Our View From The Road

It’s 4:30am. Why am I awake? Argh!

It was windy overnight and we found out that when parked in a particular angle to the wind it might spin a fan in the air conditioning unit on the roof of the van. It did this last night and kept me awake. 😞

By 7:30am we were leaving a very nice beachside parkup and heading to Gander. This takes about 3hrs and during that time we drive through fog and rain. A good day to move along.

Arriving in Gander we visit the Silent Witness Memorial where the story of an air crash from Dec 1985 is memorialized. The crash killed 256 men & women of the U.S. 101st Airborne Division as well as the flight crew. They were returning home from a peacekeeping mission in Egypt. It is the deadliest aviation accident on Canadian soil.

Next we visited the Gander International Airport where we looked around the International lounge which has been left pretty much as it was used in the 1950’s – 1970’s. It was during this time that all flights heading to Europe stopped at Gander to refuel, as such passengers disembarked and relaxed in the lounge while the planes were serviced. This means that many celebrities were seen socializing and enjoying a drink during these years at Gander.

The airport also has a very nice exhibit that describes how the airport has changed over the years and its critical role during the events of 9/11 when it became a temporary diversion location for 42 flights coming from Europe.

After relaxing at a park for the afternoon we visited the North Atlantic Aircraft Museum and arranged to park in their parking lot overnight.

Ahead of parking up we headed out for dinner and then a little shopping before returning to park and settle in for the night.

Despite a number of us parking overnight fairly close together, there was no noise at all from any of the campers. This morning we awoke to heavy fog (again) and couldn’t see across the bay directly in front of us. The town was going to be hosting a Canada Day celebration where we had parked and by 9:00am they were asking overnighters to relocate so that they could get things setup.

We headed off to the West and said goodbye to our busy little parking spot.

We were headed toward Cape St Mary to visit the Ecological Reserve. The drive was about 2hrs and we saw sunshine and then more fog. The best thing we saw along the way (but got no picture) was a female moose and her calf drinking at a small lake. That makes moose’s #7 & #8.

Arriving at the Ecological Reserve we were hoping to be able to parkup for the night but they had clear signs stating no overnight parking. Other plans will have to be made. Anyway, we headed into the information centre and then out along the 1.4km walk to view birds at Bird Rock.

The walk through the fog along the cliff tops was magical. Sure, it would have been nice to look out across the ocean and maybe see whales, but the fog had its own wonder and cast a soft light on everything.

Arriving at Bird Rock we saw 1000’s of Gannet’s, Razorbill’s, Kittiwake’s and Murre’s. We were on a rocky headland about 300ft (100m) above the waves crashing on the rocks below. The birds soared in the wind and somehow found their way back to their mate sitting on nests of eggs.

After enjoying the show for a while & realizing that we were drenched from the fog we walked back to the van and enjoyed a light lunch before leaving.

We had decided to drive North toward Placentia where it appeared that there were several park ups from which to choose. After just a few minutes of driving the fog dissipated allowing us a better view out to sea as we drove along the coast. Through small hamlets in deep valleys, the road twisted, dove and rose again as we proceeded northward.

Arriving in Placentia we decided to take a look at the Parks Canada historical site, Castle Hill. A French built fort atop a hill that overlooks Placentia Bay. The fort was lost by the French to the English during the seven years war. The ruins today are remarkable intact and the views are spectacular.

Leaving the historical site we head back into Placentia to fill up on fuel and then head back South of town to a park up spot we passed earlier. Just a few minutes of backtracking and we had a lovely grassy spot next to the sea.

This will do nicely ahead of our drive tomorrow to Gander.

Checkout day….. Time to say goodbye to St John’s and get back on the road. We’re heading South on the Avalon peninsula, but first a shower, fill the fresh water tank & dump waste. The park showers are really very good albeit a bit small, as such I’m giving them 8/10.

Campsite teardown went smoothly and we’re driving off of our site at about 9:00am. We drive to Topsail Rd where we stop to restock on grocery items at the Sobey’s. Done. Now onto Tim Horton’s for breakfast. Done.

Stocked and fed we head out onto Route 10 which has the title “The Irish Loop”. We head toward Ferryland.

A lovely natural harbour, Ferryland was settled in 1621; however, by 1629 the town founder thought the prospects and conditions to be too harsh and so went back to England leaving the settlers to make it on their own. We visited the gift shop and inquired as to the lighthouse but discovered that it takes an hour to hike out and that today no picnic lunches were available. The tearoom in the village was also closed for the day.

Returning to Route 10, we continued to Portugal Cove South where we stopped to admire the large shingle beach. We then headed East towards the Cape Race lighthouse where we thought we might spend the night.

The road to the lighthouse is a wonderfully twisty road that rises up and down along the craggy coastline. It is paved for about half of its 20km length, the remainder being a wash boarded gravel road.

Arriving at Cape Race we find that the interpretive centre is closed, so we read the outdoor information boards that provide a short history of the lighthouse and life on the Cape over the years. We then took a walk around the lighthouse and admired the views out to the sea.

The winds are reminding us of Bonavista and we realize that with the seafog lingering just offshore and the winds be what they are, we are not likely to get a very good nights sleep. So we setup our Starlink dish and investigated alternate options for the night.

The Holyrood Interpretive Centre near St Vincent’s a little further along the coast seems to fit the bill so we pack up and head back toward Route 10 and continue Westward on The Irish Loop.

45 minutes later after some very uneven and potholed road we arrive in a very foggy parking area where there are already 6-8 campers parked up. As I write this, about an hour later there are at least 12 campers parked up for the night.

We’ve settled in and Barb is booking the last few nights of accommodation for us in Newfoundland. We have one week left before we cross back to Nova Scotia and there are still places to go and sights to see.

This campground is sooo quiet. We slept really well and took our time getting going today. We even enjoyed an outdoor pancake breakfast.

At around 10:30am we headed out and again using an Uber got a ride back to The Rooms where we would wait for the hop-on/hop-off tourbus. It arrived shortly before noon and we took it out to Cape Spear.

Cape Spear is the Easternmost point of Canada and has Newfoundlands oldest lighthouse. The sea fog was drifting about but when we arrived it was clear enough to get some pictures towards the entrance to St John’s harbour.

There are two lighthouses at the cape, the original from 1836 and a new automated light built in 1955.

Before we left the fog had rolled back in brought by a stiff Southerly wind.

The tourbus took us back into St John’s and dropped us near the harbour.

We then walked to the Mile 0 marker of the Trans Canada Highway (remember that I had mentioned a couple of days ago that the marker is in downtown St John’s and not at the physical end of the highway).

We then walked to Water St which for the Summer months has been closed to vehicular traffic and is currently a pedestrian street. Barb took some time to check out several shops along the street and then we stopped for lunch at The Celtic Hearth. I enjoyed a moose burger and Barb had a Lobster roll. We both had a beer to accompany our lunch.

The remainder of the afternoon was spent wandering along Water St looking in shops and taking interesting photos.

We ended the afternoon visiting the Terry Fox memorial which is located at the foot of The Battery at the North end of the harbour.

We wandered back toward the South end of the harbour and onto George St. unfortunately all of the bars were not yet open and so we could not get ourselves “screeched in”. As such we arranged for an Uber to return us to our campsite where we began organizing ourselves ahead of our leaving St John’s tomorrow morning.

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.