NEWFOUNDLAND – CAPE RAY TO CODROY VALLEY.
Day 26 – Wreckhouse Winds? Yep! And huge amounts of rain. All night long. 38 degrees this morning, still raining, still windy. We figured we’d be staying inside all day. At close to noon, the sun came out (glory be!), the wind died down to maybe 15 MPH, and it stopped raining. The girls migrated to the dashboard area; we had a quick lunch and headed out.
Fueled by all the literature we’d picked up yesterday at the Visitor’s Center, we had a plan in mind. Today we’d drive west in the Honda on the TCH and continue north following the coastline. We’d originally planned, when we arrived here on Monday, to stay three nights, leaving tomorrow. But today, once we got a signal on the phone & checked the weather forecast, we knew the wind gusts would be continuing until later Thursday afternoon. We figured we’d check out the wind gusts in the car as we traveled north to see how strong they really were. Then decide if we needed to stay at J. T. Cheeseman longer. We really wanted to get up north to the top of the western part of Newfoundland to see the icebergs as they head south from the Arctic Circle.
It was only 39 degrees when we left after lunch. The high, later today, was 45 degrees. The wind increased again in the afternoon & the clouds came back in. The sun shining on the snow atop the mountains was wonderful, and supposedly we’re getting more snow in the mountains from this storm. First while still heading west on the TCH, we turned off on the road to Cape Ray to see the lighthouse. We found that near the lighthouse, land had been cleared and a huge project, called the Maritime Link, had taken place, bringing Newfoundland Hydro power from Cape Ray under the land and sea to Point Aconi, Nova Scotia via cable. The area was sparsely populated with some summer cottages placed on hills over the Cabot Strait. Others were located in the village. Evidently people in these small fishing villages off the beaten track don’t have mail delivered to their homes but must go into town to get their mail at a group of postal boxes located in a central location outside of the post office. Back to the TCH, we soon were traveling north.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
As we went north we saw more mountains with snow, the Table Mountains. Gorgeous. Below the mountains often there were lakes, rivers, and streams. On the other side of the highway was the Gulf of St. Lawrence and there were whitecaps on the water. We got to the Wreckhouse sign and the parking lot beyond. We pulled over and took pictures.
We continued north to the Codroy Valley and turned off on one of the roads towards the valley and sea. A beautiful area. We stopped at Cape Anguille lighthouse, with the Lighthouse Inn, at the westernmost point in Newfoundland. The waves were crashing below us at the end of the road. Taking a different road back through the beautiful valley, we came to a lovely church, the Trinity Anglican Church, and their graveyard by the bay.
Then we stopped at the Great Codroy Wetland Centre. The Centre was closed for the season but Rob walked the trails at the Grand Codroy Estuary adjacent to the Centre while I hobbled around until the wind gusts got the best of me. At the Centre there was a large whale vertebrate on display outside the building. Earlier I’d seen a large rock painted white with a tiny black whale painted in the center. On the trails within the Estuary Rob got pictures of “message rocks” he came upon while walking. We love this!
Before getting back on the Trans-Canada Highway and heading back to the campground, we went through tiny St. Andrews, part of the Codroy Valley, and saw the Precious Blood Roman Catholic Church with its backdrop of the Table Mountains. We stopped for gas in the Honda and the woman working at the gas station mentioned how the winds had been increasing by a lot in the past several years. Climate change? Everybody is worried about it.
Back at the campground, we reserved another night. The latest on the phone still forecasted the high wind gusts for tomorrow. Better safe than sorry. It was windy for the Honda; how would it be in the RV.