Author Archives: Jill and Bud

Flatwater Park sits in the middle of Baie Verte Peninsula, just before the trunk road branches out. Newfoundland has one main highway, TransCanada Highway 1, shown on road signs as TCH. Routes branch off of that to reach various points on the shoreline. Only occasionally is there a road that loops back to THC, or even to a branch road.

Today we decided to head east off the trunk road 410 to look at the three towns at the end of 413. These three trails were listed. We wanted to find a nice place at town level to look out at Green Bay and hike the Red Cove Falls trail.

So we drove first to Middle Arm.

It was very pretty and had several nice lookouts but the bay of Middle Arm is almost bisected by land between the town and Green Bay, so it was not a good place to watch for icebergs or whales.

We saw a sign for Falls and Swimming Hole, and we found this lovely falls. This was just a couple hundred yards off the road, so no trail.

It did look like a nice place to swim, though.

Next we decided to drive through Burlington to Smith’s Harbour and look for the Limestone Park Trail.

Before we took the trail I suggested we continue past Smith’s Harbour to King Island, which sits not too far from where Green Bay comes off from The Coish, which is supposed to be a great whale hangout. There was no overlook at all, only this view from the turnaround at the end of the road. It was pretty, but it wasn’t near the shore and the only view was back to Baie Verte Peninsula.

We didn’t see any sign of either of the other two trails in the guide, but we had seen a sign for Two Mile Falls Walking Trail, so we went there.

The beginning of the trail was a highly graveled path on boggy land.

Seeing this I realized that part of the path is maintained by hand, with a wheelbarrow and a shovel.

This sign made us hopeful that maybe we would see some salmon. They are supposed to be moving into freshwater in the spring and summer.

We found a place to get out to the river (actually East Brook).

There were some beautiful views…

but no salmon.

I was content just trying to capture the beauty.

We decided to leave this lovely spot and make our way upstream a bit further.

So far the trail had been dog friendly,

but not this section. I didn’t want Matey to try and walk here as he was likely to hurt a leg. And I didn’t want to try and carry him along this as I was likely to hurt a leg. So we turned back.

We made a detour to check out the swimming hole. I realized these lovely archway signs do double duty as ATV barriers.

This was another very inviting swimming hole.

As we drove back to Flatwater Pond I thought that this was a pretty inviting place, too.

Matey and I walked along the beach here for his morning walk and were dive bombed by this bird that definitely didn’t want us there.

Just where the beach ended there was this huge bird which I think was a juvenile Bald Eagle. It had white on its wings, it was too big to be a hawk and we are not in the range of Golden Eagles.

Later we went to Baie Verte to buy drinking water as there’s a boil water notice for the campground. It’s a pretty little town and is more or less the hub for this peninsula.

They have a Home Hardware which sells most of what you need for your house, including furniture. They have an auto parts store…

and they have this Coop Grocery Store where Bud got the water. If you want to shop at Walmart you need to drive 111 miles.

We stopped at the Visitor’s Center and picked up some copies of typewritten sheets about museums and trails in the area. I also took a photo of this sign outside which listed other things to look for.

Icebergfinder.com said there was an iceberg in White Bay, which is on the west side of the peninsula, close to Wild Cove. So we drove there. We found a pretty little fishing village…

with a nice wharf,

but no iceberg.

So we drove back inland, and then out to Seal Cove. Where we found a pretty little fishing village…

and a nice wharf,

but no iceberg.

That was okay because they had a trail just outside the village. It involved a lot of steps but was only a kilometer long and gave a nice view of the harbor and beyond. Maybe we could spot something there.

Or maybe not. It didn’t say keep off, so Bud tentatively stepped onto the stairs. The second step was bending so badly he was afraid to put his full weight on it.

So we came back to the park and I replaced the caulk behind our kitchen sink.

And now Matey and I are enjoying the breeze in our screen tent because it’s hot out, it’s 78 degrees!

Tuesday morning we took one last hike at Gros Morne National Park, this one along part of the Coastal Trail. Here we’re approaching the beach along the bank of Bakers Brook. Out in the dry west this much water would be a river, here it’s a brook.

Along the way we passed this bog that itself was shaped like a stream, flowing with pitcher plants.

