June 25 (Day 48): Ferry Day in Argentia, Newfoundland and a fond farewell to the People and Places that have made our month special

Just beyond Argentia lies Ship Harbour where on August 14, 1941 two battleships, one from the United  States with President Franklin D. Roosevelt aboard and the second from Great Britain carrying Prime Minister Winston Churchill met to discuss the war in Europe and the real threat to England and perhaps the United States from Nazi Germany.  That meeting generated a frank discussion about how peace amongst countries in the world might better be achieved and led to what became known as the Atlantic Charter, the basis for The United Nations of today.  The site is designated as Atlantic Charter National Historic Site.

The Castle National Historic Site

This place was also a major port and defense during the 18^th century for the French in their struggle to maintain control over the cod fishery in their conflicts with England.  They built a unique fortress here, now known as ‘The Castle National Historic Site’, to protect the harbor at Placentia near here. 

Jesse's wondering where we're headed...

We arrived at the ferry terminal a couple of hours before loading and were assigned to the front of our staging line.  We elected to leave Chaco and Jesse in our coach rather than crate them up in a small room with many other dogs since they would be at home.  Facing an hour after boarding before we sailed, a sixteen hour passage and an hour getting off the ferry we busily laid down painters plastic and tape over our carpet areas, closed off rooms where possible and hoped for the best when we returned to fetch them.  They do not allow any visits to the car decks during the passage.  We then adjourned to our cabin where after dinner we slept most of the passage away.  When we returned to our coach eighteen hours later in North Sydney, NS the two had nary an accident to the surprise of their proud parents.  Try that on a few beers!

Our month in Newfoundland has been simply outstanding in every respect and we will miss the Province and the people deeply.  A friend told me, “….who knew you could spend a month in Newfoundland?”  We could have spent more!          

One last vista of Newfoundland before we leave

  

June 25 (Day 48): Special Edition – Let’s Hear It For……..

Dad, it's hard to sleep with all of these pot holes in the road, can't you do something about that?

This special edition is dedicated to our unsung heroines, “The Girls”.  We’ve been so busy describing the people we’ve met and places we’ve seen that we have not done justice to our two faithful traveling companions, Chaco and Jesse.  They ride on “their” dashboard for hours at a time shielding us from oncoming demons, warn us if anyone or anything dares come near their coach or truck, are always happy to see us when we return from an outing they can’t go on, helps us clean up the environment by grabbing every bit of strange food left on the ground, and makes our home on wheels truly home.  All that and they work for two squares a day, a few treats, walks in the woods and lots of attention.  Here they are……..                       

Waiting for Mom to find the geocache at Cape Spear

Jesse

Chaco, on alert

On the road again... nap time

June 23 (Day 46) to June 24 (Day 47): Mistaken Point and Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserves

As we headed south on the Avalon peninsula, we noticed a change in scenery, from tree covered mountains to barren, tundra-like landscapes.  We learned these are the Hyper-oceanic barrens, a distinct ecoregion found only in the exposed headlands in eastern Newfoundland – striking vistas.  We took a guided hike to see the Mistaken Point fossils, a unique site where fossils from the first stirrings of complex life on earth more than 550 million years ago were preserved in shale underneath volcanic ash, and became exposed as shifting continents pushed the ocean’s floor to the surface.  These marine creatures are collectively known as Ediacaran biota, and are some of the earliest animal organisms known – more than 300 million years before dinosaurs!  It was exciting to be within inches of these fascinating fossils.  The site is under review for UNESCO world heritage status, and we think it is certainly worthy.

Mistaken Point fossils - after a 3 km hike including a stream crossing!

