Our Travel Blog

A little later than expected, but here is the last entry for this trip.

We made it to the ferry terminal with a couple of hours to spare; we were due to sail at 23:45. but they started boarding about 90 minutes before that. As we got onto the boat, they were loading all the cars way down in the bowels of the ship, luck was with us though as the car in front was directed along the main deck to the far and, and the #1 spot for dis-embarkation. We followed and got the #2 spot. We headed straight up to our cabin and were asleep before 23:00… perfect for the long drive the next day.

Next morning we were up at 06:30, and off the boat by about 07:15, there was a slight panic as all the passengers showed up for the car in front but no driver, no driver = stuck on boat. He turned up a few minutes later and all was good.

We headed into Edmundston for the first night, then home by late afternoon the following day.

All-in-all another great trip, the weather in St. John’s was poor, and remained that way for most of the time we were on the island. Other than that the weather was mostly warm and dry, although we did have to scrape ice off the car on the last morning!

I think we (I) have finally realised we need to do less travelling per day and either more local sightseeing, or more time in the hotel to relax, particularly if we can find hotels with pools / saunas!

Next trip for me will be the UK in 5 weeks for a quick, blogless, visit. Then we head off to Washington state to pick up the trailer sometime next April.

In the meantime it’s time to get my eyes fixed, glasses and changing vision have been driving me crazy over the last couple of years. The thought of sticking contacts in my eyes does not appeal, and laser surgery is out due to a combination of age, ever changing vision and a couple of long PhD words I don’t understand. The remaining option is to get new lenses, for my eyes not the glasses! I had the first eye done yesterday, took about 5 minutes for them to dig into the eye, break up the old lens, suck out the pieces and stick a new lens in. Rather weird sensation as you are fully awake as they do all this. The second eye gets done next week, one has been corrected for reading, the other will be corrected for distance and the brain sorts out the resulting mess!

It must be working, as last night only 6 hours after the operation I managed to do something in bed that I hadn’t been able to do for the last 12 years …………. read a book without glasses on!!

See you in April

Continuing on our new theme of a less energetic vacation we headed out for breakfast, then drove to a park in town for a gentle stroll around some trails. Well gentle didn’t enter into the equation. We finished up doing a 4.2 mile hike with a 300ft vertical climb in it. Not quite what we were expecting, but it was good for us, and more important we managed to do it.

Once our hearts had returned to a normal rate we headed out for a drive along one of the inlets that comes into Cornerbrook. In my usual lazy manner, here are the pictures (I find the pictures make less grammatical and spelling errors than I do!)

Unfortunately, lunch time came and went, but it appears that there was no eatery within 40kms of where we were. We were eventually saved by a small convenience store that sold a little of everything, nuts, bolts, nails, paint, car parts, food, drink, cards and finally sandwiches.

After we got back to the hotel, Lyn went off on her own to do some craft shopping. When she came back she saw someone in the hall who looked very much like a friend of ours from the Toronto area. We knew he was in Newfoundland, but his schedule was a couple of days behind ours; however as he has an amateur radio licence, he uses his call sign as his licence number on the car which Lyn had seen. Sure enough, we had met up with Ted and Gail, and they were in the room directly opposite ours. They had changed their plans at the last minute, and just happened to book into the same hotel as us. Needless to say we had a good evening in the restaurant catching up.

This is our last night on the rock, we catch the overnight ferry tomorrow evening from Port-aux-Basques to North Sydney, then we’ll head off to Ottawa with an overnight stop in Edmunston. I’l probably do one more entry when we are back home

Woke up at our usual time, only to find Deer Lake blanketed in fog, evidently this is unusual as St. John’s usually steals it all. After breakfast we headed out towards Gros Morne National Park for some sightseeing and walks. Today, and in fact the rest of the holiday, are all “easy days”. As we headed north of town, the fog lifted as did the temperature. It rose from 5C up to 21C as the day progressed.

A couple of views from the passenger seat as we head into Gros Morne.

Our first stop was a short 1Km walk to the South East Brook Falls. An easy walk, with a very noticeable drop in temperature as we approached the falls.

The last few days we have seen different species of fungus growing on the ground, the one above appears to prefer living upside down in a tree!

Driving further into the park we spotted a small beach area, so we headed off there for a short break. The “beach” consisted mainly of large, nicely rounded rocks; many of these rocks are now in the trunk, on their way west to decorate the new water feature in our back yard.

We continued north to Rocky Harbour to visit the Aquarium there; unfortunately it was closed! Instead we stopped for lunch. After a tasty Newfoundland lunch we continued north to find a walking trail around Berry Head Pond. This was a fairly easy going, if somewhat muddy trail around the pond. The water in the pond was very red, but I can’t find any information as to what causes this …. maybe berries?

The Red Pond Water

Berry Head Pond

We managed to get in a few kilometres of walking today, now it was time to head south down to Corner Brook for our final two nights on the Rock.

