NEWFOUNDLAND – A LONG DRIVE AND A KOREAN PANCAKE.
Day 62 – Today was the end of Month #2, Trip 6. A recap of our second month follows at the end of today’s blog. It feels like we’ve been gone a lot longer; we’ve covered so much ground and had so many great experiences.
It was sunny and 44 degrees at 7 a.m. I had awakened at 4:10 a.m. & noticed there was pink lighting in the bedroom. There was a beautiful sunrise going on in front of the RV, so I grabbed the phone and took a picture, then went back to bed.
Sunrise, Grate’s Cove, NF
We decided we should take care of business (campground scouting) today, leaving the rest of our days here free to explore. When we depart here, we’ll be leaving the Avalon Peninsula behind, The entire Avalon Peninsula was actually four peninsulas in eastern Newfoundland: the southwestern piece contained The Cape St. Mary’s Seabird Ecological Reserve at its southern tip; the southeastern piece had the Colony of Avalon, Witless Bay, and Cape Race; St. John’s was the largest portion of the northeastern peninsula; and the northwestern section is where we are now with Grates Cove at its tip. The entire Avalon Peninsula is attached to the next group of peninsulas and the much larger part of the Island by a fairly narrow stretch of land. The next peninsula over and to the north is called the Bonavista Peninsula. This was to be our next camping destination.
In NF, summer officially began with school letting out around noon today. We ended up being behind several school buses watching as children excitedly raced from the buses to their homes, so happy to finally be out of school. (I wondered when school starts up again – October?) Sure is different from the States. This is a four-day holiday weekend coming up, also – Canada Day is Monday. Our “business”, campground scouting, needed to be done before the holiday officially started & the campgrounds are swamped and may not allow us to drive through. And the next couple of months it may be difficult to find a place to stay in popular vacation areas, so we need to stay on top of it. We packed our lunches and left the RV around 10 a.m. We knew it was a decent drive, but it was just the next peninsula over, how long could it take?
We drove south from Grate’s Cove along the western side of the peninsula, stopping occasionally to get a picture of a nice view or an interesting area. We passed through towns & villages along the coast of the Trinity Bay named Heart’s Content, Heart’s Desire, Heart’s Delight, HopeAll, Cavendish, and Dildo (yes, there was a town named Dildo – and South Dildo, too). In Heart’s Content we got several pictures AND we were attacked by at least a million biting black flies. ‘Tis the season. The lighthouse was like a candy cane and the scenery was pretty, but I soon high-tailed it back to the car. There were also a couple of cute (and interesting historical buildings) – the House of Commons (aka Bill Piercey’s Store), and Papa Leo’s authenic NF fishing stage (a fishing stage is the building & dock where cod are prepared after capture).
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
About two and a half hours later we had reached the Trans-Canada Highway & turned west, heading towards the stretch of land that connects the peninsulas. We realized then that we ought to look at the map & calculate just how long this drive was going to take (on top of the time it takes to go from campground to campground, chatting with the owners, and driving through each campground to make notes of the best campsites). We found that there was a campground 50 km away from us on the way to the start of the Bonavista Peninsula. Then 157 km away from this first campground, and only partly up the Bonavista Peninsula, was the second campground, the first of several we wanted to check out for our next stay. Obviously, we concluded that the entire round trip could be like ten hours long. We needed to find a middle ground to stay at and that should be our next campground, then on from there we could search out the Bonavista area. Hopefully that campground 50 km from us would be good enough for us to go to next.
Located on the Trinity Bay near the village of Bellevue Beach was the Bellevue Beach Campground. (The eastern and western channels of the Placentia Bay were on one side of the stretch of land and the Trinity Bay was on the other side.) The owner let us drive through and gave us a map. There were 33 campsites in the open by the water. Most of those sites were occupied and most had no privacy. There were 77 campsites in the woods on hills, some overlooking the Bay, but it was fairly heavily tree’d; the views weren’t wide open and the sites were fairly private. Many of these campsites were also occupied. Most campsites offered water & electricity (it’s been a long time since we had hook-ups & it would be nice to have them). We circled several campsites on the map & went back amongst the black flies to ask the owner about the status of these sites. One had no hook-ups; the other had hook-ups but wouldn’t be available until Tuesday. With that information in hand, we decided we could stay here next and use this campground as a base to find other campgrounds on Bonavista. We left the Bellevue Beach and found a place to pull over and eat our lunches. It was well after lunch time. The communities nearby were nice. We passed one house that had a great moose out front, well not a real moose, but one made from rock.
