A Fishy Story

(First, Jack will give us an account of his fishing adventures in Newfoundland. Then we’ll pick up where we left off.)

While I didn’t come to Newfoundland to fish, I enjoyed fishing on three different rivers. The first was a true salmon run river, the Great Codroy that I described in a previous blog. I did get to see a moose and her calf up close, and I did hook one salmon and caught a nice brook trout. The second river I fished was within the city limits of St. John’s that held some sizable brown trout according to the guide I had. I managed to catch several small browns that were chasing caddis flies to the surface. I think the big guys were hunkered down due to the stormy, rainy weather we had.

My best fishing day was on a small no-name stream that flowed out of one pond into another. A “pond” up here is not the little things we have back home. What they call ponds in Newfoundland we call lakes at home. The connecting stream I fished was no more than 100 yards long. After “gearing up” (that means putting on waders, boots with felt soles, a rain jacket, and putting together my four-piece flyrod, adding my fly reel, running my line through the eyes of the rod, tying on a “prince” artificial fly, filing down the barb hook… you get the idea.) I headed up to the first likely spot that might hold a trout. Just as I readied a cast, a reddish gray bird landed on a nearby rock and decided to take a bath. How rude is that? Anyway I watched for a few minutes and then headed further upstream as the pretty bird wasn’t making any signs of leaving soon. On the way up I caught many brook trout in the 4 to 6 inch range. The limit here is 6 inches, but I turn back all wild trout no matter what size they are. It didn’t take long for me to reach the upper pond. My neighbor told me that the pond is used by the little village of Tilting for their drinking water supply and they don’t like folks fishing in their drinking water. So when in Rome… I turned around and fished down the same stream. This time I hooked a 9-inch brookie, which is a decent size fish for a small brook trout stream. I really enjoyed my two hours fishing that stream. Now on to Montana to hopefully check off 12 of my top 100 trout streams!

Back to our story… When we left Fogo Island and landed back on the mainland of Newfoundland, we drove west to Gros Morne National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site due to its geological importance. We stayed in a cozy two-bedroom cabin right next to the water. Gros Morne is beautiful—craggy mountains, rivers with thundering waterfalls, and the ocean. We got some great sunset photos over the water. This place is in the Long Range Mountains, which is the most northern part of our own Appalachian Mountain range, and some parts look and seem very much like home. 

The beautiful Gros Morne scenery, with snow still on the mountains.

Sunset from our cabin.

Our first day in Gros Morne, the weather was nice and sunny, and we all took a boat tour on Western Brook Pond, a freshwater lake that got cut off from the ocean long ago. It’s surrounded by steep rocky cliffs and some astonishing waterfalls come tumbling 1000 feet down to the lake. One of them, called Pissing Mare Falls, is one of the highest in eastern North America. (Gotta love that name!)

Western Brook Pond, a freshwater fjord, supposedly some of the world's purest water.

Jack and Carol on boat tour, with waterfall behind us.

Partial view of Pissing Mare Falls, one of the highest in eastern North America.

Our landlord for the cabin we’re in suggested that we visit the nearby fish market, so we did and picked up some lobster for $4.75/pound! A delicious lobster feast for supper—one of the cheapest meals we’ve had so far!

Our cheap lobster dinner!

The next day, Marc, Lynne and Carol went on a hike to yet another spectacular waterfall. A lot of the land around here is a marshy peat bog, and many of the trails are part boardwalks since the land is so wet.  I love boardwalk trails! While we hiked Jack checked out some fishing opportunities but it was too windy so he didn’t end up fishing.

Our boardwalk trail to waterfall.

Our destination waterfall--it was worth it!

We left Gros Morne on Tuesday—all of us were sad to leave the area as it’s so beautiful and we didn’t get to see much of it— and we drove down to the Codroy Valley, close to where we get the ferry to take us to Nova Scotia. Here we spent one night in a cute cottage with a pastoral view of the river and riverbank. Jack took a photo of our morning routine here—we all wander out and make our individual breakfasts and immediately get engrossed in our respective electronic gadgets, barely acknowledging each other’s presence. We all need this early morning electronics fix apparently!

