All the Way East

We’re staying at Waterford River Valley Campground in Mount Pearl, which is a suburb of St. John’s, Newfoundland. Yes, St. John’s is big enough to have a suburb, just. This is a pretty nice place for a commercial, urban campground.

Right next to our site is a trail that crosses a footbridge over the Waterford River. Though I must say, the “River” is smaller than Big Brook in Terra Nova. Not sure I get the names here.

The trail from the campground links up to this section of the Newfoundland T’Railway, which is part of the Trans Canada Trail.

Today we drove out to Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America. This sign was there, point zero for the Trans Canada Trail.

And here am I, at the easternmost point. That’s it folks, it’s all water from here.

We noticed the rocks here were rounded, not fractured like at Cape Bonavista.

There are two lighthouses on Cape Spear. This is the modern one, in use today, that was built in 1955.

This is the original one, built in 1835 and the oldest lighthouse still standing in Newfoundland.

The lightkeeper’s quarters were in the square wooden structure that was built around the stone tower. It has been restored to the way it looked in 1839.

Having a tower in the middle of your house made for some unusual hallways.

The quarters were two floors…

though between the tower and the roof, the second floor rooms were a bit cramped.

Notice the sperm oil in the supplies. It was commonly used in the lights of lighthouses.

You could get a peek up to the top of the tower but that was closed off.

The residents had a nice view! (Bud and Matey are waiting for me at the green bench.)

From Cape Spear we looked across St. John’s Bay to Signal Hill. The tiny tower you see in the photo is Cabot Tower. The entrance to the harbour is just to the left of that hill.

We drove there next. The hill has a history of being used for defense and also, because it is so tall and so close to the city and harbour, for sending signals. The tower was built in 1897.