July 19

Today was a travel day and we saw three amazing things.  First was "The Arches".  A huge rock carved by the motion of the  ocean waves.

Second was a fish ladder for salmon where we got close up views of salmon.

Third was the most amazing - a giant iceberg.  It was bigger than three of your houses!

Adults

Today was a travel day, we headed north on Highway 430, across the northern tip of Newfoundland over to St Anthony, where 430 ends. We decided to break from the routine caravan groups, and traveled instead with Phil and Nita on our own. There were just too many stops we wanted to make.

Our first stop was at the Arches Provincial Park, just north of Parson’s Pond. This was an amazing place! Big, monstrous rock mountains along the shore that have, over millions of years, been eaten away by the power of the surf constantly pounding against the base of the rock. There were several arches, and evidence of more that had already given in to the ocean’s power and crashed to the ground. These arches were big enough for all of us to walk into comfortably. The rocks on the beach were once again round, and rolled under our feet. The sound of the rocks rolling in the surf, combined with the sound of the crashing waves was music to my ears, could have stood there all day!

Our next stop was the Salmon Interpretive Center in Hawk’s Bay. I think we were all very impressed with this stop, we had our own guide and she was very informative! The center is built on the Torrent River as an effort to reintroduce the Salmon to the river further upstream. Before the center was built, the Salmon traveled up the stream to the base of the Torrent Falls and spawned there. So the system for the Salmon to bypass the falls and go further upstream was built, and at first a dismal failure, the Salmon would only go as far as the falls as that was where they were born. So they began to transfer adult salmon from another river, by helicopter, to the streams above the Torrent River, the stocking program was a success. The count at the fishway increased from 58 fish in 1971 to a high of 7,000 in 1996 and has remained at approximately 4,000 salmon in the years since. Atlantic Salmon differ from the Pacific variety in that they don’t die after spawning, they can live to spawn up to 7 or 8 times, on average. Young fish remain in the river where they are born for 2-3 years before they migrate to the ocean. Another interesting fact is that you can tell a salmon’s age by counting the rings on their scales, just like a tree. If you are ever in this area, the Interpretive Center is a must see!

We had about 210 miles to cover today, so we decided we’d better quit messing around and get down the road. After we left the ocean on the western side, it was kind of boring through the middle anyway. We came out on the eastern side at St Anthony, and arrived at the campground around 4:00pm. There is a lot on the agenda at this location, so we decided to take advantage of the remaining daylight hours and go see the lighthouse at Goose Cove, just past St Anthony’s. The view from this point was fantastic! The wind was blowing a gale and we took refuge behind the lighthouse to keep from being blown out to sea. Luck was with us today, we have seen our first ice burg!! A really huge one, the part we could see was as big as a small cruise ship, we are told that about 70% of the ice burg is under water. Phil and John took lots of pictures trying to get the burg in a close up shot without blurring it. They were leaning on us, the building and crawling all over the rocks trying to keep the camera steady to get a close up in focus. Mean while, Nita and I were talking to an interesting couple from New Jersey, not far from where we live. They had a camera that had GPS that showed on the picture where it was taken and the date, pretty cool!

We had a long and busy day, looking forward to tomorrow!

July 18

We drove around the park today and finally saw our first moose!  He was right  by the road.  Spend some time  there watching him and taking pictures.  We can tell it is a "him" because of the horns.  Girl moose do not have  horns.

Adults:

Gros Mourne National Park is in two parts, separated by Bonne Bay. The larger part is to the north of the bay, the smaller section is south of the bay. Today we traveled to the southern part of the park.

At every turn in the road in this park you come across a different kind of rock, it is astounding that each cove is different from the one just a few miles down the road. Even with the haze and threat of rain all day, in the pictures you can see the different layers of rock, the different plateaus. So, we wandered from look out to look out and cove to cove to where the road ended where the Trout River meets the Atlantic Ocean.

On our way home, we had the highlight of the day…we finally saw a moose!! A young bull grazing in the brush right next to the road! We sat on the side of the road and watched him eat for a few minutes, then left him to his dinner. Just down the road was a rainbow, a fitting end to our day!

We also learned a cute little joke - Do you know how to tell who the Newfies are in heaven?  They are the only ones  who want to go home!

July 17

We once again teamed up with Nita and Phil this morning, and headed for the Visitor’s Center of the park, where we found our first moose, waiting to have his picture taken with us!

We haven't found a real moose yet, but we are on the lookout!

Adults:

We once again teamed up with Nita and Phil this morning, and headed for the Visitor’s Center of the park, where we found our first moose, waiting to have his picture taken with us! We have yet to see a real moose, but we are still on the lookout.