Morning routine of this geeky crowd. Check out Jack's panoramic view from our cabin.

Wednesday morning—my 65th birthday by the way!— we headed to Port aux Basques where the ferry terminal is. We got on without a hitch and had a smooth 6-hour ride to Nova Scotia. The weather had turned rainy and foggy (so what’s new??) so we drove through the fog to the Acadian town of Cheticamp on Cape Breton Island—yet another beautifully scenic spot in Canada (if you can see it through the fog that is). We’re now staying at Cheticamp Outfitters, a B&B, and plan to drive the Cabot Trail around the island. And hopefully see some moose!

Fogo Island, Part 2

One interesting thing we accidentally left out of the last blog was a fascinating optical phenomenon that we happened to witness while touring the artist studios with Heather, our tour guide. As we drove toward one of the small communities, we saw an interesting line over the ocean horizon, with icebergs appearing to hang in the air. This is called a Fata Morgana and is caused by a temperature inversion—we were actually seeing the tops of icebergs on the ocean below reflected in the air, only upside-down!

The Fata Morgana illusion, icebergs suspended in air.

Now back to the story… on Wednesday night our friend Zita came home to Fogo Island from her business trip in Calgary, and came over to JigLoft for a quick visit and to meet Marc and Lynne. It was wonderful to see her again, after almost 12 years! So much has happened since then, and we started immediately catching up, talking a mile a minute.  When she left to go home to bed, we made a plan for a hike in the morning.

Carol and Zita, catching up!

We were ready about 8:30 am and four of us, minus Jack who stayed home to work on some other stuff, headed to the community of Fogo, to hike the Lion’s Den trail, one of Zita’s favorites. The trail goes through scrub forest, over rocky knobs, and has amazing views of the ocean and icebergs, and several picturesque abandoned fishing villages. Zita and I yakked nonstop most of the way, still catching up on our lives and mutual friends—“Whatever happened to so-and-so??” Sometimes, though, we just had to stop and admire the breathtaking views! She filled us in on a lot of the “backstory” of the villages and the natural settings. After the hike we toured around a little in the RoadTrek and Zita showed us some spots that had special meaning for her in the towns and the countryside. She had to be back for a meeting at noon, but she invited us over to the Inn at 6 pm for a presentation she was giving, on Shorefast Foundation (the nonprofit that she started and is president of) and the Inn.

Lynne, Carol and Zita at one of the stunning overlooks on Lion's Den trail.

We rested up at JigLoft until time to go to the presentation. We’d already taken a bunch of photos of the Inn and had gone there already once to use their Wifi, so we had seen some of it. Designed by a noted architect who was born in Newfoundland, it’s truly an amazing building, perched out on a rock ledge right by the wild north Atlantic Ocean. Icebergs come floating by and whales sometimes appear right offshore. It incorporates elements from the traditional buildings on Fogo, like the pilings used by the fishing stages where they dry and salt the cod. The off-white color is reminiscent of the icebergs. It’s totally modern architecture but somehow fits in with the traditional community. It looks different depending on what angle you view it from. Sometimes it seems completely off by itself, and sometimes it appears to be part of the community of Joe Batt’s Arm. It definitely is a part—it belongs to the community and all profits are plowed back into community betterment.

A view of Joe Batt's Arm community with Fogo Island Inn in the background. Note how it fits in here.

Dramatic view of the Inn as seen from the ocean.

As we heard in Zita’s engaging presentation, back in the 1960s the people of Fogo Island were presented with a decision to make: whether to relocate to somewhere less remote with more infrastructure, educational opportunities, and jobs other than fishing… or not—just to stay where they were and try to figure out how to continue to make a living there. The decision-making process on Fogo was filmed as part of a university research study back then, and it’s now called the Fogo Process. The community finally decided together NOT to be relocated—to hang onto this rock in the ocean that they are so attached to, and try to find a way to keep their culture intact and at the same time earn a decent living. Zita’s Fogo Island Inn is really a continuation of the Fogo Process and hopefully will help to keep the community viable. Her presentation was thought-provoking—she is passionate about what she’s doing and her enthusiasm is infectious. She challenges everyone to make a difference in their own communities.

