North Sydney to Louisburg…The Long Night…Short Visit!

Wednesday, July 31
Those of you that follow the blog will note that the last blog was nearly double in length. That was because I had all night to write. The ferry ride from Argentia to North Sydney lasted 16 hours. It was a long night sleeping in those movie theatre chairs!
This morning, we hit the beach and drove down to Sydney. It was Wednesday and another Berlin Water Works Board meeting was in order. I found a nice place to park down by the bay. We could see a rather large cruise ship from Rotterdam.

MASSDAM Cruise Liner in Sydney

It was a perfect location to run the generator and have a phone conference meeting. Helen took advantage and did some shopping and she also made a few telephone calls to friends and family. The meeting ended around 1:15 pm and we packed up and headed for Louisburg and a visit of the old French Fort. This Fort is fully restored and fully staffed with period workers and soldiers. It definitely reminded me of old Williamsburg in Virginia, back in the states. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there until 4 pm and they were closing at 5 pm. We did get to go to the site and visit a little and watch the re-enactors fire the twenty four pound cannon.
I asked a policeman if there was a good place to park for the night. There are at least four RV campgrounds in Louisburg. I didn’t want to pay the high cost of just parking on their grounds. He didn’t exactly tell us where, but suggested we visit across the bay over by the light house.

The Oldest Lighthouse in Canada
viewed from our stay for the night!

There is a beautiful overlook and its pretty quiet and secluded. Guess where we are parked tonight. The view from across the bay of the old fort is shining as I write these last few lines.
Our plan for tonight is to walk around here and reflect on our epic tour of the Canadian Maritime Provinces. It as been an adventure that will be remembered for some time to come.
That is what we did and saw!  

Newfoundland to Nova Scotia…The Ferry

Wednesday, July 31
The decision was made not to travel all the way back through the entire Newfoundland Island. We would take the ferry back from Argenia to North Sydney. I figured that if we subtracted the gas cost from the ferry cost, it would be cost effective. The ferry would take 16 hours. Leaving at 5 pm and arriving around 9 am (Atlantic Time). They didn’t have any cabins left when we did the booking, but the move theatre was warm, dark and fairly quiet. The chairs reclined and were extra wide with arm rest.
With the Atlantic Ferry only leaving a 5 pm we had plenty of time to explore the local area. A Canadian Park sign caught our eye as we passed Placentia. It read “Castle Hill Historical Site.” I turned the truck up the hill and headed to the top of the mountain. Another truck camper was parked there along with a few cars. It was a paid admission, but only $3.40 apiece. The attendant said, “Hello, bonjour.” I answered in French, “Bonjour.” He than proceeded to say, “Parley vous francais? I replied, “yes.” He than said there is a French tour just getting ready to leave. We left with them. The tour guide was a sparky older lady named Rachelle. She gave a four star rated tour. She was also very opinionated. She was very pro French and very anti British. 

No messing around with this young lady!

The explanation of why Placentia was so important in the colonial times was thoroughly explained. The Cod fishing here actually feed a good portion of Europe. The French and English fought back and forth. There were several forts built in this area. One of reasons that the Placentia region was so good for the cod fishing was its stone beach. The fishermen would dry their cod on the rocks. She went on to explain that there were three kinds of way to preserve the fish. On was at sea where they would clean and salt the cod. The second method was called the dry method. The cod would be sent ashore cleaned and laid on the beach. The third method involved a mother ship that would bring in to the shore and the salt would be removed and finished drying on the beach.
As a foot note on the rocks; I being a connoisseur of fine looking rocks, just happen to collect a few specimens. These rocks have a maroon color with white rings embedded into them.

Rachelle... telling it like it is!

Rachelle then took us out to visit the fort and pointed to all of it’s functions and buildings. The cannons were marked with interesting royal markings indicating either French or English. The tour ended and she still continued with her oration. This not being part of the tour. She said that the Americans came here during World War II and forced the village people to move away s they could build an airfield to defend in case of invasion from Germany.
The villagers were given $200.00 and told to move away overnight. They founded a new town called “Dunville” a few miles away. She had no idea that we from the States. Helen did tell her, but she didn’t change her opinion. Most likely she was very right about us Americans moving in.
That is what we did and saw!  

St Johns… The Sheltered Harbor

Monday July 29
I knew St John was the largest city in Newfoundland, but I didn’t expect it to be so difficult to navigate. Most eastern cities on the east coast have no sense of having their streets located North and East and West. No, they all started with the port as their centers. Streets would go in every direction from the hub, very similar to a wagon wheel. Once you run streets in this fashion and begin to add streets in a block fashion, the game is lost and so are you.

