Rock On

So off on a hike we went. Gros Morne still beckoned, so we headed there and started hiking, even though there was again a bit of light rain and mist - no plans to climb the mountain (too rugged for my knees and Linda's back, and weather not too conducive). We hiked as far as the base of the steep part of the mountain, where the hike becomes a climb up a 60 degree slope on skree, and around boulders. We managed to spot one moose on the hike, and by the time we'd returned to our car, we'd hiked 9 Km., and were soaking wet. So back to the camp for a hot shower and a change of clothes, and a bite to eat, and we were ready to visit the Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse, where the locals were advertising a party to celebrate the lighthouse's 112th birthday. It was still raining, but lots of people showed up for the party, which had local musicians, dancers, homemade food, tea, coffee, and soft drinks. In fact, I think they were stunned so many people had showed up - they were planning on about 30, and got about 150! But they just threw up some tarps, and the party was fine.....in Newfoundland a get-together like that is a "Time" and we had a lovely time clapping and stomping our feet to the fiddle/accordian tunes, and watched the dancing going on.



Having a "Time"










We called it a night at about 2100, and headed back into the camp, under our big blue tarp for another night of cool and rain. We figured out that so far we'd spent 43 nights tenting, 9 in a cabin, 2 in a motel, and the rest with friends/relatives. So not too bad for the halfway point of our trip.


Linda's new tarp in action








By morning, the rain had stopped again (temporarily). We decided on a quiet day of just driving around checking out some of the points we'd missed, and then an evening of entertainment at a local pub. We drove out to Woody Point on the South Arm of Bonne Bay, walking around the village and stopping for a chowder lunch. We were also in the market for a coffee filter system, as our coffee bodum cracked on us yesterday morning, and I'm now starting to feel the jitters from the thought of doing without coffee! (Actually, we did "Camp Coffee" today, and it wasn't bad!). The stores around are combination grocery/hardware/beer/knickknack stores, but alas - no coffee filter funnels or bodums are to be found. Perhaps we'll find some when we get to the Cornerbrook area tomorrow. After supper, we drove into Rocky Harbour to attend a show at the local pub, the Oceanview Motel, where a group, "Anchors Aweigh", were said to put on a good show.....and they lived up to their reputation. We had a fine time, enjoyed the musical talents and repertoire of the group, and it turned out to be so popular that it is always standing-room-only when they do this show. Our table seated four, so we were joined by a couple, Maryann and Jim, from Michigan, who spend a great deal of their retired life in an RV, travelling a great deal. At midnight (very late for us!) we left for our campsite. As we exited the motel, a very heavy rainshower greeted us, and as we drove back to the camp about 8 km. away, we had to drive at an extremely sedate 15 Km. per hour, as the rain was so heavy that we could barely make out the road, even with our wipers going as fast as they could. Our tent was still dry, however, and stayed that way through the night of lightning, thunder, and very heavy rain. Sure was a good thing I'd given Linda a nice big tarp for her birthday! We didn't sleep well that night, however, due to the noise of the rain on the tarp, and wondering if/when we may have to abandon to the car with a flood or landslide. By morning, the showers became a bit more intermittent, and we were able to take the tent down and keep things dry under the tarp until getting it all put away. It was still raining, however, so we availed ourselves of the KOA cooking cabin to make our breakfast and check on emails, then headed South, past Deer Lake, to Cornerbrook, which is the second largest city in Newfoundland (40,000 people). It also has shopping, and we were able to find a Canadian Tire store with a coffee filter that will meet our needs for the rest of the trip. We continued through CornerBrook on the Captain Cooks Trail, which runs along the south side of the Humber River. There was some spectacular scenery with big waterfalls flowing over craggy cliffs, and some very lovely protected harbours in nooks along the way.




One of many Cascades, along S. side of the Humber













In one of the harbours was a fishboat named "Gallant Lady", which made us think of our friends Al and Donna back home.


Little Harbour, a quiet fishing harbour










We stopped for the night at a beautiful Provincial Park. "Blow The Man Down" Park, in spite of being quite beautiful, was almost empty, and we had our choice of sites for the night. It has a boardwalk/stairway trail leading up a hill to a viewpoint, which I hiked, and was rewarded with some more beautiful views of the area.



Blow the Man Down Park









The name is appropriate for the park, as it is overlooked by a mountain of the same name, and it was indeed quite breezy (the campsites have good tree protection, however, so not a big problem). The clouds which had followed us around all day decided to return, and we had rain and drizzle overnight, again saved by the birthday tarp.
Being a Tuesday, it was also a day of reckoning. So here are our totals for week 10:
Distance travelled: 1375.4 Km. Gas: $ 178.19 Food: $ 210.54 Accommodation: $ 134.86 Other: $ 140.26 Total for week 10: $663.85 - over $46.00 under our $700.00 budget!!

Monday night had been tiring, so we slept in, and didn't get moving out of camp until 1100 the next morning, by which time the weather had cleared - finally it's summer again! On the way back through Cornerbrook, we stopped to visit the Captain Cook monument - that man really did get around! He honed his skills in cartography here, and mapped the Island of Newfoundland, as well as much of the St. Lawrence River, before proceeding to the South Pacific and our own West Coast. Then it was southbound again, passing Stephenville to circle the next peninsula to the south. Again we saw some beautiful scenery, stopping at Cape St. George for lunch, and then proceeding across the Port au Port Peninsula to the north side and back to Stephenville.

We were intrigued by several homes sporting lawn ornaments like these, at the end of Port au Port Peninsula.





It was still early afternoon, so we continued on to be in easy reach of the next big peninsula further south, at CodRoy, just north of Port aux Basques, where we are to get our ferry on Saturday.




