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.
No comments:
Post a Comment