St Johns Harbour

We finally made to Cape Spear Lighthouse for a geocache. This cache would be the most eastern geocache in North America.I picked up a geo-coin and will move it along. The wind up there was blowing at 50 miles per hour. It was dangerous to be venturing close to the cliffs. We didn’t want to even camp there fearing the camper would be rocking. We would head back to town and find a campground. Pippy campground nearly in the center of town is located in a forested area. It was naturally pricey, but with excellent WiFi, we stayed the night.
Sun was shining this morning, but the temperature at first was only 52 degree. A must see in St. Johns is “Signal Hill”. This is were Giovanni Marconi received the first Trans Atlantic radio waves. Signal Hill, a mountain that overlooks the city harbour and in the opposite direction the ocean. St Johns was a very important place during several wars. This included 1812 war, World War I and World War II. The United States had 500 troops here guarding against German invasion. The reason St Johns is so important is its location in relation to the distance to Europe and most importantly its harbour. If you closed your hand and imagined your palm as the harbour with just a small channel between your index finger and thumb as the entry channel, you could see how protected it is from North Atlantic storms. Now the biggest ship to enter the harbour was 700 plus feet long and 30 feet wide (an oil tanker).
Today; the harbour is filled with several different types of ships, but mostly working ships that maintain the oil rigs off shore. None of these oil drilling rigs visible from shore. Signal Hill is a very popular jogging place. It is uphill all the way for a couple of miles…good for them! There is a tall stone building on the top with placards depicting Marconi’s accomplishments. We spent a couple of hours enjoying everything it had to offer.
On dissenting the mountain, the downtown was next for our attack on the city. Water Street and Duckworth Street were the ones with all of the “tourist” shops. I am glad that we did stop and shop because of our conversation with this wonderful, shop owner, lady. She had her shop filled with a lot of birding stuff. She said, “ you should visit ‘Cape St. Mary’s” Ecological Reserve,” it is on your way to Argentia to catch the ferry. 
Soon we said farewell to St Johns and headed for the down Avalon Peninsula. This ride would take four to five hours of driving, stopping here and there to explore the different coves and small communities. At the bottom of the peninsula, there are two spur roads that lead to the ocean. The first is to the town of Lance (the name of our truck/camper manufacturer). We had to do this one to get that “Lance” logo to match with the camper. This small town of maybe two dozens houses, at the cove, with its citizens going about their daily lives. A couple of young ladies were jogging the long narrow road to town. Four middle aged guys were having a beer around a four wheeler, they all waved at us as we drove by. They were probably wondering why we would come all the way down this isolated road. I was wondering why anyone would want to live all the way down this isolated road. The answer to both questions is because “we want to”!
The next road spur was to Cape Mary’s Ecological Reserve. I said to myself, “It better be worth it.” At the end of the road, the always present information center was open and a very pleasant park ranger greeted us and explained the rules. The first thing he said was that we were very lucky because Cape Mary  is usually in the fog. The next thing he said is beware of the guide stakes along the path. There are hundred foot drop-offs very close by. We started out the back door to the marked trail. A young couple walked towards us. Smiling ear to ear, he said, “you won’t be disappointed, in just a hundred feet you will get the tease”. Sure enough there about a mile away was a rocky cliff hundreds of feet high peppered with white dots. At least, they looked like white dots.
Another older couple said, “ you won’t need a telephoto lens. You’ll be able to get within 50 feet or so.” The trail now made a long sweep around the drop off. The trail was also mowed very short, probably from the heavy foot traffic. The rest of the meadow was filled with tall grass and wild flowers (purple Iris and little yellow butter cups).
A flock of sheep also were grazing close by. We had to be careful on the trail from stepping in the sheep droppings. It was a moderately paced walk, as we were a little anxious to see what the birds were going to look like close up. The 300 feet of the trail descended gradually to the point of land. It wasn’t a difficult descend, but one had to watch your step as many ankle breakers were present. Also, I could see a orange tackle box (actually a first aid kit) halfway down. This made us even a little more cautious of getting injured.
Now, here we are about a hundred feet away from the cliff edge and from a dead silence to an audible roar of thousands of birds squawking away. We see three other humans at the cliff’s edge photographing intensely. We approached cautiously as the drop-offs are on each side. I am taking pictures with my normal lens, but  I want to switch to the telephoto 300mm. I want to see in their eyes… ever so cautiously getting closer to the edge. It is so high! I can’t even see the water below! I don’t even feel comfortable standing anymore. I must sit to regain my focus on the birds. There are so many birds… some with what I’d call a high wing similar to a C

130 military aircraft. Others are flying like fighter planes in a aerial dog fight. It’s ironic, that I am comparing man made things to mother nature’s. We, man that is, have copied their moves to learn to fly.
The lady to my left, sitting also, is studying the birds directly in front of us. She switches lens on her Nikon to something that is two and a half feet long. She does have a tripod of heavy construction planted firmly between the rocky crevasses. I started to talk to her husband sitting directly to my right rear. Helen, in the mean time, is standing 10 feet behind me taking pictures of the birds and of me working my camera. This activity lasting for a half hour before we retreated to safer ground. This is by far the most intense encounter with the animal world I’ve ever had!
The walk back to the camper was very slow as we contemplated exactly what we just experienced. The last shot that I needed from there was a photo of the working light house with the light flashing directly toward us. Finally, after three shots…mission accomplished! Back at the Visitor Center, which was now closed, we met a women who was alone and looking outward towards the nesting bird area. “Did you go?” I said. “No” she replied. I said “ you must go” and proceeded to show her a few of my photos. “Is it a hard walk”? “No” I replied. She walked over to her husband around on the Visitor Center board walk. She was trying to convince him to go. He said he was a smoker. I said “Take your time. Stop often and have a cigarette,” He laughed and they were getting her camera out of the car as we left.
Back, when we arrived… the Park Ranger had told us that we couldn’t park here over night, but if we just drove a few hundred feet, we would be off park land. We drove about a half hour before we settled on a comfy little spot overlooking the bay. I grabbed a few sunset pictures before going to bed.
That is what we saw did!

St Pierre and Miquelon…The Morning Sun! Part III

Friday, July 26

Our room overlooked the Main Street and the bay. Early this morning, I pulled the curtains to view what I could see. Voila…the sun was shining and little to no fog present. Wow! There… was a large portion of St Pierre that I hadn’t even seen yesterday because of the fog. The restaurant was open down stairs and we got breakfast out of the way. After the croissant along with a fresh baguette, juice and coffee our day would be filled with walking many streets to see what the neighborhoods were doing. People were doing everything you would expect in a small town… clothes being hung on the line,

Me with a Gendarme...You can't see the handcuffs!

maintenance crews watering  the many flowering planters and so on. Some were going to work on their bicycles. All of this happening, as I am trying to capture that unique shot with my Nikon camera.

St Pierre’s Cathedral was in front of us and I tried the door and it appeared to be locked. We stopped a nun and asked if the church would be opened later. She said, “it should be open now.” She tried the door and it opened. The problem for me was that I was pulling outward and the door opened inward. This is a bad “faux pas” back in the good old USA. (Code violation…all public buildings must have doors that swing out in case of fire). The old church had vibrant stain glass depictions. The house colors in town were very bright in every rainbow color…some times on the same house.

