Mile 5913

 The last days we are tourists in St. John's, NL.  It is such an amazing town, the downtown around Water Street and Duckworth Street, the Harbourside Park, the Jelly Bean Row, Signal Hill and the Queen's Battery Barracks, The Rooms, the pubs and restaurants in the harbour district.  We just drift with the flow of the town and enjoy the days walking and not driving, and not having a place to be at the ned of the day.  So here some impressions from St. John's:

"A Time" statue, George Street Step & Murals

George Street

Street Murals

St. John's War Memorial, Duckworth Street

War Memorial Park, Harbour Park "Our Dogs"

Jelly Bean Houses

Fort Amherst, Signal Hill and Queens Battery Barracks

St. John's Harbour, Signal Hill and The Narrows

Mr. Bullwinkle crossing the road to Cape Spear

Cape Spear old and new Lighthouse, Easternmost Point of Canada

Cape Spear Coast Line

The Rooms with The Shrine and Basilica to the right

"The personality of St. John's.Newfoundland, hits you like a smack in the face with a dried cod, enthusiastically administered by its citizenry."  -  Jan Morris, Welch writer and historian, 1926-2020

Mile 5867

 Today we go through many seasonal weather patterns, starting in Twillingate, NL early morning with icy rain and some fog and temperatures just above freezing, changing late morning in just fog and drizzle whilst driving along the shore line, having early afternoon some overcast skies with the occasional opening and blue sky in Terra Nova N.P. and temperatures of about 52F, just to return to fog again entering the Head of Placentia Bay and Tickle Bay, Collier Bay and Chapel Arm, finally to end in St. John's, NL with some clouds and sprinkles.  So it was just a normal day in Newfoundland as the weather is concerned.  For us it was as well a constant change in landscape, having left Twillingate with a mountainous and rocky coast, coming to a marsh coast line, entering highly forested areas around Terra Nova, and coming to a mountainous area again entering the Avalon Peninsula.

Checking on our beauty iceberg from yesterday this morning, 

and the right face has broken off over night

We leave Twillingate, NL and go back on Rt-340 South before picking up Rt-331 near Boyds Cove, NL to take Rt-330 a little late, the 'Road to the Shore' which will lead us around the Gander Bay, Rocky Bay, Ragged Harbour, to Deadman's Bay, to Templeman, NL, New-Wes-Valley, NL, down to Hare Bay, NL, and then picking up the TCH-1 again at Gambo, NL.  From here we just run down the miles to St. John's, NL after a stop for a late lunch in Glovertown, NL.  We pass through Terra Nova N.P. with the sky giving us some glimpses of blue and putting the landscape in a nice colour.  After that its fog again, and this lasts till Conception Bay, NL before turning into a drizzle rain for a welcome to St. John's.

Some pictures form the Road to the Shore Drive,

left and right of Rt-330

There are not many pictures today as fog is always gray, and visibility pretty limited when it comes to capturing the surroundings with a camera, but from what we could capture with our eyes and from the little bit above, it was nice.  Now we are in St. John's and will do the Tourist stuff and use it as our base to explore the Avalon Peninsula.

"Newfoundlanders are God's gift to this world.  They have your back in any way."  -  Machel Rayner, Jamaican trainer and fitness guru, St. John's, NL

Mile 5514

 This morning we have blue skies and no clouds in sight.  Twillingate sparkles in all its bright, and we decide to chase some more icebergs.  we try first in Fairbanks, NL and see some in the distance.  This is reason enough to leave Rt-340 at Virgin Arm-Carter's Cove, NL  and pick up Rt-345 to Valley Pond, NL, and Tizzard's Harbour, NL.  Here again we see some icebergs, but we are not getting close enough to them.  We decide to return to Twillingate, but not before stopping in Virgin Arm-Carter's Cove for some lobster lunch.  Then we head back and take Rt-340 Bayview Rd.  We stop at some of the trails like the Black Rock Trail, the Fragile Rock Trail, and some others to get some walking in.  Small exercise, but rewarded with beautiful views of icebergs just drifting along the shore.  We have another stop Bluff Head Cove and at Ragged Point to be rewarded with more icebergs.  They are just impressive, their clean and dense ice formations, with sometimes a cap of snow and ice on top like wiped cream on a cake, which they collected on their travels to the island.

Thats what's left of the iceberg at the causeway today

... and this is a beauty

We spend the rest of the afternoon around town, visiting the Isles Wooden Boat Museum and learning from Calvin a little about the wooden boat construction and watching him working on a dory.

Isles Wooden Boat Museum, Twillingate, NL

Impressions from the Peninsula

"Wherever you went, you either walked or rowed on change islands.  everybody had a punt."  -  Calvin Ledrew, Boat Builder, Purcell's Harbour, NL

Mile 5434

 This morning we wake up and are in for a good surprise, it has snowed over night.  Temperatures are at 32F, feeling something much lesser and a stiff breeze is coming from the ocean.  We are in no hurry and take our time with the breakfast at the Fishers Inn & Hospitality Home here in La Scie, NL, a B&B we only can recommend.  We make a quick check on the icebergs from yesterday and then retrieve our way back to Sheppardville, NL to catch the TCH-1 to continue further East.  The landscape has completely changed from yesterday where all looked more spring like with the young green just fighting the gray, and today the more winterly look, just like the first snow before the leaves have fallen.  We have a quick stop at Grand Falls-Windsor, NL for coffee and tea, and continue.  Unfortunately does the Queen Street Dinner Theater not perform until early July and so we continue on the TCH-1 to Notre-Dame Junction to pick up Rt-340 (Road to the Isles) to Twillingate, NL.  

Morning surprise in La Scie, NL

They are still here

Morning Winter has broken, like the first ....

On the way up we stop at Boyd's Cove and visit the Beothuk Interpretation Center.  The Beothuk people were an Indigenous people of Newfoundland who were hunter-gatherers and spoke a language related to Algonquian.  They lived on this island for thousands of years, in Boyd's Cove in a time frame from 1650 to 1720, before European contact, becoming finally extinct as a distinct culture, the last of them, a young woman named Shanawdithit dying in St. John's, NL in 1829.  The term "Beothuk" means "the people" in their language.

Beothuk Interpretation Center, Boyd's Cove, NL

Shanawdithit and Beothuk Indian

We return to Rt-340 and pass the causeway to Twillingate, NL in our quest to see more icebergs.  And we will not be disappointed, even though the wind is hauling up here and temperatures haven't improved all day long.  

Inceberg at the Twillingate Causeway and in the bay

Long Point Lighthouse and Nanny's Hole, Twillingate, NL

Icebergs near Twillingate, NL

Twillingate, NL

We explore a little the surroundings, drive out to Crow Head, and the Long Point Lighthouse, and out to French Beach.  All along we see some icebergs, but the temperatures are not calling for a hike on any of the trails around here.  We return to Twillingate and warm up with a good dinner and some higher percentage drinks.  Tomorrow will be another day, and perhaps a bit warmer.

"Rather then try to conquer your fear through reason, you destroy its source."  -  Bernard Assiniwi, 1935-2000, Quebecois a writer of the book 'The Beothuk Saga'