Route 100 North, Dede’s Beach

After a good night’s sleep at the Capeway Motel, I took a few morning pictures of the beach and harbour at McBride and then headed north up Highway 100, destination Trinity. Potholes! But, again a beautiful road nonetheless with continuous ocean views. Very different from the road on the other side of the peninsula which stayed high and open, this road went up and down long hills, dipping down into beautiful small coves which each featured a small valley, stream, long high gravel bench beach, and a smattering of colourful homes or sometimes even a few farms.

I made a stop at this very long, high deep stone beach just south of Placentia which I called Dede’s Beach. I imagined my sister Dede needing to bring several extra suitcases to Newfoundland in order to bring back rocks for her collections! Also, this beach had that sound that the rocks make tumbling up and down the steep beach with each wave, like at Friendly Cove on Nootka Island, one of Dede’s favourite places. I’ll add a short video here later if I can figure out how to do that! The photo does not really show how steep, high, and deep this beach was!

On to Cape St. Mary’s

After leaving Cape Spear, I headed south on Highway 11 and passed the lovely little town of Maddox Cove/Petty Harbour.

Then on to Witless Bay where I had a brief lunch stop.

There are bunches of lupins all over on the roadsides and in fields. Here is a nice grouping with buttercups in a field beside the beach at Witless Bay.

Next time I come to Newfoundland I’ll drive the full Irish Loop, but in the interests of time I had to shortcut on Highway 13, the “Witless Bay Line”. The sign that greeted me at the beginning of this road read “Rough Road for 20 km”. And so began my introduction to Newfoundland’s potholes! The road wasn’t too bad after all, just enough potholes to keep me energized. The road was beautifully lonely and scenic, first lined with shrubby forest and then it rose higher to more open spaces dotted with ponds and small lakes. Here’s my little red car beside the Witless Bay Line.

And looking ahead.

And looking out over the tundra-like landscape. There are caribou in this part of Newfoundland but I wasn’t lucky enough to see any.

Then, after transferring to Route 90, after a brief zoom along the Trans Canada westwards, I stopped for a welcome walk in the Salmonier Nature Reserve. This 3 km walk on raised boardwalks wove through scrub forest and beautiful wetland meadows.

And as I walked along…the sun came out!

The sky continued to clear as I continued south on 90, then west on 91, then south again on 92. There were more high open vistas, with glimpses of the sea to the east, and some very beautiful rivers like the Salmonier River and the Red Head River. Finally, I arrived at Branch. What a wonderful little town! I stopped for a few photos of the long gravel beach and small harbour, wishing I could spend more time there. It had a very peaceful feeling.

But, the gannets of St. Mary’s were calling me and I was anxious to get there while the weather was fine and clear. Cape St. Mary’s is often shrouded in fog, with an average of only 10 clear days between June and September!

The road between Branch and the turnoff for the cape was beautiful and awful! The worst potholes yet! I crawled along at about 20-30 km/hr, wishing I could enjoy glimpses of the gorgeous wide open scenery, but too anxious to take my eyes off the road for more than a fraction of a second in case I fell hard into a deep pothole. Then I really would be delayed in seeing the gannets!

Finally the turnoff came and it was a very narrow road, but newly paved and headed straight for the cape. Hourray!

This is the first view of Bird Rock after leaving the parking area and the excellent interpretive centre. Up to 24,000 gannets nest here, with murres and gulls nesting lower down on the cliffs. The rock is white with gannets.

In the foreground is “Bird Rock” which is a sea stack a short distance away from the cliff-top viewing area. I love the golden colour of the gannets’ necks and their distinctive blue-gray bills lined with black. A wonderful film that introduced me to the beauty of gannets is “Winged Migration.”

Gannets have a wing span of up to six feet and are powerful fliers. They dive down like torpedos into the sea at up to 100 km per hour, folding their wings back at the last moment and pursuing their prey underwater.

Glad I brought my zoom lens!

Here’s a view from Bird Rock looking back towards the interpretive centre and lighthouse. It was so wonderful to sit and watch the gannets for about two hours in the warm sun. Such a contrast from my morning at Cape Spear! I learned later that this was the first clear day in 30 days!

My last photograph of the day. These beautiful irises grow wild all over the Avalon peninsula, and perhaps all of Newfoundland. I’ll have to come back again and touch every corner of the island to find out! They grow on roadsides, fields, yards, and boggy areas. It was a pleasure to see them each day.

Newfoundland!

Well, after months of planning, my travel date finally arrived! I was lucky to get a window seat on both legs of my trip from Vancouver to Toronto and then on to St. John’s. I love looking at the earth from above, identifying features, places, geological processes…What a massive and beautiful country we have!

I arrived in St. John’s late last Wednesday night to biting wind, rain, and a temperature of 7 degrees Celcius! I quickly organized my rental car, and found my way to Memorial University to stay in their residence accommodation for my first night. So fun to have my own residence room! It takes me back to being 18 and having my first home-away-from home.

The next morning, after a quick continental breakfast. I headed off to Cape Spear, the most easterly point on mainland North America. It’s the closest I can get to Ireland without crossing the ocean. When I am in Ireland, I will also visit the most westerly point of Europe. When I left St. John’s, it was still overcast and windy, with some rain it the air. When I got to Cape Spear, the wind had picked up and it was difficult to open the car door! After I managed to push my way out, the wind ripped right through my fleece and stole all of my body heat in about two seconds so I hustled back in the car and put on another shirt and my rain coat and my rain pants. I put on a hat and tied up my hood, grabbed my camera, pushed my way out again, and tried my best to to stay upright! I headed towards the water and balls of sea foam were flying past me like large windblown snowflakes. It was exhilirating! I love the formidable and impressive and mighty North Atlantic!

Cape Spear lighthouses from a distance. The lighthouse on the left is operational, and fully automated. The lighthouse on the right has been decomissioned and is now a very interesting museum set up to show how the early lighthouse keepers and their families lived and worked in such isolation and hard conditions.

My photos do not do justice to the size of the waves!

First blog post

Hello. This is my first attempt at writing a blog! I have been inspired to start this blog by my upcoming trip to Ireland, and by dreams of many more walking/hiking/sightseeing trips in my future. I’d like to share photos and words with friends, family, and other travel-happy souls.

Pre-trip Training – Camosun Bog 6 Berry Walk

On my Ireland trip, I will be doing the first 3 stages of the Wicklow Way walk in the Wicklow Mountains south of Dublin. I will walk about 60 km over 4 days with a pack on my back so I’ve been doing some training on the weekends in Pacific Spirit park near my home.

One of my favourite walks is through Camosun Bog, then along Camosun Trail to Top Trail which is a peaceful and little-travelled trail that has the feel of a country lane. I have been enjoying salmon berries along Top Trail for over a month now, and on my walk last weekend, there were six (!) kinds of berries available for trail-side munching. The berries also provided an opportunity to play with my new camera before I travel to Ireland.

Here are some photos from that walk.

There are four varieties of blueberry in the bog. I think this is the oval-leafed blueberry.

The huckleberries are loaded this year!

These are the native B.C. blackberries. Their vines hug the ground and the berries are smaller than the non-native Himalayan blackberry.

Here are the two varieties of salmonberry on the trail – the golden ones, and the redder ones. They taste slightly different and I keep changing my mind about which is my favourite!

Here is the thimbleberry – my least favourite in texture, but my favourite in flavour. Intense and delicious!

And finally, the salal berries which are ready incredibly early this year. Not my favourite in either flavor or texture, but great in pancakes!