Afterwards we had a cocktail in the lounge (mine containing the local Newfoundland rum called “Screech”—having Screech is supposedly a necessary Newfoundland experience). Then home to get packed up for our move on Friday to our rooms at the Inn—oh boy!

Friday morning before we checked in we decided to visit the marine interpretation center in another island community called Seldom, about 20 minutes away. This center was in several old buildings left from the old-time commercial fishing operation. Lots of interesting history there, including all the equipment for making cod liver oil in big tanks. So that’s where it came from! We had lunch at a little place called Vanessa’s in Seldom—looked like a tiny gas station but the food was tasty.

It was rainy and foggy when we finally pulled into the Inn. We all fell in love with our rooms immediately—there’s a lot to love, including the remote-control toilet with the heated seat and five-function bidet. Took me about 15 minutes to learn how to work the toilet but it was worth it! We don’t have nothin’ like this in Oriskany! Also the floor to ceiling windows overlooking the rocky ocean shoreline (of course with iceberg views), the in-room woodstove, beautiful bathroom with huge shower and soaking tub, and the amazingly comfy chairs by the windows. Everything was specially designed just for the Inn, reflecting Fogo’s culture and traditions—all the wallpaper, the chairs, the knitted shawls and afghans, the bed were all either designed or made, or both, on Fogo Island. Wow!  I never want to leave this room…

Carol in the amazingly comfy handmade chair with handmade knitted cushion--it's like an adult crib!

The control system for the toilet--I kid you not.

Click here for a panoramic view of our room.

We meet Zita for supper in the lounge and have a fabulous dinner in the dining room, which also has floor to ceiling windows looking out on the rocks and the ocean, and a magical set of chandeliers overhead made of knotted white rope, also reflecting the fishing heritage. The chef here, who has made a big name for himself, uses almost all local ingredients, including lots of odd things like caribou moss, lichens and seaweeds as garnishes. The food is very tasty, with an artistic presentation, and Zita regales us with stories of how she managed to get all this done, and what her plans are for the future. She is just as funny and charismatic as I remember her. A lovely evening. After supper Zita shows us the sauna on the roof and the four of us have a sauna—nice and relaxing end to the evening.

Dinner together in the dining room. Each course is served with a flair!

Handmade knotted rope chandeliers. The ocean is right outside those floor-to-ceiling windows!

The rest of our time at the Inn is great, although the weather isn’t very cooperative—mostly rainy, cool and foggy. One of the nice traditions here is “Daybreaks”—every morning at dawn the staff leaves a wooden box outside each room filled with homemade scones or muffins, juice and coffee or tea according to your preference. (This is in addition to the regular breakfast later in the dining room!) We could get used to this… 

Each night a traditional singer performs local music in the lounge, which is a great backdrop to the food and conversation. It is very reminiscent of the old-time music in our area. They even “flatfoot” here too! On our last night, Zita sings for us in the lounge, a sad song about the demise of the fishing culture in Newfoundland—but at the end, she says “But not here!” She has certainly done her bit to try to preserve this place and this way of life that means so much to her—and obviously to all those who belong here.

Jack, Zita and Carol in lounge, just before Zita sang to us.

On Saturday we try to beat the rain and hike up to Brimstone Head, a dramatic high rock looking out over the ocean, which has been proclaimed by the Flat Earth Society to be one of the four corners of the flat earth. We need a photo to prove we’ve been there. It’s a fairly short hike mostly on a boardwalk and steps. The rain holds off till we get almost to the top, and then starts really falling. It’s too foggy on top to see anything, and the walk down is blustery and cold. We're the only ones climbing today. Duh. We’re glad to get back to our womblike rooms at the Inn and dry out.

