Our View From The Road

We started the day with an Egg, Bacon & Homefries breakfast cooked outside on the griddle. Yummy, that’ll set us up for a day of exploring.

We decide to take the Hop-On/Hop-Off tour of the city as the tickets allow us two days of access meaning that we can use the buses to shuttle us about the city to visit all of the sights we want to visit.

So, after getting ready we arranged for an Uber to drive us downtown and headed out. The driver managed to drop us off 500m away from our destination as the downtown streets were all closed for a foot race.

We headed by foot past Jelly Bean Row and then down to Water St where we waited for our tour bus. The first stop on the tour was Signal Hill, so named as it was the location at which Guglielmo Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal. It is also the site of the deciding battle of the Seven Year war in which Great Britain won and took control of Newfoundland from France.

The Signal Hill tower is now managed by Parks Canada and is a very popular tourist attraction. Today it was busy and the parking lot had a constant stream of cars entering and leaving.

Barb had a moment when she got to sit with a beautiful Newfoundland dog. I capture this as shown below.

Returning to our tourbus we continue to Quidi Vidi, a small fishing village adjacent to St John’s. It is also the home of Quidi Vidi Brewery, the makers of, amongst others beers, Iceberg Lager. This lager is made with water extracted from icebergs and sold in blue glass bottles. We enjoy lunch and sample several of their beers before heading back to the tourbus.

Our last tour stop today was The Rooms, a modern museum/archive facility that overlooks St John’s harbour. We explore the exhibits and take some photos across the city.

We order another Uber to return us to our campsite where we spend the rest of the day relaxing.

Another wonderful night, this one by the sea. It rained lightly just before sunrise but did not last and by the time we were ready to leave our parkup the rain had stopped and the skies were beginning to lighten as sunshine is forecast for later in the day.

Before leaving the parkup we saw a whale offshore moving along the coast, this is our 3rd of the trip. We drove back to Heart’s Content, turned East and crossed the peninsula to Carbonear where we turned South on Route 75 towards the Trans Canada Highway.

A short time later we leave the TCH and head toward Avonmore where there is a small railway museum. Unfortunately it was closed when we arrived so we took a few pictures and headed towards Holyrood. Here we stopped at the beach and admired the view of Conception Bay. After refueling it was back to the TCH and onwards toward St John’s.

We arrived a little early to check into our campsite and so drove to the end of the TCH where we were greeted by nothing. Yep, 7500km of road and when you get to the end there’s no sign, nothing to say you’ve made it. Actually there is, but it’s not on the highway, it’s in downtown St John’s in a plaza, go figure?

Leaving the TCH we turn North and head to Middle Cove Beach where we manage to squeeze into a tight parking spot and then walk down to the beach.

It’s busy. It’s the weekend. The capelin are in. As such people are out with their nets and buckets catching capelin.

Capelin are a smelt-like fish that come to shore to spawn in sandy coves. They do this in the hundreds of thousands. Evidently the fish is a traditional delicacy, we have not tried them so cannot say.

Leaving the beach it was now time to check into our campsite and relax for the remainder of the day. We are staying at the Pippy Park Campground in the middle of the city. It is very well maintained and hopefully a good spot from which to explore. We’re here for three nights and are really looking forward to discovering what St John’s has to offer.

Our airport parking location proved successful and we had a really good sleep. This morning the parking lot appears to be a popular spot for car pool parking, hmmm. We prepare for the day and depart before 9:00am.

We drive through Clarenville and rejoin the Trans Canada Highway heading East where after about an hour we exit towards Dildo.

Arriving in Dildo we pass the Dildo Brewing Company but it’s a little early for a visit and so decide to go to the beach at Anderson’s Cove which is where we have planned to spend tonight. After locating the access road and driving VERY carefully down it to the beach we rethink our choice of spot for tonight.

Oh, the beach is lovely, nice grassy areas for parking and a very walkable pebble beach, but that road!!! It is gravel and steep and the potholes had potholes! Barb has to spend several minutes re-securing the inside of the cabinets and cupboards before we could go any further as everything had shifted. We exit via a second road which a local person on the beach had told us was in better condition. It was, but only marginally. We both are now rethinking coming back later. Nobody on iOverlander had mentioned the condition of the roads leading into the beach.

Leaving Dildo we head East across the peninsula and then North to Carbonear and stop at a small park that has some boards describing the towns history. Settled by the English the town has a long history of fishing and shipbuilding. The French unsuccessfully tried to capture the settlement during the seven year war in the late 1600’s.

We leave Carbonear and head back across the peninsula to Heart’s Content. We stop at The Cable House Market and pickup some bread and goodies. It is a lovely old-style grocery store in a really well preserved building.

Next, we visit the Hearts Content Cable Station. A historical site where the first trans-Atlantic telegraph cable came ashore in 1866. The museum appears as it did in 1965 when it was closed as telegraph cables were replaced with more modern ways of transmitting.

For almost 100 years Heart’s Content was a community of people providing critical support for all incoming and outgoing communications between Europe and North America.

Leaving Heart’s Content we drive South along the shore and just South of Heart’s Desire we see what appears to be the perfect parkup spot for the night. We mark it on a map and continue to the Dildo Brewing Company.

