Newfoundland II

Glad to be back to Newfoundland, we began our journey toward the ferry to Nova Scotia. It took us awhile to decide whether to return the way we’d come or take the eastern seaboard journey to Argentia. We opted not to back track all the way and be adventurous, so we took the Central/Eastern Seaboard Route. We did backtrack from St Barbe to Deer Lake, but that was the only way to join up to Canada Highway I, cutting across central Newfoundland and on down to Argentia.

The weather was just beautiful! The sun sparkled diamonds on the water. The emerald green contrasted sharply with the blueness of the sky. Breathtaking to say the least. We were treated by another of nature’s wonders when we slowed down and then stopped with the rest of the traffic to see a mom and two baby Moose make their way across the road, then back, then back again to disappear into the forest around us. It wasn’t really all that far away from where we saw the eagles scarcely a week before.

We stopped by a roadside vegetable stand close to Gambo, where they had some very interesting looking vegetables for sale. Besides the normal stuff, the had this (see the picture) - it was pretty, in a Star Trek sort of way.

On August 12th we stayed in Beothuck Family RV Park, in Grand Falls-Windsor where Les did some automotive work while I went for a walk and met a lady from Portland, Maine, camping by herself. She had a brain tumor and decided to take a trip to do some hiking and thinking - evidently it was not her first tumor and this time she just packed up and left, not telling her adult children of the reoccurrence. She was a nice gal and she told us of this coffee shop that offered live local music on Wednesday night. We made plans to meet up with her there and we were glad that we did. The music was awesome and the deserts to die for!

We stayed at Grand Falls-Windsor for a couple of days. We took a side trip to see the falls at Grand Falls-Windsor, but was unable to see it because it was in the middle of a nature preserve and we were not in the mood to do much hiking. Later that afternoon, we arrived at the Walmart parking lot, where we did some shopping and decided to stay the night. Les struck up a conversation with a couple from Colorado who were having some trouble with their rig. A lucky stop for them, I'd say, as they avoided more costly repairs and possibly an unfortunate accident on the road by some timely advice from Les. (See Readers Digest Version)

More pretty landscape and then we were in Argentia, where we waited for the Ferry. While I was wandering around the Ferry terminal I thought I got a glimpse of a familiar face. The next morning, before the Ferry left port I saw him again. It was Ben, the young man I met on the beach by the Ferry Terminal in Nova Scotia. We talked. It was nice to see him well.

Soon, we were on our very long Ferry ride back to Nova Scotia. Nice ship and all, but the sleeping arrangements were marginal, but in a way it was still cool. They had live music and we met a couple of people we'd seen before - at the restaurant we ate at in Labrador. Then we were back in Nova Scotia.

Les' Readers Digest Version:

-We put the Jeep and Camper on the Ferry at Blanc Seblon and went across Straight of Belle Isle to St Barbe Newfoundland.

-Drove down the west coast of NEWF to Deer Lake then across Hwy 1 to Gander.

-Determined the rear brake pads on the Jeep needed replacing. Bought new ones and replaced them in the Campground. Love my Jeep, replaced both sides in 45 min.

-Later stayed in a WalMart parking lot and met a couple from Colorado. His PU camper was listing to Starboard. Closer inspection showed me his frame on the PU was Fatigue cracked almost all the way thru. Advised him to get it attended to, now. He emailed us later and indicated my advise was sound and he had it welded and gussets installed on both sides of the PU. A big, "You're Welcome".

-Took the Ferry from Argentia NEWF to Sidney Nova Scotia. Somthing like 13 hours on the boat.

-Next Nova Scotia, part 2

Labrador . . .

As, I am sure most of you know, we've been back in Kansas for the last month or so. We've been busy with Jake and Jessica's wedding as well as a couple of Blue Grass festivals and being the procrastinator I am, I've put off doing the blog until it's become an embarrassment. I apologize, my friends, and hope you enjoy our memories and pictures of this awesome trip.

August 10th we took the ferry from St. Barbe, Newfoundland to Sablon, Quebec. The sky was overcast and the crossing was a little rough, but I managed the crossing without losing my breakfast. :-) We were in Quebec about 20 minutes between the time we were unloading and the time we crossed into Labrador.

