St. John's, Newfoundland to Labrador and back to St. Anthony's, NL

A-Argentia, NL; B-St. John's, NL; C-Gander, NL; D-Springdale, NL;
E-Portland Creek, NL; F-St. Anthony, NL; G-Red Bay, Labrador

Cabot Tower on Signal Hill

The narrows into the harbour of St. John's, NL

Friday, August 27, we had a five-hour bus tour (in a city bus) around St. John’s. The entire day was misty, rainy, and/or windy. We went to Cabot Tower which is on Signal Hill. This hill high above St John’s was where in 1901 Marconi assembled his receiver at Signal Hill because it was North America’s closest point to Europe. We were able to see St. John’s from here when the fog would clear. There is a narrow passage of less than 600 feet across where the ships enter the harbor. Some time ago a huge ice-burg floated into the narrows and blocked the harbor for three months.

From there we went to Cape Spear and their new and old lighthouses. Then it was off to St. John’s Basilica built from 1841 to 1851. It is a very large and impressive building with beautiful stained glass windows. We were able to walk to the most eastern point in North America. The wind was howling, but we all had to have our pictures taken at the sign.

Our picture taking in the wind at the eastern-most land
in North America

We stopped at the little fishing village of Petty Harbour, then toured downtown St. Johns before heading back to the RV park. St. Johns is an old town and most of the older homes have common walls. There are steep hills all over town. These two facts made me feel like I was in San Francisco, CA.

Two short hours later we were again on a bus (a school bus this time) for a trip to the little town of Bay Bulls where we had an authentic Newfoundland dinner – Cod a ‘gratin, salad and veggies, and for dessert – Figgy Duff (a molasses and raisin cake covered with a carmel-like sauce). And this was our first chance to ‘enjoy’ Screech and Coke – Screech is a local rum.

Gander 9/11 display

And Saturday August 28 we were off again – this time our destination was Gander, NL. This was the easiest 215 miles of the trip – Trans Canada Highway 1 (TCH 1). Once in Gander we went to the local air museum where there was a nice display of the town’s roll during the 9/11 crisis. Gander is a spot all planes fly over when they fly Europe to US/Canada or visa-versa. So when 9/11 happened and all planes were grounded immediately, the planes flying to or from Europe from the US or Canada landed in Gander. There were 6700+ people on those planes and only 10,000 residents in Gander. But all the churches, schools, service groups, etc. opened their doors to folks. Stores like Walmart and other large stores offered needed supplies like sleeping bags, food, etc. In the museum there were notebooks filled with thank-you notes from folks that were stranded there. They were in town about four days before planes finally were able to take off again. I did not remember anything about Gander, and now I will never forget.

That evening we all carpooled to the local curling hall (yup – curling) where we were served a tasty stuffed cod (or chicken) dinner. We certainly are enjoying all the fresh fish.

One of the hundreds of lakes in Newfoundland

Sunday, August 29 and we were on the road to Springdale, NL – farther north still!! The scenery continues to be mostly trees with LOTS of lakes – lakes are absolutely everywhere. Gordie even spotted a real live moose in a pond, but the rest of us missed it. (He claimed it was a big one with large antlers, but he could tell us anything……). Most respectable moose (mooses….meese…whatever) only come out between dusk and dawn when we are not on the roads. This is probably a good thing, as many are hit every year (660 here last year) on the roads. Moose are not the brightest beasts in the woods, you know.

Sturdy dock by Newfoundland standards

We stayed at Springdale for two nights. After we arrived in town we took a bus tour through the town and saw the huge piles of firewood in most of the yards. The locals can save $1600 a year by using firewood to supplement oil or coal heating in the winter. The houses here are mostly simple square homes of two stories. Due to the cost of shipping all the materials for building, the homes are mostly $100,000 to over $300,000. The yards are neat with flowers and mowed small yards. There are private docks all along the water that look pretty rickety by our northwest standards, but they seem OK with them. We were taken to a couple of museums in town – our tour guide has lived here all her life and could talk about most of the historic people.

We had a lovely dinner in a large room in the basement of a hotel. The mayor welcomed us and we were entertained by some of the locals who told some jokes, sang, and played the accordion. It was a fun evening.

The next day we were taken to another town, Kingsport, where we enjoyed visiting a traditional Newfoundland store. What a place. There was everything you could imagine, but no prices listed, some of the stuff looked VERY old. There was a box of macaroni and cheese next to chain saw oil. The owner of the store knew every price – quite interesting. We also visited a whale center where an entire humpback whale skeleton was displayed. And we visited a pottery shop where the owner demonstrated pottery being made on a wheel.

That evening we had a potluck dinner. Then the local tourism director and some helpers showed a video on commercial growing of mussels in mussel farms– they are apparently quite a good money crop here. Then they treated us to a mussel boil – they boiled up a huge pot of muscles in salt water and beer. People seem to be of two minds about mussels – either you love them or you don’t. We belong in the latter group. We did eat a few, but they aren’t our meal of choice. The entertainment was provided by the local head of river fisheries.

