NEWFOUNDLAND – RALEIGH TO NORTH BOAT HARBOUR.
Day 122 – It was 46 degrees outside this morning. The girls didn’t have their heated pads since we have no electricity. In these conditions, Java & Grace always sleep cuddled up together, Luna sleeps with us, and Pixie has so much fur, she doesn’t seem to get cold. We hung out until a little before 11 a.m., packed a lunch, then left for some exploring.
When we were here in May, most Viking sites were closed still. We spent our time checking out the tiny fishing towns all iced in, and looked (successfully) for icebergs. Today we drove a road we didn’t have time to check out before. Route 435 took us to three small outport towns on the northwestern tip of the Peninsula. The terrain was flat; you don’t find much flat land in NF. Few big trees, more scraggly bushes or stunted growth trees, more of a tundra effect. The road to Cook’s Harbour was paved, and the town was larger than the other two villages. We continued on the road, it soon became gravel & we drove through the village of Wild Bight. I’m guessing there might have been ten houses altogether. About 15 km more & we reached North Boat Harbour. The road ended. All three towns were about as isolated as you can get on the Northern Peninsula & still have a road going to them.
Road to North Boat Harbour, NF
North Boat Harbour, NF
North Boat Harbour, NF
Between Wild Bight & North Boat Harbour there was the Cape Norman Light Station, situated on the northwesternmost tip of Newfoundland. We stopped at the look-out & had our lunch. We walked around there for awhile. Sea Gulls & Northern Gannets were flying overhead, the Gannets sometimes diving straight down to the Ocean to catch fish. It was windy and the birds would catch the gusts & float along just above eye level. The ground was mostly rock, a very different kind of rock than we’d been seeing elsewhere, like the strong wind & waves kept it flat & chiseled. There were rare Arctic flowers (signs asked people to remain on the trails so the ground cover & flowers were not touched). There were very few clouds & it was sunny, 75 degrees, windy, and the Ocean was rough and ranged from light blue to turquoise to deep blues. Very nice.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
Remember the Roadside Gardens we saw last May? At first we didn’t know what they were. Then we found out that people in the small towns would claim a small patch of land by the road & plant a garden to grow vegetables. There is very little good soil here. And we know that good veggies are hard to find in Newfoundland! Anyway, today we drove by many of those Roadside Gardens and was glad to see that they’d come to fruition. Mostly cabbage & potatoes was all that was left, but it was nice to see the fenced-in dirt patches from May had been tended to & turned green.
Potatoes(?) in a roadside garden near Cook’s Harbour, NF
Potatoes(?) and cabbage in a roadside garden near Cook’s Harbour, NF
Cabbage in a roadside garden near Cook’s Harbour, NF
We returned to the campground & sat out in the tent, protected from the wind, until time for an early dinner of Chili. The girls were running back & forth like maniacs and sounded like a herd of wild horses. They like it here. So do we. Tomorrow, weather permitting, it’s off to Viking land.