At this time we were unsure as to how long we were going to stay in Labrador. Les thought it would be really fun to drive way up and around to Labrador City and then through Quebec, down into Maine and on home from there. I wasn't all that excited about going through Quebec, knowing that most of Labrador was connected by gravel roads (all I could think of was our experience on Nova Scotia) and furthermore - they speak FRENCH in Quebec - my high school French, learned a couple of centuries ago, wouldn't hold up and we'd heard all sorts of stories on how they pretended they didn't understand/speak English - I was pretty reluctant to face that, and besides, we wouldn't be able to revisit Nova Scotia if we went that route. So we'd thought we'd play things by ear, so to speak.

We headed on down the very nice, paved road paralleling the shoreline. After hearing about the wonderful sandy beaches at L'Anse Amour, I was eager to check it out. Maybe I'd get lucky and find sea glass. What we did find was a quaint little coastal village boasting of 9 residents. In the picture to the left you can see the houses this side of the bluff - on the right hand side of the road is the city park. We stopped and made lunch by this park and then went for a nice walk on the beach. I found a couple of sea urchins shells and snapped some pictures of beach flowers. We drove down the road through the town and checked out the houses that were there. Then proceeded on to the way to the Point Amour Lighthouse.

The Lighthouse and out buildings were awesomely picturesque and I enjoyed tromping around here snapping numerous pictures of them and the flowers and the reefs. http://www.pointamourlighthouse.ca/home/ According to signage by the lighthouse . . . "L'Anse Amour
Point Amour Patch Reefs - The mound like formations present along this shore are composed of the calcite skeletons of an extinct group of sponge like animals called Archacocyathids (arc-ae-o-sy-a-thids). The Point Amour Archaeocyathid reefs, which were formed about 530 million years ago, provide evidence that this was once in a warm shallow sea near the equator." That's sort of a mind blower!

We left the L'Amour area :-) and headed toward Red Bay, Labrador, where the paved road ran out and the gravel road began. We drove and drove and mostly saw God's Rock Garden. Okay, so that's not REALLY a place in Labrador, it's the name I gave it... just now! There were miles and miles of rocky terrain. After bouncing along for a while, Les and I turned to each other and just said, "We're done" and turned around in the first wide spot in the road and headed back to Red Bay. This picture to the right is the road not taken.

We arrived in Red Bay in time to get a spot to camp and then Les took me out to dinner to a nice restaurant, where were treated to some culinary de-lights: Caribou and a Three Berry Sundae. The berries were, Bakeapples, Partridgeberry, and I can't remember that third type of berry, it very well may have been Raspberry! And they really know how to make the ice cream up there as well! The Caribou was not what I expected at all. I guess I thought it'd be a little stringy and tough, but it was wonderfully tender and tasty!

The next morning we drove back up the coastline. Have to admit, there were some pretty, green, wooded areas along the way. I, however, will always remember Labrador as been awfully rocky and desolate.

We arrived in plenty of time to purchase our tickets for the ride back to Newfoundland. While waiting for the ferry office to open I was plagued by the biting flies we had heard so much about. Not fun. The ferry ride was short and sweet. Then Newfoundland was within site.

Newfoundland II should be forthcoming...

Joy

Les's Readers Digest Version:

- Put the Jeep and Camper on a ferry at St Barbe Newfoundland.

-Went across Strait of Belle Isle to Blanc-Seblon Quebec.

-Drove to Labrador and up to where the pavement ends, a
little north of Red Bay Labrador.

-Came back to Red Bay and stayed the night.

-This is as far north as we made it. We are heading back to Toto land now.

-We were closer to Greenland and Iceland than to Wichita. And about the same distance to England as to Wichita.

- - - - - - - -

City park in L'Anse Amour Labrador. Population 9 to 11. Seating in the park for at least 20???

Newfoundland I . . .

We arrived in Newfoundland, early on August 6th. Not that we had much sleep, the ship leaving at 1 a.m. and all. The first sight of Newfoundland was a little misty - the sea mist and then we started climbing into the mountains and there were more clouds there.

Found out a lot about geography this trip. I didn't know that Newfoundland and Labrador were even Canadian provinces. (Laugh it up, Tamatha and Vala!) And actually, Newfoundland and Labrador are considered one province. Newfoundland is pronounced Newfin-LAND.