Cape Anguille Light, end of CodRoy





At River Brook we found a campsite which met our budget ($12.00/night - one of our cheapest yet!). It did have a few drawbacks, however, as the blackflies here are as thick as we've seen them anywhere on the Island! The Barbecue was acting up, so we had to pan-fry our steaks for dinner. And we just heard on the news that there was a fire on the ferry we are supposed to be taking back, and that there will be delays over the next few days. Perhaps we will end up in Newfoundland even longer than we'd planned! A quiet night in the tent, under clear skies, and we were ready to continue on to Port Aux Basques area. As we drove onto the Codroy Peninsula area, the fog closed in, and the clouds did too. With a forecast for heavy rain/thundershowers for the afternoon and night, we decided to go for a roof, and got a housekeeping suite on Ile au Mort, a few Km. South of Port Aux Basques. With a free laundry, and kitchen included, we are able to maintin budget (just!), and have a nice dry place for the day, and start out with clean laundry as we proceed into Nova Scotia. We may have to Rock on, on the Rock for a little bit of extra time!

Halfway

Friday morning we were pleased to find that the very cold temperatures of the night had given way to a warming trend, and we didn't have to scrape the windshield of the car, as I'd feared we may have to do. We drove into L'Anse aux Meadows, where Parks Canada has made a National Historic Site at the location of an old Viking Settlement. Four moose (two bulls, two cows) were munching on the grass nearby as we drove into the site. Inside, we viewed a diarama, exhibits on artifacts, and a film, before going with a very knowledgeable and humourous guide to the location of the settlement, and then to a recreation of part of the settlement, occupied by several Norse. Then entire presentation was extremely engaging and we thought it was one of the more interesting sites (National Historic) we'd visited on this trip.



Bjorn the Beautiful greets us





















Weaving sailcloth, the old way










We ended up spending over three hours there, and it was after noon by the time we left. We found a picnic spot near the waterfront, and ate our lunch, viewing a couple of small bergs in the water.







A roadside garden bed, with
Newfie Scarecrow








A load of wood alongside
the highway....note the sled
used to haul it.









Then it was southbound for us, but instead of following the same road along the West side of the Peninsula, we took a loop highway across and Southeast, passing some of the most densely populated (by moose) part of Newfoundland. In this area are approximately 3 moose per square kilometre......but we only saw one of them, rushing into the bush along the highway.



Moose in the Tuckamore




We did spot a sign pointing off to an underground salmon pool - so, intrigued, we followed a dirt road to a parking area and hiked in a short way on a well-marked system of trails, to find a stream running into a cave. There were, indeed, some salmon swimming up the river and into the cavern. About 300 metres futher in the upstream direction, the stream was swirling into the cavern from the other side. This proved to be both interesting and a very good way to stretch our legs from the driving. So far we'd spent only $32.00on gas, (the Viking presentation was covered by our National Sites Pass) so we drove into the town of Roddickton, and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone before continuing on our loop over to the main road on the West side. Then we were retracing our route, southbound toward Gros Morne again. By 1700 it was time to find a place for the night, and pulled into a campsite at River of Ponds. It turned out to be one of our best deals yet, for a camping spot, at only $12.50 for the night. So we blew the extra on some beer in the store, and set up for the night under warm, sunny skies.
Saturday was another fine example of a warm and sunny summer day. Driving southbound toward Gros Morne, we called the KOA campgrounds and got a reservation for two nights (Gros Morne is particularly popular, and being a weekend, we decided we'd best be safe and book - it turned out to be a good decision, as everyplace we passed had "No Vacancy" signs posted....B&B's, cottages, campgrounds, everything.
We stopped at Western Brook and took a 3 Km. hike in to the Pond (What we'd call a lake in BC is a pond in Newfoundland), and decided to blow our daily budget on a boat trip up the pond and into a fjord-like (it's fresh water, so isn't really a fjord, but was dug out of the mountains by glaciers) area surrounded by high cliffs and waterfalls.


Western Brook Gorge










It reminded us of Princess Louisa Inlet, back in BC. Although the views are quite good, I still think Princess Louisa is more spectacular (higher, deeper, more waterfalls) - but we still enjoyed it.


The Tin Man appears in the Rock










This weekend marks our halfway point in the trip, timewise, and most likely distance-wise as well (over 15,000 Km to date). So the boat trip was part of our halfway celebration, and we had saved quite a bit on our budget the previous 3 days. After checking in and setting up camp, we continued our celebration by driving to Rocky Harbour and having real restaurant-cooked meals (Moose Burgers, with Bake-Apple Pie & homemade ice cream for dessert). The official halfway mark is Sunday noon, if we get home on Oct. 1. By Saturday evening, it had completely clouded over, and started to rain - so after our restaurant meal we headed back to camp and had an early evening in our tent, thankful for the new, big tarp (Linda's birthday gift earlier in the month).
Sunday morning it was still raining and cloudy. We had planned to hike up Gros Morne, which is a difficult 8 hour hike in steep terrain.....but we had to respect the weather, and cancel the hike. Instead, it was time to do a load of laundry and get caught up on the blog and emails. By noon, the rain had stopped, but it was still cool and overcast - still time enough for a shorter hike, and then hit up the festivities at the lighthouse in town (music, dancing, food, etc.).

On the Viking Trail

Last night, when we got up at 3AM to visit the facilities, Linda got her first view of the Northern Lights - something that's been on her list of things to see for quite some time. It wasn't a terribly spectacular display of the Aurora, but still nice to get a view of them. Wednesday morning was another nice summer day, with a bit of cloud building. We got underway about 1015, and stopped on our northbound drive at several scenic lookouts. We drove through the town of Rocky Harbour, and stopped for fresh-baked bread at a local bakery, and filled up the gas tank, before continuing a few kilometres to the Lobster Cove Head Lighthouse. Here we took a short walk to the beach, and were impressed by the Tuckamore trees along the way. Tuckamores are really just thick, stunted, fir balsam or spruce trees which grow in one direction. Because of the strong, salt-spray-covered winds the trees cannot grow tall, and instead stay low and bushy, and grow together in tangled masses. The windward side tends to die off, and the leeward side grows out, giving it a one-sided nature.




Linda pointing to a Tuckamore







Even though I'm very poor at geology, I was still impressed by the nature of the rocks along the shoreline, as well. Shale fragments were sticking out of the rocks, having been frozen and broken off. And mantle rock/lava rock was evident in many places as well. Of course, we also visited the Lighthouse here, and its Parks Canada presentation on the area. We then continued North, stopping occasionally for the views. The Arches Provincial Park area was interesting, with the eroded rock formations - but almost as interesting were the dead trees surrounding the area, due to the harsh weather.



