Down East with the Cousins

[Jeff]

Betty:

Yes, we are having a great time! Like you, Terry, and Russ we are rushing up here trying to finish seeing everything we want to do before the ferry on the 31st. The good weather is sure helping.

Ardra:

I find myself reusing words like that again and again but I have run out of vocabulary to describe this island!

 

[Jeff]

Sunday:  Headed North

We left Rocky Harbour this morning headed to the Northern end of the peninsula and the town of St Anthony. We are here to visit the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site of the Vikings town that was the first European settlement in North America.

On the way up the French Shore of Newfoundland we stopped at Port au Choix to visit the National Heritage Site that was a large settlement of the first residents of Newfoundland.The Atlantic Archaic people occupied the northern peninsula 5500-3200 years ago because of the large population of seals who were trapped on the jammed spring ice flows in the Straits of Belle Isle and the Caribou who crossed the frozen Straits in winter from Labrador. These food supplies sustained the Archaic and the Palaeoeskimo who followed them 2800-1300 years ago. The last of the native peoples were the Beothuk who occupied Newfoundland 2000-800 years ago as the seal population declined in warming weather and lived by hunting Caribou. The excavations at Port au Choix includes two large towns of their whale bone huts as well as a large find of artifacts that helped reconstruct the life of these early residents.

Jeff's goal was to also photograph the fossilized sea life at nearby Point Richie?s limestone shoreline. He was the only visitor who wanted to endure the 50mph winds that were pelting the shoreline with spray but after more than an hour of scrambling over the shoreline he settled for ONE fossilized shell! Everyone will probably tell him exactly where the big finds were but the opportunity is gone!

We arrived at the Triple Falls RV Park outside St Anthony a little after 5:00PM and got settled before leaving for town and a very good dinner at the Fishing Point Restaurant at the St Anthony Lighthouse. We stopped for Jeff's first Tim Horton coffee in a week and headed back to the campground. We are really roughing it up here while out at the park: no cell phone service, no WIFI, and one snowy TV channel to watch the Olympic closing ceremonies tonight.

Jeff plans on going back into town to post this and check emails in a little while using the library's WIFI from the parking lot.

 

[ArdraF]

the 50mph winds that were pelting the shoreline

Ah yes, and I'll bet the warmth of your nice cozy motorhome was more than welcome, even without cell service and good TV.    Seriously, it made us think about the bone-chilling cold the early people up there must have experienced and we were so thankful to live in the 21st Century!  By the way, that was a nice fossil, Jeff.

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Monday:    Vikings and Moose

We drove about 20 miles up to the very northern tip of Newfoundland this morning to visit the archeological discovery of the first Viking settlement in North America. The National Historic Site is one of the main visitor destinations in northern Newfoundland and does a great job of educating its guests.

We arrived to find two moose grazing nearby, a nice distraction to start off the day!

L?Anse aux Meadows (Pond of Meadows, or ?Latsa Medders?, as our young Newfoundland guide told us the locals pronounce it) provides a strategic view of the Straits of Belle Isle between Newfoundland and Labrador. The eight buildings? location looks out across the Strait to Labrador. Several commemorative sculptures and plaques decorate the site but the ?Meeting of Two Worlds is the most impressive. Developed by two artists, one in Sweden and the other in Newfoundland/Labrador, the two parts join perfectly to symbolize the first contact of the two cultures.

The story of its discovery by historian Dr Helge Ingstad and his wife archeologist Anne Stine Ingstad is a fascinating tale of research of ancient Norse Sagas and actual searching by ship of the Maritime Coast from New Brunswick to Labrador. The pair finally met local fisherman George Decker who knew of grassy mounds at L?Anse aux Meadows that locals assumed were burial grounds of native peoples. Their discovery was the final proof of the Norse being the first to discover North America and the area was researched for 12 years by the Ingstads and Parks Canada. The actual discovery has been recovered with dirt and sod for preservation and a replica of five of the buildings constructed nearby as part of the site.