We were walking with the Gulf of St. Lawrence on one side…

and ponds bleeding to bogs on the other.

We passed the National Park red Adirondack chairs that remind you that this is a view worth stopping for.

Today we drove up to Flatwater Park. This is a pennisula we didn’t explore last year and I am anxious to see it, but I was also a bit sad to think that we probably won’t be going back to Gros Morne again.

This used to be a Provincial Park and is on Flatwater Pond. Again, most places would call this a lake, but in Newfoundland it’s only a pond.

Most of the campsites seem to be seasonal, and many, like this one, look like they’ve been rented by the same people for years.

Our site is a bit more basic, but nice enough. We have our Starlink deployed and so have internet and TV. I’m even using it for phone service as there is only very weak cell coverage here.

Tomorrow we start exploring. One good sign is that we saw a moose on the way in. I couldn’t get a picture because we were towing the trailer and there was no place to pull over. I don’t know if we’ll be lucky enough to see one when I can take a photo. You’ll know if we do.

After a day and a half of rain and drizzle we went out this afternoon. It was still cloudy and foggy so vistas were not on our agenda.

Our first stop was the Green Point Geological Site. I had no idea what to expect here. Turns out the rock layers were beautiful and almost vertical.

The layers of shale were as thin as I’ve ever seen.

They were also extensive. We scrambled this far thinking there was another route to the top of the bluff. There was not.

So we scrambled back.

This place is noted for the fossil finds that identify one of the layers as the boundary between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods, 500 million years ago.

I wish I understood more about geology. The rocks were fascinating anyway.

There is almost always a spring on any hill or cliff and there was one here. A spot of green among the rock.

These barnacles and snails that live just below the high tide line didn’t appear to be impressed that they were on layers used as a benchmark by geologists around the world.

From the shore we went to the woods. This is a little trail around Berry Head Pond about 4 miles from Green Point.

It led through the woods and the across a bog that was dotted with pitcher plants.

I was happy to find that they were in bloom now as we’d seen them blooming last year in August.

The bog was on a slope above the pond. We were walking on a boardwalk and could hear water flowing but couldn’t see it. I finally saw it rushing from beneath us down to the pond. The whole bog seemed to be draining under our feet.

The pond was quite large…

and it drained away into the vegetation again. This is such a different landscape here. It’s like a sponge sitting on a rock with water flowing everywhere.

Plants and flowers grow thickly…

though due to the harsh conditions they are often small, like this tiny old larch tree in the bog.

It may not be towering forests, but it’s very peaceful and even on Canada Day we had this trail to ourselves.

Yesterday, after one last walk on the coast, we said goodbye to L’anse au Clair and Labrador.

This time we were loaded on the ferry all the way to the front, where the deck slopes down to the ramp. I was glad to see they put a chock under our tire.

The truck was out in the open, but at least it, and Matey inside it, were somewhat sheltered from the wind. It was a cold day.

Here we are at the island side, just before we went down from the viewing deck to get back in the truck. Notice the arc of the lifted bow section.

We’re back at Gros Morne National Park at the very nice KOA. This afternoon Matey and I sat out in the screen tent with a view of the large, lonely mountain, Gros Morne.

Compared to Labrador, we are almost crowded here. Labrador has two and a half times the land and one eighteenth the people. The whole province of Newfoundland and Labrador has fewer people than the Buffalo metropolitan area. Labrador has less than 30,000.

Bud is sure in Labrador there is a greater biomass of bugs than people. I still need the screen tent to sit out here, but I don’t need to wear a bug jacket to set it up.

It was a lovely, sunny day today so we went out touring. This is the entrance to the harbor at Rocky Harbour with the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse in the distance.

I took that picture from the parking lot of Harbour Seafoods, which sells wholesale and retail. On our drive south from the ferry landing we’d noticed that there were lots of lobster traps stacked on the shore. Bud thought the season had ended so wanted to get some lobster for us before they were gone. The season ends Tuesday, so there was still lobster to be had. Later Bud ordered some cooked and cracked which we had for our supper.

We then drove up and over a steep little hill to look at the entrance to Bonne Bay, the main fiord in the park

Looking back from the crest of the hill you get a nice view of the seaward side of Rocky Harbour.