The Arches




Weather-worn Trees:














By 1500 it was time to find a place to camp, so we pulled in to Port au Choix, where we'd heard there was a reasonable campsite. It may be reasonable, but it was also kind of barren and windswept, and we didn't feel like our tent would remain pegged to the rock if a wind were to come up (it was already about 20 knots). So we turned back south a few kilometres to a small campground at Hawke's Bay, beside the Torrent River. This was a very uncrowded spot, with a bit of tree protection, and we settled in. Following dinner, we took a hike along a boardwalk/nature trail which runs three kilometres along the river, and eventually leads to a fishladder beside a chute. All along the river were fly fishermen trying their luck (still haven't seen any being caught), and signs of moose (tracks and scat).





3 Km Boardwalk Nature Trail












The trail ends up at a gravel road, which we followed back to the highway and then the campsite, so I feel I've earned my Quidi Vidi beer for this evening.




"Borrowing" Wi-Fi"




Thursday morning we decided to start the day by viewing what we'd missed the previous day. So first on the agenda was a tour of the Fish Ladder and Salmon Interpretive Centre (Atlantic Salmon, of course). They have a very good presentation, including a view of the fish as they proceed upstream through the falls bypass (fish ladder).




These salmon are heading upstream






Then on to Port aux Choix, which we had decided wouldn't be good for camping. But they do have a National Historic Site presenting the finds of very early aboriginal peoples from this area, and includes Canada's best collection of articles relating to their settlements here. The film and artifacts presentation was interesting, but we were a bit disappointed in the archaeological presentations (just couple of posters to tell us that this was the site of the digs), rather than what we'd expected. So we continued northbound, stopping at Flowers Cove to view Thrombolites - very rare "living rocks", or fossil-like rock formations.















Thrombolites - I'm not geologic enough to explain, so here's the sign....good luck reading it!
(btw Dave & Patsy - they're very rare, and Australia only other place they're found)

As we continued northbound, all along the roadway were piles of cut wood which had obviously been carried roadside on sleds (still there) towed by snowmobiles for hauling by road in the summer. Also garden plots alongside the road, as many of the people don't have the land for a garden, and so claim a small plot alongside the highway, fence it off, and grow their veggies. We finally arrived at our campsite 7 Km. from St. Anthony, and set up for the night. We took a short visit to the town, and viewed a large Iceberg drifting by in the distance. We inquired about a "Viking Feast", which was to be put on in the evening, but the $45.00 per person price wouldn't match our budget. Instead, we went back to the campground and made up some Hamburger Helper and salad for the evening. Tomorrow we can check out the Vikings! (They settled here in 1000 AD, and from the present temperature, I'd guess they left to go back to Greenland, where it's warmer!)

Priorities

Summer returned to us the next morning, with a bright sunny, and warmer, day. It was also time to assess how much of Newfoundland we can really see in the time given, with our return ferry in less than 2 weeks on August 1. The two big southern areas intrigue us, with the Burin Peninsula, and it's ferry to St.Pierre (France!), as well as the isolated and unique Connaigre Peninsula. Both Peninsulas, however, would mean a lot of backtracking (hundreds of kilometres), and we are already only getting a "taste" of the parts of Newfoundland we are visiting, with this kind of touch-and-go travelling. Two places we definitely want to see are Gros Morne, on the west coast, and 500 kilometres north of that, the Viking area of L'Anse aux Meadows. Gros Morne will warrant a few days of visiting, just to see any of it, and then two days of travelling each way to the north end of the Island mean we will be pushed for time to catch the ferry. So the decision is to head West, and leave the South and most of the rest of the Central portion of this big Island. The sun beckoned us to tour the Twillingate area once more, in warmer, sunnier conditions - so we spent several hours of the morning meandering around this area, to see the lighthouse at the end of the point, and back along the Icebergs, which were glinting blue-white in the sunshine. Then it was time to push South and West, passing through Lewisporte, where we had a quick lunch at a roadside stop overlooking the harbour, and then passing through Bishop's Falls, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Badger (I was tempted to stop here to look for "Miss Badger"), but our priorities demanded pushing on. All along this route in the Central area of Newfoundland, we were crossing rivers, and multitudes of fly fishermen were casting their lines into the water. If this keeps up, the moratorium on cod fishing will need to be followed by one on trout and salmon! By 1500 we were approaching Springdale, which has a lovely campground on the Indian River. We pulled in, and found a spot to put up the tent. While waiting to register, we had a lovely chat with a couple from New Brunswick, who'd just come from the Western part of the province, and had spent several weeks there, with nothing but rave reviews for Gros Morne and the northern parts. So our decision at least got some confirming data!
We took a short hike along the river, and watched the fly fishermen working the pools and rapids, but didn't see any fish being caught - maybe they are safe after all.




Fly Fishing the Indian River








Tuesday morning dawned bright and summery again, and we pointed our boxy little vehicle West, and drove. A short stop in Deer Lake topped up our grocery larder, and by shortly after noon we were entering Gros Morne National Park. We drove into the southern part for our first day in the park, staying in a private campground in Lomond (mostly because of the tree protection it offered, with possible rain in the forecast for the evening). With a quick lunch in our tummies, we were ready to explore a bit, and headed West into the park, admiring the views of Bonne Bay, and then the Tableland. The Tableland is a geologic area somewhat unique, having been pushed up as a flat, table-like rock area some 200 million years ago when the continents of Africa and America collided.