Our next stop, celebrating Michele’s birthday, was to visit Cape Mary’s Ecological Reserve where thousands of pelagic birds come to breed.  15,000 pairs of Northern Gannet along with 9000+ juveniles were nesting within a few feet of us, along with thousands of nesting Common Murre and Black-legged Kittiwake. It was fascinating to watch their behaviors and observe the ‘layering’ of nesting species – Common Murre lowest and laying eggs directly on the cliff ledges, with Kittiwake’s beside and above them on nests, and the Gannets at the top of the cliffs on their nests.  They co-exist peacefully, that is until a bald eagle comes by looking for a meal!  We also saw several Black Guillemot, Thick-billed Murre, Comorants, and even a few of the less common Razorbills.  The sheer number of birds so close to us was truly incredible and the din was musical as they squabbled, sought their mates, stumbled through each others’s space, and talked to their chicks. We learned this is one of the largest breeding colonies of these birds in the world. 

Northern Gannets, up close and personal - beautiful birds!

We’re now camped in an RV park in Argentia, Newfoundland where we’ll say goodbye to this beautiful province tomorrow afternoon and board the 16 hour ferry back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia to continue our adventure there.  This province has exceeded our expectations – with unbeatable scenery, glaciers, wildlife, history, and a wonderful culture.  They say that Newfoundlanders are some of the friendliest people you’ll meet, and our experience has been no exception. 

Saltbox houses - a Newfoundland standard

Lots of lighthouses on this island

A typical Newfoundland coastal village -- this one is Ferryland

Our Newfoundland adventure is almost over as we wait for the ferry

June 22 (Day 45): Special Edition – Newfoundland Villages.

We’ve been watching Newfoundland villages pass by along our journey during our time in Province.  Many are the normal stuff named for families, geographic locations, and historical events.  Others give pause to wonder what they might have been thinking.  Here are a few – Boat Harbor, Old Shop, Sand Cove, Hopeall, Lawn (!), Coffee Cove, Cupids Brigus, Mull Face Bay, Hares Ears Point and Lushes Bight.  Well, I narrowed my list down to two top tier names so far – runner up is Come By Chance and the winner is Little Heart’s Ease! That’s Newfoundland!      

           

June 20 (Day 43) to June 23 (Day 46): St .John’s, Newfoundland and Puffins, Puffins, and more Puffins along The Irish Loop Road.

The view from our RV park

The view from our 'living room'

We only did about 50 miles with the intent to stay in another Provincial Park, but when we arrived the place was full due to very nice weekend weather and the end of a long winter that brought the locals out into the woods.  Michele noticed an innocuous sign earlier that said “full service RV Park” so we back tracked off the main highway to find the Celtic Rendezvous with room for us.  Room did not describe the site where we perched on the top of a cliff overlooking several small islands just off shore and very reachable with binoculars.  We got out our lawn chairs, sat on the point and watched thousands of Atlantic Puffins on the slopes of the islands and fishing in the water below as well as that many gulls and other shore birds.  Before long the sun was going down.  This journey has had any number of experiences where something doesn’t go as planned and through sheer happen stance something better comes along – this was it!  We stayed three nights.

Puffins at their nest holes

Bachelor puffins... on the cliffs

Next day we had reservations for the highly rated O’Brien’s Puffin and Whale boat tour out of Bay Bulls, NL with an Atlantic Ocean as flat as we’ve seen it yet and bright sunshine.  Thanks to Michele’s elbows we grabbed incredible seats at the very front of the upper deck and were we in for a treat.  The islands we toured are part of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve with a puffin population estimated in the neighborhood of 260,000 nesting pairs!  They were everywhere along the islands hillsides where they make their nests in burrows in available soil, swimming around our boat and flying directly overhead.  Where the soil gave way to sharp cliffs there were thousands of nesting Black Backed Gulls, Herring Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, Common Murres, Thick Billed Murres, Northern Gannets, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Razorbills, Black Guillemots, and Cormorants to name a few.  As we neared the island at one point the pungent odor of bird guano was so loud that we knew those birds had been coming to that same location for many years.  That said, they will all be gone in another month or two, back to the open ocean where they spend most of their lives. 

Common mures

Those dots are all birds!

