NEWFOUNDLAND – ST. ANTHONY EXPLORATORY TRIP NORTH.
Day 31 – Happy Memorial Day everyone! We hope you are enjoying your holiday! Memorial Day is not a Canadian holiday so it’s business as usual here. But it’s also May 27: TRIP #6 BEGAN 1 MONTH AGO. It is so hard for us to believe we’ve only been gone from home one month! We’ve totally immersed ourselves into this trip; it seems like we’ve been gone much longer. See the bottom of today’s post for the one-month recap of our journey.
We slept in, as did the girlies. Up at 8 a.m., it was 37 degrees and cloudy. Last night before we went to bed it was 33 degrees. Not sure what the low was thereafter. We’d planned to spend a week or two in this area, and this campground was the only one that was open. Today we plan to scope out the areas north of us, looking for possible places to spend a couple of weeks at. This campground, although adequate for a few days, is not what we’re looking for to camp for a longer period.
We left at 10:30 for St. Anthony and vicinity. It was cloudy and foggy, rather dismal and dark out. The wind was blowing, making it seem colder. On the way into town, we turned off on a road to two small fishing towns north of St. Anthony, St. Carols & Great Brehat (pronounced Braha). They were wonderful villages, just what we were looking for, and we stopped at each for pictures, especially since each bay had an iceberg passing by.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
Now mind you, our intention was to check out the two campgrounds opening soon, north of where we’re currently staying near St. Anthony. And to get gas & stop by the post office in St. Anthony. NOT to sight-see. But hey, it’s so darn pretty here; one MUST stop!
After these two villages, we drove into St. Anthony, but made a side trip to the end of the road to see if there were any icebergs by the lighthouse. Yes, there was an iceberg in the distance in the fog. And we saw some whales frolicking in the distance. Their blows alerted us to their presence. We waited a long time for them to come up after diving, but never saw them again. Unfortunately, no pictures. Back to our original intentions, we got gas and went to the post office to arrange for a mail shipment to be received general delivery from our mail forwarding service. But, on the way to the lighthouse, we stopped at a memorial for the Newfoundland & Labrador firefighting service. There was a water bomber on display.
NL Firefighting Service Memorial, St. Anthony, NF
NL Firefighting Service Memorial, St. Anthony, NF
By then it was already past lunch time & we hadn’t even begun to scope out the two campgrounds further north. We returned to the RV, had our lunch, visited with the sleepy-head kitties, and left again to finish our mission. We drove north to the top of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland, stopping at each side road to visit small fishing villages. Okay, so each small fishing village did not have a campground for us to check out, but what if there was an iceberg there?! What follows is pictures from several fishing villages. OMG, incredible scenery.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
We stopped at fishing villages, small towns that claim to be the original Viking settlements, harbors barely able to move from the ice breaking up in the vicinity, icebergs, rocky hills reaching down into the ocean, barren tundra-like environments, you name it, we saw it. The count from today: Moose 0, Caribou 0, Icebergs at least 6, and some great birds not previously familiar to us. We just drove by these places, stopping for quick pictures. ALL will be explored in great detail in the weeks to follow.
Campgrounds? We went to one which is just opening (although their dumping station is still buried in snow). It was mostly a large open, gravel area with electric and water hook-ups. But it was located very conveniently to these small villages. This was the “Viking RV Park”. The one we were really hoping to see, Pistolet Bay Provincial Park, was not open for us to drive thru. We loved the setting though, really off the beaten path in a wooded area on a gorgeous bay. We will need to see how the campsites look whenever they do open, supposedly May 31. (But the locals we’ve talked to all say that this was a rough winter. Things may be slow in opening up.)
We drove back to the RV and got warm. It was a little windy and very cold today; the high was 41 degrees with no sun. There was some rain; a little of it was slushy. This is the end of May? We made some baked salmon for dinner. So good. Tomorrow we may have to break down and do laundry and grocery shopping. What a waste of time when we could be out taking pictures!
TRIP #6, MONTH 1, RECAP: We left NY as spring had begun to show up with beautiful flowering trees and bushes. The temperatures during the day were warming; at night it still remained somewhat cold. Because the winter was very wet, everything was muddy. One month later, we are in the northern-most part of Newfoundland. Winter is still here with lots of snow on the ground, although from what we see here, this level of snow is NOTHING compared to mid-winter snow. The ice floes are still covering most of the bays and icebergs, in all their glories, are ever-present. We had no idea it would be like this. We are in a perpetual state of SHOCK & AWE (the good kind). There is no way to describe the beauty surrounding us. It’s like an entire island, or at least one big part of an island, is just waking up from hibernation. Caribou & Moose roam the hill & forests. Along the oceanfront, wind has blown most trees & bushes to the point of lying down sideways. Whales cavort in the waters off small fishing towns that are just waking up. This is the most incredible experience we’ve ever had. We will see what next month brings. Stay tuned.