Posts by Virginia
Twillingate – A Whale of a Time
On August 4th, we reluctantly left Gros Morne Park. I could have spent much more time there and was sad to be leaving. We drove to Twillingate and found the RV park. Again, another back in. This one was more difficult because we had limited maneuvering space and we had to back in between very large trees. A fellow RVer came over and helped because I couldn’t be in both mirrors at the same time. We did it but it did take a bit of time. It was a lovely spot close to the ocean where I could take Lucy up a hill and then we sat on a bench at the top and drank in the view. For some reason I am finding the Atlantic Ocean to smell differently from the Pacific Ocean. The Atlantic Ocean smells briny to me where the Pacific smells like seaweed. I don’t think I am alone in that. In the evening we took a drive around the area and accidentally drove up to a lighthouse that was perched up at the top of a cliff. I have some photos of it that I took from the ocean looking up but I had forgotten my camera so didn’t get any pics from the land side looking down. I booked a boat tour for the next morning. When we woke up, it was drizzly and foggy. We weren’t sure if the boat trip would still go but packed up our rain gear and headed off to the boat. As we were standing on the wharf, it suddenly cleared off. Amazing! Captain Cecil took us out the bay and found the humpback whales fishing. Lots of great photos. I learned to put my camera in sports mode so that it would snap a pic every few seconds and that’s the only way I could capture them. We would have been happy even if we hadn’t seen whales. It was just great to be out on the water. The boat passed by the tall cliffs with the lighthouse. Twillingate is also a special spot. Lots of older homes. Everyone is putting vinyl siding on their houses and removing the clapboard. It changes the look to something more cosmopolitan and seems to take away a lot of the charm. We were really craving a restaurant meal for some reason so decided to risk it again. Off we...
Read MoreShoal Brook – Water’s Edge
We booked August 2nd and 3rd to spend some more time in Gros Morne Park. After a very relaxing afternoon at the River of Ponds, where we had much needed downtime, we headed back to Gros Morne and a spot right on the ocean at Waters Edge in Shoal Brook. It was another back in. Don will soon be a pro. Beautiful. Right on Bonne Bay near Woody Point. After unhooking, we drove up to the Discovery Centre to find out more about the guided hike to the Tablelands the next morning. That side of Gros Morne Park is pretty spectacular. We did a quick run through Woody Point and then back to the rig for dinner. The next morning we made the 20 minute drive to the parking lot and headed off to explore another absolutely fascinating geological location. It was weird to think we were walking on ancient ocean floor. It looked like the moon. After our hike, we drove to Trout River and then back to explore Woody Point. We had been thinking it would be nice to eat out and that’s when I discovered that it probably would not be a good thing for me to eat out. Too much seafood on the menus and the possibility of cross contamination so much to Don’s dismay, we had to go back to cook our own food. we spent our last afternoon in Gros M9rne sitting behind our rig on the ocean watching the local fishermen going for mackerel and cod right from the beach. Once again the water was not potable. The source was a dam up on the mountain and it could be accessed by moose and other critters. So many boil water advisories on that side of Newfoundland. Once again, once I find better wifi, I will upload the...
