NEWFOUNDLAND – THE HUMPBACK OF NOTRE DAME BAY.
Day 106 – Sixty degrees again this morning, mostly cloudy, humid. It is supposed to get warmer today, then rain. We decided to explore some other areas around here. We won’t be able to do & see everything in this area we’d wanted to – we are moving to the Baie Verte Peninsula tomorrow because we had previously made reservations there. We do need some groceries & supplies before we leave, since there aren’t any large towns where we are headed. Today we’ll check out the little villages in the vicinity of the one grocery store around, hoping to see some Whales feeding on Capelin. People keep saying the Capelin are rolling; we want to see this.
One thing we won’t have time to do is taking the ferry from Pilley’s Island (near Robert’s Arm) to Little Bay Island and Long Island. This ferry will no longer be running to Little Bay Island after the end of this month. The Province is resettling the remaining townspeople because services will no longer be provided to them on the Island. Can you imagine? No electricity or water or sewer anymore, no police, fire department, etc., so you must leave or live without. Many of the families effected by resettlements have lived in their homes for generations.
We drove first north and west to King’s Point. Just before the town we saw the Town of King’s Point RV Park & checked it out. Note to self: Remember this Park for a future visit – campsites overlooking the water, each site separated from the next one by a tall fence, small campground in a good location, (709) 268-3343, www.townofkingspoint.com.
King’s Point was a nice town, pretty, medium-sized by NF standards, small by ours. It was located at the tip of Green Bay, which is off the larger Notre Dame Bay. Capelin visit the shores of the bays to spawn; the whales follow the Capelin & feed off them. We stopped at the King’s Point Humpback Whale Pavilion and learned about the Humpbacks. We did not have the wonderful guide like we had yesterday at the Sperm Whale Pavilion, but we can be self-taught, too. I asked the young lady who was working there where the Capelin were rolling today; she said they were at Harry’s Harbour. We put that village on our list for a visit today. (Everybody says the Capelin come into the bays, schools of the small silver fish, and they come right up on the shores and roll around on the sand & rocks. It’s supposedly a sight to behold. And the seabirds & whales go crazy.)
lick on any pictur below to see a slideshow.
There was one more town on this little peninsula, Rattling Brook, so we drove up there. This was an adorable, peaceful town on Green Bay. Most of the houses bordered the bay or sat on the hill above the bay. Very nice. We drove through to the end of the road, turned around, and were headed back towards the docks when we passed a man standing by his car by the side of the road. He was pointing out in the bay, indicating we should look out there. There was a large Humpback Whale in the middle of the small bay, cruising along having lunch. Because of the shape of the bay and it being surrounded by tall cliffs, it acted like a natural amphitheatre & you could clearly hear every noise the whale made. The blows in particular were amazing as they echoed off the cliffs, like the whale was right next to us. I don’t think I’ll ever forget this sound, so loud. Most of the time, we’ve seen whales from boats and between the boat noise and the people noise, you don’t hear the whale that well, if at all. (When we were in Grates Cove, we asked at the Artist’s Studio Restaurant about how close the whales come in & if they’d arrived yet. A local told us they were usually there most of the summer but hadn’t arrived in numbers yet. She knew because she said she could hear them breathe from her living room. I believe it now.)
We drove the next, longer peninsula road going through towns like Silverdale, Jackson’s Cove, Nicky’s Nose Cove (curious where that name came from!), and finally Harry’s Harbour at the end of the road. Still hoping for the Capelin Roll, we stopped at Nicky’s Nose Cove because the beach area was covered with sea gulls, a sign that the Capelin had arrived. A beautiful beach on the other side of Green Bay, we watched the activity there while having lunch. There was certainly evidence that the Capelin had recently been there. Rob saw what was left of one on the beach, and the gulls were definitely hoping for more. We drove on to Harry’s Harbour where the Capelin were supposed to be but no luck. It was however a beautiful seaside village, very tranquil, and we did see a Loon which is always a pleasure.
We then considered doing another peninsula drive, but it was getting late for that and grocery shopping, so we went to Springdale & the lone grocery store that wasn’t located at a gas station convenience store. It was not well stocked & the produce was SAD. (It’s hard to get used to not being able to get good veggies!) We stopped at Subway for sandwiches for dinner. (The veggies on the sandwiches were better looking than the ones in the grocery store!) We got back to the RV about 4 p.m., put up the groceries, sat out in the tent & tried to cool off, had dinner, then did some prep for tomorrow’s drive to La Scie. The high today was 84 degrees, humid, not much of a breeze.
Crescent Lake RV Park: 23 km north of Route 1 (TCH) on Route 380, Robert’s Arm, Newfoundland; (709) 293-0299 or (709) 293-2799; e-mail crescentlakervpark@gmail.com or dougwinsor@hotmail.com; website www.crescentlakervpark.weebly.com. Open May 15 to September 15. Check-out time is 1 p.m.; quiet time is 10 p.m. to 10 a.m. This was a very good independent campground. We had site #35 with water & 30 AMP electric hook-ups, There is a dump station. There are 30 to 40 campsites. When you first enter & go past the campground buildings, there are maybe 10 decent-sized campsites on the left side of the road, nothing on the right side but trees. These sites are on Crescent Lake with some trees between the sites and the water. Very nice. Then you get to a loop where you drive in a circle for the rest of the campsites and these are closer together and there are campsites on both sides of the road. Towards the middle of the loop road is the playground, day use area, boat launch, etc.; therefore, the quieter part of the campground is early on, those first 10 or so campsites. We paid $31 per night Canadian currency. This was a good Park and we would come back again. It was clean & customer service was excellent.