We then visited Norstead, a private replica of a Viking Village and Port of Trade, nearby that had a beautiful Viking trade ship, the Scorri, that had been built in Maine, transported to Greenland, and then sailed back to L?Anse aux Meadows to demonstrate the skill of the Norse sailors. While Norstead takes a great deal of license with the actual facts known about L?Anse aux Meadows we enjoyed poking around for awhile. We then had lunch and headed back to St Anthony this afternoon to get access to the internet, make some calls, and visit the Grenfell Properties intown.

English by birth Dr Wilfred Grenfell came to Labrador in 1892 as part of the Royal National Mission to the Deep Sea Fisherman who served the cod fishery of the area. Grenfell also had deep Christian beliefs that he shared as he traveled about Labrador ending to the medical needs of the families there and trying to ease the hard life they led. Grenfell was an active outdoorsman who wrote many books of his exploits in Labrador, formed many organizations to help local residents, was knighted and given world-wide recognition for his efforts

Eventually the Grenfell Mission established nursing stations along the Labrador Coast, built hospitals, served residents with hospital ships and aircraft, and provided education as well as helping the fisherman fend for themselves with coops and marketing. The Newfoundland/Labrador Regional Medical Center in St Anthony became recognized as the leading health provider on the Island and was replaced by the Dr Charles S Curtis Memorial Hospital in 1938 that included beautiful murals in the lobby that were commissioned in 1966 from Montreal artist Jordi Bennett. The murals commemorate the generations of residents of the Coasts of Newfoundland/Labrador and Dr Charles Curtis of Massachusetts who devoted 40 years to managing the hospital and the Grenfell Association.

We returned to the motorhome early and are enjoying a relaxing night after several days of hard-paced exploring.

 

[Jeff]

The weather caused a change of plans this morning. We woke up to rain and a forecast of more in northern Newfoundland so we packed up and headed to St Barbe and the Newfoundland Ferry. We left the motorhome parked at the local municipal RV park across the street from the ferry terminal and caught the 1:00PM ferry crossing to Lourdesde Blanc-Sablon, Quebec which is a couple of miles from the Labrador border on the Straits of Belle Isle.

The crossing on the Apollo takes 90 minutes and by the time we cleared the Newfoundland coast the sun was back out and we had a beautiful afternoon. We checked into the Northern Lights Inn and headed up the coast to Red Bay, the end of the paved road on the Labrador Coastal Drive.

Red Bay is the site of a 1500's Basque Whaling settlement and includes the discovery of a Basque whaling ship that had sunk there 400 years ago. The site is a National historic Site for Parks Canada ad they have a beautiful exhibit there that displays information on the Right Whale that inhabited the area as well as the recovery of the wreck of the Basque whaler.

The Basques populated the Labrador coast for over 70 years beginning in 1520's with as many as several hundred men in 15 vessels in pursuit of whale oil, at the time a source of fuel for lights and in medicine. They remained over the summer killing whales and rendering the oil.The Basque ship sunk after losing its moorings in a storm and was discovered by Canadian archaeologists who recovered the vessel in pieces, constructed a 1/10th scale model, and replaced the wreckage at the bottom of Red Bay for preservation.

We finished the afternoon with dinner at the Whaler Restaurant there at the whaling site and then enjoyed a leisurely drive back down the coast toL'Anse au Clair and the Northern Lights Inn.

 

[Jeff]

Wednesday:  Our Own Private Campground with a $1,000,000 View

We were up early after a restless night?s sleep on a motel mattress listening to everyone around us going to the bathroom or the bar and agreed it would be good to be back in our own bed tonight! We drove back up the coast 15 miles to Point L?Anse Amour Lighthouse and museum, one of four imperial style lighthouses in Canada and the second tallest.

The beautiful structure was built to withstand 120MPH winds that are not uncommon on the Labrador Straits. There are 102 steps to the top but the climb is well worth the view of the surrounding area. The lighthouse also includes an extensive museum of the area including several shipwrecks on the immediate coast.

We decided on a hike before leaving the lighthouse and got to see the Amour Patch Reefs, mushroom shaped rocks formed over a 530 million-year-old sponge! We also walked down to the remains of the HMS Raleigh, a British warship that ran aground in heavy winds and fog in the early 1920?s. Fortunately all but one wreck resulted in no loss lives.

