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2024 Newfoundland
  • Maureen's Travels
sierpnia 2024

2024 Newfoundland

Doug and I will be exploring Newfoundland from St. John's, to the west coast, and up to St. Anthony. We are looking forward to seeing the sights, the coastline, and the architecture, and meeting the wonderful Newfies! Czytaj więcej
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    11 sierpnia 2024
    Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    The route we will be taking.
    Wth my favourite travel partner!

    Aug 11 - Off to St. John's

    11 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today is the first day of our long-awaited trip to Newfoundland. Doug went to St. John's many years ago on business and was enchanted by the city and has always wanted to share the city with me. We'll be in St. John's for 5 nights, then Trinity for 3 nights, Twillingate for 2 nights, Rocky Harbour for 3 nights, St. Anthony for 2 nights, and then just one night in Deer Lake before we fly back on August 27.

    The day unfolded as we had hoped. Traffic was fine. We dropped the car at SkyPark and after a short bus ride, we were at the terminal. We dropped our bags and got to go to the Trusted Traveller line and so bypass the long through security lines because we have Nexus cards. There was nobody ahead of us in the Trusted Traveller line. Love Nexus.

    The flight left on time, and it was a very smooth flight – always a bonus. The entertainment selection on the plane was pretty meagre - Doug found "The Beekeeper" to watch for a second time, while I opted for watching episodes of "The Crown" that I had downloaded. We are 1.5 hours ahead of the Eastern time zone here in the Newfoundland time zone. It was a clear, warm, calm day. We picked up our rental car (for which we are paying a small fortune, even with a special deal that I got through Aeroplan) – our chariot is a 2024 Malibu. We made our way to our AirBnB. It’s a lovely one-bedroom in the bottom of a house. The unit is spotless, and very nicely equipped. We met our host, Bernadette, (she lives upstairs) when she came to drop off more pillows.

    Staying true to our nickname of “The Grocery Store Gourmets” given to us by our son, Patrick, we went to Sobeys and picked up supplies. We often eat in (which we did tonight) and usually always make sandwiches for our lunches.

    We are watching the closing ceremonies for the Olympics. Paris and France have done themselves proud. And kudos to Canada for giving us so many wonderful moments.

    I’ve booked a walking tour for tomorrow afternoon, and a whale and puffin watching tour for me on Wednesday morning. Tuesday will require indoor activities – it’s going to be a very wet day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    11It's windy on Signal Hill!Cabot Tower

    Aug 12 - Signal Hill

    12 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    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.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    1
    A tribute to the Newfoundland and Labrador breeds of dogsA great way to dress up lamp posts - this one was my favourite.A whale of a quilting job!!!!Sculpture recognizing St. John's as a Capital of the ArtsOur walking tour guide, Dave Peters.Monument to Chinese immigrantsThere is an actual town of Dildo.The notes over the door of this music store begin the song, Ode to NewfoundlandMural commemorating the great fire of 1892.One of St. John's finest checked on how we were doing!So many colour houses!One of my favourite stretches of Jelly Bean houses.The Supreme Court of Newfoundland.War Memorial with the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.

    Aug 12 - Walking Tour of St. John's

    12 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    A bit about the city: St. John's (metropolitan population about 215,000) is the capital and largest city of Newfoundland and Labrador and is the easternmost city in North America (excluding Greenland).

    Its name has been attributed to the belief that John Cabot sailed into the harbour on the Nativity of John the Baptist in 1497, although it is most likely a legend that came with British settlement. A more realistic possibility is that a fishing village with the same name existed without a permanent settlement for most of the 16th century. Indicated as São João on a Portuguese map from 1519, it is one of the oldest cities in North America. It was officially incorporated as a city in 1888.

    St. John's, and the province as a whole, was gravely affected in the 1990s by the collapse of the northern cod fishery, which had been the driving force of the provincial economy for hundreds of years. After a decade of high unemployment rates and depopulation, the city's proximity to the Hibernia, Terra Nova and White Rose oil fields led to an economic boom that spurred population growth and commercial development. As a result, the St. John's area now accounts for about half of the province's economic output.

    After lunch we headed downtown with lots of time to spare before our walking tour at 2:00 p.m. We sought out the very evocative Terry Fox Memorial – the point where Terry started his Marathon of Hope on April 12, 1980.

    A large section of the main street of St. John’s is closed to car traffic during the days in the summer months to encourage pedestrian traffic, and to accommodate the large number of cruise ship visitors who flood in and support the $2 billion tourism industry in Newfoundland. The downtown is full of interesting buildings, quirky laneways, colourful paint jobs, huge churches, and lots of history.

    I found the big quilt store - it's an amalgamation of two stores. It had a wonderful selection, but this quilter does not need any more fabric. I kept my hands to myself, but only with great effort!

    Our tour guide, Dave Peters, skillfully and humorously wove together elements of history, indigenous concerns, politics, the arts, architecture, religion and economics over the course of 2.5 hours. If you are ever in St. John’s, it’s a must-do activity: https://stjohnswalkingtours.com. We learned about the contribution of the Chinese and the Irish to the development of St. John’s. We learned about the three disastrous fires almost demolished the entire city. The last one in 1892 profoundly affected the architecture landscape of the city. We saw lots of Jelly Bean houses, painted all sorts of bright colours. The reason that houses are painted so colourfully is to dispel the gloom of the 180 days of rain that St. John’s gets. You can paint your house any colour you want as long as it’s different from the houses on either side. More cities need this approach to house colours!!

    Did you know that the Mary Brown's Chicken franchise is owned by a Newfoundland company? The big arena here is the Mary Brown's Centre. There are t-shirts available with pictures of Jesus, Mary Brown and Joey Smallwood on them - yes, that makes Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

    Our last stop was at the National War Memorial of Newfoundland and Labrador. Just a few months ago, in a moving ceremony, the body of an unknown Newfoundland soldier was placed in a tomb at the foot of the memorial. Only one other unknown soldier tomb exists in Canada, and that’s in Ottawa. A very thought-provoking end to an excellent walking tour.

    We had dinner in a pub and did some great people-watching from our window seat. We trudged home on our tired dogs and are now curled up for the night. We were champion tourists today!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    The most easterly point of North AmericaOur third Parks Canada Red Chair Selfie!The view from the red chairsOur 4th Parks Canada red chair selfie!1The original lighthouse at Cape SpearNew new lighthouse that continues to operate1Lighthouse locations in Newfoundland1Moose sighting on our way from Cape SpearThe harbour at Petty Harbour - Maddox CoveScale model of the Hibernia oil rigSignal Hill rock is over 500 million years old.

    Aug 13 - Cape Spear and Petty Harbour

    13 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ 🌬 16 °C

    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.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    1I'm now an honourary Newfoundlander!Lighthouse at Ferryland1A windy day selfie at Ferryland!!!What a great view to enjoy during lunch!

    Aug 14 - Puffin Watching and Screeching!

    14 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 16 °C

    It rained overnight. The morning is dry, but still a bit overcast, and the temperature has dropped dramatically. That’s okay – we both packed hats and gloves and warm jackets. We learned our lesson in 2007 when we almost froze in mid-June while touring Fortress Louisburg in Nova Scotia. “Never again will we freeze,” said this pair.

    We set off south, along the Irish Loop that runs for 300 km from St. John’s around the Avalon Peninsula to Placentia. See more below.

    Gatherall’s Puffin and Whale Watch is located in Bay Bulls. From June 15 – August 15, they offer a Puffins and Whales tour. Doug stayed on land to maintain his health and my sanity. Two long-sleeved layers plus my puffer jacket and toque were the right combo for surviving the cool winds. The waters got choppy (6-8 fr. swells) as soon as we got out of the protected bay. The sightings of whales this year have been very few, and it’s too late for icebergs, so puffins were the focus of our tour.

    Our destination was Witless Bay Ecological Reserve. It consists of four islands: Gull Island, Green Island, Great Island, and Pee Pee Island – Gull Island was our viewing point. Immense numbers of nesting birds nest on these islands during the seabird breeding season, roughly from 1 April through 1 September.

    The Witless Bay reserve contains North America's largest Atlantic puffin colony. It is estimated that more than 260,000 pairs of Atlantic puffins nest here during the late spring and summer. The reserve also hosts the world's second-largest colony of Leach's storm-petrels. More than 620,000 pairs of these birds come here to nest every year. Thousands of black-legged kittiwakes and common murres arrive for the nesting season.

    Puffins are any of three species of small alcids (auks) in the bird genus Fratercula. They feed primarily by diving in the water down as far as 200 feet – penguins are the only other bird that dives deeper. They breed in large colonies on coastal cliffs or offshore islands, nesting in crevices among rocks or in burrows in the soil.

    All puffin species have predominantly black or black and white plumage, a stocky build, and large beaks that get brightly colored (like during the breeding season. They shed the colorful outer parts of their bills after the breeding season, leaving a smaller and duller beak. Their short wings are adapted for swimming with a flying technique underwater. In the air, they beat their wings rapidly (up to 400 times per minute) in swift flight, often flying low over the ocean's surface.

    Puffins mate for life and return each year during the breeding season to the same island and the same burrow. The female lays one egg with a flat bottom that keeps it from rolling down the cliff. Both parents incubate the egg and feed the chick (or "puffling"). The incubating parent holds the egg against its brood patch with its wings. The chicks fledge at night. After fledging, the chicks spend the first few years of their lives at sea, returning to breed about five years later.

    Puffins are distinct in their ability to hold several (sometimes over a dozen) small fish at a time, crosswise in their bill, rather than regurgitating swallowed fish. This allows them to take longer foraging trips since they can come back with more food energy for their chick than a bird that can only carry one fish at a time. This behavior is made possible by the unique hinging mechanism of their beak, which allows the upper and lower biting edges to meet at any of a number of angles.

    The air was filled with the squealing of the baby puffins and murres. Fortunately, the day wasn’t really warm so we weren’t overwhelmed with the odor of the copious amounts of guano.