Later in the morning, we joined Catherine and Leon and walked over to the Canadian Consulate to check it out. Not much action there, but they did have a healthy vegetable garden.

Picture taken before the one with Gendarme!
Leon, me and the wine!

Catherine gave us some chewable seasick pills for the ride back. This time we skipped lunch. Our departure for 1:30 pm was only an hour away and everybody picked up their luggage stored at the Hotel Robert. They had us checkout for 10 am in order to clean the rooms and setup for the next group of tourist.

Leon and I had a great time chatting about our military careers and also discussing the French way of life. I didn’t mention this before… I don’t think, but everything thing shuts down from 12 noon to 2 pm.

Oh yes, one last thing that was on my mission list… if you remember, was for me to get a picture with a gendarme. Not only did I get a picture, but on a different occasion Helen did also.

We went through customs with nothing more to declare than two baguette breads. On boarding the ship, we noticed that the crew was not standing at the front of the passenger area. The trip back to Newfoundland was as smooth as glass.

We invited Catherine and Leon to visit us back in Berlin, if they are ever that way. I know Leon will be reading this blog and I must say, I truly enjoyed talking to him. I enjoyed his accent especially how he would hold his last word of a sentence.  If you ever heard Forest Gump say…and that’s all I have to say about thattttttttt. We parted ways in the parking lot. We headed up the road and parked off the highway for the night!

That is what we did and saw!

    

St Pierre & Miquelon ~ Surreal…Part II

Thursday, July 25
Part I …Leaves us at the Hotel Robert with a room. Needless to say, after the roller coaster ride on the ferry, the only thing on my mind was the “bed”… no, not for sex either! 

Typical Street in St Pierre

Amazingly after a short 30 min nap, I was completely back to normal! Our mission here at St Pierre was three-fold. First, on the list, was to find a geocache. There was only one cache in St Pierre an another on I’le-aux-Marin's. With the two caches loaded in the GPS, we headed for the coordinates about 1-1/2 miles out of town. We would accomplish two things here. Visit the town in that direction and get the cache.
It was still foggy, but one could see a quarter of a mile and get a feel of the layout of the town. Our “carte” (map) also helped in locating areas of interest. Now on the way to the cache coordinates, we came upon the Island cemetery.

Very Ancient Cemetery...But No Relatives!

An alternate mission here was to see if we could find the family name of St Amant on any of the head stones. Our friend back in Berlin, NH ancestors origins were from this area. We did not find any St Amants here, but with hundreds of stones to look at, we certainly could have missed it. Soon we were out of town in the countryside. As we approached the coordinates, we knew that we were getting close by the cache hints and description. We were in a mossy wooded area just off the roadside. We searched and could actually see foot prints in the lovely green moss of previous geocachers looking for this cache. A half hour of looking did not reveal its hiding place. The last time it was found was in August of last year, most likely by a tourist during the tourist season. The cache was placed in 2004 and could have easily been degraded. We will list this as a DNF (Did Not Find)
The walk back into town was pleasant as we took our time and walked different streets to get a feel on the landscape. The fog wasn’t too bad, but it wasn’t a perfect day for pictures either. The temperature was balmy. We had long sleeves and had brought a wind breaker. We stopped at the hotel to strip down a layer of clothes and continue to survey the little French town. You knew you were in a Territory of France …narrow streets, little Citrons and Peugeot autos.
Later in the evening, we linked up with Catherine and Leon for a splendid dinner at “Saveurs des I’les” restaurant. Leon and I spent hours talking about the Canadian and US Army. The Field Artillery comparisons were amazing! Apparently Helen and Catherine found something to talk about also as they didn’t  bother listening to the “Colonel” and “Chief of Smoke” going over the military missions. It was a great evening! We left the restaurant and walked the streets which were now filled with people. The night life is a part of the day that brings the locals to the restaurants and bars. Can you just picture the lightly lit foggy streets with music and laughter coming through the open bar doors? Is this Paris? And with this I bid you a farewell for tonight.
That is what we did and saw!

St Pierre~Miquelon…The Trip…Part I

Thursday, July 25
Our stop last night was at Fisherman’s Cove about 20 miles from Fortune (the ferry departure port). It was a quiet Provincial Campground with not too many campers present. As usual, in the morning, I had a big breakfast to carry me over the Islands. In no time we were packed up and tooling down the road to Fortune. The ticket office was just opening up and three young ticket agents were helpful in getting us all squared away with parking arraignments, passport info and boarding time. The ship pulled in around 8 am and passengers disembarked. The crew cleaned everything before letting us board. Now, the crew spoke French, but not the type of French we are use to. We could understand them, but had to listen carefully. Their English was even worse! The twin hull ship was about 100 feet long and in good looking shape. We pulled out of the harbour on time, but it was drizzling and very foggy. Three of the crew were standing at the head of the passenger compartment looking at us sort of strangely. Like they were waiting for something to happen. Here it comes!

Notice the lower part of my face...Green/Gray!

The ship started to jump the waves ahead of us. At first, I taught this was kind of fun. More wet towels going out… I mean a couple of dozen people not looking so good back there. We were sitting in the front row seats along with our new friends Catherine Gagnon and her husband Leon Jensen. Now the wet towels are going out with the little white bags. The twin hull ship is now coming down very hard on the approaching waves. Bang, bang as the hull hits more waves. The ferry is not rolling too much side to side, but just going for and aft abruptly. The Captain does slow it down a notch or two. I’m getting hot myself, I ask for a towel. Helen is doing ok two seats over with Catherine to my left and Leon to my right. Oh, oh… I need a bag! Remember the big breakfast this morning…not such a good idea! I didn’t use the bag, but it was close. Catherine was a little green herself. Leon… well, he just kept telling war stories…more about that later. The crew member said when we reach I’sle Verte (Green Island) the ocean will be calmer. Fifteen minutes later, we pulled into St Pierre. Of course, it was pea soup fog and we didn’t see much at first. Going through Customs was easy and our passports got the official cancellation of France.
I had tried to email a reservation at a B and B, but  had not received a confirmation. We followed or new friends to the Hotel Robert and were lucky to get a room.
Before our departure, when I was gone to park the camper back in Fortune at a remote parking lot, Helen began a conversation with Catherine. Her husband was close to retirement from the Canadian Reserve Forces. “Oh boy”, Helen said, “your husband and my husband are going to get along fine”.
Leon is a Colonel and he comes from a Field Artillery background. The same military background as I. Needless to say, we spent the next 24 hours talking military and how many places our military duty has crossed paths and places. I will talk about St Pierre and Miquelon in the next blog.
That is what we did and saw.