Great stone sculpture of a Moose near Bellevue, NF
Great stone sculpture of a Moose near Bellevue, NF
We turned around and got back on the TCH. After stopping at the Post Office in Holyrood (our mail had finally arrived), we traveled back to Grates Cove via the eastern side of the peninsula. We went through towns named Cupid’s, Spaniards Bay, Harbour Grace, Freshwater, Emerald Vale, and Riverhead. We went to Brigus, a village just before Cupid’s, and drove the narrow, winding streets and looked at the beautiful old historic houses, stopping for pictures of the harbour and tunnel; Cupid’s cairn at the top of a mountain (pile of rocks put together by people long ago before lighthouses, to help fishermen navigate), and lovely homes – one with adorable “Adirondack chairs” with the Canadian maple symbol as their backs; the islands near Carbonear, a grounded boat in the harbour, and a couple of churches.
We arrived back at Grates Cove around 6:30 p.m. There was heavy fog in the harbour and we could barely see Baccalieu Island misty through the fog. We went directly to dinner at the Grates Cove Artist’s Studio – the wonderful restaurant where we had lunch last Saturday when we scoped this town out. We didn’t even stop to see the girls first, but could see the RV way below us from the restaurant window. We started with Partridgeberry Drinks – partridgeberries hand-picked here, juiced with honey & lemon added, then local Rhubarb Vodka. OMG, so good! We ordered two appetizers and a Lobster Pizza, all to split between us. Each item was brought separately for us to enjoy, one at a time. We were sitting in an upstairs room, and for most of our dinner we were the only people up there. We were overlooking the harbour through the large windows on three sides of the room. It was a very relaxing dinner. Course #1 was fresh, local shrimp in a light remoulade sauce served to spoon on to a fresh baked, light & airy bread called touton. Excellent! Course #2 was called a Korean Pancake. I’d heard people talking about this dish the last time we were here. It was supposedly a Korean pancake filled with lots of fresh vegetables and served with a soy sauce for dipping. The pancake was even recommended to us by some people in St. John’s, so we had to try it. It was not the sort of thing we’d usually order. A pancake? What was a Korean pancake? We took pictures of our drinks and of the “tiny” pancake which filled a plate and was amazingly delicious. We’d already eaten about 1/3 of it by the time we took the picture. It was very hot, cooked in peanut oil and the bottom was comprised of sweet potato thinly sliced. There were many fresh vegetables inside this crunchy cross between pizza and a pancake. And as if we had any more room, Course #3 was the Lobster Pizza. It was just as good as it was last Saturday. No room for dessert, we left after the owner told us she was making fresh, home-made noodles served with a variety of fresh items the following night. We told them we’d be there.
We fed the girls immediately after getting to the RV. Someone else had come into the parking area and parked in a place two levels above us. They were in a truck & camper rig. We went to bed with full, happy stomachs. It was a long day. The high was 71 degrees and it was foggy along the coast later in the day. When we were driving inland, the temperatures would go up into the low 70’s, then as we descended a hill to the coast, it would drop to the mid-50’s just like that.
TRIP #6, MONTH 2, RECAP: One month ago, we had just arrived in St. Anthony one day before. Snow was on the ground in many places. In fact, several campgrounds that were supposed to be open, were not able to open on schedule due to the harsh winter. The temperatures were in the 30’s at night and 40’s during the day. It was cold, wet, and foggy most of the time. No sign whatsoever of spring and it was late May. Later during this second month of our trip, trees & bushes got new growth and we got more sunny, beautiful days. Those days were so perfect, we never wanted them to end. A couple of days reached the low 70’s; it was still in the 40’s at night. It can be windy; it can be foggy; it fluctuates from day to day. Changes can happen on a dime. Summer arrived and spring was virtually skipped. We traveled from the northwestern-most peninsula to the southeastern-most peninsula in Newfoundland. We stayed in eight different campgrounds, several of them at least a week. We stayed in and explored five peninsulas, really getting to know each area. Highlights this month were: Icebergs at the Northern Peninsula & whales in the Bay; Moose & Caribou sightings; Red Foxes; Snowshoe Hares; small, remote fishing villages; bays covered by ice; stark beauty; learning about how these people live & the history of these areas; the extremely nice people of NF; Cape St. Mary’s Seabird Ecological Reserve & all the birds; Icebergs in the bays and Icebergs floating by the eastern coast in the Ocean; excellent fresh Fish ‘N Chips; Cape Race, one of the most lovely places we’ve seen; the two boat tours out of Bay Bulls – O’Brien’s Boat Tours; the Witless Bay Seabird Ecological Reserve & all the birds; in or near St. John’s: Quidi Vidi, Petty Harbour, Cape Spears Lighthouse, Signal Hill; the Avalon Peninsula – the rolling hills, the mountains, the sea and the bays; the clean air; the colored houses; the quaint, old towns; historic places like the Colony of Avalon; Terra Nova National Park; Armistice Park; Bird Island Resort; La Manche & Butter Pot Provincial Parks; and last but not least, (last because we just got here & have lots more to discover), incredible Grates Cove & the Artist’s Studio. We don’t ever want to leave this magical Island.