EXPLORING THE UPPER BONAVISTA PENINSULA, DAY 1.
Day 68 – We got behind with blogging starting today. It is now Wednesday, June 28. On Monday & Tuesday, we went for drives and were gone all day, leaving us no time to work on the pictures and the writing of the Blog. Better a little late than never!
Lockston Path Provincial Park was a nice campground. It was small with only 57 campsites. We stayed here in 2019 but only for two nights. We tried to explore the entire Bonavista Peninsula during our one available day. One day was totally inadequate because in addition to it being a large peninsula with plenty to do, it was very foggy the whole time we were here. This time we allowed more time and the weather behaved much better for us!
Today we were driving around and taking pictures, eating lunch & dinner out, and therefore were away from the RV (and the girls for 9 hours). The weather cooperated part of the day and it was gorgeous out. It was partly sunny and the high was 59 degrees.
The Bonavista Peninsula is a very popular tourist destination. Being closer to St. John’s, it is also more populated, particularly in the town of Bonavista near the top of the peninsula. The smaller villages on the remainder of the peninsula are growing and larger, more modern houses are being put in as summer homes, and retirees are moving to the areas. The tiny old villages are still charming, some of them, but there is a bit more sprawl. There are areas that are as beautiful as Gros Morne National Park, though, and the hills and rocky cliffs are very pretty. But in some areas, the ones that get several tour busses every day during the summer, it’s a bit much. Many of the towns & villages are historical. Those sites are popular, also. In two days of all-day exploring, we only had time to visit approximately the top third of the peninsula. We’ll leave the rest for another time.
The Bonavista Peninsula: “The Bonavista Peninsula – with its’ craggy rolling coastline scattered with natural rock sculptures carved by the ocean and time – is a geographic work of art not to be missed.” from the Newfoundland/Labrador Traveller’s Guide 2023
“The town of Bonavista began in the 1600’s as a French fishing port, but many believe Cape Bonavista, six kilometers north of the town, was the first landfall of Giovanni Caboto (better known as John Cabot), who visited the region in 1497.” from Moon Handbooks, Atlantic Canada, 5th Edition, 2009. NOTE – There are several places we’ve visited in Newfoundland that make that claim!
We left the campground and headed north on the very rough dirt road, a continuation of the road we drove in on. At the end of the road when we got on the paved highway, we immediately saw hundreds of Seagulls in a pretty cove. This was at the village of Stock Cove. We stopped to take pictures. This was the beginning of many stops, because every time we turned around, there was something interesting or beautiful to see. We turned onto Route 235 towards Bonavista, driving slowly thru or stopping at all the villages. At one point, we saw an Arctic Fox scurrying across the highway. It was heading towards a group of Red Foxes, a couple of adults and several younger, smaller foxes who were running off into the woods. We were going too fast and it happened so quickly, all we got was a blurry picture of the Arctic Fox, but it was better than nothing.
Not too long thereafter we entered the Bonavista area. We drove around some of the narrow, fairly crowded neighborhood streets near the water, then continued north to Cape Bonavista and the end of the road at the tip of the peninsula. The last time we were here, it was very foggy and you couldn’t even get close to the parking lot because there were so many people there. This time it was still a little foggy. We could barely make out some icebergs. There were no tour busses there at the time, yet most parking spaces were filled. Rob was able to get some pictures of Puffins, the rocky cliffs, and the lighthouse.
The Cape Bonavista Lighthouse: “The Act providing for the establishment of a lighthouse on Cape Bonavista was passed in the House of Assembly of Newfoundland on April 26, 1841. Construction of the lighthouse began that year. It took two years to build and on September 11, 1843, the light was put into operation. The first lightkeeper was Jeremiah White who was a native of Ireland. Mr. White served in this capacity until his death in 1876. His sons continued in the family tradition of lightkeeping until 1895. With the exception of the tower and the light room, the lighthouse has been restored to the 1870 period. The living quarters have been furnished and decorated as they would have appeared in 1870 when Jeremiah White, still lightkeeper at 80 years of age, assisted by his son Nicholas the assistant keeper, and bis family still lived there.” from a flyer, ‘Where It All Began’, offered by the Town of Bonavista
It was lunch time and we were hungry. We returned to the city of Bonavista and had a good lunch at the Ragged Rocks Gastropub, one of many cafes and restaurants in town. We started with the Crab Dip (the Crab was supposedly fresh and caught by the owner). Then Rob had the large Seafood Chowder, and I had the small Seafood Chowder, and a side of Caesar Salad. Ready to go out again, we were surprised to have full sun; the fog had burned off.