The afternoon is warm and sunny but sitting outside would have been chilly as the sea breeze was steady and so we opt for inside seating where we enjoy a light afternoon meal and sample a few of their beers.

We take a couple of orders of their seafood chowder to go, visit the gift shop and leave town returning northwards to the parkup near Heart’s Desire. It’s a 30min drive and as we arrive and pull in we realize that this was a brilliant decision. There is one other campervan and so we have lots of choice as to where to park. We chose a spot near the shore and settled in for the evening.

Tomorrow we head to St John’s for a few days.

🎉 This is my 200th post! 🎉 Hopefully you’ve been following along. 😎

Wow, that was a night! 68km/h wind gusts and driving rain. ‘‘Twas a pleasant Newfoundland evening B’y.

We awoke and got ourselves ready for the day and headed across the parking lot to take a look at the statue of John Cabot who landed here in 1497. It really does feel like the edge of the world.

Returning to the van we packed and headed just a few meters further along the Cape to the Fishermen’s memorial and Cape Bonavista Lighthouse. Originally the foghorn was on one of the offshore rocky islands and would have been manned on foggy days. When the foghorn was relocate to the main cape the lighthouse keepers must have been overjoyed not to have to spend hours on a freezing cold rock tending a foghorn.

The original lighthouse lamps were from Scotland and are driven by a weight that drops over two hours after being hand cranked. The lamps were oil requiring that the inside and outside of the glass lantern be cleaned daily with vinegar.

Also at Cape Bonavista we saw our first Puffins of the trip. A colony of about 100 pairs nest on an island just offshore.

Leaving the Cape we head a few kilometers South to Dungeon Provincial Park to look at the rock caves that have been scoured out of the cliffs by the sea. Lovely vistas to the sea.

Next we head to Elliston to see more Puffins. This is the site that most people come to when looking to see Puffins. It is said that if you sit quietly some might come and land near you as they are an inquisitive bird. Today the winds are high and the ground wet, no sitting for us. Enjoy a few pictures of Puffins.

Having seen our fill of Puffins (the Elliston colony has about 400 pairs) we head back into the town of Bonavista for some lunch. We find The Lovely Grand Bakeshop where we enjoy a soup, sandwich & coffee to warm ourselves up.

After a nice relaxing lunch and the purchase of a few baked items for later, we head out of town and toward Port Rexton where we stop at the Brewery and sample their wares, after which we purchase a couple of cans for further sampling at another time.

As the afternoon drew to a close we pulled into a parking lot adjacent to the Clarenville airport. It is used for emergencies only and thus the parking lot is empty and used primarily by those wishing to walk their dogs along the nearby ATV trail. Hopefully we will have a quiet night.

Tomorrow we head to the Avalon Peninsula.

Awaking to the sound of seagulls never gets old. Today we start in Twillingate outside of the dinner theatre we enjoyed so much last evening. The gulls are playing over the harbour and life returns to this quaint town as the sun peaks above the horizon. This wouldn’t last however as the clouds are moving in and rain is expected across Newfoundland today.

We manage to hit the road around 8:00am, pretty early for us, but the day will be long and we wanted to get it started in the hopes that there’ll be some daylight left upon our arrival in Bonavista.

We head South back toward Boyd’s Cove and then turn East on Route 231 towards Gander Bay where we turn North to follow Route 320 towards Musgrave Harbour and the North coast. The road is fairly good however is amongst the trees and so our eyes are wide open looking for moose. The rain has now settled in and falls steadily forming large puddles and rivulets on the asphalt hiding potholes, of which there are many.

By Cape Freels the trees had given way to wide areas of fenlands and we stop to stretch our legs and admire the sandy beach. This would be a nice place to dry camp for a day or two if the weather were warmer, for along with the rain a cold wind convinces us to skip a walk on the beach. Instead, just a few photos and then a hasty retreat to the warmth of the van and a return to the road.

Route 320 turns South and eventually returns us to the Trans Canada Highway where we turn East and head toward Terra Nova National Park. We stop at the Blue Hill Viewpoint and admire said view in our rain jackets. The wind is picking up and the rain continues. We have a quick lunch in the warmth of the van and then return to the TCH.

A little further East we turn onto Route 230 towards Bonavista. As there was a lot of road resurfacing taking place on the 230, we decide to take Route 235 along the coast of the peninsula. This might have been the initial road to Bonavista as it weaves through pretty villages on the coast; however, it now needs some reconstruction as much of the time driving it is spent swerving across the road to find the best way through and around the massive potholes while avoiding traffic traveling the other way.

Arriving intact in Bonavista we drive through the town (we’ll spend time here tomorrow) and head straight to Cape Bonavista where we pull into the Landfall municipal park. The town allows dry camping for up to 3 nights in the park (gravel parking lot) and tonight there are about 12 vehicles parked up.

We arrive at about 4:30pm and the rain is beginning to intensify along with the wind. We spend the evening watching some television glad that we are dry and warm. Outside the weather continues to worsen and by midnight the wind is heavily buffeting the van and the rain is being driven horizontally across the landscape.

Come back tomorrow and find out how we faired.