The Tablelands









We explored the Park's Discovery/Welcome Centre, which had some interesting displays and a wonderful film about Gros Morne. Then we continued to the end of the road, stopping to walk the streets and boardwalk of the village of Trout River. The bay itself is quite open to the sea, but they have a very protected harbour behind a spit of land, and fishing is still a mainstay industry here. We decided to splurge on a case of beer, and went into the general store to get it. In walking through the door, we passed a time portal transporting us back some 80 years. It was a general store in every sense, with hardware items, groceries, fishing gear, and almost everything else. The people at the counter were ordering things which the clerk tallied in an account book, and always remembered to pass out some jawbreakers to the children. Speaking of jawbreakers......the entire counter behind the clerk was filled with drawers of various kinds of penny candy (ju-jubes, jawbreakers, gums, etc...with numbered drawers), and the locals would come in and order a few cents worth of #18, and a handful of #16, all handed over to the kids in a small paper bag. The beer, by the way, was one we'd tried, and liked, in St. Johns - Quidi Vidi Honey Brown Ale - and if it's not available at home in BC, it should be....quite good, and home brewed in Canada.
We then followed the road from the village, along the river (the Trout River) to a small lake (called Trout Pond), where we hiked in on a trail along the lake, taking occasional swipes of wild strawberries as we walked the pathway and viewed the scenery. We made it back to the car by 1800, and back to our campsite for a relaxing dinner. This is also a Tuesday - hence a Day of Reckoning.
The totals for week 9: Distance driven: 1868.2 Km Gas: $ 201.01 Food: $ 257.14 Accommodation: $137.95 Other: $46.01 Total Week 9: $642.11 Under-budget by almost $58.00 (which will help make up for some of the last few weeks.

Would You Like Ice With That?

Saturday morning was cool and overcast, with the odd shower passing through. The showers cooperated with our attempts to bundle up our camp, however, and stopped long enough for us to get the tent and bedding put away, and for us to have a bite of breakfast, before starting up again. Linda had spent a lot of the night awake from a dog barking and howling hysterically.....although I hadn't heard the problem, and I suspect that the earlier sight of the fox had encouraged her imagination regarding animals caught in leg traps, or worse. We drove along the fingers and bays in the south part of Trinity Bay, past beautiful downtown Come By Chance, and then Goobies, through Clarenville, working our way onto the Bonavista Peninsula. We stopped at the historic town of Trinity, a well-kept historic merchant/fishing town, and then continued to the end of the side-highway, to visit Old and New Bonaventure, typical fishing villages (in our minds, at least), shrouded in fog.




Scenic and Historic Old Bonaventure








Then we continued on to the village of Elliston, the Root Cellar Capital of the World - over 130 root cellars dug into small hillocks around the town.



One of Many of Elliston's Rootcellars









They were also having a Puffin Festival, so we asked how to find the puffins, and were directed to a rock outside of town which had a large colony of puffins crowded on the rock.....so we ended up finding the puffins without the boat trip!





Puffins






By this time, the fog was rolling around us wherever we went, and the temperature was dropping drastically. By the time we reached the end of the Peninsula, at the town of Bonavista, the temperature was down to 7C, and the fog was quite thick. Here, John Cabot landed and claimed the New Founde Land for England in 1497. A replica of his ship, the "Matthew", was built here 12 years ago to celebrat the 500 year anniversary of his landing, so we visited the ship and took a tour. She is a very small ship, a Caravel, and very impressively built in traditional methods. We found it very interesting to compare this ship with the "Hector" we'd toured in Pictou, which had sailed about 300 years after "Matthew". Neither one would have been a comfortable ship for the crew for an Atlantic crossing - our tiny 32 foot sloop at home would likely fare as well, and be more comfortable.



Matthew Replica









By the time we left the ship, and Bonavista, it was nearing 1700, so we drove back along the other side of the Peninsula, and then turned north to Terra Nova National Park, to a damp and cold campsite. The temperature never got back above 7C, so we fixed a quick supper of chili on bread, and cuddled up in the tent for the night. Any colder, and we'd be chipping ice in the morning.

Bright and early the next morning, we were not anxious to leave our nice warm sleeping bags to face the 5C temperatures. We'd had showers overnight, with mist and fog still lingering as we ate our porridge. It was a replay of yesterday, as we had time to pack up our camp before the rain started up again. It lasted all day, as we drove North through Glovertown and Gambo (birthplace of Joey Smallwood), turning off the main highway to follow the water again. We were surprised to find some lovely sand beaches in New-Wes Valley (not the image of Newfoundland so far), but the fog, rain, and cold kept us appreciating the views from our car. We cruised several times through the town of Newtown - Newfoundland's answer to Venice. It is a community built on 17 small islands, with bridges and channels joining the village together - quite a lovely sight.



The Venice of Newfoundland









Just north of there, we passed more beautiful sand beaches at Lumsden. We ended up at Newfoundland's Bay of Islands, and the town of Twillingate - the Iceberg Capital of Newfoundland. We were hoping to see some bergs, as on the West Coast ice is something we use for our drinks. As we approached Twillingate I tried to talk Linda into a campsite at Dildo Run Provincial Park. Although the price of a campsite was right, and the name was appealing, the weather was still quite cold, wet, and foggy - and she wouldn't buy it! So we compromised, and found a lovely little log cabin a few kilometres from Twillingate. With a solid roof, a heater, a real bed, and even a t.v., it became a trip highlight. Not only did we get the view of the Atlantic from our cabin windows, but an Iceberg lay just outside, in the bay.



Icebergs








We explored the town a bit, visiting the museum, and spotting several more Icebergs in our travels. Then back to our cabin to enjoy a fondue with a bottle of wine, with the Iceberg smiling at us from a short distance.

Heading Home

We got up to a bright sunny and warm day, and headed up to Witless Bay in search of puffins. The area is known for being the home of huge concentrations of the seabirds, but apparently they live on islands off the coast. At $55.00 per person for a boat trip, our budget would never recover.....so we'll have to keep looking for land-bound puffins further along! A bit further north, at Bay Bulls, we passed a church with old cannons used as gateposts.





Cannongate







There was also a very large heavy-lift crane ship in the harbour, which I found interesting. We then continued to Cape Spear, the point of land most easterly in all of North America. A sign pointing to London at 3200 Km., and Vancouver at 5700, made clear the size of our country....although this drive is also emphasizing the vastness of this land. From here, facing East, the entire population of North America is behind me! Of course, we also can't go any further East, so from here, we will be Westbound again, heading for home (but not quite halfway time or distance-wise yet.....that will happen early next week). Apparently it is the "thing to do" to get here at dawn, to greet the new day from this spot. I was just as happy to greet 11 AM - somebody has to do it! We toured the original lighthouse, built in 1856, and hiked around the Cape. Then it was off to the North (and a bit West) to view Signal Hill, a high point of land overlooking St. John's Harbour and her approaches.







