Bonavista

We left Twillingate on our way to Bonavista. What a crumby day. It rained for most of the trip, and sometimes it was quite hard. I think Hurricane Chris (now down graded to a tropical storm), caused our problems.
I am not sure, but I sort of blame Chris Jones, in fact I blame all people named Chris for our lousy weather.

You can see how the weather affected the day by the picture below.

Eventually we made it to Bonavista and found our accommodations to be quite good.
A 2 bedroom house with a full kitchen, a living room and a washer/dryer.
We got all our clothes washed and then went to dinner.

We went to the Shannon's Pub and Grill.
Excellent spot with good food, good staff and, unknown to us, music.
A couple of fellows came on the stage and entertained us with numerous Newfoundland music and song. What a hoot!!!

This pictures shows the 2 fellows entertaining us. They both could play multiple instruments and both could sing.

This is the couple who were there to eat and be entertained. And both happened.

Tomorrow we will stay in Bonavista and hope for better weather and some pictures of the puffins.

Twillingate

We set off for the long drive to Twillingate. The distance is only about 400 kilometres, but due to road conditions, it takes considerably longer than you might imagine.

There appears to be more potholes in Newfoundland than the rest of Canada combined. Instead of filling the potholes, they put a sign up saying, "potholes ahead". Saves a lot of money.

We passed a moose walking on the side of the road, but the shoulder is about 12 inches wide and the speed limit is 100 kph. So, no stopping to take a picture.
We did get a picture of the area as we travelled towards Deer Lake.

We passed through a number of small towns like Loon Bay, Birchy Bay, Toogood Arm, Boyds Cove and Tilt Cove before we finally came to Twillingate.
Just past Twillingate is Crow Head (not to be confused with Cow Head) and we stopped at Lighthouse Point.
Wonderful spot for pictures as you can see.

Off in the distance is our 1st whale sighting. You cannot see it in the picture, but we were looking through our binoculars and also listening to a guy shouting "whale at 12 O'clock"

More pictures from Lighthouse Point.

We returned to Twillingate to check into the place we are staying. It is called Hillside B&B, but we ended up in a cottage. Very nice 1 bedroom cottage with a full living room and kitchen.
There is a Dinner Theatre in Twillingate that we were lucky enough, to get practically the last 2 spots.
Pan fried cod for me and pan fried salmon for Bonnie. Excellent meal.
The Dinner Theatre group shows their talents in all sorts of Newfoundland culture. The group sings and also performs comedy sketches as well as prepares and serves the meal.
We got there around 5:00 and the meal and the entertainment lasted until almost 10:00.

Back in our room now, and tomorrow we make our way to Bonavista.
Stay away hurricane Chris!!!!

Back down south to Rocky Harbour

After an excellent breakfast at Jenny's Runestone House, we took off for "parts unknown". We were still heading south, down from the Northern Peninsula.
It is the same road that we took up, but going in a different direction, the scenery is different.

We made our way to Norris Pointe and of course took some pictures. A beautiful spot.
As you can see in the 1st picture, the tide was out.

Our friend Pat Noel, told us of a place in Norris Pointe called the "Old Store Cafe" that apparently has the best pea soup on the planet. It was excellent, but I need to taste pea soup from many more places to say it is the best pea soup on the planet. I am working on it.
This picture is the cafe and I think that may be Bonnie in front of the cafe.

The picture below is our B&B for tonight. We are staying at the Anchor Down B&B in Rocky Harbour. We have met the owners, Vera and Dave, and they are quite friendly and the place is very nice.
We also met a couple who are staying here tonight, that spent last night in L"Anse Aux Meadows, where we stayed.
Talk about a co-incidence, they had dinner at the same restaurant as us last night, and had lunch at the same place as we had lunch today, on our drive down to Rocky Harbour.

As you may recall our "close encounter with the moose" a few days ago came back to haunt us.
In a small gift shop, Bonnie met the same moose that we almost ran into the other day.
He was quite friendly this time even though their shirts did not go well together.

Tomorrow we head for Twillingate, and we have no reservation for a room. Fortunately the car seats do recline.
See y'all tomorrow.

Top of Newfoundland

We left Cow Head and headed north. Our destination was L'Anse aux Meadows, which is the farthest  north you can drive in Newfoundland.

What a great drive. We went from complete nothing to wonderful scenery on the trip.

As we proceed further north I began to see a consistancy in the names of the villages.
There was a cove named for everyone except me and to add insult to injury the last cove was called "nameless cove'

We arrived in a small town called St Anthony, and finally got to see an iceberg. More icebergs to come we hope.

The rugged coast.

The road to "the top of Newfoundland" is called the Viking Trail. Apparently 1000 years ago a Viking expedition landed on Newfoundland's Great Northern Peninsula. This expedition was led by Leif Erikson and is the only known Viking Site in North America.

The discovery Centre in L'Anse Aux Meadows had a lot of information on the Vikings and also a good spot for pictures.

We are staying at a B&B in Hay Cove called Jenny's Runestone House. Very nice and Jenny and her husband David are quite friendly.
Below is a picture from the window in our room.