We then headed back south and crossed 4 miles back into Quebec to Blanc Sablon to catch the 1:00PM ferry back to St Barbe, Newfoundland. While waiting for the ferry we purchased fresh-frozen cod for $5.00 a pound, individual servings of frozen Cocquile St Jacques for $3.00 each, and halibut fillets for $7.00 a pound. part of the seafood cache we intend taking back with us! The 90 minute crossing is quite enjoyable on the Apollo which was designed for longer crossings and has comfortable accommodations. We hooked back up to the motorhome in St Barbe and headed south around 3:00PM.

One of the interesting Newfoundland practices that we have not seen elsewhere is the use of the highway right-of-way for personal use. Once we left St John's and headed west we noticed gardens, wood cutting operations, and storage of lobster traps on a very regularly basis, especially on the west coast of the island. Newfoundland is definitely one of the few places we have been where this can be done without worrying about vandalism or theft, it just isn't the Newfoundland way.

A couple of hours later we chose a beautiful overlook of the Straits of St Lawrence 25 miles south of Port au Choix and set up for the night. The magnificient view is a great backdrop for a relaxing evening and dinner of fresh cod that we purchased at the ferry landing in Blanc Sablon.

This is being posted a day late because we had no coverage up on the coast last night. We had satellite signal strenths of 52 or so but the wind was blowing and could not hold the signal long enough to range. The view was worth it!

 

[Jeff]

Thursday:   Corner Brook, Newfoundland

W got up to a beautiful day with our only neighbor a seagull on the rocks below our parking space. We got off to a leisurely start and made our way back down The Viking Highway to where it intersects the Trans Canada at Deer Lake where we stopped for lunch and a visit to the Deer Lake Insectarium.

The mounted insect displays are very informative but everyone comes to visit the butterfly house. The insectarium receives 700 chrysalis (chrysalii ?) a day that hatch into butterflies within hours. They land on you as you walk around and are very active. Sue did a great job of doing a self portrait!

We then headed 30 miles down the TCH to Corner Brook, the second largest city in Newfoundland after St Johns and the commercial center of the west coast and the pulp paper business. We are parked at the Marble Mountain Ski Resort 4 miles east of Corner Brook.

The campground here is quite old, the sites way too small for the Tradewinds, and the electricity is barely enough to keep the batteries charged. The reason it is a great place is that it has WIFI, a Tim Hortons about 300' from our door, and above our heads is a six section zip line across the ski mountain that we are signed up for in the morning. Sue is ecstatic!

 

[ArdraF]

So glad you climbed to the top of the lighthouse!  We found the view looking out over the strait to be absolutely gorgeous.  We also lucked out and were there on a beautiful sunny day.  Obviously you did not get bitten by the black flies when you visited the ship wrecks.  Lucky you!  That's where they found me.  :'(

Also, Chet is the one who told us about the butterfly house.  It seems to be in an odd location, but people definitely do stop.  We thought it very interesting too.

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Ardra:

Sue did get eaten alive by black flies at L'Anse Amour! She is still applying lotion trying to get rid of the stinging.

For some reason they left me alone. ;D

 

[Jeff]

Friday:  Ski Areas and Lobster Coops

Today was a long day! It started at 9:00AM as we (as in both) met our group for a trip up Marble Mountain's Steady Brook Falls to ride the new zip line that was installed this summer and just opened. Zip lines have become Sue's new past time and somehow Jeff ended up participating this morning. We were driven part way up the mountain above Steady Brook Falls and rode six lines back and forth across the gorge that encases the Falls. We had a great time in spite of the occasionally light drizzle and finished up around noon.

Because of the forecast of rain tomorrow we decided to leave the m/h at Marble Mountain and drive south to Stephanville and the Port au Port Penninsula while the weather looked OK. Our drive down ended up in rain but by the time we were out on the peninsula the rain stopped and the afternoon gradually improved.Port au Port was settled on what was then known as the French Shore and maintained its French character through the Newfoundland take over in 1904 until WWII when jobs at the large American airbase built there in 1942 created a large number of good paying, English speaking jobs that replaced the farm and fishing occupations. The move to Stephanville and learning of English replaced the French heritage of most residents until the base closed in 1966.
Today there is an active effort to return to that French heritage reflected in the geography of the French Shore and the names of most families on Port au Port.

