Newfoundland again. I
need a thesaurus to find words to describe what we've seen! We are
into week ten now, which is a record for us, and we just now are
headed south again. I checked the other day, and it was 2500 miles
in a straight line to Houston.
I guess we left off
at Terra Nova Natl. Park. Teachers started back to work Monday a
week ago, but we were stuck here in Newfoundland. Why not take a
hike? We started the day with a walk to the top of Ochre Hill .
There was a beautiful panoramic view of the bays, ponds, and
mountains all around. We ran into just one other person on our
hike.
From the top of Ochre Hill in Terra Nova National Park
There are a lot of
peninsulas around the island. There are too many for us to explore
them all, so we chose Cape Bonavista as one of them. There is a
collapsed sea cave called The Dungeon that was a must-see, and a
historic lighthouse near where it is has been agreed upon that John
Cabot landed. There is a little island near the lighthouse that is a
nesting place for puffins. It was fun to see where they live, and we
were lucky enough to see a few coming and going from their burrows.
Even with the orange beak, they are hard to spot. Our campground
that night was about 6 km (3.6 miles) down a very bumpy road. We
were glad we only had to take the round trip once.
The Dungeon
Cape Bonavista Lighthouse
View from Cape Bonavista
The big city of St.
John's was our next stop (pop. 100,000). Still, 'city driving' is
not fun, especially when you aren't sure where you are going. St.
John's is known for the colorful houses, but we didn't stop to take
many pictures of them. We spent our time at two historic sites- Cape
Spear and Signal Hill.
Cape Spear is the
easternmost point of North America, not counting Greenland, so we had
to go there to get a geocache names “Extreme East”. Signal Hill
is above the harbor entrance, and has been the site of many battles
between the French and British. At the top is a stone building
called Cabot Tower. Early radio transmissions were received here,
and there is a recreation of the radio room.
As far east as you can go by car - Cape Spear
Cape Spear Lighthouse
Cabot Tower on Signal Hill
Looking down from Signal Hill as a ship entered St. John's Harbor
Kris signing the log of a geocache below Cape Spear Lighthouse - a precarious perch
On Signal Hill, there
is an attraction called GeoCentre. It is a museum about geology
UNDER the hill. They carved the museum into the rock of the Signal
Hill. We decided to spend another day in St. John's to see what it
is like. You can see all of the layers going back billions of years.
It was quite informative, and not too busy, so we really enjoyed the
day not driving around.
It was time to escape
the big city. We traveled west to Placentia Bay and Castle Hill
National Historic Site. There are remains of French and British
forts there, along with the history of how forts have changed due to
technology. Gunpowder and rifles barreled guns made a lot of
difference!
It would have been
nice to visit France – There are two French islands off of
the coast of Newfoundland, but it was too much money to justify a visit to France,
although it would have been a new country to Geocache in!
The Trans Canada
Highway isn't very busy compared to Houston freeways, and is a
comfortable drive. The only problem was that I drive the speed
limit, so people were frequently on our tail. One good thing,
though, is that they actually use their turn signals to pass!
Amazing, for sure.
Well, we've gone as far east as we can, so why not head farther north? One of the places we
HAD to go back to was Gros Morne National Park on the west coast. We
camped another night, and then headed north to L'Anse aux Meadows,
where the Vikings had a short-lived settlement in 1000 A.D.. We took an excellent tour, guided
by a local man that grew up playing on
the 'Indian Mounds' that turned out to be the remnants of the Viking
dwellings. National Parks always have interesting guided tours, but
we have been very lucky this trip to have two guided by people with
direct connections. This guide worked on the archeological digs in
the area and helped reconstruct the buildings that are used in the
living history exhibit.
Our tour guide with remains of the original Viking dwellings behind them.
They were excavated and then covered over to preserve them.
A reconstructed Viking dwelling with sod walls 6 feet thick
Inside a reconstructed house
Another historic site
on the northern peninsula is in Port Au Choix, where four different
prehistoric groups of people have lived over the course of 5,000
years. We took a short hike on one of the trails, and were lucky
enough to see a lone caribou on our walk.
We took a short hike on Raven Trail that is the northern terminus of the IATNL – International
Appalachian Trail Newfoundland – but we haven't been able to learn
much about it. It was another wonderful view (this time on the
first day the kids were back to school) and this time, we didn't see
ANY people!
The view from Cape Raven (and a geocache)
Today, we did the
tourist thing and took a boat tour on Western Brook Pond, an ancient
fjord that is now a freshwater lake. The two-hour ride was
breathtaking, and well worth the 3 kilometer hike to get to the boat
dock. I liked the fact that I wasn't doing the driving.
Our boat trip on Western Brook Pond
Kris here – my 2 cents
worth:
We had planned on
spending one week in Newfoundland but extended our visit to two
weeks. Although we could see Labrador across the Strait of Belle
Isle about 25 km away, we had to draw the line somewhere so we didn't
take the ferry across to visit it. L'Anse aux Meadows was well-worth
the drive up to the end of the Northern Peninsula. It is a UNESCO
World Heritage Site (as is Gros Morne NP) and I have always been
intrigued by the place. I wasn't sure we were going to have time to
visit, but adding the time to our Newfoundland expedition made it
possible. We saw a 10-foot statue of Leif Ericson that was a tribute
to all people of Scandinavian heritage so it was fitting that I saw
it and thought of my Norwegian ancestors. The tour guide was
excellent and is a living witness to the discovery of the ruins and
played a role in the preservation. He has worked for Parks Canada
for almost 50 years and really knew his “stuff.”
Surprisingly, we haven't
seen much wildlife. Too late in the summer to see whales, but NFLD
supposedly has the highest population density of moose anywhere in
the world and we haven't seen even one, despite the ubiquitous
warning signs along the highways. I was thrilled to see one caribou,
a handful of puffins, and a hare that hopped through our campsite
last evening.
We have booked a night
crossing on the ferry back to Nova Scotia where we will resume our
sojourn at Cape Breton Highlands National Park.
Geocaching warning!
This trip hasn't been all about caching. Yes, we look at them, but we are fairly picky. We have averaged about ten finds a day. We aren't racking up big numbers, but we have found quite a few places that we wouldn't have seen if there wasn't a geocache there.
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