Aug 12 - Signal Hill

It’s was a nice, clear day here in St. John’s. It turned into a 22,000-step day! First stop for the day was Signal Hill, a hill that overlooks the harbour and the city. This area, along with Cabot Tower, is a designated National historic site. It was a steep climb up and it was windy, but well worth the effort. A bit of history, shamelessly cadged from Wikipedia:

In 1896 Guglielmo Marconi patented his first device for wireless telegraphy and in 1897 found investors for his Wireless Telegraph and Signal Company, which began manufacturing radio sets that were able to transmit and receive messages in Morse Code.

It was from this hill that the first transatlantic wireless/telegraph transmission was received by Marconi on December 12, 1901. The transmission, in Morse code, originated from his Poldhu Wireless Station, Cornwall, United Kingdom, over 2100 miles away. Marconi continued to experiment with long-wave and short-wave transmission as well as to manage his business interests until his death in 1937. His work, and that of other scientists and inventors, revolutionized communications at sea and on land and created whole new industries, such as radio broadcasting. Marconi's patents and investments made him wealthy, and his scientific achievements led to his sharing the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1909.

The views from Signal Hill are wonderful. The harbour holds ships of all kinds – a huge cruise ship, fishing trawlers, an ice breaker, and ships that service the huge oil rigs off the coast. We got to witness a helicopter rescue of a hiker who had tackled a tough trail with a bum knee which eventually gave out, leaving her stranded. She had to be flown out, much to her obvious chagrin.

We took a photo at the two red Muskoka chairs at the Park Visitors’ Centre. Parks Canada has red chairs at many locations across Canada. We found the chairs in Sault Ste. Marie in the summer of 2022.

We headed back to the AirBnB and had lunch and rested our tired feet.Leer más