The trip around Port au Port was breathtaking. The effects of the sea on the exposed Cape is very apparent on the cliffs and seashore. After tramping around the Cape George cliffs we headed around the north side of the peninsula to 13 mile long Long Point.  The area started as temporary fishing camps for the french who then built an area known as winterhouses where they wintered. The mostly gravel road leads out to the abandoned community of Blue Beach whose residents were resettled by the government in the 1950s.Today the houses are used by the fisherman as temporary fishing cabins and the lobster equipment is stacked awaiting the reopening of lobster season next spring. The only resident we met on the last six miles of the trip were the rabbits and seagulls.

We stopped in Stephenville for dinner and did not get back to the m/h until 8:30PM this evening and will leave for the Port aux Basques area in the morning.

 

[Wendy]

Zip lines, eh? Looks like you guys are ready for the next season of Amazing Race !

Wendy

 

[Jeff]

Wendy:

Sue got the itch for this last yer at Whistler BC on our way to Alaska when we babysat for our daughter and SIL who went. She planned to take our other daughter the next day but got rained out three days in a row. Ever since just the word zip means its time to check out another run. This time I got shamed into going with her and it was fun but now I've done it. This is a new operation that opened a couple of weeks ago so after the safety briefing the earnest young guide asked if anyone had any last minute questions.

While everyone else looked at their feet I had to pipe up: "Who's the biggest guy who has ridden these lines?" Of course he pointed at me! So then: "Who is the oldest person who has gone down the hill?" And of course he keeps pointing!

I wish I believed this will be enough to satisfy Sue. ;D

 

[Jeff]

I should have mentioned that we are aboard the Leif Erickson on our way back to N Sydney, NS. The weather forecast for the Cabot Trail tomorrow is the only nice day for the next few so we came back a day early and will do the circle tomorrow. To get on a ferry we accepted the Leif Erickson which is running five hours late so we will be arriving at 5:00AM.

It is 11:00PM and Sue is upstairs trying to get to sleep and I am going to join her so I will update today's post tomorrow night.

 

[KodiakRV]

Blue Beach doesn't look too blue in the photos.   ???

Why did the government resettle the folks away from there in the 50s?  Radioactive waste dump area?  

 

[Jeff]

Frank:

The small coastal and island communities of Newfoundland are truly remote and isolated. As the cost of providing services to these areas became prohibitive the Newfoundland government created a formal resettlement program to bring these isolated people into larger communities. If all residents of one of these communities agreed the government bought them out on the condition that they agreed not to return for a specified period of time.

As a result there are small communities like Blue Beach all over the island.

 

[Jeff]

Saturday:  Saying Goodbye to Newfoundland

Because of the weather forecast in Nova Scotia we decided to change our reservations and leave on the ferry tonight for North Sydney to have a better chance at seeing the Cabot trail in good weather. We had a leisurely drive down to Port aux Basques including stopping for lunch where Jeff was able to connect our MotoSat and check email for the first time on the island. We arrived at Port aux Basques around 1:00PM and unhooked the CRV to go exploring along the South coast out to Rose Blanche-Harbour le Cou, the end of the highway about 25 miles east of the ferry.By the time we arrived it was pouring so we trekked out to the stone lighthouse in the rain to view the small museum and have a very interesting talk to the guide manning the site.