Climbing the steps up Brimstone Head. Note Newfoundland humor...

We made it--but can't see a thing due to pea soup fog.

Our two days at the Inn are entirely too short. We depart on Sunday at noon and head off to the ferry, to take us back to mainland Newfoundland. But I don’t think any of us will ever forget Fogo.

[We’re still running behind on our blogs, but will try to catch up over the next couple of days…]

We Arrive on Fogo Island

It's been 5 days since our last post, because we didn't have "real" internet service until now. (Our Verizon MyFi gave us very slow service at EXORBITANT roaming rates, so we turned it off.) Because we have so much to tell I'm going to divide this into two blogs.

On a rainy, grey day we lined up to take the ferry over to Fogo Island, a little island off the north coast of Newfoundland. We're heading for the small fishing community of Joe Batt's Arm. (Here an "arm" is a long inlet off the ocean providing a little harbor.) Fogo Island has been pronounced one of the four corners of the earth by something called the Flat Earth Society, and it does feel like we're pretty much heading to the ends of the earth. We're going to visit our friend Zita, who we both used to work with years ago and who grew up here. Fogo Island is what's called an "outport"--a farflung place on the ocean that is centered on fishing. For centuries the hardy folks who cling to this rock in the north Atlantic have supported themselves fully by fishing and sealing. Unfortunately, in the 1970s fishing technology got very productive--high-tech international boats started coming here offshore and taking large quantities of the cod that had been here in great numbers since forever, and pretty soon there were hardly any cod left. Canada then declared a moratorium on cod fishing, and the Fogo Islanders had no way to make a living.

We are first off the ferry to Fogo.

Joe Batt's Arm fishing community.

Zita had left the island to go to college on a scholarship in the 1970s, but her family was still on Fogo and she still considered it "home," as do all the Fogo Islanders, no matter where they happen to be living. (Her father was a fisherman.) She has had a career as a financial manager and made a lot of money in the technology industry, becoming CFO of a major fiber optic company. She retired early and, after sailing around the world for awhile, came back to Fogo Island, only to find it in decline. The population is getting smaller and all the young people leave for greener pastures. After searching for a way to help, she came up with the idea of building a high-end inn here--a sort of "adventure meets luxury" place unlike any other. She started a nonprofit foundation called Shorefast, along with her brothers, and after years of planning and investing huge amounts of her own money, she got the federal and provincial governments to help by kicking in some funds for the project. The inn has now been open for a year and has won all kinds of international awards and gotten fantastic publicity in publications like the New York Times, Forbes and many others of that level. Zita is something of a celebrity in Newfoundland now.

She is off the island giving a presentation in Calgary when we arrive on Fogo, but we will see her later in the week--and we plan to treat ourselves by staying at the Inn for 2 nights at the end of our time on Fogo. For the first several days, we'll be staying at a little two-bedroom beach house called JigLoft--very cute and cozy!

Our home on Joe Batt's Arm, JigLoft.

Inside JigLoft beach house.

Soon after we arrive and get unpacked, Amanda, a lovely friend of Zita's who works at the Inn and lives next door to JigLoft, comes over to see how we're doing. (Zita has asked her to look after us until she gets here.) Amanda has invited us to her parents' house for supper. Pete and Margaret, Amanda's parents, are good friends of Zita's that she went to school with. We drive to their 150-year-old house. Margaret is busy preparing supper when we arrive, so Pete shows us around. The woodstove has the house nice and cozy and the meal smells wonderful. Pete is a fountain of knowledge about the history and culture of the island. He's a fisherman and sealer and recounts all manner of stories about that life. It's fish for supper, of course--turbot baked with potatoes and onions, very yummy! The conversation is fascinating and the company is congenial--a great introduction to this friendly island.

Margaret prepares a delicious fish dinner.