We drove around through the main part of town to…

the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse. The park guide told us the flag was being flown at half mast to honor an unknown Newfoundland soldier killed in a battle overseas in WWI whose body had just been recovered and was being repatriated on Canada Day, July 1st.

We got a nice view across the entrances to both the harbor and the bay.

The best place to see whales in this area is in Bonne Bay. These would be Minke whales, as the humpbacks don’t come here anymore. The capelin that they love have been fished out of these waters. After lunch we drove to Norris Point, a little town that sits on a point extending into Bonne Bay.

We walked up this lane to reach the shore trail on Burnt Hill.

We had great views of town…

and the bay, but no whales.

It was another nicely done trail. This wooden part was on a hill, so roof shingles were nailed down the center for traction.

I guess the chain here is to let you know where the trail goes, as it’s on the wrong side to keep you from slipping down into the bay.

Besides losing the majority of the bugs, another advantage of getting back to this campground on the island is that I was able to have a Starlink kit delivered. Starlink is a satellite internet service that works virtually anywhere. We found our portable dish TV antenna is too small to be effective this far north. And our Verizon home internet only works in the U.S. It’s not supposed to be a mobile device at all. After the usual frustrations setting up any new technology I was able to get an account, get things going and get Bud’s YouTube TV linked to it. Doing this blog is now much easier, this is the fastest internet service I’ve had in the two and a half years we’ve been on the road.

So although Labrador was an experience I wouldn’t want to miss, all in all we’re happy to be back on The Rock, even if it does rain for the next two days.

We started today with a walk at Pinware River Provincial Park. Though sunny here, the park was still totally socked in with fog. I didn’t even try to take pictures.

We then tried to take the old section of Route 510 along the Pinware River. No fog here, but not long after we negotiated this patch of rough road we came to a place where there was a trench through the road. Bud managed a five point turn between the bank and the guardrails at a wide space after backing down from the trench.

We wanted to tour a lighthouse, but the coast was still foggy.

The straights looked like a river of fog.

So we went home for lunch and left Matey in the trailer because he couldn’t go into the lighthouse.

Coming back an hour and a half later the fog was gone. We were headed for the Point Amour Lighthouse, which you can see across the bay.

This lighthouse is 109 feet tall, making it the tallest building on the Labrador Straights, the tallest lighthouse in Atlantic Canada and the second tallest lighthouse in Canada.

Though still in use, it is now a Provincial Historic Site and for a small fee you can tour the building and climb the tower.

This tower has seen 200 mph winds, but the walls are six feet thick.

I appreciated the humor which did distract from the 132 step climb!

It’s now fully automated. The bulb shines for 16 seconds, is off for four seconds and then repeats. The interval identifies it as this lighthouse. You can see four bulbs there, only the top one shines through the fresnel lens. The other three are spares. If the bulb blows a switch activates a little motor which turns the next bulb into place. The young docent said each bulb lasts about a year and once every few years the coast guard comes and replaces the burnt out bulbs.

Of course the view from the top was spectacular.

The docent said folks had seen whales earlier that day, but we saw none.

We did get a good look all around.

We left the building and walked further down the shore. I looked back to see a tour bus backing in. I was glad we’d finished our tour. While Bud was using the restroom and I was hanging on to the binoculars for him I looked to sea and saw fins. It was orca whales. There were at least seven of them. I watched hoping Bud would come out. Then I put down the binoculars to try to get a picture. They disappeared. Bud came out and they never came back. After some time spent searching for them we left.

We wanted to stop at this site on the way back out. This is a gravesite and funerary monument made 7,700 years ago. It is the oldest known funerary monument in North America.

It is now commemorated with this sign.

Just before we got to that site as we drove along the cove still looking for orcas we saw this fin. This was no orca.

It was a humpback whale! We pulled over and watched it for quite a while.

I was able to catch a picture of a blow. That’s not easy because that’s the first thing you see as the whale surfaces.

And finally, as it was swimming away, I got a picture of the tail.

So it was a very fine day.

We started our day’s exploration of Red Bay on another well made trail. This is the start of two trails.

We opted not to do the 680 plus stairs on Tracy Hill. Not only would that be too much for Matey (not us mind you) but it was still quite misty so the rewarding view would not be there.

Instead we took the more level route to Boney Shore.

After reading descriptions and this warning sign…

I was expecting more recognizable whale bones than these.

