July 20, 2019 – August 1, 2019

Just south of St. John’s, Newfoundland is Cape Spear, the eastern most point in North America. Since we had driven to the most southerly point you can drive to in South America, it was only right that we visit Cape Spear!

We headed further south along the Avalon Peninsula. Our destination was a beach at St. Vincent’s were we had read that humpback whales often came very close to shore.

We arrived at the parking lot for the beach. There was a berm between the parking lot and the water, so we were not able to see the beach or the shoreline from the truck. We began to put on our jackets, get the dog out, grab our cameras, when over the horizon of the berm I saw a column of mist shoot up into the air….a whale, just off shore had surfaced. We locked the truck and hurried over the berm to see two whales swimming by, 20 metres or so off shore.

The Skerwink Trail, located on the Bonavista Peninsula, was, in 2003, ranked as one of the top 35 trails in North America and Europe by Travel & Leisure Magazine….well, we needed to go and check that out!

Before we started the hike we talked to a couple in the parking lot who had a vacation home nearby. They told us that we should visit Port Rexton Brewery and have a grilled cheese sandwich from the food truck (named “Oh My Cheeses”) permanently located within their patio. It sounded like a good idea, so after the hike, we drove a few kilometres to the Brewery.

We were able to take Piper into the patio area, ordered a beer and then our grilled cheese sandwiches. There were many options to choose from, Blueberry Balsamic Jam and Cheddar, Pickle and Cheddar, Pineapple Crush…the list went on and on.

We sat in a pair of the Adirondack chairs that seemed ubiquitous on the east coast, sipping our beer, enjoying the view, awaiting our sandwiches, when Derek glanced at two newcomers to the patio. “Well, there is someone you know, Cathy”, he said. I turned, and there, only metres from where we were sitting, was Rick Mercer, one of my favourite Canadians, ordering a couple of grilled cheese sandwiches. Derek called out to him, raised his glass and gave Rick a “Cheers!”. I now wish I had asked for a photo with him, but at the time I thought he probably gets tired of smiling into cell phones with strangers…anyway, it was cool to see him in person.

People we had talked to on the Skerwink trail told us that there were whales just offshore of the tip of the Bonavista Peninsula, so we headed north to see if we could catch a glimpse.

Our next destination was Elliston. The town of Elliston is know as the “Root Cellar Capital of the World”, having 133 root cellars, some as old as 200 years. The other draw for tourists is the short hiking trail to a puffin viewing site. We walked a few kilometres from our camping spot to the puffin viewing site in the evening, as a local had told us we would see more birds then, than in the morning, when we had originally planned to visit. I should have had my tripod with me, as the light was quite low, but I did manage to get a few shots that were in focus.

We drove west again, heading towards the famous Gros Morne National Park. When we arrived we were told that the only a couple of campgrounds had sites available for the night, so we headed to the furthest north section of the park and camped for a couple of nights at Shallow Bay campground.

Some of the most amazing photos that the Newfoundland tourism campaign shows are of hikers looking down on Western Brook Pond. To get to this viewpoint, you have to take a boat across the pond and you have to hike with a guide…we looked into it, and the cost was ridiculous…maybe $250 per person, I don’t remember, but having hiked in many places for free over the last 2 years, we opted out. We did, however, do the boat ride to the end of the lake and back, and it was beautiful. We may need to return to Newfoundland and Gros Morne one day with our back country camping gear.

We camped for a couple of nights at the Berry Hill campground, out of which we did a couple of hikes.

We headed north along the Great Northern Peninsula towards L’Anse Aux Meadows. Locals earlier in our trip had talked about driving along this peninsula several years ago and that they had seen something like 30 moose in one day. Moose are not indigenous to the island of Newfoundland. Two pair of moose were introduced to the island in 1904 with the idea that they would reproduce and provide a food source for the people. The moose flourished, so much so that it became dangerous to drive at night, as when a moose and a car meet at high speeds, the car and the passengers do not fair well. Recent culls have somewhat reduced the moose population, however there are still an estimated 150,000 moose in Newfoundland…and we finally got to see a couple…here’s one of which we got a photo.

We visited L’ Anse Aux Meadows National Historic Site. This is the site with the earliest known evidence of European habitation in the Americas. Evidence of European style sod and timber buildings and some artifacts point to a brief Viking habitation. The location of the site was sleuthed out of the Norse sagas by researchers in the 1960s.

We had earlier in the trip decided that we would take the ferry from Newfoundland to Labrador and drive across Labrador to Quebec….we would miss out on the Gaspe Peninsula of Quebec, which is supposed to be stunning, but we would very likely never have a better opportunity to visit Labrador again and we wanted to see this remote region of Canada. We made our way to the ferry port, excited about what was ahead, but a little sad to leave the wonderful, scenic, friendly island of Newfoundland