Last night we came to the conclusion that we had set ourselves a fairly arduous schedule, that had us spending too much time getting from A to B to C. We therefore modified today’s schedule from around 350kms driving down to about 175kms.

After breakfast we decided it was time to get in a decent walk. As luck would  have it there was a nature trail along the Indian River, a short distance from the hotel.

Outside View of the Hotel

View Along River from Hotel Garden

The walk started with 75 steps down to the waters edge, of course the “what goes down must come up again” principal applies here! We took a leisurely 2¼ mile walk along a well prepared, but somewhat hilly path. We found more of our yellow fungus friends.

After a couple of mandatory stops at quilt / fabric stores (we didn’t see a grocery store, but there were 2 quilt stores, a Home Hardware, Castle Lumber and another building store in this small town, guess they like making their own stuff), we headed about 20kms north to the village of Beachside. Again it is picture time.

Beachside Village

Lyn took advantage of the good weather to paddle in the Atlantic, 6 months ago she was doing the same in the Pacific. We didn’t reach the same temperature as yesterday, but it was a sunny 18C.

The water was remarkably clear, above is an “upside down” jellyfish,

and above is the same guy the right way around.

View Out to the OceanBoat up on Beach for Repairs

Snow Can’t be too Far Away, the Leaves are Turning!

We headed back to Springdale for some lunch, then hit the TCH for a 90 minute dive to Deer Lake.

We headed north from Gander after our night in an RV park motel. Compared to the similar situation we had in Alaska, this one was luxury. Then again, it was no where near the other accommodations we have had on this trip to date. I guess online research pays off!

As we left Gander we passed one of 5 “pipe sculptures” the city uses as welcome signs, all are aviation based, as are a lot of the street names in the town.

Sikorsky Pipe Sculpture

It’s probably about twelve years since my last trip to Gander, and it shows. The place has expanded a lot, Walmart has moved in together with a few thousand more houses!

We headed north to the fishing village of Twillingate up on iceberg alley. unfortunately this time of year there are neither whales nor icebergs, but the scenery is still good.

From the Lighthouse

Not Sure What Type of Boat This Is?

After touring the village, which has unfortunately become a victim of it’s own popularity, by expanding, we headed out in search of lunch. We saw signs for a seafood restaurant and followed them.

We Finished up Here

Their Fishing Boat.

This was a small restaurant in anameless cove, but the food was great.

Next stop was at an interpretive centre set up to detail the Beothuk Indian tribe. This was the last indigenous tribe in Newfoundland, which became extinct in the late 1800’s. We took a 3k walk along to the old village site which was discovered in 1981. Unfortunately it was nothing more than a grassy meadow with signs numbered 1-11 showing where they had found evidence of structures. We did however see the fungus below on the walk!

Next it was off to our home for the night just outside Springdale. Unfortunately there was a private party going on in the restaurant, and the receptionist asked if we would mind taking an upgrade! Our original room was close to the restaurant and she was worried that the noise may disturb us. We reluctantly agreed and finished up in a good sized apartment with bedroom, lounge and washroom. It even had a balcony… great for G&T’s
Views From the Balcony

Woke up at a respectable hour and had breakfast, it was sunny and clear outside so we were hoping for a good day.

Out goal today was to drive around the Bona Vista Peninsular. At the restaurant last night our waitress told us about a spectacular trail along the way, we decided to include that in the days activities.

The first stop was the picturesque village Trinity.

It was good to see corporal punishment is alive and well in Newfoundland, that probably explains why the kids are so polite (takes cover to avoid incoming)!

As I mentioned earlier it was suggested we walk the Skerwink trail, it was 5.6km around a headland. When we got to the trail head it described it as a moderate to difficult trail. We’d never tried one of those before! Anyway, the pictures can do the talking.

Well, we now know what a moderate to difficult trail is. We felt like we had a good work out by the end of it, plenty of up and down on rocky paths at times. However we both completed it without too much trouble. Our walking and weight loss has obviously paid off.

After this we headed on around the peninsular, the weather was clear and warm climbing to a high of 24C. Eventually we followed  the TCH up to Gander. We managed to arrive (due to superb driving!) at a fabric store 5 minutes before they closed Just enough time to look, not enough time to buy…. Perfect!

Well St. John’s has not done too much to enamour us, as least weather-wise. We woke up to a wet, foggy drizzly morning, much as we did a few days earlier. We had a lazy start to the day hoping the weather would improve, but it didn’t. First stop was to get a new battery for Lyn’s watch, the switch to Newfoundland time had it confused enough to stop.

The weather showed no signs of improving, but we decided to head off in search of the “Jelly-Bean” houses. We found some, but the pictures are pretty drab.

Next stop was up to Signal Hill via Quidi Vidi, again the visibility was poor, but we felt we should brave the elements. Did I mention it was only 8C?