Newfoundland has a rugged beauty about it. But the roads, at least at this point, were good. We drove only about 120 kilometres before we shut down for the night in a little Provincial Park (which means, no electric outlets). We rested a while then went for a drive over to Stevenville and then on to the coast and did the peninsula loop tour. I noticed some birds on big wooden perch, so we stopped and took pictures. I believe they are Osprey. Saw some likely looking places to try to find some sea glass, and thought we'd stop on our way back - but as luck would have it, after the peninsula tour we were both too tired for a walk on the beach, so we went back to camp.

The next day we headed on down the road. More rugged coastline and beautiful mountain scenery. We left the Transcanadian Highway, heading north toward Labrador on 430, which is the "Viking Trail". We soon learned that there was a big Viking influence in the area and they are real proud of the 1960 archaeological find of the Leif Erickson settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows - more about that later.

So, we are driving along the coastline and Les hits the brakes (gently) and starts to slow down. I'm looking around and just as he says, "Eagles" I'm seeing them. I grab my camera and hop out (no thoughts of other cars because up here there just weren't that many people driving at the same time we were. I got some excellent shots of the two eagles that seem to be playing around on the wind. Even got a movie of him - not very good, but still captured the essence of the joy of flight. It was exhilarating just watching these magnificent birds. We must have stayed there 20 minutes before they decided they'd played long enough.

A few miles later we past a place we'd read about in the literature we'd picked up at the Info Center :-) called "The Arches". The sign post read: "The Arches were formed over millions of years by a combination of glacial action, erosion by wind and water and other geological changes. Severe storms continue to slowly change The Arches. Far in the future they will probably be reduced to rock pillars or sea stacks."

While walking the beach here at "The Arches" we found a little cairn of rocks that we thought was your normal pile of rocks, symbolizing something special to someone, but found out, as probably most Canadians know, as they have adopted this symbol as the official logo for the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games, instead of just a cairn it was a inukshuk, which is a design representing a traditional Inuit directional marker which steers people away from danger and symbolizes hospitality. http://www.inukshukgallery.com/inukshuk.html.

Another curiosity at "The Arches" was what I've been calling the dead forest. It was just off of the parking lot. Don't know what happened to the trees here, but the dead forest is stark and quite intriguing to look at.

We enjoyed our trek through this wild and harsh land. The people that we talked to were good, down to earth, hard working people. We appreciated their values and was impressed while going through one town to see their dedication to their hometown soldiers.

We've noticed while driving along these roads less traveled that it is a little hard on Maggie, (remember her? our GPS, that navigated us down the logging road in Nova Scotia) from time to time, to keep her navigation straight, especially on the coastline. She had a difficult time on Manitoulin Island, and sure enough she had us located a little "in the water" here on Newfoundland as well!

Hearing that there was a tall ship in port at Port au Chois, we had to stop by. It was a beautiful day and no hardship to veer off a little closer to the water and go down in the harbor. It was a beautiful site and I only wished that we could have seen her sail into port.

We drove up to the northern tip of Newfoundland to "The Viking RV Park" - was lucky enough to get Internet there - and used it as our base of operations. We stayed a few days and went to L'Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site of Canada. This was the site we mentioned earlier as the 1960 archaeological find of the Leif Erickson settlement at L'Anse aux Meadows. http://www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/nl/meadows/index.aspx It was well worth the extra miles and was really fascinating. There was a museum that held some of the artifacts that had been excavated and then we went on a tour, with a gentleman who had grown up in the area and knew the scientists who found the settlement and lead the excavation. He mixed a fascinating story of the discovery, excavation, and life in this part of Newfoundland.

While walking the grounds we saw a "herd" of Moose. It was pretty cool as it was the first moose we'd seen this trip.

Driving up the coast to this northern tip of the island we passed many, many small fishing villages, which seemed deserted. Although some of the inhabitants were probably at jobs or fishing, it seemed pretty evident that people have moved away from the fishing villages. Our tour guide confirmed this. He said that when he was a child, his father told him that the seas around them were simply teaming with fish. Then he said that when he was a child that there was still a lot of fish, enough to support the local fisherman, but now, through the years the fishing grounds have depleted significantly and most of the young folks have to move away. It's very sad to see this way of life disappearing.

Before we left the area we drove on down to the southern tip of the northeastern most tip of Newfoundland to St. Anthony's and then the next day we headed over to St. Barbe to take the ferry to Labrador.

Wish I had more time to tell you about the Labrador visit, but I've run out of time. So this will have to do.