Entrance to St Johns Hbr from Signal Hill









The Interpretive/Visitor's Centre has a very good display and film, and with the loan of a driver's license or credit card, they provide a GPS Unit to carry along and provide a guided tour of the trails, views, and fortifications. We took advantage of this tool, and enjoyed a hike around and up onto the hill, with some spectacular views. We watched a handsome schooner sail into the harbour and drop her sails inside. We learned a bit later that she was the "Bowdoin", a traditional schooner belonging to the Maine School of Navigation, who was visiting in aid of this year's celebration of Captain Bob Bartlett, who took Admiral Peary to the Arctic in his quest for the North Pole.





A Play in the Street










By late afternoon, it was time to find a home for the night, so we drove into town, and set up camp in a large park/campground in the middle of town, Pippi Park. Not only was it close to the sights of the city, it was reasonably quiet, had amenities (showers, wifi, etc) and met our budget. We deliberately blew the daily budget, however, when we drove back into town to check out the famous Water Street/George Street areas, which have a bit of nightlife. We found a nice little pub and ordered local beer and cod for dinner (and some mussels, which were on special). That killed our daily limit by over $10.00, so from there we walked around the area and chatted with locals on the street (Very pleasant and friendly people). On the waterfront, we happened across a theater group's play, in the street, and in front of the schooner "Bowdoin", relating the story of Captain Bartlett. We were also able to view, closeup, the schooner - and chatted with one of her crew for a bit. The ship has completed 27 trips to Greenland and the Canadian Arctic since 1921, and continues to do so with a complement of students and scientists onboard. Although 88 feet in length, she was docked between the Coast Guard Ship Sir Wilfred Laurier, and a huge Oceanographic Platform ship, and appeared quite small in comparison.






Schooner "Bowdoin" with CCGS Sir Wilfred Laurier












By 2200 we were back to our campsite, and ready for another day of exploration......Westbound from here on.

Friday morning was another fine warm day, and we got off to a late start, and a lazy breakfast (pancakes, bacon, coffee). I tried to upload the above Blog but the wifi informed me it was already at capacity....so I guess the next installment will have to wait and get a bit longer. We finally left the campsite about 1100, and stopped in at a Sobey's Supermarket to stock up for the next few miles. Then it was West and North, along the Conception Bay shoreline, viewing a melange of urban and rural countryside. We stopped at the village of Brigus, which has maintained a sense of the past in maintaining the look and feel of an older fishing village.






Brigus town














Linda walking the streets of Brigus








Coincidentally, it is also the home port of aforementioned Captain Bartlett, with a historic site dedicated to him and his story. We visited the old homestead, and quite enjoyed the details of his many Arctic voyages and explorations, as well as a look into the life of 19th and early 20th century Newfoundland. The town also has a very nice little cafe on Water Street (a common name in the towns and villages here), which we tested and found some excellent cod chowder (Albert, my brother-in-law, would approve of this chowder, and he's an expert on the subject) with blueberry crisp - so much for another day's budget. We hiked around town, and by 1500 it was time to push on. We continued following the shoreline around, and then crossed the peninsula to the next big bay, Trinity Bay, arriving at beautiful downtown Dildo (before you ask, I'm not sure how the town got it's name, and the brochures aren't specific). It was then a scenic, winding shoreline drive around the south part of the bay, and then northward again, past towns with names like Old Shop and Long Cove, ending up at Chance Cove, with a campground with large wooded camping sites. The clouds had thickened during the afternoon, with light rainshowers, and more showers forecast for overnight. So we picked a spot with a bit of arboreal cover to help our tarpaulin and tent. As we were setting up the tent, a large fox sauntered out of the bush a few yards away from us. He didn't leave until I grabbed my camera to take his photo - missed another one! We had a light dinner, being still full from the chowder at lunchtime. A short walk along the cliffs overlooking the sea, and onto the beach, ended our day. No whales could be found, and no more foxes walked out of the woods to greet us, so we read for awhile, and had another early night.

Colonies

We did manage to squeeze a bit more out of Cape Breton genealogical information before we left - at the Court House in Baddeck, we returned with a hunch, and discovered another will for my gtx3 grandfather's next-farm neighbour, and relative, John McLean.






Linda digging into land records at Baddeck Court House





Then in Sydney, we were able to discover yet more interesting stuff. Baddeck and St. Ann's are in Victoria County, and as such, the land records are stored in Baddeck, the County Seat. However.......in 1851 and before, Victoria County did not exist, so earlier land records are in the County Seat of Cape Breton County, Sidney. So here we searched for, and found, the original land grant as well as the sale of, my gtx3 grandfather's property......along with details of several other properties. We also managed to get the oil changed, the tires rotated, and the car inspected before we set off on our trip's continuation. We are used to BC Ferries, and were impressed with the large numbers of vehicles the Newfoundland Ferry seemed to take. The loading was uneventful, and the crossing was long.....18 hours. The reclining seats are nice to recline in, but not much for sleeping, especially with babies crying, other people snoring, and a couple of drunks arguing.....so I didn't really get a lot of sleep on the overnight crossing. I just listened to the vessel's fog horn (most of the crossing was in fog), and the sounds around me. Once we made it across, we set off southbound, stopping in Placentia for milk and bread. Wonder of wonders, they had Longlife UHT milk - something we'd been looking for and unable to find since Ontario! Placentia is the largest town in the area, but still not very large. It does sport a bit of history, though, as the first French Capital of the French Colonies in the area in the late 16th and through the 17th Centuries. We then continued only a short way further, due to being tired from the ferry crossing, and set up camp near St. Mary's Ecological Preserve (birds). The drive down this west side of the Avalon Peninsula was past very pretty coastline, but the trees are all very short (3-8 ft) evergreens, and reminded us of a very large Christmas tree farm. Perhaps the Rock is the largest one in the world! As we approached the south end of the Peninsula, the trees disappeared, and the landscape was basically taiga-ish, with large boggy treeless plains. The fog started to drift in off the sea. We went out to the Bird Sanctuary, and in spite of quite thick fog, we marvelled at the tens of thousands of seabirds nesting in the rocks there. We noted the three separate colonies of birds - Kittiwakes, Murres, and Gannets. Quite a spectacle.