    On the way back into port, I got “screeched”. I had to look like a Newfoundlander (wear a sou’wester), talk like a Newfie (say “’Deed I is me old cock and long may your big jib draw!”), walk like a Newfie (stick my right foot, sock and all, into a bucket of cold water, drink like a Newfie (down a shot of cheap rum in one gulp), and kiss a cod which was actually the wet back end of a stuffed puffin. Great fun! I now am an honourary Newfoundlander with the certificate to prove my proud new status.

    From Bay Bulls, we kept heading south to Ferryland. The area from Bay Bulls to Ferryland stretch is considered to be the Irish centre of Newfoundland. Irish immigrants settled along the coastline from about 1780 onwards. Irish traditions, attitudes, music, and even the accents continue to thrive here. We had enjoyed some Celtic music on the puffin boat.

    There is an iconic lighthouse at Ferryland, built in 1870. We chose not to do the 25-minute hike from the parking are up to the lighthouse. We had the first part (peanut butter sandwiches) of our gourmet lunch by the water with the fabulous views, then retreated to the car to escape the strong winds.

    We headed back the same way. We dropped all our day supplies at the AirBnB and headed to the airport. Doug’s keen ear had picked up the sound of a wheel bearing that was starting to go, and we didn’t want to be dealing with that outside of a major metropolitan area, so we swapped the Malibu for a Toyota Camry.

    We had another gourmet dinner courtesy of Chez Sobeys while watching Cheers and M*A*S*H . Time to recharge the batteries for tomorrow's adventures.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Another cruise ship is in port today.Another look at the mouth of the harbour of St. John'sHigh Tea will be served this afternoon!Beautiful Fatima ShrineSt. Joseph - Patron Saint of CanadaSt. Patrick, of course!Casavante organThe Dead Christ, sculpted in Carrera marble, by John Hogan.St. Patrick and St. Francis flank the stairs of the Basilica

    Aug 15 - Basilica Cathedral of St. John

    15 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    It was another glorious warm, sunny day here in St. John’s. We have been extremely fortunate with the weather.

    First stop of the day was back up at Signal Hill so Doug could get a souvenir t-shirt. The view up there never fails to impress, and it’s easy to get to and there is plenty of free parking, so it warranted a second visit.

    Then we headed downtown to the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist which is the metropolitan cathedral of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of St. John's, Newfoundland and the mother church and symbol of Roman Catholicism in Newfoundland.

    We asked about tours and the young man, David, at the information desk, said that he could give us a personal tour. So, off we went! He was wonderful and we thanked him profusely when we left, as well as leaving a donation to the church.

    The Basilica-Cathedral was the largest building project to its date in Newfoundland history. Construction lasted from the excavation of the ground in May 1839, through the laying of the cornerstone in May 1841, until the completion and consecration on September 9, 1855. At this time, it was the largest church building in North America and remains the second largest church in Canada after Saint Joseph's Oratory in Montreal and the largest cathedral church in Canada. The Basilica-Cathedral is one of the few buildings in St. John's to survive the Great Fire of 1892.

    It is a basilica in architectural terms because of its shape – oblong, with double colonnades and a semi-circular apse. In the Catholic world, a basilica is a church building that has been recognized and accorded special privileges by the pope. During its centenary celebration in 1955, Pope Pius XII raised the cathedral to the rank of minor Basilica. (The only major basilicas are in Rome.)
    A cathedral is a church that contains the cathedra (Latin for 'seat') of a bishop.

    The building was constructed on an orientation with its facade facing the line of the rising sun on the Winter Solstice, and the setting sun at the Summer Solstice, just as the medieval Chartres Cathedral is oriented on a solstitial axis.

    The Basilica-Cathedral of St. John the Baptist is unusual among North America's 19th century public buildings in that it was constructed using limestone and granite imported from Galway and Dublin, Ireland, as well as 400,000 bricks from Hamburg, as well as local sandstone and Newfoundland bluestone quarried from St. John's and Kelly's Island in Conception Bay, giving the Cathedral its characteristic grey colour.

    For its day, the St. John's Basilica was the largest Irish cathedral anywhere outside Ireland. No other building of the Irish diaspora in North America can boast of such intimate influences from or upon Ireland, and no other building had such an international reputation in its day.

    The Basilica-Cathedral contains twenty-eight stained glass windows which adorn the upper walls (clerestory) and are of English and French workmanship. The windows were the gifts of patrons and religious societies, such as the Society of the Holy Rosary and were installed between 1859 and 1905. The 35 stained glass windows in the ambulatory all date from 1954–55 and were the work of Gerard Earley and Company of Dublin; they constitute the largest collection of mid-20th Century Irish Arts and Crafts style-stained glass windows in one building in the western hemisphere.

    The Altar of Sacrifice, which stands at the front of the Sanctuary, enshrines one of the most revered and important pieces of statuary in the Basilica, The Dead Christ, sculpted in Carrara marble by renowned Irish neoclassical sculptor John Hogan in 1854.

    There is a beautiful Fatima Shrine, a gift from the many Portuguese people who live in Newfoundland.

    In 1955, the parish installed a great pipe organ from the Casavant Frères firm of St-Hyacinthe, Québec and dedicated it in memory of the parishioners who died in World War I and World War II. The 66 stop organ with 4,050 pipes is the largest instrument in Newfoundland, and is one of the largest pipe organs east of Montreal.

    In 2021, Diocesan officials announced that the Basilica was among properties being assessed for potential sale to compensate men who were sexually abused at the former Mount Cashel Orphanage. In July 2022, the diocese and the Basilica Heritage Foundation, a non-profit consortium which has pledged to protect the historic properties, announced that the foundation had purchased the Basilica, along with several other adjacent properties. The Basilica will continue as the main Catholic church for the city.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    The Grandmothers' Blanket by Pam HallWhat Am I Fishing For? by Daniel RumboltThe view from the Atrium of the RoomsMore Jelly Bean houses!Monument to PeacekeepersAnglican CathedralAnglican CathedralLadies knitting on the pedestrian mall downtown to support NONIA.

    Aug 15 - The Rooms

    15 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Right beside the basilica is The Rooms, a cultural facility. The facility opened in 2005 and houses the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and Labrador, the Provincial Archives of Newfoundland and Labrador and the Provincial Museum of Newfoundland and Labrador.

    The building's name, as well as its architecture, is a reference to the simple gable-roofed sheds (called "fishing rooms") that were once so common at the waterline in Newfoundland fishing villages. We heard a tour guide say that The Rooms looks like the box that the Cathedral was delivered in!

    There were many exhibits to choose from - we chose to visit the exhibit called “Beaumont-Hamel and the Trail of the Caribou”. The caribou is the symbol of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment. Beaumont-Hamel was the site of a disastrous battle for the RNR.

    The First World War had a profound impact on Newfoundland and Labrador. It involved thousands of Newfoundlanders in world-changing events overseas and dramatically altered life at home. Our “Great War” happened in the trenches and on the ocean, in the legislature and in the shops, by firesides and bedsides. This exhibition shares the thoughts, hopes, fears, and sacrifices of Newfoundlanders and Labradorians who experienced those tumultuous years – through their treasured mementoes, their writings and their memories.

    The losses sustained by the Newfoundland Regiment at Beaumont-Hamel on July 1, 1916, were staggering. Of the some 800 Newfoundlanders who went into battle that morning, only 68 were able to answer the roll call the next day, with more than 700 killed, wounded or missing. July 1st would only be the first day of more than four brutal months of fighting during the Battle of the Somme, a campaign in which Canada would also see significant action.

    The Newfoundland Regiment would be practically wiped out, but the survivors would continue to see action in the fighting and reinforcements would come to help rebuild the regiment. The regiment would go on to earn the official designation "Royal" from the British Crown in recognition of its gallant actions in battles at Ypres and Cambrai later in the war—the only unit of the British Army to earn that distinction during the war years.

    By the end of the war, more than 6,200 Newfoundlanders had served in its ranks, with more than 1,300 of them losing their lives and another 2,500 being wounded or taken prisoner. The loss of so many young lives, compounded by the number of wounded, disabled and sick who returned to Newfoundland after the war, would have a significant impact on the colony for many years afterward.

    The tombstone of the Unknown Soldier who is now buried at the War Memorial now has a home at The Rooms.

    We had lunch outside in the glorious sunshine, and then headed downtown to pick out a print showcasing the wonderful colourful houses of St. John’s – this print, along with the puffin print we got yesterday, will go on our “travel wall” where we display prints from our many adventures.

    Along the way, we dropped into the Anglican Cathedral of St. John the Baptist which was constructed at the same time, almost in a race for converts, as the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. The cathedral was extensively damaged in the Great Fire of 1892. The roof timbers ignited, which caused the roof to collapse, bringing the clerestory walls and piers in the nave down with it. The intense heat caused the lead to melt in the glass windows, resulting in the complete destruction of all but two; the sole surviving window can be seen in the Sacristy. Restoration of the Cathedral commenced in 1893, again under Kelly's direction. By 1895, the Chancel and Transepts had been rebuilt, while the Nave reached completion in 1905. The restored cathedral is renowned internationally as one of North America's best ecclesiastical Gothic Revival structures.

    We went back to the AirBnB and did a load of laundry – having laundry on-site is a real bonus. We are actually going to dine out tonight at the Keg, using gift certificates from Pat, Shannon, Luke and James that we got for Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day.

    Well, we tried. The Keg didn't have any 2-person tables available when we arrived at 6:30 p.m. and they were closing at 7:00 p.m. for a private function. Since it's the only Keg in Newfoundland, those gift cards are going to have to wait until we get home. We found a Boston Pizza nearby and had dinner there instead.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Our lunch view in Clarenville.Looking for lunch!Fish-shaped ice cubes - we must be Newfoundland!Scoping out the coastline!Worth the drive just to see this view!Today's sunny selfie!There is going to be some time spent here!Picking wild raspberries.Houses in Champney's West perched on the side of the hill.1Our AirBnB is the top half of this converted shed.

    Aug 16 - Trinity and Champney's West

    16 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 22 °C

    It’s another beautiful, warm, sunny day. We said goodbye to St. John’s with its iconic colourful houses, friendly people, bustling port and Doug’s favourite site so far, Signal Hill. (My vote is Cape Spear.) And we’ll never forget the thoughtful drivers who all stop to let pedestrians cross the road, whether it’s a marked crosswalk or not.