The people who live along this stretch of this rugged coast have to be of strong, enduring stock; the fishing out of these rocky harbors out to the Grand Banks was a hard way to make a living. Today most families' income is earned by working ore oats and freighters on the Great Lakes as there is no work here with the fishery shut down. The woman working as the guide at the lighthouse is married to a sailor on a tanker that travels the Great Lakes and he works 30 days then is home for 30.
By the time we worked our way back along the coast the weather improved and we got to see the imposing rocks that make up its shores. Towns with names of Burnt Islands and Isle aux Morts (Island of the Dead because of the many shipwrecks along this coast) still exists but with very small populations.We got back and checked in at the ferry to find that the now thrice-delayed ferry would not be leaving until 10:30PM. We spent the evening having dinner in the m/h and visiting with nearby RV passengers. We boarded and departed around 10:30PM. Sue headed for the cabin we had fortunately reserved for some sleep. and after wandering around for an hour or so Jeff joined her. We managed a pretty good five hours sleep until being awoken by the announcement that we would be docking in N Sydney. We disembarked at 4:20AM and drove a couple of miles to a parking area the Brewers had shown us in N Sydney where we went back to sleep until 8:00AM.

Our 25 days in Newfoundland has been very enjoyable; it is a beautiful island with scenic coasts but what truly makes it remarkable is its people. They have a diverse heritage of English, French, Scottish, and Irish ancestors but all consider themselves Newfoundlanders whose families all came to the coasts of Newfoundland for its fishery and whaling and have survived 500 years of hard living.

Newfoundlanders are very friendly; one day we pulled off the TCH and stopped for a moment to check directions. A man immediately stopped and asked where we were going, had us follow him to the campground, and then turned around and went in the direction he was going! We enjoyed our time among them.

 

[Jeff]

Sunday & Monday:  A Wet and Foggy Cabot Trail

After catching a few hours of additional asleep after docking early yesterday morning we drove up to the Arm of Gold campground, connected the electric cord and took off to do the Cabot Trail loop through the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. It is a 35 mile drive from N Sydney to Cheticamp on the northwest coast of Cape Breton and the wet entrance to the Park.

We stopped for a late brunch on the way over and then spent some time learning of Cheticamp's history and visiting the large St Peter's Catholic Church in town.
Cheticamp is one of those Arcadian communities in Canada trying to return to its French roots. The schools teach in French only and the residents are very cognizant of the Arcadian presence on the island. We also visited the Three Gables hooked rug museum that also tells of the Arcadians in Cheticamp. The women are quite proud of their status as experienced "hookers" and have made elaborate hooked rugs displaying every imaginable theme.

Leaving Cheticamp the entrance to the park is accompanied by an almost immediate climb to the Highlands above the picturesque west coast of Cape Breton that unfortunately also put us in the clouds. Most of the Park's coast was obscured until we descended and left the Park on its east end. So much for returning from Newfoundland a day early!The weather along the coast east of the park was enjoyable so we did get to see part of the loop. We also got to wait a half hour while a m/h that had slid off the muddy soft shoulders was retrieved by a very experienced wrecker operator that managed to get the m/h back on the road with no apparent damage.

The delay unfortunately prevented us from having time to take a tour of the Gaelic College in nearby St Ann's. Monday we did go back to the Gaelic College in St Ann's to visit the museum and had a great time. The history of the Scottish Clans and Gaelic life of the settlement of St Ann's by followers of NormanMacLeod (Normanites) is fascinating. MacLeod later moved the settlement to Australia and on to New Zealand where descendants still live. We have a friend Jim Matheson who is of Scottish descent and found history of the Clan Matheson displayed there. We had a great time!

We will leave N Sydney tomorrow after Sue's hair appointment and head towards Halifax, our next stop in a loop around Nova Scotia.

 

[ArdraF]

It's too bad you had such poor visibility on the Cabot Trail because it is so pretty.  On the other hand, you and the Brewers filled in some of our blank spots, such as east of Port aux Basques which we didn't even attempt because visibility was so bad.  Also the Gaelic College was closed when we were there and I really wanted to see it.  A reason to return!! 

ArdraF

 

[Jeff]

Ardra:

The College was so interesting that we are in Pictou tonight and plan on staying for a couple of days to tour the "Plymouth Rock" of the first Scottish settlers in Nova Scotia (New Scotland).

 

[ArdraF]

and plan on staying for a couple of days

And that, my friends, is what RVing is all about.  Stop, change direction, pause and go on, whatever!  Glad you're enjoying it.

ArdraF