Bonavista…Huffing and Puffin!

Saturday, July 27
It would be a relatively short 85 mile jaunt, up the road, to the Bonavista area this morning. The attraction there would be to see nesting Puffin birds. Their beaks with orange, whites and black and white bodies make them so loveable to humans and especially kids.

The Puffins at Home!

Before going to Bonavista, we were told to make it to Elliston, a short distance off of our route. Here we would  see Puffins and possibly see Minkie whales, that is if the creel fish were running. The road was paved, but extremely heaved. It was a good thing that the distance was only about five miles. I was averaging 20 miles per hour with the camper rolling side to side. The little town of Elliston had a welcoming sign which read “Welcome  to the World’s Largest Root Cellar Community”. The root cellars were all over the place. Our stop at a charming information center got us on the right road to watch the Puffins. I must say that the locals here have a pronounced accent. (Most likely from Scottish descendants).
At the point of land was the sign, “Puffin Viewing This Way”. The walk took us across a meadow and than narrowed between a drop-off on either side to the ocean. This path repeated a couple more times with the cliffs getting higher and the drop offs closer to the path. 

Loving the Views!

Finally we came to the end of the path and the Puffins (across from us on a separate island) were in view. A little girl (with her parents) looked unhappy. Her mother said her daughter wanted to pet the Puffins. I switched to my long lens and spent the next half hour shooting pictures of the Puffins and of the equally beautiful landscape.
Our friends, Catherine and Leon, had been here before and told us to drive-up the road as they did and were able to view the Puffins up and close. That’s what we did, but the seagulls were there feeding on fish remains that the fishermen had just cleaned. The Puffins were off at a distance.
This part of Newfoundland is in my opinion more geologically impressive than the rest. The rocky cliffs are fractured making for very interesting design patterns. I did take a lot of photos and will experiment with black and white renditions on our return home.
The root cellars, as I said above, were all over the coastal landscape and at the information center the lady said that any root cellar that had an open door was open to the public. I did poke my head into one. The interior had two wooden bins that were empty. That’s the way the garden vegies would keep before refrigerators and electricity came along.
Time to move on to Bonavista! The community is larger than most. It has a fish processing plant and appears to employ a good portion of the townspeople. The docks had several of the larger fishing trawlers moored.
It was mild and the sun poked through the clouds. We couldn’t resist going to the lighthouse first and see the view. In the parking lot, was another Lance truck camper. I could see out on the rocky peninsular a couple  were also looking towards our Lance camper. We walked towards them and I said, “I drove all the way up here to see if I could find another Lance camper”. It’s a small world. The owners, Joe Harvey and his wife Marcia, were from Ohio. I asked Joe if he was related to Paul or Doug Harvey, “no” he said. They are planning a trip to Alaska for next year and we conversed on that subject for a while. Now you have to picture this…we are talking next

to a high cliff overlooking the ocean below. In the corner of my eye, I spot two men coming over the cliff on the opposite side of a little cove. I feel they are in a very dangerous place. Plenty of loose rocks under foot and such. They are walking around like two Dahl sheep. I grabbed my camera and expected to catch a disaster of them falling. Nothing happened and they finally came our way and we spoke to them. They weren’t young guys either. One of them told me that he was Indian and his origins were from an Island 60 miles from here. I guess that explains their agility around the cliffs.

I spotted a few more Puffins and took the shots. Unfortunately, the weather was changing and the wind was erratic. Those pictures came out blurred. A strong thunder shower approached with  lightning bolts shooting to the ground. It was time to evacuate the high ground. A few miles back to town for more exploration.

A Catholic church, sitting on a hill caught our attention. A stop indicated that a mass was scheduled for 9 am on Sunday. That would fall into our plans to stay here for the night. Our day was still not done as far as exploration. Just before Cape Bonavista lighthouse is the Dungeon Provincial Park. The seascapes here are calendar perfect! Although there isn’t official camping here, many campers park their rigs along the coast line and set up camp. We stayed there for a while, but because of the wind, we went back to town for the night. Dungeon Provincial Park is named after the two caves that originated inland a couple of hundred feet from the ocean. The boxed canyon has two tunnels that have ocean water coming in forming the “Dungeons”.

The most important landmark in these parts is the fact that John Cabot landed here in 1492 and found “Newfoundland.” I could only imagine what he was thinking when he spotted this marvelous landscape!

That is what we did and saw!

Twillingate ~ There She Blows!

Tuesday, July 23
There she blows doesn’t refer to a whale, but an “Iceberg”. It was a short drive from Notre Dame Provincial Park to Twillingate. The town is very picturesque. Nearly every house has a setting of either a rock cliff or ocean for a background. Every little boat is tied next to a pile of lobster traps. I spent the afternoon and part of this evening shooting pictures. I can just, in my mind, see these pictures framed. 

The First Iceberg Sighting!

The town of Crow Head has a lighthouse high on a large outcrop of ledge. It is here that we spotted a very large iceberg floating off shore. I did get a picture, but it was bright and hazy and I hope to get better pictures later on the trip to adventure. The locals tell me it is an excellent year for viewing these giants.
This part of Newfoundland is dotted with so many little towns with unusual names…Toogood Arm, Main Tickle, Tilt Cove  and of course Dildo Run Provincial Park! Nope, I’m not kidding. Another usual saying (to us) “Skink Grub” meaning “Very Good, Delicious” was a term used in the R and J restaurant.
The weather today met our best expectations. In reality, the weather for the whole trip has been very good. Tomorrow rain showers are coming. If it is raining in the morning, we will do a driving day down to the south. If it doesn’t look too bad, we will head more to the east and follow the coastal drive route. It is a good thing that we are not on a ridged time schedule

Every Little Building is a Picture!