    Our destination for today was Trinity, a little under 300 kms drive, which meant that we could take our time. We’ll be staying in an AirBnB near there which we could access after 2:00 p.m.

    We got on the T.C.H., the TransCanada Highway, also known as Highway 1, and headed south and then west. The scenery was lovely (couldn’t stop for pictures) – soft rolling hills, lots of rocks, calm sparkling, waters, and millions and millions and millions of trees. We stopped for lunch in Clarenville and found a bench beside the water where we watched the birds having their lunch during low tide.

    I kept myself amused on the drive by musing on the origin of some of the town names - Dildo, Come By Chance, Goobies, Little Heart's Ease, and Random Island, just to name a few.

    We had brought our Garmin GPS for navigation, but even in St. John's it was choking, so we switched to using Apple CarPlay. Works like a charm. We run it using Doug's phone (he has way more data on his phone than I do) and then I use my phone to check for AirBnB updates, look for rest stops, etc.

    Doug wasn’t happy with the condition of the brakes on the car, so we stopped at the Budget office and to ask about a replacement car. (That makes it our third car if you’re counting.) The guy who cleans the cars was there - the agent had gone home to let her dogs out and wouldn't be back for a while. We got him to nudge her with a phone call. We used the time she needed to get back to gas up the Camry and to scope out CONA - College of the North Atlantic - like Mohawk College or Niagara College. This satellite location is about the size of the high school in Grimsby.

    The new car we got is a brand new (just 2000 km) Malibu. The Budget rental lady, in a thick Newfoundland accent, told us that if we have trouble with this one, we must be plain cursed!!

    We found our way to Trinity, and scoped out the Rising Tide Theatre where we have ticket for The Flying Doctor tonight at 8:00 p.m. We’ll be seeing three more of their productions this weekend. We stopped in Port Rexton for a few groceries. Dinner tonight will be courtesy of Chez Freshmart.

    After a bit of head scratching and only one major wrong turn, we found our way to our AirBnB in Champney’s West. It was the closest place to Trinity that I could find accommodations. Between the popularity of the theatre and this area being on the Fox Island Hiking Trail, places to stay get snapped up quickly. We’re in a shed that has been made into a cute little cabin. It has fabulous views over Trinity Bay. Trinity is on the other side of the bay. The cabin has colourful quilt accents so I feel almost at home!

    We're going out for a walk now - will post some more pictures later.

    Back from our walk. This is a very, very quiet village. If you want to get away fro the hustle and bustle of life, this is the place!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    The view from Gun HillWild blueberries - so sweet!A selfie with sea stacks in the backgroundThese kinds of stair helped with the climbsTangled undergrowthAnd if you go up, you must come down!Some of the passages were very narrow.1We're at the Atlantic Ocean!A kind lady from Germany took our photo.1Unique and ubiquitous outdoor garbage protector.

    Aug 17 - Hiking the Skerwink Trail

    17 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Our luck with the weather continued. It was another warm day. As the morning progressed, the light covering of clouds got burned off.

    Our activity for the morning was to hike the Skerwink Trail. This moderate to difficult loop coastal trail features sea stacks, whales (not today), icebergs (not today) and eagles as well as views of the communities of Port Rexton and Trinity. This trail was selected by Travel and Leisure Magazine as one of the top 35 walks in North America and Europe in its August 2003 World Best Awards issue. It's probably still on the list more than 20 years later. It is quite spectacular.

    Signage here is Newfoundland is minimal, and that’s being kind. We eventually found the parking lot for the trail head. Over the course of the next almost 3 hours, we walked on flat areas; we climbed up; we climbed down; we walked along boardwalks, and along narrow paths covered in exposed roots. It was a real workout. And it turned out to be more like a 7.5-mile trail, not the 3-mile trail in all the literature. Now some of that may have been due to a wrong turn or two. Signs were few and far between and didn’t indicate which direction we were going. Cell service out there is very thin, and GPS is non-existent. We got a little freaked out at one point, especially given that we had theatre tickets at 2:00 p.m. We prevailed, but we were two sweaty, tired hikers when we finally got back to the car.

    But for our efforts, we were rewarded with spectacular views of rock formations, sea stacks, rugged cliffs, Dry Cove Beach. Enjoy the pictures.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    St. Paul's Anglican ChurchThe Plight of the Washerwomen was our favourite scene.Jumping into the Atlantic to raise much-needed funds.My delicious dinner.Blueberry square for dessert. Delicious!

    Aug 17 - Rising Tide Theatre

    17 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    We spent the afternoon in Trinity. The harbour at Trinity was first used by fishing ships around the 16th century. The Portuguese explorer Gaspar Corte-Real named the location "Trinity" as he arrived on Trinity Sunday, 1501 although another account gives his arrival as 1500.

    Fishermen from the West Country of England began using Trinity as a summer station in the migratory fishery in the 1570s. Summer fishermen continued to be primarily from the Channel Islands, especially Jersey, and Weymouth in Dorset until a permanent settlement was established. Trinity was settled by merchants from Poole, England during the 18th century, citing reasons such as the easily defensible harbour and abundance of shore space for fishing premises. Trinity was the site that Sir Richard Whitbourne held the first court of Admiralty in 1615, establishing the first court of justice in North America.

    By the late 18th century, the merchant firms in Trinity were operating 35 ocean-going ships, exporting 100,000 quintals of dried cod and supplying about 6,000 inhabitants. One quintal equaled 100 lbs.

    The 2021 census put the population of Trinity at 76 living in 36 of its 76 total private dwellings. Tourism has become a major source of income.

    We attended the New Founde Lande Trinity Pageant put on by the Rising Tide Theatre. By the way, last night’s production of the Flying Doctor was brutal. It was adapted from a play story by Moliere. He is rolling over in his grave.

    The Pageant tells the story of Trinity from its beginnings in the early 1500s through to the late 1800s by doing vignettes in various settings around the town. We heard about the merchants and their usurious practices; the ravages of pirates; the plight of women, especially widows; the dreadful disaster of 1892 that claimed 24 men and boys; and the establishment of a district court of assizes in 1845. In word and song and with plenty of humour, it truly showed the deep fondness that Newfoundlanders have for their cherished past.

    It's Trinity Festival Weekend here. The big event for the day was bidding to have two town officials jump off a boat into the cold Atlantic. The funds raised will go towards a new firetruck – the old one was demolished in a terrible accident last year.

    Dinner tonight was at the Rising Tide Theatre – I had cod and Doug had roast beef. Each place setting had dessert already laid out (a delicious blueberry square which most of us devoured before the first course arrive) and a bun and butter pat sealed in a baggie. Might have to adopt that serving technique. Keeps the buns fresh!

    After the 120 of us ate, we were treated to the show “Shenanigans”, full of songs and skits showing us more about the Newfoundland people. We’ll always remember the parody of Shania Twain’s song, “Feel Like a Woman” done by the male cast members “Feel Like a Bay Man”. It was a most enjoyable night, and we were even home before dark, always a good thing in this land of no streetlights, few street signs, and lots of wildlife.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Evocative memorial of father holding his dead sonA typical root cellarA selfie featuring Cranes and Puffins!Our new friends, Maisie and Florence from Twillingate took our picture with John CabotNote the distinctive red and white vertical stripes of this lighthouse2We try to support the dairy industry each day.Fish Flake - for drying salted cod

    Aug 18 - Elliston & Cape Bonaventure

    18 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    Today’s aim was to go north on the Bonavista Peninsula. Our first stop was in Elliston at the memorial to the men lost in two major sealing disasters in 1914. We learned the details at the John C. Crosbie Sealers Interpretation Centre. Many of us remember John Crosbie as Minister of Finance, Minister of Fisheries and Oceans, Minister of Justice, and Minister of Transport and for his many politically incorrect comments, especially those directed to women. But his love for Newfoundland was immeasurable.

    In 1914, the sealing ship SS Newfoundland lost 77 men in a vicious blizzard. In that same blizzard, the SS Southern Cross vanished with 174 men aboard. Newfoundland lost 251 husbands, sons, fathers and brothers out of its population of just 250,000 in one storm.

    The sealing industry is a huge part of Newfoundland history. The seals appeared for one to two weeks in late December and January as the herds migrated southwards from the Arctic, and again in late February and early March as they swam northward to give birth on the drifting pack-ice. With the invention of a lamp in the late 1700s that used seal oil, demand for oil skyrocketed. The streets of London, England were lit with Newfoundland seal oil. As well, many fashions used seal skin pelts. Sealing continues today, but as a mere fraction of what it was in the 1800s, and under much tighter controls, both for the safety of the sealers and for the protection of the seal population.

    Then we went to see puffins. Thousands of them make their summer home on a huge sea stack (free-standing rock structure) just off the main shore. It was another spectacularly warm, clear day with just a light breeze – perfect for puffin watching. The views of the cliffs and the beaches and the ocean were just as enthralling as they have been each day that we have been in Newfoundland.

    Elliston is the Root Cellar Capital of the World, with 133 documented root cellars to preserve vegetables and perishables. There were several good examples near the puffin path.

    We headed north to Cape Bonaventure. When Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (or John Cabot as he is locally known) first set eyes on North America in 1497, his first words were “O buono vista!” When translated into English, this phrase means “Oh happy sight!”, which is certainly fitting for what would become the town of Bonavista, the historic site of Cabot's landing. The views are spectacular.

    We had lunch by the water and then found the grocery store to replenish our bread supply and then came back for a few hours of relaxation before heading back to Trinity tonight for another play.

    Our last evening in Trinity was lovely. We found the place buzzing with activity as it was the last day of Trinity Festival Days. These days pull together people from the 12 communities that make up Trinity Bight. A “bight” is a bend in a coast forming an open bay. The 12 communities are: English Harbour, Champney’s East, Champney’s Arm, Champney’s West, Trinity East, Port Rexton, Trinity, Goose Cove, Dunfield, Trouty, Old Bonaventure and new Bonaventure. Each community only has 40-50 residents.