I later learned that it is mostly the large bones behind the head that remain.

Since these bones have been here since they were discarded by Basque whalers about four hundred years ago it’s amazing they are still visible at all.

It would have been a nice walk even without the bones.

The larches and the mist added a bit of magic to an already enjoyable trail.

Our next stop was the Whale Exhibit in its brand new home.

Here we did find more recognizable whale bones and learned a lot more history. This is almost a full skeleton of a Bowhead whale. It was in the shallows in the harbor at Red Bay. The woman at the exhibit explained that the ribs were missing because locals would use them for making sled runners.

Bowheads are named for the shape of their huge heads, the bony protrusion is used to pound air holes through the ice in the Arctic Sea where they live. They were one of two species hunted by the Basques who journeyed here each year from about 1520 to the end of the 16th century to harvest the whale oil.

The other species was the Right Whale, so named because they were the right ones to hunt. Both species swim slowly near the surface. They are krill eaters so not at all aggressive. They have large amounts of blubber to be rendered into oil and their baleen, used to filter out the krill, was the source of “whale bone” for corset stays, collars stays, hoops for skirts, even buggy whips. Whale oil was preferred for lamps because it burned clean and bright and a barrel of whale oil was worth a lot of money. Each whale of these species would yield about 40 to 50 barrels of oil. And, when killed, these whales float making them easy to harvest.

Consequently they have been hunted nearly to extinction. Although there was still whale hunting when the Basque stopped coming, they were getting harder to find and that probably contributed to the end of the Basque whaling in Labrador.

Today there are only about 10,000 Bowhead whales and just 366 Right Whales left in the world.

The new home of the whale exhibit is the refurbished fish factory, here in a photo I took from across the bay. The Canadian government funded the remodeling and the building now houses the whale exhibit and a boat tour company. When the woman at the exhibit was young every man fished for cod and every woman worked in processing the catch. But the cod, like the whales, are almost gone. A two year moratorium on cod fishing was imposed in 1992, but the cod numbers still haven’t recovered so it is still in effect. The woman at the museum said there was only one man still fishing now.

Our museum guide also told us about the red “rocks” you see in the pile in this photo. As a kid they would find these soft rocks and use them like chalk to write on other rocks. Then in 1977 Selma Huxley Barkham came to town. She was a widow with four children. Her husband had introduced her to the Basque people he had met as a student. He died at just 34, but Selma continued his interest. Hearing about a connection to early Canadian whaling, she went, children in tow, to Mexico to learn Spanish, then to Spain to research old documents and finally, following the information she unearthed and fit together, to the south Labrador coast. When Selma Huxley Barkham saw those red rocks she recognized them as roof tiles, brought by the Basque as ballast in their ships and used to construct the roofs for the whaling works they built on these shores. After that, the children of Red Bay would bring their rocks to Selma. Our museum guide (I wish I knew her name) said there was always a kid or two trailing after Selma handing her pieces of red roof tiles.

I could have stayed a lot longer talking with her but we still wanted to go to the official historic site.

There we learned that the next guided tour was at two and we confirmed that Matey could go, too. So we decided to eat at the restaurant across the parking lot, The Whaler’s Restaurant, of course. And that’s whale bone on the far wall.

I had a nice view up the street while we ate our fresh cod (there is still very limited inshore fishing allowed).

Then we joined a group of people for a short ride in a park service boat out to Saddle Island.

There our guide led us along a boardwalk as he regaled us with tales of the Basque whalers of the 1500’s and the people of Red Bay now.

He pointed out the locations of shipwrecks…

from which underwater archaeologists recovered the artifacts seen in the park information center.

He told us how the archeologists left the excavated roof tiles sitting in heaps and how he too, as a kid, treated them like ordinary stones, skipping them out across the water.

He told us about the cooperages where the barrels, made in Basque and disassembled for shipping, were carefully reassembled by the coopers here.

He showed us the impressions of the places near the shoreline where the whale blubber was rendered into oil, here reconstructed at the information center.

And he told us that his town, Red Bay, now has just 140 people, far fewer than the number of whalers that visited each summer.