. There are so places to visit and so many people to talk to. Today’s encounter was with this couple from Nova Scotia. They were sitting in the R and J restaurant across from our table. I could not help starring at their table. There on the same table were two nice digital cameras. One a Nikon… the other a Cannon. Now to most people this wouldn’t matter, but it is like a Chevy and a Ford lover. It is unusual! I had to ask. So began a conversation. Heidi Muller was the Cannon owner, she is of German decent, a photographer and also an artist. We exchanged business cards and we will checkout her web page when we get a chance.


It takes balance and no fear of heights!

At the lighthouse, we took up a conversation with several local Newfoundlanders and got more tips on places to visit especially in the Bonavista area. The one thing that Helen and I can agree on is how friendly the people around here can be. Tonight we are staying in a church parking lot along with a dozen other RV’ers. The church here as a tradition of allowing RV’s to stay around the church as long as we don’t stay on the pavement and prevent church members from attending services. This church (United Methodist) has on top of the steeple a hand clenched with the index finger pointing to the heavens. A man and his daughter were taking a lot of pictures of this. He came over to us and started to tell us that he was from Burlington, VT and his grandfather had help build the original church with four steeples. Each steeple had this hand carved hand that his grandfather had made. The new church (hand) was modeled after his grandfathers’ original. Just another story in our day of adventure.
That is what we did and saw! 
  

The Move ~ Western to Central Region!

Monday, July 22

Aspen Brook was our 1st cache in Newfoundland,
Aspen is our grand-daughter's name...Good Omen!

Early this morning the sun rose to the east and we had a different view of “The Arches”. Last night was the best of the two views. This marks the end of our travels to the northwest of Newfoundland. Next we move to the north central region. Eventually we will go to the south and finally to the St Johns area for the most easterly portion of the Island. “Ah”, yes George, if your reading this blog, we intend on trying to go to St Pierre and Little Miquelon Island. For those of you who don’t know…these two islands are a territory of France. We do have our passports for entry. What we are trying to do is find a couple of geocaches on the islands in order to claim another country souvenir. I am also looking to get my picture taken with a “Gendarme” hopefully…not in custody, but as a tourist.


Viking Trail...On the road again!

The day was spent traveling over to the central region. We stopped to look at a 1919 shipwreck along the coast. The SS Ethie was her name. She ran aground during a storm. The 92 people on board made it to shore. This included one baby who they put into a mail bag while the rescue was taking place. All that remains of the ship are the metal parts. It was a sailing ship, but also had an engine.
This land is full of nearly unbelievable stories of disasters and rescues. I have to recount one that I heard from the Sharecroppers Trio the other evening. It goes like this…back in the early days of this land came a missionary priest. He saw that the people were in need of health care badly. He returned to Scotland and studied to become a doctor. Returning to Newfoundland he was instrumental in building hospitals, a hospital ship that went from port to port taking care of the fisherman. He was very well noted in these parts.
On a winter day he was to travel across the frozen bay to tend to a sick person on the other side. His dog sled team started across and as luck would have it, the wind shifted and the ice broke up. He was able to get on to a sheet of ice along with three of his dogs. The dogs got too close to him and the sheet of ice flipped over. He and his dogs swam to another sheet. By now it was getting dark and he was soaked. He said a prayer for his three dogs before had to kill them to survive. He skinned them and made a covering for himself. He survived the night. In the morning he de-boned the dogs and tied their legs end for end to make a staff (using sinew). He waved a flag for five hours until finally being spotted and rescued. I recount this story because it sounds nearly unbelievable, but I’m told it’s a true story. The people in this land had it very rough.
This afternoon we pulled into Notre Dame Provincial Park near Norris Arm. All Provincial Parks here charge $9.75 with the senior discount. The park has over ninety sites. Laundromat and shower room included. It is good to take a break and rest. Tomorrow we will visit Twillingate (to the north) as they are having a fishing festival all week.
That is what we did and saw!

Woody Point to Arches Provincial Park ~ The Hike!

Sunday July 21
Last night the moon was shining as we fell asleep. Later it was a different story. Lightning, thunder and heavy rain rolled in across Bonne Bay. The camper was parked into the wind and no rocking occurred. In the morning the storm had passed and it was overcast, but still fairly warm with a mild wind. 

Lucy Kendall and Helen at Lucy's home

In yesterday blog I mentioned meeting this wonderful lady from New Hampshire. She had invited us over for coffee around 9 am. Our visit with her was like visiting an old friend. She knew people who we knew back home. She made delicious quiche and biscuits. Yummy! We hope she stops in and visit us when she is in our neck of the woods.

When we left her house or journey took us all the way around Bonne Bay. When we passed her location on the other side I stopped and with a telephoto lens was able to photograph her house. I don’t know how many miles across it was across, but I’m thinking that maybe 5 to 10 miles.

Our journey now took us to many small villages. Rocky Harbour, Sally’s Cove and Cow Head.

Inside the Arches

We stopped at all of them and explored. Lucy (or NH friend told us where to find these nice colored and rounded rocks. That was Cow Head and I’ve got to stop picking those souvenirs.

Our Camping site for night!

One of the places I wanted to really checkout was Western Brook Pond. This is a pond (no I would call it a lake) that has no outlet. Created by the glacier thousands of years ago. The water is stuck between two rocky mountains. This is a fiord. The only way to access this site is by hiking roughly 2 miles in. It is a popular spot as the parking parking lot had many cars. Once there you can pay $65 per person for a two hour boat ride into the fiord. No thanks. I’ve both see many fiords in New Zealand and Europe. Hiking the well maintained trail was easy. Mostly level with a lot of varied fauna. We spent time taking close up pictures of all of the different flowers.