    We got a pizza and ate while watching beach volleyball, horseshoes, and pickleball, and listening to live music. We entered a draw to raise funds for a new playground in Dunfield. The prize was a wheelbarrow full of booze plus a box of Tylenol. The wheelbarrow is included. Had we won, the organizer would have met up with us in Bobcaygeon next summer!

    Our last performance at Rising Tide Theatre was “Maiden Voyage”, a new Newfoundland musical, full of twists and turns and based on the traditional folk song Willie Taylor. It was all the same cast that we had seen on Friday night, Saturday afternoon and Saturday night. They were starting to feel like new friends! The show was well-done, funny, and uplifting.

    And to close the evening, there was a half-hour fireworks show after the theatre performance finished. We’ll remember our time in this part of Newfoundland with fondness.

    Off to Twillingate tomorrow.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Champney's West to Terra Nova National Park to Gander to Twillingate
    This is as close as Doug gets to be to the ocean!Morning over Newman SoundFlotsam on the beachJelly fish on the beachA few places had boardwalksSelfie on Parks Canada Red Chairs - our 5th ones!The view from the red chairsCompassion Monument in Gander1Fish and chips for Doug; chowder for me. Both delicious!

    Aug 19 - Off to Twillingate

    19 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 22 °C

    We were out of the door of our cute little cabin in Champney’s West at 9:00 a.m., well before the checkout time of 10:00 a.m. It’s a good thing we were moving on because the water stopped working. We had enough for morning ablutions, but not for doing the breakfast dishes. It was a little weird to look out the front window with water as far as the eye could see, yet to have none coming out of the tap. Makes you appreciate infrastructure. I left an apology note on the sink and messaged the unit owner.

    Today’s destination was Twillingate, with two stops along the way. First stop, after about 1.5 hours, much of it along the Trans Canada Highway (TCH) was Terra Nova National Park, Canada’s most easterly national park. We inquired about hiking trails – several of the options that would have suited us would have required us to backtrack along the TCH. That didn’t seem very eco-friendly, so we opted for the Coastal Path which is listed as 9.5 km/3.25 hours to its end and back. We were told there was a nice waterfall at about the halfway point of the outbound leg where we could get some nice pictures and then turn around. Off we went. Unlike the Skerwink Trail, this one was mainly covered with very gnarled tree roots and offered very few good views of the water. We plugged on, and when we heard from returning hikers that the falls would require another 20 minutes (we already had invested 35 minutes) and that the falls only had a minor trickle of water, we called the game and turned around. We put in 70 minutes of vigorous walking which should mitigate some of the ice cream consumption and support of local chocolate manufacturing companies that we have done. We gave Skerwink Trail an 8 out of 10, and Coastal Trail 5 out of 10. Both need way more signage.

    It was time for lunch, so we found the Parks Canda Red Chairs and took the requisite selfie. At the picnic table, a nosy bird landed to check us out. I put down the last of my sandwich to take out my phone for a closeup and the cheeky devil stole my sandwich! We packed up and hit the road, mainly because the skies were starting to darken.

    A very light rain started not 2 minutes after we left the park entrance building. We drove through gentle rain for about 40 minutes, and then it stopped. Perfect. Ernesto hasn't put in an appearance yet around here. Mind you, the moon last night was orangey, due to the smoke from the western Canada forest fires.

    Our next destination was Gander where we wanted to see the Compassion Monument. A piece of steel girder from the World Trade Centre is the heart of Gander's is displayed atop a 9,000 lb. chunk of granite. The monument commemorates the lives lost during 9/11 and the compassion of local people who assisted almost 7,000 unexpected passengers in Sept 2001.

    While we were looking at the monument, the Director of Tourism for Gander, Brian Williams, came out to talk to us. He designed the monument and gave us the back story. The Bethpage Fire Department in a suburb of New York, responded to the 9/11 crisis but lost 80% of their members in the aftermath. They were given a piece of steel from the World Trade Centre. They stored it for 10 years, and when they heard about the enormous success of “Come From Away”, they shipped the steel to Gander – no warning, no checking, no nothing – just a giant UPS package addressed to the Town of Gander. It’s one of the very few parts of the destroyed World Trade Centre that the US government has allowed to leave the country. Brian arranged to have it put on display in the lobby of the town hall which was fine for visitors Monday to Friday. Each Monday, the windows of the doors would be covered with fingerprints, nose prints and paw prints! So, Brian decided it needed to be outdoors. He chose a piece of granite with a hollow in it so people could sit and have their picture taken. The monument is simple and evocative – make the time to see it if you can. The unveiling took place on the 10th anniversary of 9/11 in the midst of the tail end of a hurricane. Of all the media outlets, only CTV managed to show up, making Brian a lifelong CTV watcher. Brian gave us Gander pins and thanked us for coming to visit. It was another lovely moment of travel serendipity.

    We were on the road again, finally this time to Twillingate. We are in a lovely suite with a kitchen, a nice big sitting room, a bathroom twice the size of the one we had in Champney’s West, and a fat, fluffy queen-sized bed. And, uncommon for Newfoundland, we have an air conditioner. But there is a big warning not to try to run it and the microwave or hair dryer at the same time! With have a fabulous view of the harbour - we'll walk down there tomorrow.

    Dinner at Georgie's was excellent - fish and chips for Doug and delicious fish chowder for me. Dessert was cheesecake for Doug swimming in chocolate and caramel, and three mini pies (blueberry, strawberry and partridge berry) for me. Going to have to put on some steps tomorrow!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Today's selfie features a lighthouse!Long Point Lighthouse - note its distinctive colour patternPot for cod fishingColourful buildings are everywhereLovely fountain the Stockley Pond near the hospitalA touch of colour on an overcast morning

    Aug 20 - Twillingate and area

    20 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 13 °C

    A bit about the town where we are.

    Twillingate is a town of 2,121 people located on the Twillingate Islands("Toulinquet" - meaning has been lost in the mists of time) in Notre Dame Bay, off the north eastern shore of the island of Newfoundland. The town is about 100 kilometres north of Gander.

    Incorporated on September 30, 1965, the town of Twillingate also incorporates smaller former localities such as Back Harbour, Bayview, Durrell, Gillard's Cove, Jenkins Cove, Manuel's Cove, and Wild Cove. The Twillingate Islands provide an excellent sheltered harbour and easy access to the rich fishing grounds nearby.

    Twillingate Island is connected to mainland Newfoundland via the Walter B. Elliott causeway. The town is also one of the oldest ports on the island. It was a historic fishing community, but due to the collapse of the cod fishing industry and subsequent federal moratorium on fishing northern cod announced July 2, 1992, its economy now relies more on tourism. There is some work in construction, logging, crab and lobster fishing, seal hunting, and health care. Twillingate has a 50-bed hospital (31 long term care beds, 19 acute care beds) affiliated with Memorial University Medical School in St. John’s.

    The French had been fishing in the area possibly as early as 1500, but the first European settlers did not arrive until the 17th century. The settlers were mostly made up of fishermen and their families from the West Country in England. The native Beothuk managed to survive until the early 19th century in small numbers near Twillingate and the mouth of the Exploits River.

    The region is known for its scenic, rugged coastline and its quiet and friendly atmosphere. Icebergs can be seen around the coastline in the summer months. Twillingate is part of Iceberg Alley which stretches from the coast of Labrador to the southeast coast of the island of Newfoundland. Icebergs can be found most commonly in late May and early June.

    Despite their size, icebergs move an average of 17 kilometers (about 10 miles) a day. These icebergs originate from the glaciers of western Greenland and may have an interior temperature of -15 to -20°C. Icebergs are usually confined to move close to the coast by winds and currents. On a foggy April night in 1912 it was one of these icebergs that sank the Titanic.

    Twillingate is also the home of North America’s largest population of humpback whales. This August has been unusually warm, so there have been no significant sightings of icebergs or whales.

    On August 15, 2020, NHL Commissioner, Gary Bettman, announced Twillingate as the Kraft Hockeyville Canada Champion. As the winner, the George Hawkins Arena received a quarter of a million dollars in upgrades.

    Long Point Lighthouse, built in 1876, is one of the most photographed landmarks on the Northeast Coast of Newfoundland, is located at Crow Head, Twillingate.

    More than 300 feet above sea level, this is a lookout point that offers a panoramic view of the Atlantic Ocean with the possibility of viewing icebergs, whales, seals and sea birds. Once operated by several full-time lighthouse keepers, it guided ships safely on foggy and stormy nights. Today, the lighthouse is still operational but is now operated by only one lighthouse keeper year-round.

    From its prominent location, Long Point has provided navigational aid to countless ships navigating the busy shipping and fishing route. During the second half of the 19th century, the Newfoundland colonial government, in cooperation with Britain and Canada, established inexpensive but effective light stations around its coastline.

    Long Point was established, not because it was crucial to overseas shipping, but for the welfare of countless fishermen and coastal traders engaged along the northeast coast.

    Long Point was the base for lifesaving and weather reporting services in the region. Fishermen, sealers and hunters relied heavily on the services pr0vided at Long Point and consequently held light-keepers in great esteem.

    Rainy weather finally caught up with us. The harbour was completely fogged in when we got up, but it cleared very quickly. It rained while we dawdled over breakfast and reading newspapers online. When the rain let up, we headed out to explore. We went to the lighthouse and drank in the views. No whales. No ice bergs. Just spectacular views of the rugged coastline.

    Then we drove to the hospital – strictly to see it, not to avail ourselves of its services. We just wanted to see it. There were some information boards extolling the contributions of Dr. Wilfred Grenfell. He was born in England and graduated medical school in 1888. The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen sent Grenfell to Newfoundland in 1892 to improve the plight of coastal inhabitants and fishermen. He recruited nurses and doctors and along with small cottage hospitals, he helped to set up schools, orphanages, cooperatives and social work agencies, thereby greatly improving the lives of thousands of Newfoundlanders.

    Beside the hospital is a lovely pond – it’s actually a small lake, but everything bigger than a mud puddle in Newfoundland is called a pond. There is a fountain in the middle of the pond. There is a 1.3 km walking trail (flat, no gnarled roots and no steps so we walked the whole thing) around the pond, with memorial plaques on all the lamp posts, benches, flower boxes, planters, and gazebos honouring loved ones. It is beautifully done and meticulously maintained.