Take care, all!

Joy and

Les

(Readers Digest Version)

-Took a ferry from North Sydney, Nova Scotia, to Port aux Basque, Newfoundland.

-Drove up the western side of Newfoundland to the tip.

-Visited a Viking settlement, L'anse Aux Meadows, it predates Christopher Columbus' discovery of the New World. This site rewrote all of the American history books.

-Next, Labrador!

. . . Nova Scotia I

Reluctantly leaving Prince Edward Island and our dear friends, Linda and Fred, we stopped briefly at a Highland Games that happened to be located, conveniently on our way to the ferry that we planned to take from PEI to Nova Scotia. Our expectations were somewhat deflated when we saw how small it was, with the highlight seemingly on Highland Dancing. It was worth the cost of admission, however, to see the little girls who were just darling with their beautiful costumes and their earnest intent on their dance. After watching them a bit, having lunch and a nap, listening to the Celtic music and watching the Games (there were fewer than 15 contestants in both the men’s and women’s category together), we hurried on down the road and caught the ferry.

After a 60 minute boat ride, we arrived at Pictou, Nova Scotia, and headed for the first Tourist Information building we could find. I think I should insert her that my husband is thoroughly sick of “information stops” as I think the more info you have the better and I think he’s just tired of carrying around this info and the time it takes to get it. However, we did have access to the Internet, briefly, and in Nova Scotia, the information “agents” will even book you places to stay. They must have been the most helpful public employees that we came across. The first lady we talked to in Nova Scotia found us a place to stay after more than a half hour of looking. She also gave me some great literature.

August 2, we found ourselves in a Provencal Park in Whycocomagh (pronounced Why-cog-go-ma) in the middle section of Cape Breton in Nova Scotia. Nova Scotia is a big peninsula attached to New Brunswick, with a big island (Cape Breton) connected by a causeway. It is beautiful, beautiful, beautiful! Loved all of the Scottish names of the cities, New Glasgow, Iona, Inverness, and, okay, they have other cities named New London, Sydney, and Denmark, but I sort of am drawn to the Scottish ones! We decided to stay a few days in Whycocomagh now and then when we came back through, on the way back from Newfoundland and Labrador, we would pick up some mail that we had arranged to have sent to us.

The next day we took a drive around one of the loops called the “Celeigh Trail” mainly because there was a Celtic Music Interpretive Center in a place called Judique. http://www.celticmusicsite.com/So we started off bright and early and drove the loop. Rugged mountains, picturesque views of little towns, beautiful coast lines on the bay, and coastline on the Gulf of the St Lawrence. Made it to the Interpretive Center in time for lunch and the lunchtime entertainment they call a celeigh. A caleigh is actually the Celtic term of a kitchen party, not necessarily with music, although it often includes music. This entertainment was Celtic music; imagine that (at the Celtic Music Interpretive Center). We enjoyed the luncheon and the music and then we started back to camp. We saw that there was a “short cut” across the island that ended up only a few miles down from where we were camped.

Okay! Who’s chuckling out there? Have you heard this story already?

We programmed “Maggie”, our Magellan GPS, and sure enough, there it was a nice clear shot across the island. So we headed out. Guess who was driving? ME! It was not a paved road, but really, not too bad of a road, then it got a little, worse, and a little worse, and a little worseR! I was white knuckle clutching the steering wheel, but still went on. Then the “two roads diverged” and I, after conferring briefly with my navigator, veered left. Did you perhaps notice I didn’t say RIGHT? Before Les and I could blink, Maggie had continued our trek down this road. So we bumbled on down. Brief thoughts of going back to the fork in the road entered my head, but did I listen to reason, “Oh, No!” The further we got down this road the less traveled it was and I swear, the further we got away from our camp – or at least it felt like it. Finally, we got to a point where the road was so muddy I stopped the car and changed places with Les. It was about here where I started praying in earnest. And all you people out there that have been saying prayers for us – they WORKED! Because I tell you that I really wasn’t certain that we would be able to drive out of that mud hole! But with my terrific husband’s driving prowess we made it home, after miles and miles and MILES of less than 5 mph in 4 wheel drive. We drove in rutted roads that must have touched the bottom of the jeep; we went across a couple of bridges that were really scary. One was a wooden bridge that you could see the water running beneath it (that's the jeep going across the bridge that Les wouldn't let me stay in the jeep when he crossed it) and then there was that bridge (?) made up of just branches laid across the ditch. Every time we thought the road was getting better, it got worse! I was so scared I even forgot to take pictures of the really bad roads. But eventually, we managed to get out of there. We figure it was an old logging road that hadn’t been used for some years. (That’s how I spent your birthday, Stewart!)

