NEWFOUNDLAND – HOLYROOD TO CAPE ST. FRANCIS.
Day 59 – HAPPY DISCOVERY DAY, NEWFOUNDLAND. Today was a Holiday, Discovery Day, which in Newfoundland commemorates the discovery of the province in 1497 by John Cabot. (Discovery Day is on a different day in each of the other Canadian provinces.)
The wind and rain slowly dissipated during the night. Just a drizzle and the wind down to 12 MPH this morning, it was 44 degrees at 7:15 a.m. We boiled some more water for drinking, then went to the dump station to dump the tanks and to the Comfort Station to refill the water tanks. Because we were taking the RV to the dump station, we had to pack up anything that would fly around the RV on turns or bumpy roads and put the kitties away in the bedroom as if they were taking a longer journey. You should have heard Gracie complain the whole time!
We returned the RV to our campsite, let the girls out (they were happy it was such a short journey), took our showers, and headed out around 11:30 a.m. The sun was shining, it was 60 degrees, and there were a few clouds. We drove first to Holyrood to the Post Office to see if our mail had arrived there yet; it had not. Then we drove north along Conception Bay and the west side of the peninsula, stopping from time-to-time to enjoy the scenery and take a few pictures. There were still a few Icebergs floating by. We have yet to see a Whale here from shore. But July will soon be here and that is the month for Whales.
We were amazed by how much this upper portion of the peninsula is part of the sprawl from St. John’s. Then we remembered what we heard during our St. John’s tour: ALL of Newfoundland has around 700,000 people; St. John’s & the neighboring towns have over 250,000 of those people living there.
We continued along the Bay, reaching the top of the peninsula and the lighthouse at the northern tip at Cape St. Francis. We had to take a rough, pot-holed, dirt road to get there. We had our lunch overlooking the deep blue north Atlantic Ocean. We were high up on a hill looking down the cliffs at the rocky outcrops, Northern Gannets flying by just below eye level.
We drove back via the east side of the upper peninsula. Fairly soon, we started to see the St. John’s sprawl, but before the McMansions & sub-divisions began, we stopped to enjoy the views from the lovely village of Flatrock at Red Head.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
As we drove back towards our campground, we stopped to pick up a few supplies we’d forgotten when we were shopping a few days ago. The clouds had rolled in and the rain started up again. The high today was 65 degrees with everything from full sun to dark clouds & rain. When we got back to the RV, it had stopped raining. The campground was almost empty again after the weekend crowds had left. Peace and quiet. We went out to the screened tent, then came inside and had dinner. If the weather holds out, tomorrow we will go south to Salmonier Nature Park.