    We have tickets for a dinner theatre tonight – we had to pay for the tickets after noon. We had a bit of time to use up, so we drove along the coastline for a while. We saw colourful houses are perched on every cliff, each with a huge stack of firewood. We found a red bench (not a Parks Canada one) and sat for a while to simply enjoy the view and the soft lapping of the waves.

    We got gas for the long trip tomorrow and then went to the theatre to pay for our tickets and then we headed back to home base. We are going to treat ourselves to an afternoon inside. Doug is working on a basketball exam that he has to have ready to send out to the members of the referees’ association shortly after we get home. I’m going to hunker down with some more episodes of The Crown on Netflix.

    Our dinner theatre evening was very enjoyable. We were seated with Theresa and Perry who live near Barrie. The dinner portions were huge and delicious. They both had cod; I had salmon; Doug had stuffed chicken. The evening's entertainment featured songs from Newfoundland, skits, jokes and just plain fun. A fine way to end off our stay in Twillingate. Tomorrow, we are off to Rocky Harbour which is located very near to Gros Morne National Park.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    1Twillingate to Grand Forks - Windsor to Deer Lake to Rocky Harbour
    Lovely pond at Corduroy Brook Nature CentreSelfie on a soggy morning!Looking for birds!Even the bird houses are colourful!Gros Morne mountain - the star of the park!Rocky Harbour at almost low tideSunny selfie for today!Colourful rental cabinsDoug's new favourite beer - smooth and delicious - made in Quidi Vidi

    Aug 21 - Rocky Harbour

    21 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    It’s a cool, rainy day, but we weren’t fussed because we would be in the car most of the day. Destination for today – Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland.

    We hit the road about 9:00 a.m. After about 2 hours, we stopped in Grand Forks – Windsor at a Tim’s for a pit stop and some morning munchies. There was a Sobeys nearby, so we stocked up on lunch provisions. We found a lovely conservation area, Corduroy Brook Nature Centre, and had lunch. The rain let up for a bit, so we took the opportunity to do a 30-minute walk along one of the many nature trails. The trails were flat and well-maintained and had lots of information boards about the many animals, birds, plants, flowers and trees in the area. In the main building, there was a wonderful wildlife display and great washrooms (you appreciate these on a road trip!). If you are ever in the GF-W area, drop into this nature centre - it's well worth it.

    After 2 more hours of rain, we were in Deer Lake. This is where we will be flying out of on Tuesday of next week, and where we left the Trans-Canada Highway which bends off to the southwest to Port Aux Basques from here. We headed north and west to Rocky Harbour. The rain stopped and the sun came out as we entered Gros Morne Park. We’ll be exploring it tomorrow.

    We are in a lovely cabin that is brand spanking new, spacious, well-stocked, has in-suite laundry, and is located just across the street from the body of water known as Rocky Harbour, hence the name of this town. The cabin is just like its on-line listing on AirBnB.

    We walked down to the general store and got bread that we forgot to get at Sobeys in GF-W. Doug got a Gros Morne t-shirt.

    We had dinner at a nice little restaurant across from the general store, called Earle's. Doug had another good feed of cod fish and chips, and I tucked into another big bowl of fish chowder. Both were great. We walked to the end of the pier to watch the sun waning in the west, and then headed home. It's been a long, but very rewarding day. Let's hope this nice sunny weather continues tomorrow.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Long, windy route from Rocky Harbour to Woody Point
    Lobster Bay LighthouseAn overcast day at Lobster CoveThis kind bird led us up the steep path!Tiny flowering shrubs cling to the rocky groundThe water was COLD!Little stream in the TablelandsTablelands selfie!Can't get enough of this scenery!Red Parks Canada Chairs - our 6th selfie!Gros Morne in the distance

    Aug 22 - Exploring the Tablelands

    22 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Our aim for today was to walk/hike in Gros Morne National Park. It was a cool, overcast morning, so we dressed in layers and packed extra clothes.

    Before heading south to the park, we headed a bit north to Lobster Cove Lighthouse. It was a blustery, cool time up there, so we took in the view and skedaddled.

    Gros Morne is a Canadian national park and World Heritage Site. At 697 sq mi, it is the second largest national park in Atlantic Canada after Torngat Mountains National Park in Labrador which has an area of 3,700 sq mi. Banff National Park, by comparison, is 2,564 sq mi.

    The park takes its name from Newfoundland's second-highest mountain peak 2,644 ft located within the park. Its French meaning is "large mountain standing alone," or more literally "great sombre." Gros Morne is a member of the Long Range Mountains, an outlying range of the Appalachian Mountains, stretching the length of the island's west coast. It is the eroded remnants of a mountain range formed 1.2 billion years ago. In 1987, the park was awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because "The park provides a rare example of the process of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth's mantle lie exposed."

    The Gros Morne National Park Reserve was established in 1973 and was made a national park on October 1, 2005. In 1987, the park was designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site for both its geological history and its exceptional scenery. The geology of the park in particular illustrates the concept of plate tectonics and has shed important light on geological evolution and its processes.

    The majority of Gros Morne is trees and rocks and water. The Tablelands section of the park (our destination for the day), on the other hand, looks more like a barren desert than traditional Newfoundland. The Tablelands are found between the towns of Trout River and Woody Point south west of Gros Morne National Park.

    The Tablelands are a unique geological formation that are unlike anything else in the world. The red and orange rock formations that make up the Tablelands were once part of the Earth's mantle, deep beneath the planet's crust. They were forced to the surface millions of years ago, creating a barren landscape that is unlike anything else in Gros Morne National Park. The Tablelands are also home to a number of rare and endangered plant species, making it a truly unique ecosystem.

    More that 400 million years of those towering mountains eroding were needed to reveal what we see today: a surreal barren, orange landscape -- the Earth's inner soul: the mantle - exposed the way few have seen it.

    We stopped at the first Visitors’ Centre to get our day passes and to confirm that the trail in the Tablelands was about 4 km in total, and it was. There was a sign at the centre for a hiking trail to a scenic lookout that was 350 meters. To get the blood flowing, we headed out. That 350 meters was probably measured as the crow flies and the sign conveniently forgot to mention the steep climb involved. We persevered and were rewarded with great views of the East Arm (like a bay).

    We bypassed the Gros Morne trail - 16 km - mostly uphill on scrabbly ground. Saw lots of cars at the entrance to the trail. Have at it.....

    It took in total over an hour of twisting, turning, and going up and down to get from Rocky Harbour to Woody Point where the western Visitors’ Centre is located. The start of the Tablelands trail was just another ~5 minutes. Doug had had enough of that kind of driving for the day. There is a ferry that goes from near Rocky Harbour to Woody Point, but it only carries passengers, so we knew we would have to retrace our route at the end of the day.

    The Tablelands did not disappoint. The mountains are reddish-orange, and the only vegetation is scrubby bushes with occasional tiny flowers poking up. The Tablelands are, as we expected, totally, different from the green, heavily forested landscape of the park and the province. There are very small brooks and waterfalls which must be torrents during the spring run off. We hiked to a small waterfall, took a break, and headed back. The skies had cleared and the temperature had risen – it was perfect weather and conditions for exploring Gros Morne.

    We found a picnic table near another set of Parks Canada red chairs – our 6th set – and had lunch while enjoying our last view of the Tablelands.

    In 2011, Gros Morne National Park came up with the idea to place sets of Adirondack chairs in lesser-known, stunning locations around the park, inviting visitors to enjoy and share on social media. Today, the iconic red chairs can be found in over 100 locations administered by Parks Canada. Have you found any in your travels? We found our first two years ago in Sault St Marie.

    Parks Canada has placed over 200 red Adirondack chairs in peaceful and scenic locations throughout many of the country’s most unique and treasured places, including the 16 sets found here at Gros Morne National Park.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik

    Aug 22 - More hiking in Gros Morne

    22 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    Second footprint for today - a busy day!!

    On the way home, we made two stops. The first was at Southeast Brook Falls – it was about a 15-minute hike into the falls – well worth the light sweat that we worked up. The falls were the tallest, strongest ones that we had seen so far in Newfoundland.

    The second stop was at the Mattie Mitchell Commemorative Site. Mattie was an indigenous man, and a hunter, trapper, prospector and guide. His assistance in mapping the shoreline and the waterways of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland was invaluable and led to the first map of the area being created in 1904. His discovery of ore deposits in Buchans in central Newfoundland greatly contributed to the development of the mining industry of the island. This short loop trail with interesting information stations was just 250 metres and led to a pretty brook.

    We supported the local ice cream industry on our way home to reward ourselves for doing four hikes in Gros Morne. Our park pass is good until noon tomorrow.

    We picked up some easy dinners at the general store and are quite happy to put our feet up and do laundry tonight. I have a boat tour of the bay booked for tomorrow afternoon. It looks as if it’s going to be a soggy day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    A misty morning at Berry Head PondGreat accessible boardwalks and lookout points along the trailBerries that give the pond its nameGreen Point Art GalleryA soggy selfie for today!Even out here, the houses are colourful!Fabulous hand-knitted goods are available everywhere.

    Aug 23 - Berry Head Pond and Green Point

    23 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 20 °C

    It’s a cool, overcast morning and with rain in the forecast, we hustled a little more than most mornings to get out of the cabin. Besides, we just had until noon on our park pass.

    We headed a bit north past Lobster Cove Lighthouse and found the entrance to Berry Hill Pond. It has a nice 2 km loop route. There was an ethereal look to the pond with patches of fog and a heavy mist in the air. Much of the route is via a boardwalk which makes it accessible for those with mobility challenges. We covered the route despite the misty rain, and enjoyed the view and the exercise. We've got a long drive tomorrow. We give this trail a solid 9 out of 10. It's even got an accessible privy at the parking lot.

    We continued north to Green Point to see a beautiful and intriguing sequence of layered rocks. Almost 500 million years ago, these rocks formed on the bottom of an ancient ocean. Here geologists discovered fossils that define the boundary between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods and makes Green Point a world geological benchmark. As I mentioned yesterday, the geology of Gros Morne Park illustrates the concept of plate tectonics, one of the most important ideas in modern science. The view from Green Point is actually the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

    The rain had set in, so we headed back to home base in Rocky Harbour. I have a boat cruise out of Norris Point this afternoon. Doug is banned from boats. He loves the water, but the water does not love him back. He will read a book or find people to talk to in order to pass the time.