Tonight we are parked at Arches Provincial Park… No signs saying no overnight camping. The arches on the shore line are impressive. We walked into them and took several more pictures.

 

That is what we did and saw!   

Gros Morne National Park ~ The Meeting of the Plates

Saturday July 20





Ron, Stein, Trudy, Cathy and Helen

The night was peaceful at Bottle Cove. It rained during the night and the wind howled just a couple of times. No one bothered us at the overlook, but we heard a sound like a car door closing a couple of times. In the morning, I figured out that the sound was coming all the way across the bay. It was the fishermen who were going to work.

The fog was present, but only at the higher elevations. We could see the bay and the driving went very well up to the next stop at the information center to get online, check email and post a couple of blogs. Off again to Deer Lake… groceries, check out the strawberry festival and lunch. Oh yes, my twenty minute nap was also included in this stop. Now from here, we turn onto RT 431 up to Wiltondale and a left turn to Trout River. The National Park Visitor Center was just around the corner. Here we paid our entry fee to the National Park (Gros Morne). The main reason for going on this side road and not the main part of the NP was that in this location we could visit the “Tablelands' ” This is one of the few places on earth that one can physically walk on a tectonic plate. You know what I mean. The continental plates that keep shifting our earth. Newfoundland actually has parts of Africa on its eastern side of the Island. Most people know I have tendency to collect rocks from different parts of the world. Well needless to say, I’m covered!



Sharecroppers...Newfoundland Cultural Trio

We were going to stay in Trout River, but once there it got foggy. Twenty five miles back to Bonne Bay and the little charming village of Woody Point.The little village with its restaurants, fishing boats, scenic mountains and cliffs was calling us. That is it. We asked the restaurant employee if we could park the night. “Go ahead”, she said. Not only that, but internet is available. Tonight we are going to listen to a Newfoundland folk band. Even entertainment to boot! Not bad for roughing the wilds of Newfoundland.

That is what we did and saw!

No… that is not all of what we did and saw! As I was finishing today’s blog our little grand-daughter called and we were able to Skype and have a video conversation. The restaurant was now closed (we were outside) and we had full bandwidth for a perfect reception both ways. Two couples walked by to check out the restaurant and first thing you know we were having a conversation with them.

They were from Alberta, Canada. Ron, Cathy,(one couple) Stein and Trudy Hess, the other couple were here doing historical tour of Newfoundland, I believe Stein is Norwegian and is interested in the Viking connection. They had been up in the St Anthony’s area earlier this past week. Ron and I spoke of the Calgary Stampede of which Helen and I had attended in 2005.

The two couples were also going to attend the “Sharecroppers’ 25th Anniversary Tour” tonight at the Merchant Warehouse. Around 7:30 pm. We walked all of 200 feet from our parked, for the night camper, to the show. Jenny and Stan the owners of the establishment greeted us along with several other guest. Jenny, (what a pleasant colorful Newfoundland character) was just as quick with the one liners as I am. Stan (reserved and not to excitable) didn’t move too quickly when Jenny said “Stan can you come inside ASAP” (as soon as possible). The other couples from Alberta arrived and we had a drink on the rear deck, on the bay side, of the  bar/restaurant. Jenny said, “We go to New Hampshire and visit a relative. Stan’s cousin Lucy's deceased husband's family own Green Mountain Furniture fairly close to our home. Stan’s cousin was actually here in Woody Point and we got to meet her during intermission. Lucy Kendall is her name. Now here is another strange moment of a small world. Lucy said that she bought a house in Milan (the next town over from us in Berlin). The house  belonged to Roland (Peanut) Dresser. He was in the National Guard with me (on my section) for many years. The house at Cedar Pond in Milan has since been sold. It truly is a small world.

Now back to the Newfoundland Trio. These guys were amazing! They were all excellent story tellers…especially in the Newfoundland story telling way. Every song presented cultural and historical views and events from Newfoundland. The trio have played  all over the globe. It was an evening that will leave an impression on us for a long time.

Walking back to the camper the moon came in and out of the clouds. The difference now was that it was high tide and the camper had water on three sides. It was safe, but sort of gave us a strange feeling. I took some night shots of the moon glistening over the water.

Now…that is what we did and saw!

Cape St George ~ The Bread Experience

Friday 19th July

I hope the truck is in park!

Last night at Piccadilly campground there were only three one-nighters in the park. Plenty of local seasonal campers, but none were present. Ironically, we all went for a walk, but didn’t bump into each other for one reason or another. This morning the first couple, Roger & Susan Huss were leaving and I was outside. Susan asked, “How do you like your Lance camper”? “Fine” I said. “Did you buy it at Polar RV in New Hampshire”? “Yes”, I said. They had bought a truck camper years ago from there also. Their license plates were from NY state. We had an interesting chat for a few minutes. We exchanged business cards and they were on their way. Another nice experience to remember!


Afraid of Heights?

The purpose on this side trip, on route 460, was to explore the peninsula around St George’s Bay. Driving in a counter clockwise direction, the surroundings were of small residential homes spread along the coast line. Nothing very special so far. We stopped at the Shrine of Lourdes. The flower plantings were impressive along with the Shrine itself. About a half hour later, we reached Cape St. George. Now, I must really say that the cliffs here were the best so far on this trip. The main reason is that we were on top and we could drive right over if one wanted to commit suicide. (Not to worry, we are not going there!) The trail went up even higher and being the explorer that I am, we put the truck in low gear and up and up we went. Wow

Our Friendly Bread Makers

again! The view as we got out of the truck and walked to the edge of the 400 feet drop off the cliffs revealed hundreds of nesting birds! I had to get my tripod out to get  shots of us on the edge. If I did nothing else today my day was complete! At the base of the Cape, we stopped to see the wood fired bread oven. There were three young adults working at the oven making bread. We just happened to stop when some of the breads were coming out. Nothing  tastes as mouth watering as fresh hot bread. It was a tourist attraction that I will pass on to others. Thank you Teddie (the bread maker) Shawn, (kept them company) Jordan (the baker) for taking care of us!

