A Tamer Spot

We are now at the Zenzville Campground in Kippens, just outside of Stephenville, NL. We’re back along the west coast and heading back towards Channel-Port aux Basques and the ferry back to Nova Scotia.

The coast right here is about the tamest we’ve seen on this island, with miles of beach.

This has its own beauty, and the dramatic cliffs are not far off.

One reason I booked us here for a week is that Stephenville is “the disc golf capital of Newfoundland”. That’s not hard to do, as there are only 8 courses on the island; four of them are here. Today we tried Blanche Brook Disc Golf Course and were happy to find it was in a park with mowed lawns and lots of space among the trees.

It only had ten holes and Matey had to stay leashed,

but it was pretty and well cared for.

Matey was seeking shade (it was only about 70 degrees out) so 10 holes was enough. We’d walked about a mile.

My travelers’ guide to Newfoundland mentioned an area of fossilized trees along the same Blanche Brook, not two miles away. Of course I wanted to visit. And of course these are the oldest known upland tree fossils in the world. This is Newfoundland after all.

A short path took you to the brook, it was quite clear that we should walk upstream.

We passed behind a very nice house…

and continued along the edge of the brook.

The path got quite small in places. Just as I was wondering if we’d missed the site I spotted this red blaze on a tree. Okay, carry on.

There was no chance of missing the spot, there was a sign surrounded by pieces of fossil logs.

There were plenty more in the creek bed.

Some were underwater.

There’s a big one behind a piece of modern driftwood.

This was my favorite, see the piece that broke from it above and to the right?

Bud noticed what could well be a piece of its lower trunk, too.

What a nice find…

and it was all just sitting there with a sign saying please don’t take these.

This afternoon we took a drive that ended on another dead end dirt road. Coming home there was an accident and we had to turn back to make a detour. The shortest detour was 12 miles around. It made me think of route 360, down to Harbour Breton. There is no detour available there, you would just have to wait.

But we did make it around and back to camp and now Matey and I are enjoying the screen house, which just fits on our site.