That night we met a couple from Ontario, Canada, Jennifer and Ray. We talked about our travels and they, theirs. We told them we were headed up the Cabot Trail the next day and they had a few suggestions for us as far as what to see and where there were some good places to eat. They told us of their Maple Tree farm in Ontario and that they made maple syrup. Got our attention real quick. When Les started asking questions and showing a lot of interest, they invited us up to help them make syrup next March. (Don’t these people understand, if they ask, we will come?)

The next day we drove the Cabot Trail. http://www.cabottrail.travel/ What an extraordinary beautiful area. Very mountainous, very rugged, uphill and down (glad we were dragging the Casita), and the sea view was terrific. We found a wonderful seafood place to eat at, with a wonderful view of the Gulf of St. Lawrence. After lunch we drove the northern tip of the island, Meat Cove – where the road ran out, and then down the eastern edge of Cape Breton – gotta say, the eastern side was a bit boring, until we got to Baddeck (see Nova Scotia II).

Almost forgot, early on in our days journey we passed by Joe's Scarecrow Farm. We've seen grouping of metal sculptures in a couple of different places in our travels, but this was our first scarecrow farm, and Toto, we're not in Kansas anymore and these are definitely NOT Kansas Scarecrows! The picture is of a scarecrow wedding! (I was thinking of my neice, Andrea's wedding coming up - it was sort of spooky!)

On August 5th, we left Whycocomagh Park for this part of our journey. We drove over to Iona to the Highland Village Interpretive Center. http://museum.gov.ns.ca/hv/ It is a recreated Highland Village of early Nova Scotia, starting with a black house like what many of the immigrants from Scotland left when they immigrated to Nova Scotia. You walked around the grounds of this park, visiting the buildings that show the progression of the way of life for the first years of "civilization" in Nova Scotia. In some of the buildings people in garb of that period showed linen was made from flax, a general store was run, what a blacksmith did in those days, then there was a church, that still have services today and a barn with animals and machinery – It was a nice little way to spend an hour or two, learning about the culture of the area.

After lunch we went on up to North Sydney to catch the MidAtlantic Ferry to Newfoundland. Since there had been a fire in one of the boilers on a ship in their fleet a week or so before and then another fire on board another ship, our departure time was pushed back. The locals organized some activities for the inconvenienced ferry riders while waiting for the ferry, which included some music, which of course, Les and I enthusiastically listened to. We walked around the area surrounding the ferry, walked down to the harbor and found a nice seafood restaurant to have dinner in. Then we went down to a waterfront park that we were told had live music every week. There was seating around a little stage and a big parking lot that filled up like a drive in theater (see picture). Leaving Les to save our places in the seating area I walked along the beach while the music was being played and found some Nova Scotia sea glass, which I’m very excited about. It’s a lot different from the sea glass I was picking up in Texas, much smoother and round. While walking on the beach I met up with a young man, Ben, who was traveling around the country. He was from Vancouver Island in British Columbia. We talked for a while; I gave him our travel card and hope to meet up with him again. He was headed for Newfoundland as well, so I thought I’d keep an eye out for him while we were there.

The next morning at 1 am we were on the ferry, headed for Newfoundland, a six hour ride. It was crowded, but we found a place to spend the night in as much comfort as we could. The crossing wasn't too bad - I didn't get seasick so it was a good crossing.

Take care until next time!
Joy
And
Les
Les's Readers Digest Version:

- Left PEI and went by ferry to Nova Scotia.

- Stayed at the northern end of NS on the island of Cape Breton. Did a couple circle island driving tours. Got lost on a logging road short cut. One of the few times I really needed a 4x4. No athiests in a 4x4 when it is really being abused, 3000 miles from home, and 50 miles from nowhere. I'm still not to old to do dumb things.

- Odd note: the road on Cape Breton didn't have a number just a name, "Cabot Trail"

- Lots of Celtic music in NS.

- So far Nova Scotia, Cape Breton is my favorite, but then we have Neufoundland and Labrador to go.