A bit like Hitchock's "The Birds"

birds everywhere!

We topped this remarkable day off with many sightings of Minke Whales and an early Humpback that we saw several times.  The Humpbacks have not come this far north yet because their primary food source, the small Capelin that comes on shore in the millions to spawn in local streams are not here yet.  We hope to solve that when we are further south in Nova Scotia.  Right, a lot we have to do with it!  What a day.  Tomorrow we move along down the Irish Loop to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve near Portugal Cove South to hike in and see the finest examples of fossils of the earliest life forms on earth.

June 16 (Day 39) to June 19 (Day 42): St. John’s, Newfoundland’s Capitol City, and Cape Spear, Eastern most point of North America!

Cape Spear, most easterly point of North America
Of course Michele had to find the most eastern Geocache in North America!

We rolled into St. John’s right into a very nice campground literally in the middle of the city – Pippy Park.  St. John’s is the largest city in the Province with many interesting things to see and do and we hit the ground running.  First we took care of our trusty steed that carries us down these beautiful roads and had our engine serviced.  Day two found us on the road to Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land on the North American Continent and home of Cape Spear Lighthouse National Historic Site, another Parks Canada site.  We waited around until everybody had moved on and took photographic evidence that at that specific time we were the only folks on earth who were standing on the furthermost east landfall of North America!  Just makes one feel special!  After a first day of heavy rain the weather cleared for our day at Cape Spear where we watched a Minke Whale and many Northern Gannets, Common Terns and gulls fishing just off the point.  There are two lighthouses at Cape Spear - the oldest was constructed by local citizens to “bring them home from the sea” when weather was an issue and the newest built to overcome the design faults of the first.  The original was incorporated into a much larger structure that housed the lighthouse keeper and his family, the assistant keeper and all they needed to remain on watch and maintain the light.  At one point the lighthouse building was literally blown off its foundation by a hurricane with winds over 200 MPH.  The Parks Canada attendant, the daughter of a Royal Canadian Mounted Policeman, was one of the best informed and helpful interpreters I have ever run into and I was lucky enough to catch her site supervisor to pass that along.

A highlight of our day was a dramatic weather shift that turned our day into magnificent sunshine and warm temps.  When I was working to improve and maintain good air quality and attendant visibility in parks I managed I caught and used a phrase describing the day following a very large wet weather system that gave way to clearing – I heard folks in Maine called them “sparklers.”  This trip I also discovered that folks from Maine also call them “wicked clear”.  Either way, the day was a sparkler and wicked clear!    

St. John's harbor

Signal Hill

We topped our sunny day off with a visit to Signal Hill, a strategically important hill used to protect St. John’s harbor.  It was the site of several battles over control of St. John’s in its infancy. Factoid from Signal Hill – the first transcontinental wireless communication was sent to Europe by the Marconi folks in 1901.  From Signal Hill a motorcycle rider I struck up a conversation with walked me over to the overlook and pointed out the former site of a large U.S. Military base intended as a spy platform during the Cold War.  Who knew that the first golf course in Newfoundland was compliments of U.S. taxpayers?  Several pubs with live music, way cool museums (one with an incredible exhibit about the loss of the Titanic), and catch up shopping and we’re ready to head back to the countryside down coast.  

View of St. John's harbor from Signal Hill

June 12 (Day 35) to June 15 (Day38): Terra Nova National Park and Cape Bonavista

Chairs in scenic spots are common in Newfoundland National Parks

We spent a couple of days visiting Canada’s first National Park - Terra Nova National Park - a beautiful boreal forest and Canada’s eastern most park.  We enjoyed more coastal drives and a great campground, with drizzly and foggy weather.  

The historic town of Trinity

Our next stop was a couple of days on the Bonavista peninsula, staying at another Provincial campground – Lockston Path.  We visited Trinity, a well maintained historic community dating back to the early 1800’s with several restored buildings that are provincial historic sites.  It’s impressive to see how these communities thrived under the harsh climate here.