There is a lot to see and do here in the park, from the coastal drives to back packing into the interior of the park, boat tours through the many bays and inlets, animal and insect habitats, and when you are done with all of that, there are the restaurants to explore and sample.

Today, we opted to take the coastal drive north, our first stop was to the look out just north of town, then to Lobster Cove where we saw the first of many small fishing villages and the lighthouse. The lighthouse is one of the larger ones we have seen so far. It sits majestically up on a rocky cliff, with the keepers house attached, and even an enclosed walkway from the house to the lighthouse. There were trails going every which way from the light to overlooks to the ocean and beaches below. The house is open as a museum, furnished in the period of the late 1800’s. We spent a couple of hours there, between the museum and the trails.

On the road once again, we continued north, stopping at the lookouts so Phil and John could take hundreds of pictures. At St Pauls, we found a little Mom and Pop café where we decided to risk lunch. It’s the best meal we have had, including the higher priced places we have been. After lunch we went on to Cow Head (the only explanation we could get from a lady who had lived there all her life was that from the air, it looks like a cow’s head). We were looking for the lighthouse, but it was a 2km hike there and back, so we opted to tour the cemetery instead. Turns out that Nita and Phil like old cemeteries as much as we do!

We also stopped at the SS Effie wreck site. The Effie crashed against the rocks in 1919, and parts of it are still on the shore. This is the first spot we have seen anything that resembles a tide pool. Also at this site we saw the most amazing rocks, all of them round, in every color of the rainbow. Because they were round, it was very difficult to walk on, they just rolled under my feet. They were so pretty though.

Here is a picture of what is left of the ship after 100 years:

Rocks and more of the ship.

By this time it was getting late, so we headed back to the campground. Don’twant to get caught out after dark because of the elusive moose, which we haven’t seen yet.

July 16

Our first full day in Newfoundland, which is pronounced found-land, not fundland. Most of us pronounce it wrong, so we have been trying to catch each other to make sure we are saying it right.

Newfoundland is basically a lot of rock that was pushed together back when the ice was moving away and Mother Nature was pushing stuff around making mountains out of mole hills…a long, long, long time ago. On top of about half of this rock is an inch or two of soil that’s been blown in from somewhere else, and it doesn’t have much in the way of nutrients, so not too much grows here.

Adults:

Took our time getting up as we were to spend the day at the campground.  Woke up around 11am.  By 11:30 I was sitting up front drinking my coffee and noticed some of our group leaving.  I immediately contacted the tail gunner to see what  going on.  I found out that while we were sleeping the plan was changed and we WERE moving to the next stop.  It seems everyone was told before they went to sleep except us and one other rig. (we were told the could not find us in the dark)  We were the only two left in the park as the tail gunner left.  We were both quite upset, but got ourselves moving and actually had a pleasant drive to the next stop.  The tail gunner told me he was going to knock on our door before he left.  Can you imagine waking up to hear  "we all left, see  ya!!!"  I was very upset with him!!!  However he apologized later that day and all was fine again.

Our first full day in Newfoundland, which is pronounced found-land, not fundland. Most of us pronounce it wrong, so we have been trying to catch each other to make sure we are saying it right.

We are camped in Rocky Harbour, which is actually in Gros Mourne National Park. We moved from the campground we landed in last night to this one this morning.

Newfoundland is basically a lot of rock that was pushed together back when the ice was moving away and Mother Nature was pushing stuff around making mountains out of mole hills…a long, long, long time ago. On top of about half of this rock is an inch or two of soil that’s been blown in from somewhere else, and it doesn’t have much in the way of nutrients, so not too much grows here. There are some deeper pockets of soil here in the National Park, so there are some forests here, but the root system is very shallow.

Given the lack of sleep the last couple of nights, we decided to just hang out and relax, I’m sure it will be an early night for us!

July 15

We took a long ferry ride from Nova Scotia to New Foundland.  The ferry was huge and it carried all our motor homes as well as cars and 18 wheel trucks!!

  It was a 7 hour trip.  We played a lot  of card with Nita and Phil and read our books. Here is a picture of grandmom and you can see a little bit of Nita.

 Grandmom and Grandpop out on the deck of the ferry:

Adults:

Today we traveled to New Foundland, via a 7 hour ferry ride! We left camp at 10:00am, and arrived at the ferry in North Sydney, NS around noon. Some of the people in the caravan did some sight seeing, pulling their rigs with them, but that can be problematic when it comes to parking, so we opted to go straight to the ferry terminal, eat lunch and just wait for the ferry. We were scheduled to board the ferry at 4:30 for a 6:30 launch.