The next day it's still rainy so we have a relaxing morning and then go out to the grocery store nearby for provisions. It gets nicer in the afternoon so Lynne, Marc and I take a walk (Jack goes to check out a fishing pond he's heard about). Our house is next to a little park with a trail that winds along the shore so we follow the trail, which goes by a modern building with a glass front. This is called "Long Studio." It's part of Zita's, and Shorefast's, plan to make Fogo a mecca for artists of all kinds. Several studios have been designed by a famous architect and constructed at different spots around the island, and international artists apply to stay here and work on their projects.

The "Long Studio."

The next day, Wednesday, is supposed to be a beautiful day so Amanda has arranged for us to go on a boat ride in the morning on her uncle's tour boat. We are heading to yet another set of even smaller islands (now we'll be on an island off an island off an island...). These are called the Little Fogo Islands and there are a couple of old fishing communities there as well. No one lives full time anymore (they used to) but some of the little houses have been maintained and people use them as get-aways (as if you would need to get away any further than Fogo Island itself--I guess everything is relative!). We see more puffins and other birds, and more close-up icebergs. (Fogo Island has lots of icebergs all around.) We actually land on one of the little islands where a fishing community used to be. It's very beautiful, peaceful and quiet. There's even a small Catholic church that was built in 1867. It's been well-maintained and a multidenominational service is held there once a year.

More puffins on Little Fogo, this time a much closer photo.

Abandoned fishing village in Little Fogo Islands.

This huge iceberg, which we circled on our boat tour, looked like soft-serve ice cream.

Jack doesn't go on the boat ride--he's decided to go trout fishing instead. Amanda's husband has given him some advice on where to fish for brook trout. Jack drops us off at the boat dock and heads off with waders and fishing rod.

After the boat ride we meet up for lunch. Jack has had a great time as he caught several brook trout (all catch and release--I think the Newfoundlanders are puzzled by someone who doesn't eat the fish they catch).

Amanda called me while we were out on the boat to say that she has someone who will take us around to several of the artist studios and show them to us in the afternoon, so we agree. It's unusual to get to go inside the studios, so we feel lucky for this opportunity. Heather, our guide, comes to JigLoft after lunch to get us. She's a lively young woman, a graduate art major, who works for the artsy side of the Shorefast Foundation, the nonprofit that Zita founded.

Carol on the porch of Long Studio.

It's just a short hike out to each of the 3 studios that we visit. They're all different and all quite stunning in both architecture and setting. We first go back to Long Studio, which we've seen from the outside but not the inside. It has solar power, a composting toilet, and a kitchen that is revealed by sliding back a big wooden door. Quite the place.

Squish Studio is on the outskirts of the community of Tilting, which is full of people of Irish heritage, who speak with a very different accent than the people of Joe Batt's Arm. Squish is a Newfoundland word that means something that's just a little bit off, and when you see the building it's self-explanatory. We agree that the view out the huge window is so distracting we'd never be able to do any work in this studio!

Squish studio.

The last one is Tower Studio, which we get to by walking a long boardwalk over the marsh. A German artist, a photographer with several books to his credit, is working in this one but he's not there when we tour it. We see some of his work in progress.

We return to our little house and have supper at home, soup and salad, and watch the beautiful sunset.

We hit the sack after a busy day of seeing the sights! Next blog, Zita arrives and we move to Fogo Island Inn... (Wait till you see this place!)

Puffins at Last...and Whales...and More Icebergs

Jack, Lynne and Carol drove to Bay Bulls for a boat tour on Saturday to see puffins, whales and yet more icebergs--the Big Three of Newfoundland June tourism! (Unfortunately Marc has a virus and has had to lay low at home for awhile.) The weather now is perfect--sunny, fairly warm, no humidity. All the locals are wearing their tank tops and short shorts, after being in parkas and gloves two days ago! The boat tour with Gatherall's tour company was spectacular. We saw several humpback whales and one mother and calf let us get really close. The calf seemed curious about the boat and kept surfacing right next to us, so we got several good photos. We could even smell its fish breath when it breathed!