    When we arrived on Wednesday, I tried to get tickets to the Anchors Aweigh show at the Ocean View Hotel just down the street from our cabin. They were sold out for both Wednesday and Friday nights. (The show runs also on Mondays.) But they have an electronic wait list which I think is brilliant. At 8:00 a.m. today, a notification came through that tickets had become available. I snapped up two for tonight. More music, songs, skits, and slightly off-colour jokes are on tap for the evening!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Rock that used to lie horizontally on the ocean floorThe Niagara Falls of Bonne BayBald eagle in the centre of the photoRock that used to be horizontal on the ocean floorTablelands in the distanceModern-day lobster traps1Billy's going to list this on AirBnB next year!Harbour of Woody PointWayne's sister said a big HELLO!A few of the houses that survived the disastrous fire of 1922.Woody Point Lighthouse with solar panel not working so light isn't workingWoody PointThe sun breaking through the clouds over Bonne BayWayne and Matthew gave us a short concert

    Aug 23 - Boat Tour of Bonne Bay

    23 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 19 °C

    I’ve lost track of how many times it has started to rain and then stopped today. Never mind. The sun is out now, and it is most enjoyable.

    I went out on a 2-hour cruise of Bonne Bay aboard the catamaran, the EMM-CAT, of the Bon Tours fleet. Wayne was our commentator. He introduced our captain, Billy, “Give him a hand, folks – first day sober!” and Matthew was the first hand. Bonne Bay has pristine waters, breath-taking scenery, and geological wonders. The rock formations that jut up out of the water used to lie horizontally on the bottom of the ocean and were pushed upwards by the effects of tectonic plate shifting. Wayne grew up in Woody Point and gave us a running commentary about how life has changed on Bonne Bay. Small communities accessible only by water no longer dot the coastline, and the prosperous mink farms are no longer in operation. Billy took over for a while and told us about the fishing industry in the area. This has been the best lobster season ever – no major storms to ruin the traps and decent fishing weather every day. We saw bald eagles. and lots of terns who are bulking up for their trip to the Antarctic that will be starting soon.

    It rained off and on and off and on, but it didn’t dampen the experience. The scenery was stunning, and the information was fascinating. Wayne and Matthew treated us to a short concert as we were coming back into port. Wayne will be performing in the show that we are seeing tonight. Small world around here!

    Update on the Anchors Aweigh show. We went to the venue and reserved our seats - front row centre! Then we had dinner at Fisherman's Wharf Restaurant across the road. Great food. Friendly service. Just as we finishing, the power went out all over the town. Doug ALWAYS has cash so we were able to pay our bill while the staff scrambled to set up a generator. We walked along the waterfront and enjoyed the lovely sunset and watched people skipping stones into the water. At the theatre venue, we waited and waited, as there was still no power. At half an hour past start time, the show spokesman announced that the show was cancelled. They use mostly electric instruments these days, so they couldn't cobble a show together. We back to home base, read e-books in the dark and went to bed early. I guess we'll have to come back to Rocky Habour some day to catch the show!

    Off to St. Anthony on Saturday.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Route from Rocky Harbour to St. Anthony
    Parks Canada red chairs at the site of the wreck of the SS EthieWhale or wave???Colourful conveniences at Cow Head hiking trailAmphitheatre for theatrical productionsView from atop Big Hill in Cow HeadAnother sunny selfie!Great walking path at Cow HeadWe walked to the Lookout near the lighthouseArches Provincial ParkBeach at Arches Provincial ParkFox Point LighthouseBeautiful rug hooking piece in the hotel lobbyMore lovely rug hooking2Iceberg sighting - in the stairwell!1

    Aug 24 - Heading north to St. Anthony

    24 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 18 °C

    The mission for today was to drive to St. Anthony on the tip of the Northern Peninsula. We had time to use up before our 4:00 p.m. check in, so we made a few stops along the way.

    The first stop was at the site of the wreck of the SS Ethie. On December 11, 1919, in a violent storm, the Captain intentionally ran the Ethie aground at Martin's Point. The passengers and crew were rescued, with the help of locals that witnessed the grounding, by means of a boson's chair and a rope. A baby was sent ashore in a mail bag. Reporting of the story at the time was sensationalized and included accounts of a heroic dog. All 92 people aboard were rescued with the help of locals and were put up in local homes. We didn’t see any pieces of the wreckage, but we did find two more Parks Canada red chairs – they were wet, so I took a photo of the chairs without us in them showing the glorious view.

    As we drove along the coast, we think we saw whales. Maybe they were waves, but we’re going to stick to the whale story.

    Next stop was in Cow Head. We found a walking trail that led up to a lookout point that gave a glorious look at the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We’ve had incredibly good luck with weather – it rained during breakfast and then cleared up in time for exercise time.

    We continued north, sometimes in rain, through several changes of topography and vegetation. We saw mountains, blue water beaches, streams, marshes, rocky deserts, plains, scrubby bushland, and trees on a tilt because of the constant strong winds. All along, little villages were perched by the water. We continue to marvel at the resilience of the Newfoundland people and their ability to carve out a life far from urban centres and things that we consider necessities.

    Next stop was Arches Provincial Park that showcases fabulous arched rock formations. There used to be four arches; only three remain and these will eventually be lost to erosion.

    We made one last stop, and this one was on the recommendation of my sister, Mary Ann, who visited here several years ago. We stopped at the Nurse Myra Bennett Heritage House in Daniel’s Harbour. It’s a bit difficult to find (it’s beside the post office) but really worth the effort. This is the house Myra lived in with her family. Two young men gave us a great tour of the interior of the house.

    Myra M. Bennett, CM, MBE (April 1, 1890 – April 26, 1990) born London, England, died Daniel's Harbour, Newfoundland, Canada was a celebrated Canadian nurse. Dubbed The Florence Nightingale of Newfoundland by the Evening Telegram, in tribute to her contribution to the people of the Great Northern Peninsula, she was also known simply as The Nurse.

    Bennett (née Grimsley) worked as a tailor in London before training as a nurse at Woolwich during the first World War. She later studied midwifery at Clapham School of Midwifery. She came to Newfoundland as a district nurse under the outport nursing scheme. Her plan was to travel to Saskatchewan but was approached by Lady Harris (wife of Sir Alexander Harris) and was made aware of the dire need for nurses in Newfoundland. She agreed and changed her plans to go to Daniel's Harbour in May 1921, at the age of 31. She stayed in Daniel's Harbour and started a family.

    Myra quickly gained experience caring for the sick on the west coast of Newfoundland. In these areas of Newfoundland (like Parsons Pond) there were no hospitals or doctors available. She delivered over 750 babies during her career. Myra often made news headlines, often referred to as "Nurse Bennett of the Outports". She was known for being especially passionate and resourceful in the rural areas in which she worked. There are stories recorded that show the great distances Bennett would travel to get to her patients. When the need for hospitals was clear to Bennett, she transformed her house into a hospital with the help and support of her three children and husband.
    Her work in Newfoundland encouraged the construction of new hospitals in Bonne Bay, Port Saunders and St. Anthony's.

    Bennett's life as a nurse in outport Newfoundland was written in an article by Reader's Digest and a book entitled Don't Have Your Baby in the Dory by H. Gordon Green. She was awarded the Order of Canada in 1974 and lived to be 100 years old. A life truly well-lived.

    Having used up enough time, we headed to St. Anthony, taking in the stunning scenery along the coast before the highway curved off to the east. We are now in Viking country. More about that in the next footprint.

    We had dinner at the Lightkeeper’s Café out on the end of the point – lovely view, alas no whales! We had our favourites - fish and chips for Doug and chowder for me.

    We have a lovely one-bedroom suite at the Grenfell Properties. Our balcony overlooks the water. We have a great little kitchen, a big sitting room and a huge bedroom. Breakfast is included with our stay - didn't realize that when I made the booking. Hope the coffee is good!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    Sunny Sunday Selfie!The view from the Visitors' Centre over the L'Anse aux Meadows siteA beautiful butterfly greeted us on our walk!Sculpture is named "Meeting of Two Worlds"Great boardwalks lead the way across the fens.Peat and sod houses built to withstand the winter temperaturesEntrance to sod house. Note the dragon carvings over the door.Loom for making fabricForge where iron making would occurOutline of a former building, this one a workshopWhere an outbuilding used to standYes, the water is cold!Very poor soil only lichens and moss surviveGreat view from this set of red chairs (our 8th set)!1

    Aug 25 - L'Anse aux Meadows

    25 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 18 °C

    I am a sucker for UNESCO World Heritage sites. Each is of some kind of major significance, so I felt it was worth the drive up the west coast of the province to get to this one.

    L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site, located at the tip of the Great Northern Peninsula of the island of Newfoundland, is the remains of an 11th-century Viking settlement. With carbon dating estimates between 990 – 1050 CE (mean date 1014) and tree-ring dating of 1021, L'Anse aux Meadows is the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact of Europeans with the Americas outside of Greenland.

    L’Anse aux Meadows (“Meadow Cove”) Canadian National Historic Site (named in 1968) and UNESCO World Heritage Site (named in 1978) contains the excavated remains of a complete 11th-century Viking settlement. This archaeological site consists of eight timber-framed turf structures built in the same style as those found in Norse Greenland and Iceland from the same period. The buildings include three dwellings, one forge and four workshops, on a narrow terrace overlooking a peat bog and small brook near the shore of Epaves Bay in the Strait of Belle Isle.

    Artifacts found at the site show evidence of activities including iron production and woodworking, likely used for ship repair, as well as indications that those who used the camp voyaged further south. The remnants correspond with the stories told in the Vinland Sagas, which document the voyages of Leif Erikson and other Norse explorers who ventured westward across the Atlantic Ocean from Iceland and Greenland to find and explore new territory, a significant achievement in the history of human migration and discovery. This site represents the farthest known extent of European exploration and settlement of the New World before the voyages of Christopher Columbus almost 500 years later.

