Travels with haRVy

It is September 1st and autumn has arrived in northern Newfoundland. The temperature was 43 degrees when we woke up (haRVy has an excellent diesel cabin heater) and rose to a whopping 48 this afternoon. Time to head south again! Actually, the forecast calls for a warming trend over the next ten days, but I don’t know how long that will last.

This morning we were uncertain about driving since it was both rainy and windy so we slept in, took showers and at a leisurely breakfast. We then drove down to the WiFi station and checked the weather. The winds were predicted to be heavy but behind our backs, so we decided to go for it and we are now very happy we did because we got all the way back down the Northern Peninsula to the campground at Shallow Bay in Gros Morne National Park by 6 o’clock. After dinner the clouds cleared the horizon just in time to treat us to a gorgeous sunset.

On our way down the coast we stopped at Arches Provincial Park to take a look at the natural rock formations there.

As a side note, I’d like to mention the garden plots alongside the highways. The locals plant their root veggies (apparently the only thing that grows here) there because the crews have plowed the earth and brought in soil next to the roads, whereas their own yards are practically solid rock. A few of the gardeners festoon their plots with colorful scarecrows providing some roadside amusement.

Very cool, windy with intermittent showers. 209 miles

Heading out to Cape Onion we were discouraged by the terrible road conditions. Luckily there was no place to turn around because the end of the road (literally) proved to be phenomenal. This is the furthest north we can travel here and it was well worth the effort. We spent a couple of hours shooting too many photos and videos as well as eating lunch and sitting back to take it in with all of our senses.

We also stopped at Raleigh to take a few quick photos of this fishing village where tourists can live the Newfoundland outport life for a few days.

That is not a teepee, it is how they dry their firewood. You see these all over Newfoundland.

We then drove over to St. Anthony for a dose of reality to do some grocery shopping since the cupboards were nearly bare. While there we visited the Grenfell museum and gift shop plus a lighthouse and park. Toured several more outports via more bumpy roads before heading back to Pistolet Provincial Park for our third and last night here.

Cloudy and cool with some rain. 76 miles

The campground is surrounded by beautiful bogs

Do you know that all Vikings are Norseman, but not all Norseman are Vikings? We do now!

We had a great time exploring L’Anse aux Meadows today. This is the site where Vikings purportedly first landed in North America 1000 years ago. The interpretation center and film are excellent as is the recreated Norse work station, which is what historians believe was here, not an actual village.

We lunched at The Norseman, reportedly the best fine dining establishment in all of Newfoundland. From what we’ve seen, that isn’t saying much, but it is a delight. I know that some folks will want to know exactly what we ate, so here goes. I had buttercup soup, salad and the best salmon cakes imaginable. Al had a salad and crab quesadilla (this far from Mexico?) that looked nothing like what you’d get at Tito’s. Dessert was partridgeberry pie with ice cream and lemon citrus cake with raspberry coulis, which looked divine, but Al wouldn’t let me taste!

Our first moose sighting. Sorry I didn’t have my telephoto lens.

We spent the rest of the afternoon driving around the area visiting various beautiful coves, overlooks, and outports. The natural beauty of this area is magnificent and the people are the friendliest yet! We originally were not sure we would drive all the way up here, but now we are really glad we did.

Mostly cloudy and cool. 67 miles

Yesterday was only the second day during this trip that I didn’t take any photos due to extremely windy and rainy weather. We slowly made our way up the coast of the Northern Peninsula to Port au Choix where we camped behind a motel for a bit of protection from the gale force winds.

The one bright spot was running into our new friends from Colorado – Keith & Cheryl. We camped beside each other and spent the late afternoon hours sharing travel stories in their trailer and during the evening Al entertained them with his videos on haRVy’s TV.

Rain all day. Very windy afternoon. 90 miles

Today is the mid-point of our intended 90 day adventure. I can’t believe we’re going to stay out that much longer, but there is definitely no shortage of things to see and enjoy in this road trip!

