Cape Spears

Just 20 minutes south of St. John's is Cape Spears, Canada's most easterly point. There has been a lighthouse at Cape Spears since 1830. Around the lighthouse was built a large square house for the keeper. The technology for the light for the historic lighthouse had changed over the years but everything else had remained the same. A new lighthouse had been built in 1967. The last lighthouse keepers left in 1996. During the war batteries manned by Canadian and US troops had been built to protect St. John's from attack.

We took a Parks Canada tour which took us along the tops of cliffs first at the point and then up to the new and then the old lighthouse. It was a sunny clear day affording us some spectacular views of the ocean.We toured the old WW2 batteries. At the most easterly part of Cape Spears where we stopped for a photo, I asked one of the Parks Canada staff when they had last seen a whale from the park. The brochure we had picked up at the parks Canada office had said that sometimes one could see whales from the Cape however I was somewhat skeptical of this claim. The interpreter nonchalantly told us that Hump backed whales and their calves and Minsk whales had been seen all morning off the Cape. They had just arrived from the Caribbean where the calves had been born. No sooner had she said that than a Hump backed whale breeched off shore. It was quite surprising to see. There was significant whale activity off the coast. We finished the tour and had our lunch at the height of the cliffs and watched all sorts of whale activity. The mother whales were teaching their calves to breech, show their fins and wag their tails in the air. The interpreters thought this was an activity that the calves needed to learn to allow fishing. We watched one mother and her calf wagging their tails above water for a few minutes. I caught a short video of this. Astonishing. Cheryl talked to a local photographer who was out for the day as a regular and she thought that there were 25 Humpbacks with calves off the coast. Eventually we tired of the whales.

We headed back to St. John to visit the small fishing village of quidi vidi. It was essentially a suburb of St John's but afforded a nice picture of the harbor. We tried to visit the Quidi vidi brewery for a snack but it was full. Cheryl wanted to check out the university and health sciences centre. It was very large and modern. We were starting to flag by then. We stopped at a Running Room store which was close to our condo to buy me a sweatshirt which I had forgotten. We hit a local coffee shop the Rocket before heading back to our Condo. The hump back whales were the hit of the day.

All in all I have been quite impressed with St John's. Cheryl remembers the wood houses flaking off paint and looking a little run down. I realized that the majority of the houses were now clad in vinyl or Hardiboard siding so the flaking paint look was all gone. The government buildings looked all very modern. Lots of newly built houses. Roads in good shape. People looked good. No more obesity than Edmonton. Perhaps more elderly. Far less homeless than Edmonton. All the transfer payments that we Albertans are making to the other provinces seem to be going a long way to improving the lot of people here in St. John's. I did notice paying the 15% sales tax while in Alberta we only pay 5.

Off to Bona Vista tomorrow and the Puffins.Read more