Bird Rock - Well Named!










The Bird Rock area was a short walk beside high sandstone cliffs. The fog was thick enough we couldn't see down to the water in most places, but we could hear, and smell the birds. All along the moor-like fields were huge areas of wild irises.





A field of wild Irises in the bog, in the fog.





I hadn't known the iris would grow wild like that, in big colonies on the moor. The walk, coupled with the sleepless night beforehand made us fairly tired, so we then treated ourselves to dinner at the restaurant where we were staying - Halibut dinner for Linda, and Moose Stew for me, along with a local beer : Dominion Ale, and Dark Horse Lager. The food helpings were quite generous, but we managed to eat it all, and top it all off with dessert. The WiFi was quite slow, and it took over an hour to get our email, so uploading the Blog was out of the question. Off to bed for a short read and an early sleep. This is again a Tuesday, so time to add up our accounts for yet another week. Totals for Week #8:
Distance Travelled (by car - didn't calculate the ferry crossing): 785.3 Km Gas: $92.01 Food: $262.70 Accommodation: $234.25 Other: $138.06 Total: $727.02
So yet again, we've managed to go over our budget, by $27.00. This is our 4th week in a row we've gone over the $700.00 mark.

Next morning, the fog was lifting following a cool, foggy night with a couple of rainshowers. We had breakfast while fighting off the blackflies, and were away again by 08:30. As we drove East and North, the day started to brighten up, and we enjoyed cruising along the road, pretty much the only car on it, passing low scrub pine, spruce and bog, with occasional fog tendrils snaking in from the inlets. We stopped to admire a waterfall, then continued East and South again, following along the shoreling of the Avalon Peninsula. The countryside again became Christmas Tree Farm-type landscape, with lots of winds and hills, and still no traffic on the road. At St. Stephen's, we passed a long gravel breakwall separating the sea from a Saltwater pond on the other side. We stopped to admire a long, sandy beach which is reputed to be good for spotting whales. There was no-one on the beach in spite of the fact it was a warm sunny day in mid-July. No whales to be seen. We continued East to Trepassey, and stopped on the Cape to seaward for a scenic vista.


Typical Avalon Scenery



Then it was past more bogs and small lakes, until we turned into Chance Cove Provincial Park. It was a beautiful spot, with picnic tables and a beautiful view of the sea. We had lunch, and were tempted to stay over, but with only 16 days left in Newfoundland, felt we had best push on a bit more. From here, the road turns North again, following the Eastern shore of the Peninsula northward. Passing the village of Cappahayden, we spotted whales breaching about 1/2 mile offshore, so we pulled over to watch. The seabirds were swooping around and diving on schools of capelin, and the whales (3 or 4 of them - can that be another colony?) were breaching and feeding. We had a chat with a fellow who'd also pulled over to watch, who was an environmental response officer for the Coast Guard here, and was showing a couple of summer students around. After about 3/4 of an hour we continued along the shoreline, to stop at Ferryland, the site of one of the earliest British Colonies in Canada. It was settled by Lord Baltimore in 1620, and preceded his more famous one in Maryland. We toured the interpretive centre, and then took a guided tour through the ruins, and archaelogical excavations of the site. Quite interesting and informative - who knew?????



Archaeological Digging in Progress, Colony of Avalon.











Walking on a beach - no-one else around.



By this time it was past 1700, so we headed a few kilometres north and pulled into La Manche Provincial Park for a quiet night of tenting. We hope to view the puffin colonies just north of here, at Witless Bay, and then have a look at St. John's, the capital city, with all of its sights.

Doing the Tourist Thing

We took a day off from our family history to visit historic Fortress Louisbourg on the Southeast section of the Island. The city of Sydney is on the way, so we stopped in for a visit with an old buddy who I used to work with at the Coast Guard College. Zad is still working there, and made us quite welcome. He still indulges his passion for model railroads, and has several lines of track running around the perimeter of his basement, and through the walls, including the bathroom.




Zad shows off his trains









We had a very good visit with him, and he took us for a short drive around town to see the sights. The infamous Tar Ponds are being reclaimed into parkland, and even have an Interpretive Centre, which kind of makes me wonder - but we didn't stop, so perhaps I shouldn't judge such a thing as a Tar Ponds Interpretive Centre. We also visited the Cruise Ship Terminal, where the next Big Item for my list is located.......the Big Fiddle! Very appropriate for Cape Breton.







Flinging around the Giant Fiddle









Zad had a lobster supper party to attend, and we had the Fortress to view, so we continued south. It is a Canadian Historic Site, and well worth a visit. Careful research and reconstruction have gone into its creation, and it now houses a wonderful reproduction of much of the old French Fortress, including staff who are dressed and act appropriately for the year of 1744, when French North America was in its heyday, and the fortress was a bastion of their power for the area.



The French still control Louisbourg










We enjoyed it a great deal, and could have spent more than the three hours we spent exploring the exhibits and sights. We got back to our Kozy Kabin by early evening, in time for a barbecue before bedtime.
The next day, Sunday, we spent the morning getting all of our laundry done in preparation for the next leg of the trip, and resorting the gear. After lunch, we drove out to Middle River, where Peggy had organized a strawberry shortcake social at the Community Hall, in order that the Kiwi Cousins, Relna and Robyn, could meet some other cousins. In addition to numerous McKays, Campbells, Camerons, McLeans, etc....from the area, some even showed up from Saskatchewan, Ontario, Oregon, and many other parts of the continent. People were swapping family trees, and stories, and in the midst of it all, it became a kind of a ceilidh (pronounced KayLee), which in the old days (and, I guess, even now) families and neighbours would get together to visit, and someone may tell stories, someone may start some singing, fiddle, guitar, or bagpipe music, and the event turned into dancing, visiting, and entertaining. A young couple played some wonderful celtic tunes with a fiddle/guitar, and later another young woman took up the fiddle. Some of the neighbours demonstrated their prowess at square-dancing, as well.