Now here is the next twist to our day. Remember back at Piccadilly Campground there were three couples who were traveling? The third couple also a “Lance” camper. We didn’t get a chance to talk to them at the campground, but we did see them go by when we were at Lourdes. An hour later at Cape St. George, when we were on top of the cliff, I spotted them at the lower lookout, and they were leaving. Helen said, “Don’t go chasing them down this skidder trail”. I did take it easy and soon we caught up to them. They we staying here for the night.

“The Twist”…They had just come from going the Quebec way up to Labrador City over to Happy Valley/Goose Bay down Blanc-Sablon and over to Newfoundland. They never had a problem with the forest fires because they went through just 24 hours before we tried. I mean they were at the Manic 5 reservoir just a day before us. He did say that he did get two flat tires. One before Church Hill Falls and the other before Port Hope Simpson. He also had an extra spare in the front like me. It sort of felt good to know that it is do-able with a truck camper.

Shorty after lunch, the road was calling and Lark Harbour is waiting for us. We are in a high overlook looking Bottle Cove and Little Harbour. One of the cliffs has a large cave across the harbor. It is suppose to rain tonight and clear by noon tomorrow. With that weather forecast as Walter Cronkite would say “An that’s the way it is…Good Night!

That is what we saw and did!

Newfoundland~We’ve Arrived and Discovering Adventure!

Thursday July 18th

Our Ferry to Newfoundland

Yesterday, we crossed at St Ann Harbour using a ferry that could handle one tractor trailer and cars on both sides of it. Today we crossed the Gulf of St Laurence on a ferry that held 21 tractors end to end and many rows wide. This ferry was eight lanes wide. It also has four of it’s nine decks of parked vehicles. It is a giant and I’m told that it is a fairly new vessel. It was a long voyage over to Newfoundland. The six hours would be long enough, but we had to be in line on the dock at four am. We slept in the camper. That was a lot better than all of the people who only had their cars. This story should have ended here, but we forgot that the incoming

Inside ferry 8 lanes wide

ferry had to unload. This started at midnight and than they loaded all of the tractor trailers starting around 1:30 am. To top off the noisy neighborhood there was a humongous down poor around, well lets say between 10:30 pm and walkup call over the loud speaker at 4 am. Did I mention that Helen set her phone alarm for 3:00 am just to make sure they didn’t leave without us!
Once we were underway, we tried to sleep in the lounge at the rear of the ship. That didn’t work exactly as planned. It was a little to cool with the A/C. We moved up to the internet lounge  and things were fine from than on. Helen and I struck up a conversation with a couple from Rimouski. Pierre and Claire Sirois made the time go by quickly for us and them. He is retired, runs a maple sugaring operation (family style business) and also cuts 50 cords of fire wood  on his wood lots. They gave us a lot of info on Newfoundland. This is their third time for visiting this Island.
We landed in Channel Port aux Basques at around 12:55 pm. The time changed again. First there was an hour difference, but oddly here enough we added an extra half hour. First stop… at the visitor center for more maps and suggestions on places to visit close by. Second stop was in the back of the camper for lunch. We just about flipped a coin on deciding if we should stay the rest of the day here or move further up TCH (Trans Canada Highway). All of those tourist on the ferry headed north. Monkey see monkey do. Tonight we are in West Bay at a small Provincial campground called Piccadilly Campground. It is quiet, peaceful and I’m nearly asleep
That is what we did and saw!

Cape Breton NP ~ Awesome!

This morning was time to wind down and do some physical activities. Our campground had a hiking trail to MacIntosh Falls just about

Narrow and tite!

45 minutes away from our site. The temperature this morning was 49 degrees, cool, but not bad for hiking. The higher elevation made the difference in the temperature. It was good to walk and get the old body moving again. Our little jaunt up the path to discovery was over and now time to hit the National Park and its offerings. Spectacular views around every corner... there were pullouts everywhere. We stopped at many that caught our interest. At one little town just outside the National Park, we stopped at an information center/museum. Kendall, the young lady, at the service desk was helpful. Another couple of local guys gave us some opportunities to explore a little off the beaten path. That was our calling! They said, "if you want to see some nice country, go up to the end of the road to Meat Cove". Up the road we came to little hamlets like Aspy Bay, Halibut Head. At St Margaret Village, we by passed the turn to Meat Cove and stopped for coffee at the local restaurant. The locals are always wonderful to listen to. Just across from the local hangout was a beautiful view of the bay with fishing boats. In a short time, we were parked next to the boats and watched as they w

My only regret is that I don't have my dump truck to
load all these beautiful rocks for home!

ere unloading crate after crate of crabs. A whole tractor trailer was being loaded with kids shoveling ice onto every crate. I wonder how long before the crabs make it to market or restaurants? The weather was getting warmer by the minute. The sky was blue, but one could see and smell smoke from the forest fires nearly 800 miles away in Quebec and Labrador. Forest Fire that keep us from going to Labrador I think I was able to attach the link to the forest fire.
Back at St Margaret, we took the side road Capstick and onto Meat Cove. WOW! What a paradise! There is a campground with ocean views, cliffs, a beach and birds nesting high above in the over hanging rock outcrops. I drove the truck down this very steep narrow road and across a narrow bridge. We had lunch, talked to some people from Manchester, NH and walked the beach. I had Helen go up the steep road and take a series of pictures as I maneuvered over the bridge and up the hill.
Off to North Sydney Harbour for an overnight wait for our 5 am departure to Newfoundland. They told us that they would start loading a 3:30 am. Well... they'll start by loading all of the tractor trailers. So far, I counted 21 tractor trailers and I don’t know how many trailers they load without the tractors. It is a huge ship. It's 10 pm now and I'm beat!
That is what we did and saw! 

Cape Breton Highlands and The Cabot Trail (10~11th day)

On the 17th the day was a traveling day.

