Note: We have no internet and no cell phone connection again. Therefore, once we’ve moved to a different campground & have received a signal again, we’ll send out the blog posts all together. Sorry!
NEWFOUNDLAND – PORT AU CHOIX TO ST. ANTHONY.
Day 30 – Rob was up at 6:30 a.m. this morning, 44 degrees & partly cloudy. I got up at 7:30. He went over to the rocks on the beach to get pictures of Eider Ducks. They were floating around right in front of the RV.
Female and Male Common Eider, Oceanside RV Park, Port au Choix, NF
Female and Male Common Eider, Oceanside RV Park, Port au Choix, NF
124 miles, (2:55), 39392-39516
We departed the Oceanside RV Park at 9:45 a.m. It was 50 degrees and sunny. That’s as warm as it got for us today. We stopped to fill up on propane in Port au Choix. They weren’t open yet so we waited for about ½ hour before we finished getting the propane. Then we hit the road, Route 430 north, then east, to St. Anthony.
Again, it was a very scenic trip. About two-thirds of it was near the ocean, along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. It wasn’t long before we came to pack ice in the harbors. At first it was smaller chunks of ice. Then as we got further up north, the ice chunks became larger. It must be really difficult for the fishing fleets to get out of the harbors with the ice pack still in the sea. It was an awesome sight, one we hadn’t expected to see the end of May. We did see a couple of icebergs but there was already so much ice in the water, it wasn’t as exciting as you’d think it would’ve been.
Initially, we still had some tall mountains & hills with snow on them, but as we got further north, the size of the hills diminished and we saw less snow, although there was still plenty of snow in the woods and along the side of the road inland. The trees and bushes were back to scrawny & wind blown most of the time. In plenty of places, it was all granite and bare. Tundra-like in appearance. When we were traveling by the sea and there was all the ice in the water, the temperatures dropped as low as 34 degrees and rose again as we headed inland to as high as 43 degrees. Then as we approaced the other side, the eastern side of the peninsula & St. Anthony, temperatures dropped into the 30’s again. It clouded up and there was some mist & fog. There were long periods of time when there were no towns once we left the water. And there’s no sign of spring here at all. There were waterfalls and raging rivers beneath the hills, we assume from the snow melt.
The 430 north of Port au Choix was fairly rough. Frost heaves and some pot holes. With winters this harsh, it must be impossible to keep roads well-maintained. The cats were not happy with the bouncy ride. We passed by many more highway roadside gardens. And the count for today is 2 Moose and 3 Caribou. We did get a picture of the Caribou off in the distance. Each of us saw a Moose, but we were moving too fast to get a picture. We saw lots of gulls, the Eider Ducks, other ducks (maybe Gannets?), Canada Geese walking by the highway in the marsh, and we saw a juvenile Bald Eagle.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
We arrived at Triple Falls RV Park in St. Anthony at 12:40 p.m. It was 36 degrees & cloudy. For now, this campground was the only campground open. Our northern peninsula, longer-term choices won’t be opening for at least a week. We registered for 3 nights here and will use that time to do laundry and run errands. And it will also be a great opportunity for us to take a look at the other campground possibilities and scout out the general area for boat tours, museums, historical sites, and other things to do. The Iceberg Festival begins on June 7.
Triple Falls RV Park is a large campground with mostly seasonal campsites. For the time being though, hardly anyone is here & it will be quiet. Plus, there’s still lots of snow on the ground & they are just opening up the sites. The laundry facilities don’t have hot water yet. It’s still pretty cold here. We were given the choice of a few campsites near the Office. We chose site #96. The campsites in this area, presumably set aside for transient campers like us, are close together. When we drove through the Park, we saw that the campsites for the seasonal campers were larger and set up for long stays. We have electric & water hook-ups. There is a dump station at the campground. The cost was $35 per night, Canadian currency. There are no internet & no cell phone connections at this campground. We are located about 10 minutes from St. Anthony, a fairly large town, near Route 430, so we can hear the traffic go by. But it is still off-season so it’s not too bad.
Still a lot of snow! Triple Falls RV Park, St. Anthony, NF
Site 96, Triple Falls RV Park, St. Anthony, NF
Triple Falls RV Park, St. Anthony, NF
After we had lunch in the RV and unpacked, we drove into St. Anthony to orient ourselves. We found a grocery store, a couple of gas stations, several restaurants, and a laundromat (in case they don’t get the one at the campground up & running). St. Anthony is on a bay on the upper east side of the Northern Peninsula. The town is spread out on three sides of the bay. The fog was thickening & views weren’t that great. We went back to the RV to relax.
Later we went out to dinner at The Lightkeeper’s Cafe, located on a cliff by the lighthouse overlooking the bay. Their specialty was fresh seafood. Supposedly on a clear day, you can sit there & watch whales. It was very foggy. We had a window table but couldn’t see any whales. The restaurant was in the old, restored lightkeeper’s house. Also offered on some summer nights, is the popular Viking’s Feast, served in an authentic Viking sod house there on the grounds. Entertainment & fun for all, they claim. The menu for those events had very little food that Rob & I would eat (cod tongues, moose soup, etc.). So if we’re here again in the summer, we’d probably skip that one! Our meal tonight though, was very good with excellent Seafood Chowder, Seafood Linguini (with Scallops that were so tender that they fell apart & both cold-water baby shrimp & large shrimp), and Garlic Butter Sauteed Shrimp & Scallops served with 2 sides. We were so full we couldn’t finish our meals and you could’ve rolled us out in a wheel-barrow. Back at the RV we laid around like beached whales & relaxed with the girls.