    Before the Norse arrived in Newfoundland, there is evidence of occupations by five Indigenous groups at the site of L'Anse aux Meadows, the oldest dated to roughly 6,000 years ago.

    The site is located about 40 minutes north of St. Anthony. It was another beautiful clear day. We have been so fortunate with weather over the past two weeks, so we were able to enjoy the wonderful vistas yet again, both on the drive there and at the site. There actually isn’t a lot to see on the site, but the history is fascinating. When early man began to migrate from Africa, some groups went east, and some groups went west. When the Norse landed in Newfoundland and met the Indigenous peoples, it represented the first-time human migration out of Africa had completed circumnavigation of the globe.

    The Norse (Vikings were Norse who were at battle with enemies) came from Greenland in search of timber and iron ore, elements in very short supply in Greenland. They found both in Newfoundland.

    Why did the Norse choose this particular location? It was the mid-point between Greenland and the riches to the south – what is mainly Nova Scotia and New Brunswick now. Although it is not a sheltered harbour, the landmarks of Belle Island and two smaller islands made it easy to find. They built sod houses to withstand winter weather and to be able to have large storerooms. By staying over the winter, the Norse were able to gather lumber and repair their boats and return home the next summer.

    The other attraction besides timber was bog iron. This steel industry girl was fascinated by this part of the history of L'Anse aux Meadows. The surrounding bogs and fens were rich in minerals, though not necessarily the ones needed to support strong plant growth, hence the scrubby vegetation. Decomposing plants released acids that, as they were carried by water, leached iron and other minerals from soil and bedrock. The iron-rich water would come into contact with air and produce iron oxide (aka rust). The iron oxide would cement sand and peat particles into nodules, producing a layer of bog iron. This is the ore that the Norse would use to produce boat rivets that were crucial for their sturdy vessels. They built little blast furnaces to product small batches of iron for these rivets. Their little blast furnaces bear a striking similarity in shape and process to the blast furnaces of today.

    L’Anse aux Meadows is well worth visiting and has a lovely (albeit narrow and a bit rough) walking trail that we covered. The views were breath-taking. We found the red chairs!     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik

    Aug 25 - The Grenfell Experience

    25 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☀️ 20 °C

    We spent the afternoon at the Grenfell Experience. I mentioned Dr. Wilfred Grenfell in a post from Twillingate. Dr. Grenfell was born in England and graduated medical school in 1888.

    Fishermen's Mission (since 2014), officially The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen(RNMDSF), is a British charitable organisation founded in 1881 to help those working in the UK's fishing industry. The charity, which is run on Christian principles, supports and welcomes persons of all faiths and none. It was founded at the end of the 19th century (1881) to provide assistance and support to the impoverished fishing communities around the coasts of Britain.

    The Royal National Mission to Deep Sea Fishermen sent Grenfell, who had worked for them after his graduation in 1888, to Newfoundland in 1892 to improve the plight of coastal inhabitants and fishermen. That mission began in earnest in 1892 when he recruited two nurses and two doctors for hospitals at Indian Harbour, Labrador and later opened cottage hospitals along the coast of Labrador. The mission expanded greatly from its initial mandate of simply health care to one of developing schools, an orphanage, cooperatives, industrial work projects, and social work. All of these helped to alleviate the tremendous burden of abject poverty felt by most of the people in the area. He fought long and hard against the use of liquor because he saw the damage that it did to health and to family finances. Although founded to serve the local area, the mission developed to include the aboriginal peoples and settlers along the coasts of Labrador and the eastern side of the Great Northern Peninsula of western Newfoundland.

    In 1908, Grenfell was on his way with his dogs to a Newfoundland village for a medical emergency when he got caught in "slob", from which he managed to get onto an ice-pan with the dogs. He was forced to sacrifice some of his dogs to make a warm, fur coat for himself. After drifting for several days without food or fresh water, he was rescued by some villagers in the area. Because of this experience he buried the dogs and put up a plaque saying, "Who gave their lives for me."

    He married Anne Elizabeth Caldwell MacClanahan (died 1938) of Chicago, Illinois, in 1909. They had three children and retired to Vermont after his work in Newfoundland. They were married in 1909 and came to live in the Grenfell House (which they designed together) in St. Anthony, Newfoundland. Anee was well-connected and had wealth. Anne gave Dr. Grenfell's life comfort and refinement. She became totally involved in his work. She organized his fundraising tours and lectures for his International Grenfell Association, edited his 17 books and helped secure scholarships for the children of the area to continue their education.

    Grenfell died of a coronary thrombosis at Kinloch House in Charlotte, Vermont on 9 October 1940. His ashes were brought to St Anthony, where they were placed inside a rock face overlooking the harbour.

    His was a life of service. He was knighted in 1927 and inducted into the Canadian Medical Hall of Fame in 1997. The following statement has been widely ascribed to him but cannot be found in any of his books: "The service we render to others is really the rent we pay for our room on this earth. It is obvious that man is himself a traveler; that the purpose of this world is not 'to have and to hold' but 'to give and serve.' There can be no other meaning."

    We stopped into the lobby of the hospital that is right across the street from our hotel - again, just to look, not to avail ourselves of their services. The main rotunda is lined with striking ceramic murals created by Jordi Bonet in 1967. They show scenes from northern life and pay homage to Dr. Grenfell. An inscription panel reads: "Dedicated to the present and future generations of the people of the Coast by friends of the Grenfell Mission." Another panel thanks Dr. Charles S. Curtis (after whom the hospital is named) for his 48 years of service to the well-being of the people of Northern Newfoundland and Labrador.

    Dinner was provided by Chez Foodland – we bought salads and fresh fruit and ate on the balcony overlooking the harbour on this glorious, sunny, warm day.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    St Anthony to Conche to Port au Choix to Deer Lake
    Vegetable gardens along the highwayHarbour at ConcheThat's the Atlantic Ocean way out past the point!View from the summit at ConcheSunny selfie over ConcheThe view at the top is worth the climb!Wood ready to be bucked upPiles of firewood are common alongside every roadOld-style lobster trapsNew and improved lobster trapsPoint Riche lighthouse built 1892Beach at Point Riche - part of Port au Choix National Historic SiteThe view from the 9th set of Parks Canada Red Chairs that we have foundRed Chair Selfie on a a windy day!!Privy on the point!

    Aug 26 - Heading to Deer Lake

    26 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 23 °C

    The aim for today was to get to Deer Lake intact. We fly out of there on Tuesday afternoon. It was another spectacular day – warm and sunny – so it was a nice day for driving.

    First stop was in Conche, a little place located almost two hours’ drive south of St. Anthony. Had the weather been nasty, we would have headed straight to Deer Lake.

    In the 18th century, Conche was an important fishing base for both French and English fleets. In 1707, English warships trapped the French fleet, sinking two French ships in Martinique Bay. These underwater shipwrecks are now a designated Provincial Site of Historic Significance.

    During the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815), few French came to Conche, leaving the harbour open to settlers from further south in Newfoundland. These Irish and English Newfoundlanders formed the basis of today’s community.

    Our destination in Conche was the French Shore Interpretation Centre which is housed in a former Grenfell nursing station. The French Shore Interpretation Centre highlights authentic French sites scattered throughout the French Shore communities of Conche, Croque and Grandois/St. Julien's.

    The French Shore Tapestry is a 66 meter (216 ft) long embroidered tour de force of storytelling inspired by the famous 11th century Bayeux Tapestry. In 2015 during a trip to France, Doug and I saw the Bayeux Tapestry – an absolutely sensational piece of work. I walked the length of it twice to try to fully appreciate the incredibly detailed stitching. It shows the Norman conquest of England in 1066, led by William the Conqueror. England is still mad at the French for overrunning their country over 1000 years ago. I was intrigued to see what a Newfoundland version would look like.

    Created in France and northern Newfoundland, the memorable linen and wool mural tells the history of that region’s French Shore, from the pre-historic animals that roamed the forests and shoreline to the moment in 2006 when a few talented women in the tiny outport of Conche began their embroidering odyssey. As the viewer moves along the tapestry, a parade of historic and colourful characters bring alive the events and legends that make French Shore history unique

    The year 2004 marked the 500th anniversary of the French presence on the Canadian island of Newfoundland. In the early 1500s, French fishermen ventured across the North Atlantic in pursuit of the large stocks of cod that inhabited the seas around the island and, in particular, the coastal waters of northern Newfoundland that came to be known as the French Shore.
    As part of the anniversary, in the small Newfoundland outport of Conche, the French Shore Interpretation Centre opened its doors with an exhibit that told the story of the French migratory cod fishermen and the English-speaking settlers that came after them.

    The anniversary celebration included an invitation to Jean Claude Roy, a well-known artist, to be the first artist-in-residence at the newly renovated Casey House in Conche. Originally from France, Jean Claude lives part of the year in France and part in Newfoundland. Accompanying Jean Claude was his Newfoundland-born wife Christina, who has a long-standing interest in the art and craft of embroidery. She and Jean Claude had been working on the idea of a project to produce an embroidered mural that would depict the history of Newfoundland in the style and dimensions of the famous 11th century Bayeux Tapestry in France. That unique work of art is not technically a tapestry but an embroidered story on linen.

    Embroidery is one of the traditional crafts found in rural Newfoundland. Women often decorated bed linens, parkas and tablecloths with embroidered designs. When Christina and Jean Claude proposed the idea to Joan Simmonds and Colleen McLean, two experienced embroiderers living in Conche, they responded with enthusiasm and suggested focusing on the history of Newfoundland’s historic French Shore. From that meeting a partnership was born.

    After 24 months of work, over 20,000 hours of the artist and artisans’ time, the French Shore Tapestry, so named in honour of its illustrious predecessor, was finished.

    The tapestry is incredible in its details, its vibrant colours, its symbolism, and its stitchery. The women had to practise so that all their stitches looked the same. And they do – so even and uniform and precisely done. Only the stitchers know who did each section. We spoke to one of the stitchers – Kelly – who worked on it for three years. She said the ladies laughed a lot while they worked!!! I don’t doubt it. The scissors and favourite needle of each stitcher is part of the display.