The Road Views!

We covered a lot of shore line driving, but it wasn’t as spectacular as other parts of New Brunswick and the Gaspésie. Our gold was to reach Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We did do that, but at the expense of being grouchy towards the end of the day. Their was a lot of winding road getting into the park. Finally the MacIntosh  Campground was before us. A self registration and a drop into the steel money box and the place was ours along with only a couple of RVs and two tent campers. The campground had flush toilets, hot water, electricity and a large closed-in function room with a wood stove. I poked the ashes and got the fire going. Neat! They even had fire wood for us to use.

We met the artist who did this petroglyph (Kevin Sudeith)

I plugged in my laptop and worked on my blogs. The other campers came in and we had a good fire side chat. They were from Germany and one of them spoke English fairly well. Time to say night, night!
That is what we saw and did!

BYE BYE New Brunswick Hello Nova Scotia (9th day)

One thing I must say about New Brunswick is the fact that the gas prices are .40 cents lower than Quebec Province. Now that’s .40 cents lower per gallon. Bravo for keeping the gas tax down!
Before leaving New Brunswick, we wanted so badly to claim a couple of geocaches and get an online souvenir added to our places that we’ve geocached.

Can you believe 112 F in the sun!

The problem here was that I had down loaded caches along the route. The caches were there, but not safe enough to stop along the busy roadway. This morning I decided to travel a country road not so well travelled, it worked and we had a couple of country caches to claim as found.
In just 30 miles, we crossed into Nova Scotia and stopped at the first info center for maps, campgrounds, ferry info and anything else I could think of asking. I had done some home work, but I always learn a little more facts when I talk to the pleasant girls at the information centers.


A perfect evening!

The noticeable things here are the names of places. Names like Pugwash Junction, Tidnish, Pictou Harbour. Of course, there are the First Nation names like Tatamagouche, Chignecto Bay. Sometimes I, our we, spend minutes trying to pronounce these names. Of course when we stop and hear a local say the pronunciations we think we have it down pat until we see the next sign and start wondering all over again.
We pulled into Seafoam campground and set up for the night. It was unbelievably hot this afternoon. The thermometer on the backside of the camper (in direct sun) read 112 degrees F and that’s not Celsius! Slipping into our bathing suits, we cooled off in the comfortable waters of Northumberland Straights. This is the body of water between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It was a perfect night. Later the barbecue was in order. The steaks were perfect!
That is what we did and saw! 

Perce to Campbellton ~ A Whole in A Rock! (7th day)




Perce...A hole in a Rock

A Pretty Cool Place!

This was only the second time that we stayed at an “official” campground. It was worth it for the scenery, the campground managers and especially the two other RV campers couples that we convoyed over to Tete de d’Indien (Indian Head) campground. The sun rose very early, well before I got out of bed to get that sunrise digitized. I spent a good part of the morning writing my blogs and relaxing. Helen got caught up on emails.  We said goodbye to our fellow camping buddies and drove off towards Perce. The French word perce means piercing which relates to this mountain size rock that sits just off shore from the town. The mountain has a hole at the water line. It is very unique and the town of Perce has capitalized on this for a tourist attraction. Going back one or two steps before

Geocaching at its Best!

we arrived in Perce, I had downloaded some geocaches and we found one high up on this mountain with an awesome view on the bay and cliffs. I always say “Geocaching brings you to places you normally won’t see”. While approaching the cache site, we talked to this older lady at the picnic table. We got a little local history included with this cache. In Perce, with spent two to three hours walking around and playing tourist. It got really hot and humid later in the afternoon and that was the time to leave and head for Campbellton, New Brunswick another 154 miles away. Tonight we are staying in back of a nice restaurant. The dinner meal was nice and they were even nicer to let us stay in the rear of the restaurant.

That is what we saw and did! 

Matane, Gaspésie ~ A New Enchantment! (6th day)

In the large parking lot at the ferry terminal, it was time to wash the truck camper windows, lower the jacks on the camper and reposition the camper on the truck. All of the bouncing around on the North Shore gravel road had shifted the camper in the truck box. Nothing wrong, but I just like to have the truck and camper looking

Doris' Garden !

square and right. The mission for today was to play tourist and explore the town on Matane. The center of town has the Matane River which is a major Salmon spawning ground. The salmon were coming in, but we did didn’t actually see the run. The fish ladder and the crystal clear water kept us looking for a while. A note here; on the radio, we heard that a 36 pound salmon was caught on the North Shore at the mouth of one of the many rivers.
It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet and we moved on to our next tourist attraction. “Les Jardins de Doris” (Doris’ Gardens). From the road, we could see that there was a multitude of flowering plants. Helen wanted to stop, actually, because Doris is her sister’s name also. We were not disappointed with the stop. The garden had peaceful

Beautiful Drive!

music playing in outside speakers. Talking to Doris herself, we discovered that some of the work here is done by kids that are in trouble of one form or another. She has helped over 700 of them. She said that sometimes this place is their last chance before prison. In any event the grounds were perfectly cared for.
Time to move east on route 132. The Gaspésie is noted by its scenic shore line drives and the little townships that are actuated by a towering church steeple at their center. The photographic opportunities are everywhere. The St Lawrence  Seaway is now wide enough that the distant shores are no longer visible. The paved road winds up and down the rocky cliffs between  towns. We stopped many times to grab that hopefully perfect shot.

View from our Campsite ~ Indian Head!!

The game plan was to drive all the way to the town of Gaspe some 200 miles from Matane. We did that, but we were a little disappointed that we couldn’t dry camp anywhere in town. Some towns have regulations on this. It’s usually towns that have a few campgrounds in the area. To top that off, it is some sort of holiday time and many Canadians are off for the next two weeks and many campgrounds are full. We spotted a couple of RV’s at McDonalds and talked to them about a place to stay for the night. They were headed for a campground in Perce “Tete d’Indien” (Indian Head), it was on our direction of travel and we followed. The Indian Head campground was just what we were looking for!
That is what we saw and did!