Read MoreRiver of Ponds
It was only a four hour drive to the RV park so we took the long way through Roddington, the moose capital of Newfoundland. Sure enough, as we were dodging potholes in the road, three moose crossed the road in front of us. Fortunately we were going slow enough and didn’t hit them. Moose are a major problem on Newfoundland roads. There are a lot of people killed every year. Moose are also destroying the environment because they eat so much and killing trees. Their presence is really changing Gros Morne’s forests and hunting is now allowed within park boundaries. We’ve only seen five moose so far. One very large moose was standing in the ditch and looked like a statue. I didn’t realize it was a live moose until we had passed it and it turned its head to watch us go by. We dropped Ronald, the hitchhiker, off, hoping he would quickly get a ride, and went to our second back in site. It was really pretty at River of Ponds and even though it was kind of cold and foggy, there were some kids playing in the pond. We were unable to hook up to the “drinking” water, though. A lot of the drinking water is not treated and comes from ponds that can be accessed by critters large and small. People are really paranoid about another Walkerton so everyone says to boil the water. We don’t hook up to those water sources because we don’t want to contaminate our water hose or our water lines in the 5th wheel. We have enough water onboard to handle one or two nights without being hooked up. There was a nice hike through the woods and we thought it might take us around the lake but it eventually just disappeared several feet from the shore. Kind of disappointing. We found out in the morning it was just a moose trail. There were moose droppings right behind where we were parked. I also saw a vole running along the edge of our parking spot. We had a much needed restful afternoon. We have read so many books on this trip. Inspector Banks became a familiar character through his murder mysteries. There is no TV reception, cell reception is intermittent, sometimes there are no radio stations – not even CBC – and even if the RV parks advertise wifi (or...
Read MoreVeggies
Ok, that’s a strange title but here’s the reason. All along the roads all the way up the West coast of Newfoundland, you see the roadside gardens. Potatoes, turnips, sometimes lettuce and carrots are planted. We were told some people drive 50 miles to tend their little roadside gardens. When the roads were built, the richest peat soils were stirred up by the heavy equipment and that makes it the best spots to have these small gardens. The small communities across Newfoundland have very interesting grocery stores. The stores we went into in the smaller communities didn’t have very much in the way of fresh vegetables for sale. Actually, nothing that I could bring myself to buy. The pop coolers contained the veggies. What can I say except that I wouldn’t keep those veggies – they would be in my compost bin really quickly. And there they were, for sale! Kids who get to go to the bigger city grocery stores must be amazed to see the selection of veggies you can buy. All of the smaller stores had large chest freezers lined up down the aisle, with labels carefully stuck on the lids showing what was inside. Everything was frozen. I can understand why that had to be done. There just wasn’t the population to purchase the fresh foods and to stop waste. I have to say, though, I won’t look at potatoes the same anymore. That’s about all I could...
Read MoreGros Morne – Not enough time…
We spent the 25th to 30th in Gros Morne park. What can I say about it. Only one word works and that word is “WOW”! We stayed in Rocky Harbour at the Gros Morne RV Park. On the 26th we did several shorter hikes visiting Norris Point, Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse, Green Point and several others. Don refused to come with me for an 8 hour hike up Gros Morne Mountain and he didn’t want me to do it by myself so I made him hike as many trails as I could find. The 27th found us hiking the 3km boardwalk to Western Brook Pond to take the 2 hour boat tour through the ancient landlocked fjords. Amazing! The water doesn’t conduct electricity. Truly an enjoyable way to spend 2 hours. 3km back to the parking lot. Unfortunately Lucy had to stay back in the rig as dogs were not allowed on the boat but she got her long walks in the morning and afternoon. The 28th was spent on another boat tour around Bonne Bay. We were fortunate to see a minke whale. I couldn’t snap a photo fast enough to catch it with my camera but I got some great shots of the ocean. 🙂 Life in Newfoundland certainly was no picnic back in the day. When we were passing by Woody Point, the guide who grew up there said the houses were insulated with sawdust or old clothing – anything to keep the cold out. He told us that at one point in time, the Newfoundland government was offering to provide a ram to the smaller remote communities so they could raise sheep. One of the residents of Woody Point heard about the program and wrote to ask for a ram. The response was that the community was to small to be given a ram. He wrote back and said that it wasn’t for the people but for the sheep. A little local humour there. On our “last” day in Gros Morne we decided that we wanted to come back to hike the Tablelands (30 km behind us) and visit Trout River and Woody Point so we booked a 2 night stay for after our visit to the far northern tip of the “West Coast” as it is referred to here. We drove to Cow Head with a couple of hiking trails in mind and also...
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