New Buildings in the Quidi Vidi Village Park Area

Below are two “views” from Signal Hill.

We were planning on following a coastal route rather the the Trans Canada Highway, but after a few miles we decided it wasn’t worth it. We joined the TCH and headed up to our night stop in Clarenville. The hotel is part of a Gym / Health club. It has a full size pool and sauna, so we’ll settle for a quiet relaxing day.

Up for an early breakfast, then checkout and head down to the harbour for the ferry across to St. Pierre. The ferry was a large catamaran looking more like a private yacht. The journey took about 50 minutes at 50Km/h, and apart from some nice swells close into shore it was a fairly smooth crossing (what a shame!).

We arrived pretty much in the city centre of this island with a population of 6500.  Immediately we appeared to be transformed from North America to rural Europe, narrow, hill cobbled streets in some areas, with house doors opening directly to the road. The only difference being that many of these houses are brightly coloured. The voltage is standard 220v / 50Hz as in Europe, the phone numbers are all French and even the cars carry EU licence plates.

The internet here has been hijacked by two high school soft ball teams so I am going to call it quits for now, I’ll finish this off tomorrow sometime. In the meantime some reading on the history of the Islands: READ ME.

OK, kids have now invaded the breakfast room, luckily we got there while supplies lasted! You can still read about St. Pierre from the link above, it will save me some typing.

We walked all around the “downtown” area just taking in the ambiance. The place was amazingly busy, not with tourists, but with locals going about their daily lives. Then at noon, someone pulled the plug. People disappeared, stores closed, there was no more traffic… it was siesta time or whatever the French call it. No more activity for a couple of hours, with of course the exception of restaurants. Below are a few more general pictures.

They Like Their Colours

Church

We headed off to lunch, and met up with the two couples who were at the B&B with us! They are staying on the islands for a few days.

After lunch we headed back to the tourist information office to catch the hop-on-hop-off bus, well the St Pierre equivalent, a mini van. We were given a tour of the island, that is the parts where there are roads, which isn’t very much. The island produces it’s own hydro and and drinking water, and all houses are connected to these utilities. Kids go to school on the island up to the end of high school, then it’s off to university in France. All schooling is free, and the kids get one free trip home from university each year. We asked a number of people what the main source of employment was, and we never got a straight answer, but I think it goes something like Federal government, followed by Island government to support the Feds, followed by Municipal Government to support the Island government to support the Feds, followed by Public Works to support everyone leaving 1 person to do the rest of the work.

More pictures.

Hospital

Specialist are flown to the Islands from France every two weeks to support the local doctors.

Local Fishing Boat (Dorey)

Site of the Old Fort

All in all I am glad we did the trip, it had it’s ups and downs with the weather and the ferry cancellation, but that also had positive side effects as I said yesterday.

We headed back to Canada, where we had to endure the slowest customs agent in the universe, I am convinced he got paid by the hour, and the slower he worked the more he earned.

The Ferry

Sorry if this is more disjointed than usual, but the internet was a pin to deal with and I kept losing bits of the text.

Following on from yesterday’s disappointments, today went a lot better. After a great meal last night and the fresh air we had an excellent nights sleep. The six of us all had a good (although maybe not too healthy) breakfast then Lyn and I decided to head off and explore the local scenery. We drove south on the start of a loop that went around the bottom part  of the peninsular we are on, for the most part following the coast. We stopped a few times for some geo-caches and had a little more success than yesterday.

One of the caches led us down a small trail towards the ocean where managed to get in a 2 mile walk to blow the cob-webs away. Talking of “blow” the wind continued to rise throughout the morning to the point that even small inland ponds had white caps on them. It would have been an interesting boat ride had the trip not been cancelled.

Just off the trail were a number of bushes with berries, can anyone identify them?

#1 – Rowan??

#2 ??

#3 ??

Again the scenery was constantly changing.

View From the Passengers Seat

Small Village.

Every few miles we would come across a small village, some with only 3 houses but mostly around 50 houses in each. All the houses we saw were in a well cared for condition, and many of them seemed quite large and new. I am not sure what people do for a living around here, they can’t all be fisherman …. can they?

Small Harbour

Small boat in Small Harbour!

I am not sure what happened to the stern of that boat. It looks as though it reversed at high speed into the harbour wall as it it is totally flat!

We went to the small town of Burin for a late lunch at a restaurant that had been recommended by our host, unfortunately it was closed for the season, but the small detour was worth it for the scenic views.

We headed back towards the B&B, and re-visited the cache that had eluded us yesterday. Today Lyn walked right up to the location and found it in a matter of seconds.

Next stop was the ferry office to check to see whether the extra boat that they had put on was still planned to operate. Our luck held, so we will be off to France tomorrow.

Final stop was the B&B.

Built in the Early 1900’s

Dumpster Diving ….. Newfie Style