NEWFOUNDLAND – A DRIVE FOR GROCERIES, AND MORE……
Day 45 – 41 degrees at 7 a.m. this morning, windy & overcast. It rained last night; what else is new. Rob went out to the observation deck, but neglected to bundle up. He was back in a flash. We did our normal morning chores, packed a lunch, and went out to do some grocery shopping in Placentia. We are that far from groceries, seriously, that we had to pack a lunch. Okay, we did go a different, less direct route that took longer, but we wanted to scope out the other side of this peninsula to see if the road was in better condition for our future travels with the RV. The road was better.
We left the RV at 9:25 a.m. and got back with our groceries at 1:30 p.m. We drove east along the bottom of the peninsula to Branch. Again, we love that village, then continued north to the next town about 45 km away, North Harbour. Remote? Yep. The scenery was great. We felt like we were on the top of the world looking down at vast waterways. I wondered how much property would be here, but of course out here there was no signal to look up the data. I hope to do that later tonight from the RV. The road north on the east side of the peninsula was much better than the road south on the west side of the peninsula to St. Bride’s. There were still some rough areas, but not continual rough areas, and we know now that when we leave this peninsula, it will be by this route (Route 92 north) rather than the way we took to get to St. Bride’s (Route 100 south). This is why we do these scouting trips.
Looking at a map of Newfoundland, it is still amazing to us that there are no roads through much of this Canadian Province, and even less roads throughout Labrador. Talk about virgin territory! These peninsulas contain towns around the perimeter, some of them “big cities”, but if you wanted to travel from say, the east side of the peninsula to the west side? Good luck. We love the way things are so unsettled here and not crowded. We drove north on Route 92 a short distance beyond the village of North Harbour to where the 92 ends – from here you can go east on Route 91, then south on Route 90 to traverse another larger part of the Avalon Peninsula (which we will do when we leave here after the birds), or west on Route 91 on a dirt road to head back to Placentia and the ONE grocery store. We went west on the dirt road, lots of potholes, but it was worth it.
We stumbled upon Cataract Provincial Park where two big waterfalls meet each other in a deep river gorge. A bridge crosses this gorge and stairs down are provided to descend to the bottom for a better view. Well, lookee here! Rob walked the stairs first, then found better trails that I could take, and we made the trip together,
Click on any picture to see a slideshow.
From there, we continued on the bumpy, dirt road towards Placentia, passing the occasional summer cabin or trailer, we assumed to be folks from St. John’s coming here for refuge from the city. Eventually crossing the peninsula at the only available road across, we reached Placentia and their one grocery store. We stocked up on produce, paper plates, paper towels, and almond milk (try finding tomatoes & almond milk at a 7-Eleven in the U.S.), then had our lunch at a scenic pull-out by the water.
Placentia, NF
Placentia, NF
Then we took the extremely bumpy route from yesterday (Route 100) south, back down to St. Bride’s, unpacked our groceries, and sat around & visited with the girls until the sun came out. It had been cloudy most of the day with some sprinkles of rain. The high today was 49 degrees. We poured the wine and beer, the sun came out briefly, and we went out to the observation deck, my first time there. You know, the more I explore this place we’re staying at, the more impressed I am. It’s not just a few rooms off the side of the road. They have created a wonderful spot of groomed quiet, nestled on the top of a cliff overlooking the Ocean. We are so lucky to have found it! Although the sun didn’t stay out long, we were fortunate enough to watch the Canadian Coast Guard crew lay out the buoys marking the Harbour for the upcoming season, in addition to the wonderful views from here.
When it got colder and the sun went behind the clouds, we went back to the RV. Tomorrow’s forecast is for sun in the morning, so we should head out to St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve for bird pictures. Overall, it was a great day, definitely.
I love your blogs and look forward to getting one each day. I’m always disappointed when they don’t come. But no pressure!!