By now the earlier changeable weather has disappeared and it is far more settled with clear skies and warm, dare I say even hot, weather. The drive was around 290km so quite a steady, no rush kind of a day.
Our first stop was in Gander where we filled up with gas and coffee before driving through Terra Nova National Park shortly after which we pulled into a lay by by Port Blandford for lunch.
A snack lunch and a quick bit of shut eye and we're off again, stopping in Lethbridge to top up the pantry with some groceries before arriving at Lockston Path at 3pm. We just about got the trailer set up before it started raining and a thunderstorm popped up - did someone mention blue skies and hot weather?
Not to be outdone by a bit of rain we had an early supper and drove off to Trinity for a browse. Despite light rain Trinity seemed like a nice picturesque town and we enjoyed walking around the mostly deserted streets in the early evening.
The next morning, 19th July, was bright and sunny which was good as we had a busy schedule planned for today.
Our first stop was at the Skerwink trail to take a cliff side walk. Skerwink trail proved to be a popular walking trail with quite a lot of people having the same idea as us, more than once we had to queue to get closer to the cliff edge to take a scenic photo.
As the walk progressed mist was drifting in from the sea giving our views an eerie look about them.
We completed the leisurely stroll in about 2 hours and headed towards our next port of call but stopped off on the way at Port Union.
Port Union seemed like a beautiful hamlet and, as we had lunch overlooking a bay, at least one of a group of kayakers gave us a wave.
Tearing ourselves away from the peaceful, bayside setting on the west side of the bay, we continued our sightseeing drive heading for Bonavista but not before stopping in Elliston. Elliston is a popular spot for puffin sightings and we were not disappointed.
There is also a memorial here in honour of sealers who lost their lives trying to make a living in this hazardous way of life.
From Elliston we continued on our way to Bonaventure where we visited the lighthouse and a statue to John Cabot since this general region is where he landed after sailing here from Bristol, England in 1497.A slight detour from Bonavista found us visiting the 'gulch' at Dungeon Provincial Park. This gulch used to be a sea cave until the roof caved in and we have what we see today.
After a successful day of touring it was back to the trailer where we arrived around 5.30pm.
Wednesday started overcast but as we are heading off to our next campground tomorrow we cannot afford to sit around waiting for the sun to shine though for the same reason we didn't want to drive far today. We'd seen a sign on the road near the campground indicating an aquarium was nearby so we started by going looking for it. We easily found it just a few km from the campground in the settlement of Champney's. Although we arrived shortly after the aquarium opened it was obviously busy judging by the vehicles parked everywhere! Sure enough the place was full of excited kids and a few guardians. The person on the ticket desk said that since the weather was not great various children's groups had brought their charges to the aquarium. The kids, apart from making excited chatter, were no problem to us and, considering the small size of Champney's, the aquarium was quite large and well stocked and included hands on exhibits where kids could pick up hermit crabs, starfish etc.
Leaving the aquarium we drove to the settlement of English Harbour where we had that most British beverage, a strong cuppa!
We'd also seen signposts advertising 'Random Passage film set' but we had no clue what that was about but we followed those signs anyway and turned out to be very pleased we did!
It turned out that Random Passage is the name of a CBC TV mini-series about the first settlers from England to come to Newfoundland and the story of the struggles and relationships through the first few years of settlement. The weather was still overcast, misty and a good breeze blowing but we bought our tour tickets and walked the path down to where the film set, built for the mini-series, still exists.
Root Cellar
Fish cleaning station along with fish flake (platform for drying fish in the sun)The two of us had a guided tour from an excellent guide who, through her own Newfoundland upbringing, had experienced some of the same challenges the first settlers had to deal with such as cleaning cod and putting them on the flakes to dry before salting them as well as being forcibly relocated when the Canadian government decided it was a good idea to move folks from outlying settlements into cities (P.S. that did not end well). There is a book and movie of Random Passage and I did manage to purchase the book but at the time of blogging I am still trying to get a DVD of the movie.
After the tour we headed back up the path to the gift shop / cafe where we had a late lunch before heading back to the campground where, after supper, one of us managed to do a spot of fruitless fishing before settling down for the night ready to leave Lockston Path in the morning.
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