The morning sky was a welcome clear blue with puffy white clouds and a cool, light breeze. I took a walk along the beach to check out the flotsam from the storm and was very disappointed to see that the majority of it was plastic…ugh.

We toured the National Historic Site Interpretation Center where we learned about several different peoples who have lived in the Port au Choix area over the past 4500 years. We also visited the Heritage Center where we watched a film about more recent history when, in the 1950’s, the government relocated thousands of people from distant outports to more accessible locations where new communities were formed. This was one of those areas.

We couldn’t tell yesterday, due to the driving rain, but it is very pretty here with broad beaches, deep bays, and forested islands.
The GPS reported “no turns for 116 miles,” as we headed north again. There is only one road to take. Luckily it provides stunning scenery as it travels between the ocean and distant mountains. When no mountains are in sight, wide open spaces filled with trees and ponds took their place.

Can’t call it a road trip without a couple of “through the windshield” shots.

We were very surprised at the number of towns, or outports as they call them, all along this route. These towns did not have roads connecting them until the 1960’s. We stopped in Black Duck Cove to have our lunch next to a bustling wharf where 3 semi-tractor trucks pulled in to pick up freshly caught seafood in just the 45 minutes we were there.

“Feels like an amusement ride, Al said as the last 60 miles of highway was very bouncy and bumpy. The vast scenic terrain under the beautiful blue skies was truly awesome.

We reached our destination, Pistolet Bay Provincial Park, just shy of the northernmost tip of the peninsula, at 5 o’clock. We settled into our site, went for a walk, and took advantage of the on-site laundry facilities before dinner.

Sunny, breezy, cool to warm. 135 miles

Winds and seas were much calmer by the time we arose this morning and the beach was beautiful.

We drove back to Rocky Harbour for provisions, diesel fuel, and tickets for this afternoon’s boat ride. The grocery stores in this part of Newfoundland leave a LOT to be desired, so our diet over the next few days won’t be up to our usual standards, but I’m sure we’ll survive.

Headed north again to Shallow Bay Campground to claim a camp site and have lunch. This campground is located near a beautiful wide crescent shaped sandy beach. We hope to take a nice long walk there tomorrow morning.

We then drove to the parking lot for Western Brook Pond where we started the 3 km hike to the boat dock. The boat left the dock at 4 pm, which turned out to be the best trip of the day because some of the haze left from yesterday’s storm had finally cleared, which measurably improved visibility.

While not technically a fjord, as Western Brook Pond was cut off from the ocean thousands of years ago, the depth of the water and tremendous height of the surrounding walls makes it feel like one. The 2-hour ride was a truly extraordinary experience.

After the hike back, we began the drive back to camp. We soon saw a sign advertising pizza available nearby. I was too tired to cook so we decided to pick up one to go. We were delighted to find that they offered a veggie option and even more pleased to find that it was quite good and that all the veggies were fresh – even the mushrooms! I’m not sure where they got the veggies, since none of the stores around here sell them, but we were sure happy to eat them.

Hazy sun and warm. 72 miles

Today was the first day of really bad weather that we’ve experienced since starting this vacation 41 days ago (but who’s counting, right?) and even this could have been worse. It began cloudy with a bit of drizzle and built to some real rain with a strong westerly breeze. By late afternoon the rain had stopped while the warm winds continued to blow, which made for some exhilarating beach walking.

As mentioned yesterday, today we had to drive over to the north side of the park on the opposite shore of Bonne Bay that virtually divides the park in half. We had hoped to take a hike or two along the way, but the weather pretty much confined us to the car. Norris Point was very disappointing, but we did have a surprisingly nice lunch at a little café in Rocky Harbour.

At 5 o’clock we found a beautiful campsite right on the ocean front where we watched the surf build and took a walk on the beach.

It’s hard for me to believe but in this campground that has no electricity or plumbing we have WiFi access right from our campsite. We had it at our last campground too…amazing!

Windy, rainy at times and warm. 79 miles