Corner Brook, NL...A Place to Explore!

Saturday, July 12, 2014

The small community of Rose Blanche
at the end of highway 470

On this day, after a short morning nap in the mall parking lot, I drove East toward Isle aux Morts and to the end of the road at Rose Blanche. Most of this side trip was very slow driving and scenic. The town of Rose Blanche is built on the rocky coast line. We visited in the area of the lighthouse, but didn't want to pay an entry fee to the trail leading to the lighthouse itself. Instead, I drove around the small cove where I could actually get the photos I wanted. Next, I was sort of embarrassed when I tried to leave the tiny community. Every turn led me into someone else's driveway. There was so many hills and curves that it was impossible to head in one straight direction.

Trail head to Rose Blanche
 Lighthouse

We had a good laugh and finally I asked this lady... which way out of town? She said take a left after the Post Office and we were on our way back towards Channel-Port aux Basques.

Lighthouse at Cape Anguille...Codroy Valley

Trail system in Corner Brook, NL

Our next destination was toward the Codroy Valley to the West. This area was reported to be a great birding area along with more lighthouses. It did have Codroy Provincial Park, but it was still early and we did more exploring of this fertile farmland. In late afternoon, I spotted a private campground in Doyles. It turn out to be a neat and perfectly managed campground. They had a "World Tour" caravan of 24 motorhomes there for the night. Our site was adjacent to the washrooms, That's what they call the restrooms in this part of the world. This was perfect, because those big motorhomes use their own onboard showers. We use the washrooms to conserve our own utilities.
I made a campfire with (free) supplied firewood. I even cooked a steak on the open fire grill. Helen, prepared the salads and with a cold beer, you can't beat that for camping in the Codroy Valley.

Corner Brook from Captain Cooks Monument

Leaving in early morning, from  Grand Codroy Campground in Doyles, our destination up on Trans Canada Highway (TCH 1) was Corner Brook. We arrived fairly early. The sun was shining and our spirits were up. We visited Corner Brook last year, but didn't get to really do this charming
hilly town justice.
Our first stop was to the Visitor Center. This Center has a dump station, fresh water, WiFi and best of all they don't mind if you park overnight. The two young ladies inside gave us maps to the town, told us what was going on downtown. They even gave us several parking solutions for the downtown.
The events for this day were located in a park in front of city hall. We were a little too early for the festivities, several groups were setting up tents, food concessions, craft vendors and musicians were tuning up to play.
We walked back to the Gin Mill Hotel parking lot, our camper location and elected to take the convenient, close by, hiking trail from there. The trail system was developed by the Corner Brook Paper Mill. It meanders along the brook and pond. They spared nothing in arranging flowers along the path. Since the 1920's, Swans have inhabited the pond area. Only one was visible as we walked up to the walking bridge.
For a mill town, Corner Brook is well developed considering everything sits on one hill or another. The only flat land is down at the paper mill.
On the trail, we met this gentleman walking his dog. We asked him what special place should we not miss seeing in town. He said, "Captain Cook's Monument". It was a

Home for the night at
the Visitor Center

good thing I had folded the city map as to the directions to the monument. It involved zigzags all over the southern part of the city. It also carried us up, up and up through residential neighborhoods. Finally, after that long climb up a mountain we came to Cook's Monument, of course this was in our truck camper.
Captain Cook started his career as a Naval Master and came to Newfoundland as a young British Navy officer. One day here in Newfoundland, he noticed this gentleman looking through this surveying device. He was intrigued and learned the trade. In five years, he mastered this trade and mapped Newfoundland extensively.
The King of England wanted to have Australia and New Zealand mapped, but the person who was scheduled to go had no Naval experience. This is where Captain Cook's qualifications came in. He was sent to the South Seas never to return to his beloved Newfoundland. As a tiny footnote, while we visited Australia and New Zealand in 2005, our tour included a visit to Captain Cook's house. People back then appeared to be a lot shorter in height as the house front door was barely high enough to enter without crouching.
Later in the afternoon, we attended mass at the Cathedral, then picked up food supplies and returned to the Visitor Center around 7pm and we were the only ones there. I set up our chairs on their deck, plugged in the laptop and spent the rest of the evening blogging and watching the beautiful sunset to the west of Corner Brook, NL.

That is what we did and saw!

Click on upper right corner of map to enlarge. Click on the pointer for additional information.