NEWFOUNDLAND – GRATES COVE.
Day 57 – It was 48 degrees & cloudy at 7 a.m. this morning. We hung around doing chores and visiting with the kitties so they wouldn’t be pouty any more. We boiled up a huge pot of water (drinking water has to be boiled before using in lots of places we’ve stayed), and we made a fresh loaf of bread. We left at 11 a.m. to scout for future campgrounds. A major Canadian holiday is coming next weekend, Canada Day, and we’ve heard campgrounds will be full. We need to find some place to stay and get our reservation in.
We’d heard about a good campground in Winterton, on the western side of the next peninsula over from this one. And if that was already booked or we didn’t like it, we could search for others. The drive to Winterton took us about an hour and a half. At times it was foggy in places, but in general the sun was coming out more & more. It was also getting humid & warmer, the first real warm-weather humidity we’ve felt since last year. The scenery was nice and we saw plenty of places we’d like to explore more when we stay in the vicinity. Near Winterton is the Wooden Boat Museum; we want to come back for that.
The campground, Outside Pond Park, was very nice. But we arrived when the owner was at lunch and not due back for 45 minutes. We talked to some people who were camping there, and they said it was okay for us to drive around and have a look. It was a large campground with over 100 campsites, most of them occupied. Most of the sites weren’t very big but cozy is fine, too. All campsites had plenty of trees between each site. We liked the Park, and we decided to take a drive and come back once the owner had returned. The people we were talking to earlier said they’d seen icebergs in a town called New Melbourne. We drove up there.
Iceberg, New Melbourne, NF
Iceberg, New Melbourne, NF
Iceberg, New Melbourne, NF
Since we were already half-way there, we decided to drive on up to the end of the road to a town at the northern tip of the peninsula, Grates Cove. We’d heard from several people that we’d run into that Grates Cove was beautiful, that they had lots of icebergs when they were there, and that we had to go to the wonderful restaurant & artist’s studio located in town. We drove on up to Grates Cove, and yes, it was beautiful, but no, there weren’t any icebergs at this time. We did have lunch at the restaurant. It was incredibly good. We had partridgeberry tea, mine was hot; Rob’s was cold. It was really good, like cranberries, and we also split a dessert with partridgeberries – served with slightly warmed vanilla ice cream and crumbled, home-made pecan cookies. OMG, so good. Our meal: we split the Lobster Pizza and the Snow Crab & Lobster Salad with home-made Ginger/Carrot Dressing. Again, OMG.
This was a building which housed a B&B, an art studio, a small restaurant, and offered live music on Saturday nights. The building was previously Grates Cove’s schoolhouse. The owners – he’s an artist-in-residence who also gives hiking tours and classes on printmaking & she’s the cook that runs the restaurant – he was born & raised in NF; she was from south Louisiana, and they met in South Korea & lived there for awhile, returning to NF to raise a family. They also harvest seaweed and make a body lotion from it. I bought a bottle of it and it’s outstanding. The dishes their restaurant are known for have either Korean or Cajun influences.
Grates Cove, NF
Grates Cove, NF
Grates Cove, NF
We definitely wanted to spend a little time in Grates Cove; it was a wonderful little town & the restaurant needed to be sampled time and time again. We just happened to ask if they knew any place around the area where a person could park their RV and spend a couple of days. Why, yes, they said. Right across the road there by the red building; people can park there. We said, who would we contact about this? And they replied, no one – there’s a sign that says Free RV Parking. Just go over and take a look. There’s no electricity or dumping station or anything but you can get water with a hose right here. We said, Wow. I said, but the big holiday is coming, what if they are full when we get here. They said, just call us and we’ll look out the window and tell you if anyone is there.
We left & went across the road to the red building. There are 3 or 4 gravel sites where someone could park an RV. There are picnic benches. It overlooks the cove and the wharf. So we didn’t bother going back to the Outside Pond Park in Winterton – it will now be our backup if we need it. I cannot believe we’re going to stay as long as we like at this beautiful site across from this fabulous restaurant, for free. Sigh. We’ll leave Butter Pot Provincial Park on Wednesday & stay at Grates Cove over the long holiday weekend. Nice!
It was totally fogged in on our way back to the RV and the wind was picking up. The high today was in the low 70’s but as soon as we approached the waterfront, it dropped into the 50’s. Tomorrow looks like it’ll be a nasty day as a storm front moves through with very high winds & lots of rain.