Boarding the ferry was quite interesting! Most of the motor home people (like us) unhitched our cars as it was cheaper to pay for the two separately. The cars went on first and were loaded on deck 5, at the very bottom of the ship, then a metal floor was pulled over where they entered, and trucks loaded on top of them. We were loaded on deck 3, and crammed in so tightly it was hard to squeeze in between the rigs to get to the elevator to go up to the passenger decks. We had to leave the cats in the rig, or put them in the kennel up stairs, so we opted to leave them in the rig, we opened the windows and it was cool in the bowels of the ship. We had pre-packed sandwiches, water, snacks, books, and a deck of cards. Thought that would keep us busy for what we thought was to be a 5 hour cruise. Turns out, it was a 7 hour cruise because the captain is mandated to have 6 hours of rest on a night time crossing between ports, and he is the only one authorized to put into port.

Everyone we have talked to about New Foundland has told us NOT to drive at night, as that is when the moose are out, and they like to be on the road. When we arrived at the dock it was 1:30am, and by the time we got off of the ship it was 2:00am. We then drove north a short way to the Visitor’s Center where the owner of our campground for the night met us to lead us in. By the time we got everyone to the center, and were organized to go on, it was about 2:45am. The campground was about 30miles north, getting us into the campground around 3:30am. By the time we got parked it was close to 4:00am. Fortunately, we didn’t see any moose along that very dark road where the only light was from our own headlights! Felt sorry for the campers that were sleeping soundly when we arrived, but probably very awake before all was said and done, as most of us are diesel, and not terribly quiet by any means! Did not get to bed until 5:30am.  Due to this, it was decided that the group would stay in the campground another night rather move immediately to the next stop.

July 14

Woke up to rain this morning, just our luck, we were scheduled to go sailing on a tall masted sail boat, the Amoeba. Turns out, the boat sailed, even in the rain, and they provided rain jackets for those of us that wanted them.  So off we went!

As it turned out, even with the rain, the bay was smooth as glass, and the Captain put the sails up just for show, as there was no wind and he had to use the motor!

The most exciting thing was when we spotted an Eagle in the tree tops. The Captain called to the Eagle and threw out a fish, after a bit of a hesitation the Eagle took off and sailed through the air, circling the boat once, and then picked up the fish. He then took it to the nest where we could see two or three little heads sticking up

Adults:

Woke up to rain this morning, just our luck, we were scheduled to go sailing on a tall masted sail boat, the Amoeba. Turns out, the boat sailed, even in the rain, and they provided rain jackets for those of us that wanted them.

 As it turned out, even with the rain, the bay was smooth as glass, and the Captain put the sails up just for show, as there was no wind and he had to use the motor! It was fun though, I had never been on a sail boat before and I found the workings of the boat very interesting. We went all around the bay, got a good look at the light house, which was a cookie cutter of all the rest, small and white with a red top. The most exciting thing was when we spotted an Eagle in the tree tops. The Captain called to the Eagle and threw out a fish, after a bit of a hesitation the Eagle took off and sailed through the air, circling the boat once, and then picked up the fish. He then took it to the nest where we could see two or three little heads sticking up. It was amazing to see it up close like that! We also sailed by the island that Alexander Graham Bell owned, and the house that he had built there, more like a mansion. The island is still owned by the family, and only family can build there. 

July 13, 2012

Today we took a long drive all around Nova Scotia.  It was called The Cabot Trail and had lots of beautiful scenery.

Adults:

Today we did the Cabot Trail. We have heard nothing but wonderful comments about how we were going to love the Cabot Trail. It was suppose to be Peggy’s Cove on steroids and we were going to be awed by the beauty of it.

The Cabot Trail takes in the whole northern end of Cape Breton, and includes the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, and is approximately 188 miles long. Because we knew it was going to be a really long drive for a sight-seeing trip, we met up with Nita and Phil   (we have become good friends on this trip and go everywhere together) at 8:00am. We had heard different views about how we were suppose to drive the Trail, clockwise vs counter clockwise, so we flipped a coin and went clockwise. So from the campground we headed south, then cut through the island to get to the western side. This is the dramatic side with shale cliffs where the rocks are pointed every which way from the force of the pressure when the last of the ice receded, and the earth moved rock upon rock.

The western sea drive reminded us of the Pacific Coast Highway 1 drive from Seattle to Southern California, with high rocky cliffs and the ocean below and the green forests above. In some areas the road is carved into the cliffs like ribbons before you.

The Cape Breton area was settled by many nationalities, French, Irish, Scott’s, British and their influence is still prevalent today. It is reflected in the names of the towns, the variety of foods in the restaurants and the arts and crafts sold in the gift shops.

The general consensus of our group was that the trail was too long to be covered in one day, we didn’t get back to camp until 8:00pm, and it didn’t live up to the all the hype. It was a beautiful and dramatic drive, but it didn’t compare to the Peggy’s Cove/Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.