Tuesday, Aug 1, we were off once again heading west, then north to the town of Portland Creek. (Diann and Rich had an engine problem and had to go south to Corner Brook. We were thrilled that the #1 valve could be repaired and they joined us before dark that evening.) One of the fellas that had entertained us in Springdale owns a restaurant that was on our way that day, so many of us stopped for breakfast. Well………..this is a very lightly populated area and when all of us showed up, we spent lots of time drinking coffee and talking. It was over an hour for us to get breakfast. But the food was hot and good and reasonably priced, so all was well.

Emerald butterflies from Costa Rica

Our first stop after breakfast was at an Insectarium – there was a live butterfly wing that was the best we’ve ever seen. I had on a yellow shirt and found that the butterflies LOVE yellow – I had them on my shirt and in my hair the whole time we were in that area.  The only other place we stopped on this day was Gros Morne Nat’l Park’s visitor center. We enjoyed watching a film on Labrador, then drove on into Portland Creek RV Park for the night. It was near a beautiful lake – very nice. This night we were treated to moose stew – moose meat, carrots, turnips (root crops is what they can grow here and they pretty much live on them).

Then Aug 2 we headed to St. Anthony’s at the northeast end of Newfoundland. This day and yesterday our driving was often right along the coast and we overlooked the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It is very stark and beautiful. The small villages look so cold with almost nothing growing around the houses. The trees are very short because of two things – Newfoundland is a big rock, so roots can’t go very deep; and much of the soil above the ground is boggy. Our only stop this second day was at Port au Choix (pronounced Port au Schwa) Provincial Park. After visiting the visitor’s center we drove about a half mile to a light house. The day was beautiful and we could see far out to sea. We hoped to see whales, but no luck on that front. We stayed and enjoyed our lunch while watching the ocean. Then it was on the RV park.

This evening we were bused out on a moose watching trip – or that that was what it was supposed to be. We have yet to see a live moose, though some of our group have seen a few.

L'Anse aux Meadows Viking hut

The next morning – temps below 60 degrees and some rain - we were bused to L’Anse aux Meadows, Here it is believed after some archeological digs that Norsemen from Norway by way of Iceland and Greenland set up a colony. We were able to go through recreated houses, a boat shed with a Viking ship, etc. There was another recreated Viking village nearby that we also visited where there were several folks in costume explaining the customs of the Vikings who would have lived there.

That afternoon we visited the museum of Dr. Grenfell – an English physician who brought medical care to the eastern Canadian provinces – he changed the lives of the people here by not only doctoring to them, but teaching them how to grow good food, preaching to them, raising money to build clinics, and bringing other doctors to treat the people from villages in this vast area.

Viking Feast

That evening we were treated to a Viking feast in a sod building. We had cod tongue, stew, and other delights. We were also entertained by ‘Vikings’ who did mock trials and generally acted like Vikings.

Loading the Labrador Ferry

We didn’t get home until about 10PM and quickly hit the pillow because the next day we boarded a bus at 5:30AM to catch the 8:30 ferry to Labrador. Our Wagon Master has been carefully watching hurricane Earl, as it is possibly coming north as far as Labrador. We were to spend the night on Labrador, but instead, we had a 5- hour bus trip taking us over the entire 49 miles of paved roads to the farthest point – Red Bay. Then we were bused back and caught the 3:45PM ferry for the 1 ½ hour ride back to Newfoundland. The bus ride each was was 1 ½ hours also, so it ended up being a very long day.

Typical Labrador village

Labrador has a few small towns of 70-150 people. The road from the ferry took us from the SE corner of Quebec along the southern coast of Labrador. All these eastern Canada provinces used to rely on fishing for their livelihood, but the waters have been greatly overfished. Now many of the people fly to Alberta north of Calgary to work in the open pit oil fields where they make very good money. They have also discovered other resources in Labrador – hydro electric power, nickel – and gradually, the fish population is increasing again. A 400-kilometer dirt road has been built between Labrador’s south coast and the province of Quebec – this is the first time there has been a road connecting Labrador to the large Canadian provinces. In the past the ferry was the only means of reaching other provinces.

Red Bay lighthouse (we walked clear to the top)

While on Labrador we visited a lighthouse in Red Bay that is the  tallest lighthouse on the eastern coast of Canada. We also spent some time at a museum where displays included artifacts from ships that sank in the harbor of Red Bay centuries ago. The ships have been well preserved because of the cold water and being covered with sand and gravel from the ocean tides. The ships were mostly from the time in history when people from Europe came to Labrador to kill whales and melt the blubber into oil that was used to heat and light homes. The ships sunk due to bad weather, overloading, and bad luck.


Now we will see if the hurricane behaves itself and lets us continue our planned route!!