I came away with a whole lot of information and a concern for people who love their place but face an uncertain future in keeping it viable. And like the whalers, who only got a share of the profits from a voyage while the sponsors who stayed home got the most, the folks in Red Bay never got the millions made by the factory ships overfishing the cod, but they are bearing the consequences.

Labrador basically has one highway, the Trans-Labrador Highway. Down here, on the southern end it’s route 510. When you get as far north as Happy Valley – Goose Bay and turn west it’s route 500. This country here is all rock and bog and every mile of this highway is built up, like a causeway.

Every time there’s a highway sign they build a little causeway out to it. Bud figured it must take a full dump truck load of gravel for every sign. No wonder there’s only one road.

Along the southern shore, where we are, there are a series of little towns for about 35 miles, to Red Bay. Then there’s nothing for a long time and then you come to Mary’s Harbour. I thought we would probably only go as far as Red Bay, but Bud was up for a longer drive.

We’ll be exploring the closer towns in the next days but today we left Red bay behind and drove fifty miles without seeing a single house. There were two Quonset garages and about in the center of the stretch was a highway maintenance depot. That’s it. We saw 12 cars in that 50 miles.

They call this The Big Land, and you can see why.

Since we were going the hundred miles to Mary’s Harbour I suggested we go another 30 to St. Lewis. This town is the furthest east you can drive in North America without taking the ferry to the island of Newfoundland. We made the turn to St, Lewis and found we had twenty miles to go on a gravel road. Fortunately it was the best gravel road Bud has ever driven on. He was doing 50 mph and the drive was smooth.

On the way out we met the guy on the road grader who is probably responsible for that.

I was excited to see that this route was named Iceberg Alley.

We made it to the end of the road. Not only is this as far east as you could drive, it’s as far north as we’ve ever driven. We were at 54.4 degrees north.

There’s not much to St. Lewis. We found snacks at Brenda’s Cash and Carry, which sells “a little bit of everything”.

We took them out to Fisherman’s Point…

where in true Newfoundland and Labrador style we found a walking path to a lookout,

a gazebo,

a picnic table and a couple of benches. All provided by the St. Lewis Heritage Society.

And off across the bay…

five ice bergs,

two of which were really huge, though distant,

provided by Mother Nature. Iceberg Alley indeed!

Was it worth the 260 mile round trip? Considering the views along the way, we thought so.

After all the driving yesterday, and anticipating more driving in the days to come, we decided to spend the day close to home.

We drove less than a mile to this nicely done parking lot for the Jersey Shore section of the Pioneer Footpath. Again I am impressed, now on the Labrador side of this province, by how well these trails are done and how welcome they make you feel. I took this picture as we were returning from our walk. It’s a beautiful Sunday, the first weekend of summer (albeit only in the upper 50’s here today) and we are the only vehicle in the lot. We did meet three locals on the trail, but we pretty much had it to ourselves.

The Labrador Pioneer Footpath leads from the border with Quebec, through several small towns to Pinware Provincial Park. That’s 30 miles by road, not sure just how long the trail is. We were on the first segment of it yesterday to look for the iceberg. Today we walked a bit of it closer to the water’s edge.

The trail follows the footpaths used between communities before the road was built. The footpaths often followed the telegraph lines, and the section we walked had remnants of the old posts, propped up with stone cairns because the only “soil” here is peat and that won‘t support a pole.

This is called the Jersey Shore because it was used as a summer stopping place by whalers from the island of Jersey in the Channel Islands off the north coast of France. One young seaman, James Dumaresq, settled here in 1810, the first permanent settlement in the area. The place became known as L’anse au Cotard. There were only ever three buildings here and the highest census was 17 people, all of his family. This is the foundation of the main house. The settlement was abandoned after a fire but his descendants still live in L’anse-au-Clair.

They may have chosen this spot as there is a little brook that flows down here.

It’s also sheltered from the wind by the steep bank behind it.

Now it provides a destination for this lovely trail, which in typical Newfoundland and Labrador fashion is nicely done. This stop had a bench, information, a picnic table, a viewing scope and a trash receptacle.

Nearby was this little stone room on the edge of the water that was used as a blind for hunting seagulls. Yes, seagulls. Evidently they tried for the young, gray ones, which were more tender.

It was a lovely walk.

The landscape was striking.

That’s me, giving scale to the stone outcrop.