We visited historic Cape Bonavista the second day, the location where John Cabot (really Zuan Caboto of Italy) first landed on Newfoundland in 1497.  Fishing, especially cod, played a major role in the history of this province and there are many historic sites that demonstrate how cod was caught and processed.  As fishing methods and technology improved over time, industrial scale fishing operations dramatically increased cod harvests. By 1992, over harvesting by International and Canadian factory ships caused the collapse of the cod fishery, and commercial cod fishing in Canada had to be halted.  Cod has yet to recover, and now cod harvest is strictly controlled. International fishing continues to be a problem, however, because international treaties have not been enforced and factory ships take extremely large quantities of fish.  They threaten the sustainability of fisheries throughout the world’s oceans.

The seas were wild on the Bonavista penninsula!

We finished our visit to this fascinating area with our first view of puffins!  Elliston is a community known for root cellars and a puffin colony close to land, and we were able to see a few nesting birds to end a beautiful sunny day on this peninsula before moving on to St. John’s the capitol city.  A huge benefit of the day was the end of a heavy weather/ wind system that simply brought the sea to life.  The entire coastline was alive in white spray as the giant swells came ashore and literally rattled the cliffs with spray reaching to the very tops.  Nature at it’s finest and fiercest.  That said, the gulls really didn’t give a crap and soared all over the place anyway.     

 Puffin photos by Bill Dentry (a fellow RV'er)

June 11th (Day 34) – Last Day In Dildo Run Provincial Park/Twillingate.

A tight fit on the ferry!

We decided to travel to Farewell to catch the ferry to some small islands within this huge archipelago with the intent of seeing endangered Newfoundland Ponies and whatever else might jump out at us.  We were last in line for the ferry to Change and Fogo Islands behind many cars of locals going to a funeral on Change Island, population 250. We had opted for Change Island only, but with the line-up we weren’t convinced we would get loaded.   To understand what happens in small isolated communities the school on Change Island had 130 students not too many years ago and next term will only have 12.  We were told we would not be loaded, but then told they could and when they closed the ramp there was only a foot between the huge steel ramp and our rear bumper.  While in line an elderly woman got out of her car in front of us and came back to chat – that’s the Newfoundland way!  By the time our conversation was finished we were invited to their home on Change Island for tea.  Regrettably we opted for the earlier return ferry to avoid being caught up in traffic when the funeral was over so weren’t able to take advantage of Winifred and Frederick’s invite to take tea.  We did see the Newfoundland Ponies and left a donation for their care and feeding.       

The funeral on Change Island

Change Island ponies

We spent our last night in Twillingate at a comedy show – ‘How to be a Newfoundlander 101’, where we learned some of the unique words and phrases used by Newfoundlanders in communicating with each other.  Denny helped in demonstrating the use of terms ‘Arn’ (did you catch any fish?) and ‘Narn’ (no).  We finished the evening with a ‘Screeching’ ceremony where we became honorary Newfoundlanders, which meant kissing a fresh Newfoundland fish, drinking shots of Screech (a Newfoundland rum), and completing the ‘screeching’ ceremony.

We're officially (honorary) Newfoundlers!

June 10th (Day 33) – Special Edition; How To Make A 10,000 Year Old Cocktail!

The bergs coming down from Greenland contain ice that is some 10,000 years old and Captain Dave sent us away with a basketball sized chunk of the clearest, hardest ice one can imagine.  The ice is very dense since nearly all air bubbles have been squeezed out by the sheer weight of the hundreds of feet of ice above.   We chiseled away on the pint sized berg at our picnic table, filled our glasses with chips and chunks off the old block, added our faithful Jack Daniels, and then topped them off with our normal mixer (no comments you Jack Daniels purists!).  The result was a 10,000 year old cocktail that had all the trappings of ambrosia.  The remaining glacier ice went into our freezer for future 10,001 year old cocktails.