Aug 13 - Cape Spear and Petty Harbour

We woke up to a nice sunny day, so like a good flexible tourist guide, I ditched the indoor activities that I had planned last night for the day due to the forecast of rain, and substituted an outdoor activity instead. Today’s morning destination – Cape Spear, located about 25 minutes southeast of St. John’s. The Portuguese named this location Cabo da Esperança, meaning "Cape of Hope", which became Cap d'Espoir in French and finally "Cape Spear". At a longitude of 52°37' W, it is the easternmost point in Canada and North America, excluding Greenland. So, every morning, it is home to the first sunrise on the continent.

A lighthouse has operated at Cape Spear since September 1836. The original Cape Spear lighthouse was the second lighthouse built in Newfoundland; the first was built in 1810 at Fort Amherst, at the entrance to St. John's Harbour.
The first lighthouse was a square wooden building with a tower in the middle containing the light. A new concrete lighthouse was built in 1955, and the original light was moved to the new building. It continues to operate as an unmanned site.

The original Cape Spear lighthouse is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and the location has been designated a National Historic Site of Canada. The original lighthouse building and the lightkeeper's residence have been restored to the period of 1839. The lighthouse was designated under the federal Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act in June 2016. One family, the Cantwells, manned the lighthouse for over 150 years, passing the duty down the line from father to son each generation from 1846 to 1997.

The Cape Spear location served a valuable role during WWII as a ground radar early warning station.

At the little art gallery there, we saw paintings of all the lighthouses in Newfoundland, done by a local artist. As we had learned in St. Augustine, coastal lighthouses have distinctive colour patterns so they can be easily identified. There are red/white spiral ones; red/white horizontal stripes; red/white vertical strips; red top only, and so on. It was fascinating to see the variations.

The views are stunning from the top of the hill – ocean as far as the eye can see, with rugged cliffs along the coast. We had hoped to see whales, but no luck. We scored, not one, but two sets of Parks Canada red chairs and took the obligatory selfies.

We set off for Petty Harbour- Maddox Cove, located about 20 minutes south of Cape Spear. We saw a moose on the road just as we left Cape Spear. Must be in the country! The name Petty Harbour is the anglicized form of the French name Petit Havremeaning 'small harbour'. It was first settled by French colonists. Petty Harbour–Maddox Cove is the site of the Petty Harbour Generating Station, the first hydroelectric generating station in Newfoundland and Labrador. This is the home of Alan Doyle, lead singer of the band Great Big Sea.

We had lunch overlooking the harbour, and “got to talking” to some native Newfoundlanders. Chris, the husband, was a one-man tourist agency, giving us suggestions for routes, restaurants, foods to try, accommodations, activities, and sights to see.

We could tell that the weather was changing – the clouds were coming in and the temperature was dropping, so I pulled out one of the indoor activities. We went to Memorial University’s Johnson GEO site. This science centre focuses on the geology of Newfoundland. The display rooms are cut from the ancient rock of Signal Hill. We focused on the petroleum industry exhibits. We had a wonderful bit of serendipity. As we stood in front of the scale model of the Hibernia offshore drilling rig, a dad was explaining how it works to his young son. The dad is an assistant driller on the Hibernia and graciously explained to us the workings of the rig and how the drilling and exploration is done. It was fascinating.

We drove around Quidi Vidi Lake, site every August of the Royal St. John’s Regatta (rowing and sailing), the oldest organized sporting event in North America. The first recorded event was August 12, 1816. The day of the regatta is a holiday, but sometimes it has to be moved due to weather, in which case, it isn’t a holiday and people have to go to work, hungover or not! The Regatta is widely known as “The Largest Garden Party in the World” because it is now as much about socializing as it is about amateur sport.

We found a Canadian Tire and got a cooler bag for our on-the-go lunches and then picked up supper at Sobeys. Yes, the Grocery Store Gourmets are eating in again tonight.

Tomorrow, we head to Bay Bulls so I can go puffin and whale watching. Doug will be packing his book and his iPad with downloaded movies.En savoir plus