We had a foot-stomping good time in Middle River Community Hall









We had a very nice time, and left in time to do supper back at the cabin. This is our last full day in Cape Breton, as we will be leaving for Newfoundland the next evening.
Monday we woke up to rain, fog, and occasional embedded thunderstorms. Time to update the blog, and then off to the court house for a bit more searching of data, then to Sydney for the oil change, and a bit of research at their land records office and the library. The next installment of the blog will be from Newfoundland, unless we can get internet connections on the ferry. By the way, I don't think I mentioned it - we got a message from Atlantic Marine, the ferry people, who advised that the ferry we'd booked on wasn't going, and we were on a different (older, slower) one, so our 14 hour ferry crossing would now be 17.5 hours. Compared to what our ancestors did, with weeks/months in cramped quarters on a smaller boat, we can't complain.

Gurus

Following another cold night, we awoke with hopes of discovering the pioneer cemeteries of Big Baddeck, which is further up the Baddeck River, to the west of the town. It was interesting driving, on mostly dirt and gravel roads. Some of the McPhee's and McDonald's lived in this area, so we just cruised along from the forks of the Baddeck River, following various sideroads to their end, or finding ourselves looping around and back to close to our origin. We found ourselves at one point on a fairly rough dirt track, which had signs and shelters, and was apparently used for a snowmobile trail in the winter.





We found ourselves looking for cemeteries on this snowmobile trail









No graveyards made themselves known to us, however, so we fixed some peanut butter sandwiches at the side of a road, and then headed back to St. Ann's to check with the genealogical society people there (they'd been closed when we visited a few days ago). The woman there was very pleasant, but we still were unable to find anything new about our ancestors. We did get a phone number, however, for a local genealogical guru, Bonnie. In fact, we phoned her, and made an appointment to meet on Friday morning at (you guessed it) Tim Horton's. I also managed to telephone the Hyundai Dealer in Sydney, to book another oil change for the car. Then back to the grocery store to get some food for supper, and back to the Kabin to eat and warm up.

Summer seems to have finally arrived in Cape Breton. Although it was still a bit cool overnight, we woke up to a bright, sunny, warming day. After a leisurely breakfast we headed out to Middle River (actually quite close to our campground) to visit with Peggy and Sandy at their home, and to meet two ladies from New Zealand who are visiting them(Robin and Relna), and searching their family roots as well. If you hadn't guessed by now, this part of Cape Breton (Baddeck, Middle River, St. Ann's) is a mecca for people searching their roots. It was one of the first places for Scottish (in particular) immigrants to land and settle into a better way of life. It was also one of the first places they left, after hearing of greener pastures elsewhere in the New World. This area, in particular, was affected when, with a potato blight and a recession happening, and farming failures due to poor weather (does a lot of this sound familiar today???) made the people take note of other places. Two major migrations of Scottish people left from here in the early-mid 1850's, when 900 of the people, after having lived here for some 30 years, built 5 ships and sailed off on a mass exodus to New Zealand, led by a very stern pastor/leader, Reverend Norman McLeod. My gt-gt-gt grandmother went this way with seven of ther children. Two of her daughters, one of them my gt-gt grandmother, married and joined the other exodus/mass migration, to Ontario (mostly to Bruce County). That explains why people like myself, and the two Kiwis, and many others, find themselves on their pilgimage to this place. It also explains why many of those who were left behind, or their descendants, became gurus of the history and sociology of this area. Peggy and Sandy are such gurus, as are Walter and Roberta who we'd me yesterday. Our visit with Peggy and Sandy turned into a genealogical session of comparing notes, and discovering common ancestors with them and with our new Kiwi cousins. We sipped tea, washed down buttered scones and biscuits, and chatted for several hours, and then drove down the road to explore the Middle River Cemetery together, where we did find a couple of ancestors. We made it home in late afternoon for a lovely dinner of steak with stirfried veggies. We then went out to visit with another guru, Donnie, who is quite active in family history circles around here. He was able to provide us with some tidbits of information, and provided some more hints for investigation into our puzzles.

Yes....Summer definitely has arrived! Even nicer and warmer the next day (Friday). We managed to find Tim Horton's in time to meet up with our next guru, Bonnie. She has authored and co-authored several books on area clans and families, histories, and stories. She is also quite active in genealogical groups around here, and co-ordinates efforts with the New Zealand groups as well. She was very helpful in providing more useful hints, especially in looking over what we had already. Bonnie even gave us a very useful book about one of the families here. One of her recommendations was to return to the Court House with the Probate numbers we'd found at the Beaton Institute, so we followed up on that, and lo and behold - we discovered the Probate papers and Will for my gt-gt-gt grandfather, who'd died in Baddeck in 1855.


Eureka! This is page 1 of my gt-gt-gt grandfather's will











Then we called another guru, Lloyd, who is actively pursuing, voluntarily, maintainence and community memory of the pioneer cemeteries. He actually goes out on his own and restores broken headstones, levels and untopples them, and places signs next to them so that people will know they still exist. It is an impossible job for one man, and mother nature is winning the battle, but we applaud his efforts! When we called him, he seemed happy to meet up with us, so we decided to meet at ......(wanna guess?).....Tim Horton's for lunch. He produced several interesting family histories and maps, which we were eager to copy. So we trooped on down to the local newspaper office to do so. While there, photocopying the material, we met the editor, John, who asked if we were the people doing the Blog....and produced this very one! Apparently he has flagged the name Baddeck and when I mentioned it here, the blog showed up. Hmmmmm......maybe I should pay more attention to what I'm saying??? At any rate, we went off with Lloyd to find the pioneer cemeteries we'd failed to find the previous day. This time, with our guru guide, we were quite successful. It became quite obvious why we'd missed them, as they are not visible from the road, but off in the overgrowth, and a bit of a tramp away. We found many of the contemporaries of our ancestors, but I don't think any of our family ties were there. Many of the headstones are missing, or were never there (many of the people couldn't afford headstones), but Lloyd was very good at directing us around the sites. On our way into two of them, we saw moose tracks - I hadn't known there were moose around here, but apparently there are.








Our Guru Guide, Lloyd showing us a Pioneer Cemetery










We dropped off Lloyd after a full afternoon of "graving" , and returned to our Kabin for an evening of Blog catch-up, and sorting of data.