I got the wearing of the bug jacket down, but it was windy so no bugs and for most of the walk my hood was off.

We were hoping to see whales or seals, but only saw ducks and “our” iceberg. We’re pretty sure one end broke off, there were a lot of small ice chunks in the water near it.

Still, it was a nice walk and I added another new plant. Those pink flowers are on a foot high bush. It looked like miniature azaleas. It’s bog laurel, Kalmia polifolia, and is in the same family as azaleas. This place is a botanist’s dream!

Yesterday we took the MV Qajaq W from St. Barbe to Blanc Sablon, Quebec. Here she is approaching the dock at St. Barbe.

As she comes to the dock the top of the bow lifts up…

and her ramp drops down. Only the ramp at the dock didn’t cooperate, so the ferry had to back a bit, raise her ramp, drop her bow and do the whole thing again at another spot on the landing. This had no ramp on the shore side, but the junction was okay and all the vehicles made it off and on without incident.

Bud and I spent nearly the whole trip outside near the bow looking for whales and icebergs. We spotted what we thought were two bergs near the far shore. Sure enough, as we got close I was able to catch this photo of the closer iceberg.

Same iceberg, different angle.

And this is it after we’d passed. We also saw three whales blowing, which a nice man from the Netherlands explained had to be humpbacks, because they are the only ones that blow. No pictures as it was just spouts of water and too far to photo. Bud saw their backs, twice, but I missed that.

We landed at Blanc Sablon, which is in Quebec but only a couple of miles from the Newfoundland and Labrador border.

There were no problems docking on this end.

Soon we were driving up out of Blanc Sablon…

and there was the iceberg.

I got a pretty good shot as we drove by.

We then drove down into L’Anse-au-Clair…

where we had reservations at the Northern Light Inn Campground.

Of course the campground was across the street and not so picturesque. Also it was swarming with bugs. There are gnats, black flies and the elongated tiny bugs that love to bite me. Bud swallowed a bug as we hustled to get set up. I had a conversation with a camper from Ontario this morning and she said they wore bug jackets. Before starting our day’s exploring we went over to the Home Hardware conveniently located across the street next to the Inn to see what they had.

We got two bug jackets, which are mostly net.

Bud suggested I take our selfie by the Welcome to Newfoundland Labrador sign, but I didn’t do too good a job.

I then discovered that the net hood is supposed to be pulled down on your head. I think it’s made to fit over a cap and next time I’ll try that. Whatever the fashion statement, it was wonderful to walk around with no fear of bugs.

Happily bug free we set off down the lovely walking path to try to find “our” iceberg.

This was another nicely made path. Here it’s cut through the peat.

It was carefully constructed through this incredible landscape.

I’m looking forward to exploring more of this gorgeous trail…

but today we were looking for our iceberg. And there it was.

We picked our way along off the path along the edge of the boulders for a better look.

We weren’t the only ones coming for a closer look, that boat was much closer.

If they were taking pictures they are much more dramatic than mine!

On the ferry we’d seen another iceberg further southwest. I was advised that the drive into Quebec along the coast was beautiful, so we went looking for the other iceberg.

We found it.

We stopped at a point of land at Lourdes-de-Blanc-Sablon to get this image.

After a brief rest stop we continued along the coast. Note that the port-a-potty is strapped down, I assume because of the wind.

This is the Rivière Brador Oest, which tumbles down these falls…

as it flows into the Baie de Brador.

Further along we spotted a third iceberg.

This was probably the largest of the three, but we couldn’t get very close.

We kept on and even tried a little off-roading, but the track was incredibly rough and this is no place to damage your vehicle.

We found that if we unzipped and pulled down the hoods we could comfortably wear our bug jackets, making it easier to get out and take photos.

And there were places I wanted to get out and photograph. This is Baie des Esquimaux, where the Rivière-Saint-Paul empties into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

The little village is located at the head of the bay.

This is looking out to the gulf.

Not far past Rivière-Saint-Paul you come down into Vieux-Fort,

where the road just ends. No signs, no visitors center, not even a store. The road just ends.

So I took a couple of photos…

and we turned around and drove back.

Besides seeing three icebergs, this coast was worth the drive.

We’re spending a week based here and I’m looking forward to seeing the Labrador part of the coast. I’ll keep you posted.