Lockston Path Provincial Park

 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.

After browsing Trinity and exploring the beautiful church we headed back to the trailer at 8pm.

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.

Onto Dildo Run PP, Central Newfoundland

Today's drive would take us around 410km from Gros Morne National Park to Dildo Run Provincial Park.

We had decided to try to get on the road early and we managed to get away by 8.30am looking like it would be a good weather day. We were in no hurry (again) and we stopped in at a roadside pulloff for coffee before stopping in Badger (fuel), Bishop's falls (lunch @ Tims) and Lewisport for groceries before finally arriving at the site at 3.15pm. The drive had not been as sunny and hot as we anticipated, we arrived in overcast conditions and just a small amount of rain in the air.

The next day was bright though cloudy so we walked the trail to the Dildo Run lookout, about 40 minutes each way.

From Dildo Run lookout

After coffee we drove off to Twillingate and onto Crows Head lighthouse and museum.

 

 

Twillingate

Crows Head has various trails and we had lunch at Nanny's Hole picnic site and then walked to Sunset Rock headland

While at Crows Head we spotted a couple of whales close to shore.... I'm glad they were no further away!

 

 

Back to the trailer for more food and rest up ready for another day of exploring tomorrow.

The next day soon came around and brought with it clear blue skies which gave one of us the opportunity to do some laundry. Laundry done we went for a drive, stopping at viewpoints, taking some short walks and finding a spot for a picnic at the base of the Pike's Arm lookout. Explored Pike's Arm and Toogood Arm before heading back to base All these little communities are starting to look the same....very pretty but...!

 

 

Pike's Arm lookout

Pike's Arm lookout summit  

 

Gros Morne

When day dawned it was another overcast but dry day and today was another moving day. This time we had a drive of only 130km to Berry Hill campground in Gros Morne National Park. We were in no rush so it was gone 11.15am by the time we left the site but by 11.30 we were pulled into a Tims for a morning coffee. The drive should have been 130km except that on the highway in Deer Lake there was no signpost to Gros Morne Nat'l Park or Berry Hill campground as I'd expected so hadn't bothered with GPS. It was very soon apparent that somehow we'd missed a turn so we pulled into Deer Lake airport where we studied a map (yes, a real, hard copy map) and saw where we should have turned north. Back out of the airport and a few km back to Deer Lake and turned north on route 430.

We arrived at Berry Hill campground at 1.30 in occasional showers but not  as wet as our earlier experince thankfully.

The rest of the day was spent by exploring the park as we tend to do upon arrival at a new park.

Yeah, the next day seemed to mark a turning point of our trip, weather wise, as the sun was trying to break through. Encouraged by the glimpse of the sun we headed out to Lobster Cove Lighthouse museum which was only a 20 minute drive away.

We joined a guided tour from the lighthouse parking lot, although the tour was at the lighthouse it was all about the way of life in the area at the time and did not include anything in the actual lighthouse! Having said that though the tour was interesting and there were more than enough exhibits, as well as guides to ask questions to, in the lighthouse to learn all you wanted to about it. 

As well as the lighthouse and immediate area there were also some short coastal walks but the sun was still struggling to make a real breakthrough. Although it was not sunny it had warmed up.

Lobster Cove

Always nice to see and hear the Ocean! 

After lunch at Fisherman's Landing in Rocky Harbour we headed down to Norris Point where we understood there was an aquarium. We arrived there only to find the Aquarium was closed on Mondays and Tuesdays and today was Tuesday :-(

On our way back we retraced our route up Pond Road and indeed found Rocky Harbour Pond. The entrance to the pond had been hidden by trees on our way south but going north the entrance was much more visible and was that a beach we spotted? Indeed it was a beach with 'real' sand. There were very few people there but the beach and water seemed clean and good quality. Some facilities were in the process of being built which would be welcome. Unfortunately we didn't have our swimming stuff with us, we really must learn to be prepared. Met a couple at the beach were were visiting from Pickering, ON, and were there for 10 weeks!

After a while relaxing at the beach and enviously watching some folks swim and kayak we headed back to the trailer for a cuppa. Not long after returning to the trailer someone stopped by to chat and said they were from Nepean (Ottawa suburb) and someone else across from us was from Orleans (technically another Ottawa suburb but more identifiable as a separate city).

Wednesday started sunny but breezy and we decided to walk around Berry Hill Pond but having gone about a third of the way around the path became very waterlogged so we turned around back to the trailer.

After lunch at the trailer we headed back the short distance to Rocky Harbour. In Rocky Harbour we visited the wildlife museum which has several wildlife scenes that were quite well done. There was also a quiz visitors could do which helped us to look closely at the scenes to find the answers. 

 

 

 

 

 

   

After quite a time at the museum we purchased some postcards to send to the kids back home and then headed down to Salmon Point.  

  Not sure what to do or where to go but not wanting to go back to the trailer yet we decided to visit South East Brook falls. It was a bit further than we anticipated at about 30km but we were not pushed for time. 

After a bit of a climb the falls were a little disappointing but you don't know what to expect till you do it yourself. We headed back down to the parking but just as we exited the path into the parking lot a couple of young guys asked us if we'd seen the moose. Moose, what moose? They said that a moose had been very close to the path, so we quietly, but as quick as we could, headed back on to the path and managed to spot the moose. It had now moved a little further from the path and was somewhat hidden by trees but we did get some shots of it.

Happy at having seen a wild moose we went back to the trailer happy :-)

Thursday started and continued bright and sunny. Today we had a boat trip booked that we'd booked a couple of days previously since they fill up fast. The boat trip was not until 3pm although there was a 45 minute walk from the parking lot to the boat jetty. On the way we stopped for a picnic lunch at the SS Ethie site. The SS Ethie had been shipwrecked on the coast and the foreshore was littered with rusty remnants of the wreck which it had been decided to leave as a memorial to it. The SS Ethie had been shipwrecked in December 1919 but, miraculously, no lives were lost except that of a dairy cow. One young baby was rescued by being carried in a mailbag by a line from ship to shore.

 

 The story can be found here; http://newfoundlandshipwrecks.com/Ethie/Documents/wreck_of_the_s_s_ethie.htm

 

From the S.S. Ethie site we headed the short distance up the road to the large parking lot from where we walked the 3km to the boat jetty. It was quite hot by now and some people on the busy trail, both coming from and going to the jetty, were looking a bit hot and tired.

The boat soon loaded up and departed on time for the tour of Western Brook Pond. There were lots of interesting rock formations, including one where a face 'could be seen' if you use some imagination! In some sheltered places, higher up, were some patches of snow remaining from the long winter.

On the path to the jetty, almost there.

Snow in them there hills!

 

Can you FACE it?

Arriving back at the jetty where there were facilities we had a coffee and headed back up the trail to the car and back to the trailer where we had supper and started thinking about our next move in the morning.