise us to spend the night right here, on the pebbled beach. We did some rock collecting (they’re beautifully rounded, coloured and polished). I keep looking for Whales in the cove.

Here’s the view from my chair:

NL July 29

A gorgeous sunset last night:

followed by a beautiful sunrise this morning (and no, I won’t be doing daily sunrises!):

We drove up the coast a bit more to Garnish. It has several old saltbox houses, nicely refurbished, but sort of placed here and there in the village, almost as if they were moved from elsewhere and just dropped here. You almost drive straight in to one on the highway. Maybe they were resettled here.

No one is awake anywhere. But Walmart in Marystown was open! As we headed north up the peninsula, we were passed by small convoys of fifth wheels and motorhomes. They must have been travelling south together.

We got back to the TCH, got some gas and information about Avalon and continued. Highway 13 is through the woods and there are several “trailer parks” with old trailers, school buses like we’ve been seeing around. When we stopped for propane in Witless Bay, the young man explained that “if it has wheels, it can be parked anywhere”. So, these are small summer communities and fishing or hunting camps placed wherever there is a likely gravel road and flat area. At least I think that’s what he said. He was about 18, at least 6 foot 8, and had the hardest-to-understand accent so far!

We decided on a Whale Watching-Puffin Tour and rejected the bigger, slightly longer and certainly busier boats for the small Molly Bawn. While we were driving there, we passed this awesome “River of Boats”, small replicas of a fishing village and all types of boats floating (they were anchored) in a small pond on the side of the road:

On the real-sized boat, we headed out with only six others. The three to four foot swells bounced us around a lot, but we headed out to two of the four small islands in the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. We saw Puffins immediately flying, floating and fishing:

We saw Razorbills, Gannets and Murres as well. This is a nice Murre and Puffin together:

And even some sheep grazing:

Then, at Pee Pee Island was the Puffin Rock. Puffins were everywhere, in droves, floating and swarming. It was amazing to see them from the lower level:

Further along (I forget the Island’s name) we stayed for a while and were mesmerized by the nesting Murres (like little Penguins) and Kittiwakes and more Puffins. Plus a juvenile Bald Eagle just waiting for lunch (he caused the swarming):

We headed back and noticed a spout and got a Humpback Whale, tail and all. Further in the cove before we docked, we had a Minke, very close:

We decided to head to La Manche Provincial Park, got a huge site (15) with leftover firewood.

So, here are two views from my chair (before and after the fire, along with my dinner view):