About to board our seaworthy catamaran.

Carol and a closeup of the puffins

A whale of a tail. This was the friendly humpback calf.

Then we pulled up right next to a small iceberg. We've seen a bunch of icebergs over the past few days, but all at long distance, so it was neat to see one close up like this, and see the waves washing over it.

Too close for comfort?

For the grand finale, the boat took us by Gull Island, the site of the Witless Bay bird colony. Several species of pelagic birds are here in very large numbers right now--hundreds of thousands! It's one of the largest bird colonies of this type in the world. "Pelagic" means that the birds live out on the ocean almost all the time, coming to land just to breed and nest. Puffins, murres, and kittiwakes are the main types of birds here. The puffins are the ones that I've been waiting to see, and it was great! Some were in the water, some flying overhead but most are on the cliffs of this rocky island, either in or near the holes in the cliff that they lay their eggs in. They're smaller than expected, but so cute with their brightly colored, oversized, round beaks (see the photo on the Gatherall's tour van for a close up view of what they look like--although we were very close to them, we didn't succeed in getting a close-up photo with the iPad, unfortunately, just a general view of the thousands of birds). Each breed has staked out its own territory on the steep cliff, some in holes like the puffins, and some building nests wherever a rock sticks out enough. With this many birds, the noise and smells were terrific! It was amazing!

Hard to see the birds in this photo, but you get the idea.

Birds everywhere.

After the boat docked, we headed for a nearby pub for some "pub grub," since we hadn't had a real lunch yet. We tried the cod tongues, a local dish. Tasty, reminding us of fried oysters.

The geologist Lynne had interviewed on Friday, Andy, had invited us all to dinner at a St. John's restaurant that night, but Marc wasn't feeling up to it and Jack decided to stay home with him, so Lynne and I later walked a few blocks to the restaurant to join the dinner party. It was a good group, in addition to Lynne and me consisting of Andy and his wife Vi, Paul a senior geologist who is involved in all kinds of science education and administration in the area, and Hilda, a local science editor and writer. All very interesting people: great food and great conversation!

The next morning we were up early to pack the van and head out to Gander. Our goal is to catch the ferry to Fogo Island on Monday; we'll spend the night at a motel in Gander and drive the rest of the way to the ferry Monday morning. Before we leave the St. John's area, we decide to drive up to Signal Hill on the outskirts of the city to see the view; this is the spot where Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless signal--it was Morse code for the letter "S"--hence the name "Signal Hill." It's another beautiful day and the view is spectacular from the hill. We can see a couple of nice icebergs, as well as a beautiful view of the St. John's harbor and city. Lovely, scenic spot. Wish we had longer to spend here, as there's a great-looking hiking trail, but we have miles to go...

Carol, Iceberg, and Jack

Iceberg, Marc, Lynne and Carol on Signal Hill

Click here for a panoramic view.

The drive is scenic and uneventful. We pull into our Gander motel, the Country Inn, about 3:30 pm and I get out to register us. I had made reservations here several weeks ago through booking.com. I go into the foyer of the motel and find that the door into the main lobby is locked. There's a sign saying "If after hours, call this number." I call the number and hear the phone in the lobby ring once and a message says "this party is not available." Hmmm. Weird. I look inside and see that the lights are all on, but looks like nobody's home. There are a couple of cars outside, so it seems like there must be some people staying here, but we don't see anyone. There's also an RV campground behind the motel, so I go back there to see if I can find someone, but no one's around. By this time, the rest of our gang has gotten out of the van and are hanging out in the front of the motel. Another big RV pulls up and wants to pay for a campsite, but of course they can't get in either. I go try to call again but the same thing happens. I bang on the door loudly and yell. Finally a guy comes and opens the door, and says he's a guest at the motel and heard the banging. He says he hasn't seen anyone at the desk for a while, but he lets us in, as he has a key to the locked front door. He seems to know his way around and manages to unlock the door into the area behind the front desk, to see if he can see what rooms we're assigned to, and maybe get us a key. He doesn't see anywhere that says what rooms are ours and he has to leave, but we are inside at least and we sit in the lobby for a bit. Finally, Jack goes over and manages to unlock the door into the area behind the front desk. We look at the master book and calendar and finally see that we are assigned to rooms 7 and 8. We find the little cards and fill them out, and take the keys for our rooms! First time we've ever had to check ourselves into our motel! Too funny! Must be a Newfoundland thing!

