Cape Breton to Pictou

We've booked into the Harbour Light campground for 4 days just outside of Pictou, a picturesque ship building town that is home to the historic sailing ship Hector.

On Sunday afternoon we set out to drive in Granny to Halifax to pick up John and Peggy who are flying in from Ottawa, where they have been spending a few days visiting friends and relatives. Heavy rain has been falling, but the skies clear as we get close to the airport.

The skies absolutely open up on our trip back to Dutchess in Pictou, its even a challenge to keep up an average speed on the freeway. We are all commenting on how good the main highway system is in Nova Scotia. Our return to the campground the flooding has us wadding from the car to Dutchess.

Return to Nova Scotia

After a late arrival on the ferry from Newfoundland we did a quick run to the Arm of Gold campground only a few kms from the North Sydney Ferry Terminal. The weather continues to be very wet, this is especially obvious at campsites as the ground can't absorb any more moisture. The next day we head south on Cape Breton Island through Beddeck and on to Port Hawkesbury for the night. The paved parking lots at Wal-Mart are drier than the soggy campgrounds!

On the road to Argentia and the ferry to Nova Scotia

We have been meaning to take a photo
of the customized garbage cans that each household has at its gate.

As we board the ferry we have still not seen a moose, but they are a constant hazard on the road with many accidents every year...note the bottom left of the sign.

We still have many places to visit here, but we are booked on the 12:30 AM ferry Tuesday morning from Argentia. This is a 14 hour trip back to North Sydney, Nova Scotia, but will save us a 900 km drive back to Port Aux Basques. True to form, Newfie hospitality would not let us go and the 14 hour trip extended to 17 .5 hours on the ferry 'J & C Smallwood'.

Irish Loop Drive

On Sunday we drove from our campground across high Moore land to the Irish Coast, South of St. John's. Witless Bay, Bauline East and at Bay Bulls saw this dock with the huge components for wind turbines. We have noticed that Newfoundland is much more prosperous than 6 years ago. Oil money is coming in from Newfoundland workers in Alberta as well as its own offshore drilling platforms. A new offshore field was announced, Hebron, while we were here, this will bring 'billions' into the province in the next 20 years....Newfoundland is now a 'have province'.

Conception Bay

On the shore we spotted a 'Newfie' style swimming hole, fresh water is entering and then flowing out to the sea. They are a hardy bunch!

Harbour Grace, Conception Bay

Just had to take a picture of 'Clarke's Legacy' in Harbour Grace, a fishing boat in very nice shape. The fishing fleet goes out in the spring for snow crab and in the autumn for cod. The statue is of Amelia Earhart, she departed from Harbour Grace on her historic flight, The first women to fly solo across the Atlantic. A DC3 from Labrador Airlines is in the background.

A grounded coastal freighter lies just off the beach, has been there for awhile as the decks and roof were growing grass. The Anglican church in town dates back to 1835.

Conception Bay

The windy and rainy days have out numbered the sunny ones this month, but today is beautiful and we are expecting temperatures into the high 20ies. We still have many places to visit here. Conception Bay is just the right place for a day tour by car. A little village that we wanted to revisit from 6 years ago is Brigus, a National Historic Site. Hawthorne Cottage the home of Capt. Robert Adam Bartlett and the Great Grandfather of a friend of ours in Vancouver. The sail monument is dedicated to him and he had the tunnel hand dug and blasted with black powder in the mid 1800's.The tunnel comes out to where the sail boats are anchored and he would have loaded his ships in that location.

Quidi Vidi

Close to downtown St. John's is the recreation area of Quidi Vidi. A very narrow entrance from the sea provides a small and well protected anchorage. A fresh water lake where the oldest rowing regatta in Canada is held every year flows into the harbour.. A large number of 'up market' houses and condo's are being built in this area.

Many of the older row houses in the downtown area are very well maintained and often painted in very bright colours.

St John's Mile 0

Back downtown we found the Mile 0 mark for the Trans Canada Highway, or as they say here ‘Where Canada begins’. This marker shows Victoria and their Mile 0 mark as 5097 kms away. But you have to put it in perspective, which is the beginning and which is the end. In Newfoundland you are either, from ‘Here’ or ‘Away’.

