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)