Carol, our new receptionist, registers Marc.

Later the lady who's supposed to be in charge comes out of room 3, along with her husband (or boyfriend, not sure...), with sleepy looks on their faces. I told her we showed up and no one was here so we checked ourselves in. She looks shocked and says, "Why didn't you call??" I told her I had called numerous times but only got the message "not available." Seemed like she didn't believe me, but later she discovered that her cellphone had died (she had apparently forwarded the motel phone to her cellphone while she was napping...or whatever). No apology was forthcoming. We discovered that the owners are out of town for a few days, so maybe it's a case of the inmates being in charge of the asylum.

Tomorrow, ferry to Fogo....

Icebergs Galore

We went to pick up our friends Marc and Lynne at the airport on Thursday night. They arrived safe and sound, a little tired after a long day's flying. Lynne, who's a science writer, had scheduled an interview with a local geologist and he invited them to drive with him down to a major fossil site about 2 hrs south of St. John's on Friday, and they got up early to go on that day trip. So it was a work day for Lynne--no rest for the weary! Jack and I stayed home, me to catch up on a batch of book chapters that I just received and he to work on his electronics book project.

Carol, Lynne, and Marc

It was the first really nice, totally sunny and almost warm day that we've had in Newfoundland, so we took a break around lunch time to drive up to Cape Spear, the easternmost point of land in North America and the site of the oldest lighthouse in Newfoundland. There's still a working light there, and they've preserved the old wooden structure as a museum. But the main reason for our trip up there is that several people have told us there's a spectacular iceberg to be seen from that vantage point.

Cape Spear Lighthouse (the structure on far right is the old one)

First, we took a side trip to get one of the RoadTrek's side mirrors fixed (after a collision with the pole in our tight driveway--ironically it's the pole that has the sign telling us not to park there!). Fortunately, the lady cleaning the jelly bean house adjoining our unit has a son who works at an auto place nearby; she called him and he said to come right over. He popped the mirror right back on--yay! Newfoundlanders are so nice!!

The drive up to Cape Spear was spectacular. Near the top of the hill we went around a bend and caught a view of a huge white iceberg against the shore! When we got to the top, where the lighthouse and museum are, we could see numerous icebergs offshore. The photos don't really do the icebergs justice--they don't give the feel of how huge and majestic they are. They're fabulous natural sculptures--real works of art carved by the sea. The spray from the waves occasionally splashed almost to the top of one berg, concealing it briefly behind a white curtain. Really an amazing view. At one point a Canadian icebreaker pulled out into the ocean and ran by one of the icebergs, giving a better idea of just how big they are. The lighthouse was striking too, but everything seems to take a back seat to the icebergs.

We took a lot of photos and then drove back into town. We were amazed to see that a huge iceberg had moved into the narrow entrance of St. John's harbor. After we parked the van (very carefully), we walked down the block or so to get a closer look and take some photos. It looked strangely familiar and we finally realized that it was the big iceberg against the shore that we had first spotted from Cape Spear. More photos... It almost looks as if the berg is blocking the harbor entrance, but it's not really big enough to totally block it. We talked to a fellow who was also photographing the iceberg and he said he's been coming here for 25 years and they've never had a berg big enough to actually block the harbor in that time.

Blocking the Harbor Entrance?

Finally went back home. Marc and Lynne came in about 7 pm and we did supper at home, scrounging all the soups and salad stuff that I had in the frig, and some hummus that I picked up at a shop around the corner. Tasted good. Lynne and I gabbed in the downstairs living room until we got sleepy and all went to bed...