Newmar

At Signal Hill we spotted in the parking lot a new Newmar (same manufacturer as 'Dutchess') diesel pusher about 34'. It had a driver and passenger door up front as well as an entry door mid coach, and no slides! A very nice sized coach. It certainly has a very European look to it.

St John's Signal Hill

Going back through the city we climbed up to Signal Hill, where Marconi received the first wireless message, a Morse code ‘S’, ‘…’, across the Atlantic, from Southern England, in December 1901. There is an operating 'Ham' station in the tower, it was interesting to see how many visiting 'Hams' had signed into the visitors book each day.

This prominent area provided a first line defence for St. John’s harbour for several centuries.

While touring the grounds we met this 3 year old 'gentle giant', Newfoundland puppy. His ancestors were left here by the Vikings in about the year 1000 AD when they left the island to return to Europe.

Signal Hill Sign Posts

The distance from here to London is 3733 kms and to Vancouver 5031 kms.

St. John's Cape Spears

We were lucky enough to see humpback whales blowing and breaching just off the light house. The original light house was built in 1837.

St. John's, Cape Spears

Cape Spears is just south east of the city and is the most easterly location in North America at 47 31 north and 52 36 west. A very early lighthouse was established on this location and is now being maintained as it would have been in 1837. The house is well furnished and has forks from the 1840’s that are of the same design as a fork that we inherited.

Terra Nova National Park

A second National Park, Terra Nova provided terrific campsites and we were lucky to be able to attend a classic ‘Newfie’ open air concert, all performed with local artists. The National Park system right across Canada is a huge asset to be proud of and we know, will always make the natural environment available to all. Kathy insists that I tell you that we had to drive back to Gander to pick up my Team NZ 2003 jacket that I left behind when receiving emails in the lounge at the campsite. It was a 160km return trip in the pouring rain! Its my favourite jacket! We left ‘Dutchess’ at the campsite in Terra Nova Park and above Gambo saw where they were still trying to clear the blockage that caused the flooding. The return trip took 2 ½ hours and within an hour of getting back to ‘Dutchess’ we heard that they had closed the TCH for 24 hours. A one inch crack had appeared in the tarmac and there was a hole underneath that, the Mayor of Gambo said, was large enough for two cars.

North of Gander

North of the Gander area are many of the old fishing villages, with a special character all to themselves. From Lewisporte the ferry leaves for Labrador and farther north on the Peninsula is the Twillingate area. One day touring with Dutchess and Granny in tow we had to stop and disconnect the car 3 separate times as we just didn’t have room to turn or back up. The fog was rolling in over Twillingate on our arrival, not good for picture taking, but it sure created a special atmosphere with the fog horn booming and the lighthouse, eerie above us! Note: The bear skin nailed to the door and the burl posts outside the cabin.

Gander

From Gros Morne we continued east to Gander and were secure in a campground when heavy rain and wind hit actually shutting down the ‘TCH’ for 24 hours due to flooding and a potential slide. Gander has a very large airport and on ‘9/11’ over 40 jets bound to and from North America and Europe had to land here. The town became well known for feeding and housing more stranded passengers than its own population. Gander has a good aviation museum, with aircraft and equipment from WW 2 when it was a major staging base to ferry aircraft and personal to England.

Gros Morne National Park

The park is a study in contrasts, from barren mountain sides to lush valleys, in some cases divided by the highway. Note the huge pile of firewood, beside the heating oil tank all in preparation for a rather long and cold winter. Most houses, especially in the small towns have very ample supplies of firewood, usually very neatly stacked and often right by the side of the road. Just outside of Rocky Harbour is the historic lighthouse at Lobster Point.

Gros Morne National Park

Rocky Harbour was our campsite site in Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland’s largest park, with large rounded mountains, hiking trails, huge bays and inlets of the sea. Easy to spend a few days here. On one of our exploratory trips the 3 masted square rigger ‘Caledonia’ arrived from Halifax. We caught, at the local fish shop, fresh cod, salmon and scallops for dinner.