A view from the front deck.

Tomorrow we head back south to Rocky Harbour.

Heading up the west coast of Newfoundland

We left Cape St George after a big breakfast of waffles with strawberries, blueberries and whipped cream. And of course there was bacon. Everything tastes better with bacon.

Heading north on the Trans Canada Highway, on our way to Deer Lake, I noticed a sign that said "end of moose fence"
Literally 100 feet past the sign, a moose jumped out onto the road. Deft driving on my part prevented an accident, and the moose crossed the highway and proceeded on its way.
A coincidence that we almost ran into a moose on our way to Deer Lake, in a province that has no deer.
I wonder.

A stop at the information centre in Deer Lake and we were on our way to Woody Point.
The scenery on the way is breathtaking at times.

Notice the snow on the mountain.

A little further on, was a spot called tablelands, that we were told would offer some good pictures.
Not sure who the folks are in the pictures but the scenery is good.

We made our way to Cow Head, and went to the pub for a much needed drink.
We checked into the Shallow Bay Motel and Cabins and went to dinner.
Our room is right on the ocean and when we checked in it was low tide. I took a picture at low tide and one at high tide but with the internet speed here so slow, I will wait to post the pictures when the speed is better.

The Gros Morne Theatre is on the same property as the hotel and we had pre-ordered tickets for a play called Outside Mullingar. The play started at 7:00 PM.
Just as the play was about to start, the director announced that 2 of the actors were ill, and could not appear tonight.
They needed 2 audience folks to fill in, and who do you think they picked. Yes, it was Bonnie and I.
Fortunately for us, they were non speaking parts. Just a lot of dancing, and we were up for it. Even got a standing ovation.
I would have posted pictures of the event, but as y'all know, there is no photographs allowed during the performance.

Tomorrow we head for Cape Onion and St Anthony's. About as far north on the west coast as you can drive. We are hoping for some iceberg sightings.
Until later.

We made it to Newfoundland

We set off to catch the ferry just before 9:00 PM last night.
I thought we might be in the army with the army slogan, "hurry up and wait"
We were to hurry to the terminal, hours ahead of departure time, and then we had to wait and wait and wait some more.
The number of cars, transport trucks and RV's that are loaded is amazing. I, for one am surprised the ship does not sink with all that weight.
We finally boarded the ferry around 11:30. Straight to bed for us.

Above is a picture of our berth. Our own bathroom and even a TV. Quite comfortable.
Bonnie was a little worried about sea sickness so she took gravel and wore her sea bands. She slept like a baby until they called us around 7:00 AM.

Off the ferry and into Port Aux Basque for coffee.
We did take a couple pictures of the scenery at Port Aux Basque as well as of our ferry.

We are now ready for our long awaited trip from Port Aux Basque to Argentia in 10 days.

I must add a few interesting facts about Newfoundland and Labrador. I am sure our Newfoundland friends know all these, but bear with me.

The provincial flower is the Pitcher Plant, the tree is the Black Spruce and the bird is, of course, the Atlantic Puffin.
St John's is the oldest city in North America.
You can buy beer in the corner store.
There are no crickets, porcupines, skunks or deer in Newfoundland, but they sure have a hell of a lot of moose.
Newfoundland and Labrador have their own language dictionary, and as well, each has their own breed of dog.
I am realizing that Newfoundland has a romantic side. Where else would you find Conception Bay, Hearts Desire, Hearts Content, as well as the world famous town of Dildo.
You may have known all these, but did you know Argentia, where we will be on the 16th, gets an average of 206 fog days per year.

Enough of that useless information. On with our trip

Our destination for tonight is Cape St George. Off we go.
Lovely scenery on the way. Here are a few of the pictures.

Taking a "short cut" we ended up in the past somewhere, and this what this fellows yard looked like.

We finally made it to Cape St George and took some pictures of the main store in town as well as the cliffs to the sea.

We are staying at the Inn at the Cape for the night. Lovely room as well as a large living room off of our room, a deck and a view of the water.

Plus, the cost of the room includes dinner and breakfast. What a wonderful dinner it was. Catherine made so much food that we could not eat it all.

Tomorrow we head for Gros Morne National Park, and will stay in Cow Head for the night.
See y'all tomorrow.

Ready for the Ferry

We had a wonderful drive to North Sydney. The 1st part of the trip was quite uneventful.
Around noon we crossed the causeway onto Cape Breton Island.
The scenery is fantastic.

The pictures above were taken just past the causeway as we headed up the hill on Cape Breton Island.

The drive from there was very picturesque and we did stop for a few pictures, but had to curtail our stopping as we had a ferry to catch.

I was not sure if Bonnie's windblown hair was from the wind or she was scared she might fall over the edge and down the cliff.

As you can see the view was certainly excellent.

Now, we will go to dinner at the Black Spoon Bistro (hopefully it has good food) and then over to board our ferry, the Blue Puttee for our midnight run to "the rock"

See y'all tomorrow from Newfoundland.