We drove back towards the Lighthouse and turned off on a dirt road leading to “The Dungeon” at Dungeon Provincial Park. A tourist attraction, still it was a beautiful site with amazing scenery and rocky cliffs.
About The Dungeon: “About a mile as the crow flies, to the south of Cape Bonavista on the Trinity Bay side of the tip of the peninsula, there is a very unusual rock formation known as the Dungeon. It is essentially a twin-entranced sea cave with a collapsed roof, which has been carved into the cliff face by the incessant action of the sea in to the Precambrian sedimentary deposits that form much of the Bonavista Peninsula.” from a flyer, ‘Where It All Began’, offered by the Town of Bonavista
We continued heading away from Bonavista, traveling south on Route 238 and driving through the villages of Lance Cove and stopping at Spillars Cove to catch the scenic views. We were headed to the village of Elliston, known as the “Root Cellar Capital of the World” and more important to us, there is a Puffin viewing area. This site was very crowded (and it’s definitely not the peak tourist season yet). Admission is free and people take a trail out to some rocky cliffs where they can see the Puffins in their nests. And there were icebergs. Not being real sure-footed, I stayed in the village and took the root cellar pictures and a couple around town. There were several old houses. At one, there was a large boulder in front of the house with a heavy-duty metal hook imbedded in the rock. People had to tie their homes down during the heavy wind storms. Back at the Puffin viewing area, in in the distance I saw a long line of people snaking along single-file to the cliffs. I couldn’t pick out which one was Rob.
About Elliston: “Elliston is the root cellar capital of the world. Before refrigeration and electricity came to rural communities, root cellars kept food from freezing in the winter and spoiling in the summer. Wander around and notice these wonders tucked away in the hills. With over 100 still in working condition, they’re a feat of ingenuity that has truly stood the test of time. Continue on to the friendliest colony of puffins on the island.” from the Newfoundland/Labrador Traveller’s Guide 2023
Continuing south on Route 230, we drove through the tiny village of Maberly, and stopped at another village, Little Catalina, took some pictures, and then moved on. We skipped several villages, vowing to check them out tomorrow. It was getting late and we wanted to check out the villages on Route 239, a 15 kilometer (about 9 miles) peninsula not far from the dirt road that leads to our campground.
The very popular, trendy town of Trinity was one of several interesting villages on this route. Trinity is a very popular stop for tourists and tour busses with its reconstructed heritage village. It was very colorful and it looked like there were more guest cottages, B&B’s, and guest vacation homes than there were actual people living there. The roads were very narrow and winding. How tour busses get through was a mystery to us, but several come to Trinity everyday in season.
Before returning to Trinity for dinner, we took Route 239 south to the end of the road and drove through every village, stopping at some to take pictures. Old Bonaventure is the site where the mini-series, “Random Passage” was filmed. We stopped at the entrance to the site, but they were closed on Mondays and Tuesdays. Another interesting place we spent some time was Fort Point. After driving through the charming village of Dunfield, we took a dirt road to the end of the peninsula near there. It was the site of Fort Point which was established in 1748 by the British to protect Trinity’s mercantile assets. A lighthouse was also built here in 1871. It was wild and beautiful with a nice beach, rocky cliffs, and sea stacks. The village of Trouty was also particularly charming.
We drove back to Trinity and had dinner at Dock Marina, a fairly small but quite busy restaurant overlooking the water. We both had the Linguini Terra Nova, served with Garlic Bread (homemade Linguini in a light cream sauce with lots of Shrimp). We got back to the RV and the girls were hungry. It was after their normal feeding time. We promised to make it up to them, then went out the next day and were gone all day again. Bad parents!
Nice puffin pics!