    Conche is a bit off the beaten track, but in good weather, it is well worth visiting to see this fabulous work of art.

    No photography is allowed in the exhibit area, so look up their website to see some of the panels: http://www.frenchshoretapestry.com/en/intro.asp

    On the way into Conche, we noticed a set of stairs leading up to a lookout, so we stopped there on the way back. What a glorious view of the harbour and beyond from up there! It was worth the climb.

    Then we headed towards Deer Lake. We stopped to take pictures of a couple of iconic sights we’ve seen in Newfoundland. The first is little fenced vegetable gardens on the side of the road. People plant where they can find a patch of arable soil in this rugged, treed province. The other thing you see is great piles of stacked firewood. Most people heat with wood, so each household builds its stack for the season, and nobody touches anybody else’s stack even if it's out in the middle of nowhere with no indication as to who owns the wood. The other thing we saw is a stack of old-style lobster traps sitting beside a stack of new-style lobster traps. The new ones are stackable and made of plastic so they are easier to store and don’t deteriorate quickly like the old wooden ones. They certainly aren't as folksy as the old ones.

    We were making good time and needed to stop for lunch, so I chose Port au Choix, a National Historic Site. It’s about 20 minutes off the highway, but well worth the time investment.

    This site is significant because it is the crossroads of 6000 years of human history. The sea’s bounty, especially of seals, drew Maritime Archaic people, the Dorset people, the Groswater people and the recent indigenous people here long before Europeans arrived.

    There is a display area with information about the area and its significance, but we just wanted to sit and eat – no more walking or hiking or learning about history or geology or fossils for us on this trip - so the nice lady at the Visitors’ Centre waived the daily fee and pointed us towards the Point Riche lighthouse (built in 1892) for a scenic setting. And, oh, what a setting! We ate by the lighthouse and then we found another set of red chairs (our 9th I think) down by the water. We could have drunk in the glorious view on this sunny day for hours from those chairs, but it was time to saddle up again.

    In another three hours were safely in the Holiday Inn Express in Deer Lake. (My former hairdresser used to say, “You can never go wrong with a Holiday Inn!”) Our drive took us back through Gros Morne National Park. Incredible views!

    We’ve got a nice big room with a king-sized bed and a sitting room. The pillows are the bed are labelled "Soft" and "Firm" via embroidery on the pillow cases. Great touch! We dined Chez Foodland again tonight (salads and fruit).

    I’ll do a recap of the trip in tomorrow’s footprint.     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik
    1Unplanned Corner Brook selfie!
    The local swimming hole.I think these are partridge berries.Salmon ladder to bypass dam

    Aug 27 - Side Trip to Corner Brook

    27 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    It’s been a great trip, but it’s time to go home. We are not the youngsters that we used to be, and 17 days is enough. Can’t believe we did a full six weeks in Australia in 2016!

    We can highly recommend this the Holiday Inn Express in Deer Lake. It’s clean and bright and very clean. It’s got a selection of DVDs in the lobby for lending, with both children’s and adult titles. It’s got a huge pool with a slide which we didn’t not explore but it seemed to be a hit with all the kids in the hotel. The breakfast buffet that is included has both hot and cold items and provides little shopping bags for taking items on the road. Taking food away from the breakfast area is highly discouraged at a lot of hotels that we have been at. The hotel has guest laundry.

    The hotel is located less than 10 minutes from the airport and checkout is at 11:00 a.m., so it’s ideal for us with our 12:55 p.m. flight.

    Our Air Canada flight has been delayed by two hours. I hustled down to Reception and asked for a late checkout which the kind lady gave us. We can leave as late as 2:00 p.m. Not sure if our membership in IHG (the chain of hotels of which Holiday Inn is a member) helped, but we got what we needed. If the flight goes as planned, we’ll be out by 1:00 p.m.

    Well, that didn’t happen. The flight got delayed until 4:30 p.m. We didn’t feel like sitting in a hotel room on a nice day for hours and hours, so we packed up quickly, checked out and went to Corner Brook. It’s about a 40-minute drive south along the Trans Canada Highway. It’s a pretty drive with Deer Lake (the body of water) along one side and then soaring mountains flanking both sides of the road. Felt as if we had driven to the Rockies!

    We found the Margaret Bowater Park in Corner Brook. It’s a lovely setting with Corner Brook (the body of water) flowing through it into a pond where ducks and swans were swimming. We did one of the walking trails (thought we were done with walking, but no….) and then had lunch in the warm sunshine. We still had time to use up, so we did another trail that looped all the way around the pond. It’s an easy, well-maintained trail if you’re ever in Corner Brook. Then we headed to the airport. Time to head home.

    We each got a $15 food voucher to use any time within the next year as compensation for the late flight. There is not much to choose from in the departures zone of the Deer Lake airport. My cholesterol and blood sugar levels both took a hit.

    We got home safe and sound about 7:30 p.m. after a fairly smooth flight. It's a lot warmer here than in Newfoundland. These temperatures would make the province grind to a halt.

    We flew into St. John’s and are flying out of Deer Lake because Doug does not do well on boats, so neither the ferry from North Sydney, N.S. into Port aux Basques at the southwest tip of the island (7-hour trip) or into Argentia about 1.5 hours southwest of St. John’s (16-hour trip) was out of the question. We absorbed a fee for picking up the car in one location and dropping it in another, but we felt it was worth it rather than driving across the province again (6-7 hours drive).     Czytaj więcej

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  • Maureen's Travels2024 NewfoundlandPodróżnik

    Aug 27 - And off home.....

    27 sierpnia 2024, Kanada ⋅ ☁️ 24 °C

    Trip recap and some observations…..

    In 17 days/16 nights, we stayed in 6 places:

    St. John’s for 5 nights; Trinity for 3 nights; Twillingate for 2 nights; Rocky Harbour for 3 nights; St. Anthony for 2 nights; Deer Lake for one night. It’s always tough to estimate how long to allocate in each spot. These timings worked out very well for us, given the activities and sights that I found during my research that I felt would be interesting.

    A big thank you goes out to our friend, Gary Benson, a native Newfoundlander, who helped me to finalize the route and timings.

    We didn’t go to Fogo Island (boat ride required). The musical “Come for Away” is a huge draw to Gander, but we saw the show in Toronto several years ago. Tickets sell out in Gander months ahead, so if you’re interested in coming to Newfoundland and want to see the show, book early.

    We stayed in 3 AirBnBs, and 3 inns (each room had a little sitting room and kitchenette as well as a bathroom and bedroom). Our favourite setting was the AirBnB in Champney’s West overlooking the harbour. Our favourite AirBnB was the one in Rocky Harbour – big and airy and modern and well-equipped. It had laundry, night lights and a flashlight. The latter turned out to be very handy during the blackout.

    We drove about 3,000 kms in 3 different rental cars (ditched one due to a wheel bearing that was going and the other due to bad brakes). Switching cars only cost us about 1.5 hours in total. Doug’s keen ear and knowledge of cars probably saved us hours and hours of aggravation. Gas here is about 20-23 cents per litre higher than in Ontario. HST is 15% and hotels then add a 3% tourism tax. Food prices are a bit higher than at home, but not outrageous. It’s nice traveling in Canada and not having to worry about currency conversion!

    Great swaths of Newfoundland have very weak cell phone service and there are lots of long stretches of road with no service at all. Navigating can be a bit challenging, so we ran two phones in tandem and supplemented with a paper map to get to where we wanted to go. Yes, we did have to make “tourist uees” to get back on track a few times. Signage, in general, we found to be adequate, but not great. There would be one sign to tell you of an attraction, and then no additional signs to guide you in off the main road. Trails, especially, were poorly signed.

    Newfoundland has a reputation for its potholed roads, so we were a little leery about our chances of returning our rental car in good shape. To our great pleasure, we found most of the roads to be very good, with very few real potholes. (We did see and heed the several “Potholes Ahead” signs that we saw.) The only really challenging roads were the ones into and out of Trinity and Champney’s West. They were just plain awful, and really nasty to drive at night.

    We saw and did everything on my list. Seeing a whale and an iceberg and caribou would have been bonuses. Too bad we missed the Anchors Aweigh show in Rocky Harbour, but the 3.5-hour power blackout scuttled a lot of people’s hopes that night!

    Neither of us got sick or injured which is great. We’ve had a couple of really low moments while traveling that we didn’t want to repeat. I was especially careful about not tripping after breaking my wrist in an innocent stumble on some stairs last May in Africa. “Hold the handrail!” has become my new mantra.

    In the past 2.5 weeks, we have learned so much about Newfoundland – its proud history, politics, economics, military accomplishments, geography, geology, plants, flowers, animals, culture, music, food and colourful architecture. We just barely scratched the surface on each one. We’ll remember the glorious views – the beaches, ponds/lakes, streams, waterfalls, rugged mountains, plains, forests, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. We’ll remember the lively plays and the musical shows that we saw and a night of fireworks in Trinity. We’ll remember the hikes and walks that we did, both for exercise and for communing with nature. Each day brought new sights and sounds and fun experiences.

    But most of all, we’ll remember the people. Newfoundlanders are prouder of their province than any other province in Canada. They are funny, helpful, genuine, resilient, hard-working and so thrilled that people have made the effort to come to their island. We’ll never forget Maisie and Flo took our picture at the John Cabot statue then talked and talked and talked; Marilyn who told Doug he looked like her Uncle Jack after staring at him like he was a stud muffin; Melissa who told us that if our third rental car broke down then we must be just plain cursed; Brian Williams who explained the 9-11 memorial in Gander; and the two young men who guided us through Myra Bennett’s house in Daniel’s Harbour. They are all now part of our treasure trove of special travel memories.

    I hope that you have enjoyed being along for the ride as we explored Newfoundland. It’s been a pleasure trying to give you a flavour of this dynamic, enchanting, scenic island. Words and photos can only do so much. You’ll just have to come and see for yourself!

    Thank you for all your wonderful comments. I read all of them and got some good chuckles!

    So, until the next trip, I'm signing off.     Czytaj więcej

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    27 sierpnia 2024
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