End of Week Seven

We've decided with the cool temperatures, and the need to spread out to organize genealogy papework, we will renew the Kabin and just use that as our base while we are in Cape Breton - the ferry to Nfld. is on Monday, so we got a weekly rate by staying here, which is a bit cheaper, and much more comfortable. The day dawned bright and sunny, albeit quite cool (okay-downright cold!). We set off for Sydney, to search the records of the Beaton Institute, a research facility dedicated to the history and culture of the Cape Breton area, and attached to the University of Cape Breton. I almost went blind searching various old and faded church records on microfiche, books, maps, charts, other peoples' family histories. An internet connection who'd known we'd be there showed up and introduced herself, and gave us a few leads on places and things to look up. Roberta is well known in this area, and respected as an area researcher, and the archivists seemed impressed that we'd been able to get her to assist us. By late afternoon, however, we'd turned up very little new information on our family roots, as much of the data we need is either missing, or in the Nova Scotia archives in Halifax - I guess we'll be spending a bit of time there on our way back. We then had a quick hamburger and searched for a Jiffy-Lube or similar, as we are again at the point of needing another oil change. No such luck.....but we did find a Wal-Mart, where I was able to find a reasonably priced belt.....this trip is causing my pants to expand, and I now need a belt to hold them up. We drove back to Baddeck, and then headed over to meet up with Walter, who has done a fair bit of research on the land grants and transfers in the area, for a couple of books on the early settlements. We had a great visit with he and his wife Judy. They have a son who lives in Courtenay, and another in Vancouver.....so it won't surprise me if we get to see them again sometime in the near future. Walter has family data on over 70,000 people (my database is only 6,000). We compared notes on families of interest, and although he and I agreed on the facts, he could not add any more data to my lines. He does, however, have quite a lot more on two other lines we are investigating for other cousins, so cousin Marla in the Sault, and Brendan in Australia should be getting a bit more information to chew on. We headed back to our Kozy Kamping Kabin in the frosty evening, happy to (again) not be in a small, cool, tent. Today is the end of week seven, and a day of reckoning. Totals:
Distance travelled week 7 - 1,152 Km. Gas - $156.82 Food - $170.40 Accommodation - $225.00 Other - $178.53 Total - $730.74 That puts us, for the third week in a row, over our $700.00 budget. No pictures to go with this week-end wrap up, folks!

The Weather is Cool - But the People are Warm

The motel was a treat. The rainshowers seem to be still around, though, and are forecast to persist for a few more days. Following breakfast, we drove into Baddeck (not very far from last night's motel), and decided to check out the campgrounds. The one we chose on the west end of Baddeck used to be a KOA campground, and looked fairly good. Because of the persistent rain, we opted for another Kamping Kabin, which would be drier and warmer, and allow us to spread out and organize our family records. It was still morning, and our Kabin wasn't yet ready, so we set out to get the feel of the area.


This schooner was sailing into Baddeck Hbr.








We drove around the village of Baddeck, and then headed out to St. Ann's, which is the area Rev. Norman McLeod and his followers first settled. We discovered a McLeod Pioneer Cemetery, and walked the gravestones looking for familiar names. None of them, however, seemed related - at least as far as we could tell. The black flies decided that fresh living meat is a delicacy, and swarmed us....so we retreated back to the car, and continued on a scenic drive along St. Ann's Bay, and then returned to near the head of the bay, the location of the Gaelic College. This college is dedicated to saving the Gaelic language and history, and also teaches the language, as well as piping. They also have a wonderful museum dedicated to such things, including a film in Gaelic (with English subtitles for those of us from Away) - we spent several hours there investigating the place.
They are doing quite a job of it....most of the highway signs on the Island are in Gaelic as well as English.





Here's O Canada - in Gaelic











Then along the Trans Canada Highway as far as North Sydney, where we restocked our food a bit, and found Linda's larger tarpaulin (not that we will need it until we leave the Kabin). We stopped at a park and ate our lunch before setting out on back roads to follow the East side of Bras D'Or Lakes, for a scenic drive around the Big Narrows and a cable ferry across Little Narrows, eventually arriving back to Baddeck, and our now-ready Kabin. Rainshowers had passed over us on and off all day, and the temperature was unseasonably cool for early July (at least in most places I know). We fixed some supper and checked online, made some phone calls to organize a meet-up with some distant "cousins", and internet contacts. The cooler it got, the sleepier we got - so we were in bed by 21:00.
The next morning dawned considerably clearer, but also quite a bit cooler. It's not quite freezing yet, but I'd be surprised if the daytime high this day reached 10C. We organized a meet-up with Sandy and Peggy, internet genealogy friends who may also be distantly related. We were to meet at Tim Hortons (of course) at 16:00. In the meantime, we headed to the Court House to check out the land records. Unfortunately, the Nova Scotia Government has taken many of the older records to the public archives in Halifax, so we were only able to search some of the ones we were looking for. We did manage to locate and photograph some of the deeds and land transfers, however.






Linda is poring over the old Deeds and Land Transfers










We then decided to walk one of the local cemeteries (Knox), and as we were finishing that, Peggy (the friend I previously mentioned) strolled up with her granddaughter Alex, and introduced herself (as we'd never really formally met before). We had a lovely chat while swatting voracious insects, and then followed her to another cemetery west of town (Greenwood). We were able to check that one out, as well as another one at Baddeck Forks while Peggy ran some errands.......we had made plans to re-meet at Tim Hortons at 16:00, as planned. We didn't find any of our dead ancestors here, either, but we may have found a couple of McPhee ancestors of our cousin Marla. Finally back to Tim Hortons for a warmer-upper mocha, and a meet-up with Peggy , Sandy, and Alex. By 17:00 we were following them to the location of an old graveyard behind the home of one Ian McLeod, where my gt-gt grandfather is buried. I'd visited this place once before, about 12 years ago, but hadn't remembered how to find it. With the new-found help, we were able to locate the place, and paid our respects to the old man. Back to the Kabin for dinner, and then contact another internet connection, Walter - who is a local history/genealogy expert. He has invited us over for supper tomorrow evening. The Kabin is relatively warm, so the rest of the evening was spent organizing the computer/paperwork/schedule for tomorrow's research.