Day 24 - Burin Peninsula, NL to St. Lawrence/Burin Peninsula

These photos are all from our stay in the St. Lawrence area and walks

Day 24/May 27, 2016 Burin Peninsula, NL to St. Lawrence/Burin Peninsula. A stop in booming Marystown for supplies. This was a sprawling large town by Newfoundland’s standards…didn’t expect that down this long peninsula. Beyond Marystown the scenery becomes pretty awesome but NO WHERE to stop. Not a great idea to pull rv over and lurk for awhile on the not-so-generous edges (with a too steep drop for us). We stopped at a viewing area to get some pictures but missed the first awesome ones. Next time I am just pulling over for a quick snap..although it won’t do the scenery justice. MANY people in Newfoundland have rv’s (trailers, fifth wheels and to a lesser degree motorhomes) which makes sense because there is some pretty fantastic scenery here with dump stations provided by many of the bigger towns.

 The Queen’s land provides free places to set up your rv along with paid campgrounds. Unfortunately with a lot of fen/bog/ponds in NL, all this land is not necessarily accessible and roads are not provided into back country (expensive to build over the fen/bogland). When it freezes in winter the snowmobiles come out to cut firewood (permit).

 Since camping season is coming, we see a trailers parked out in the middle of nowhere all set up for the season. We also see season trailers set up in campgrounds all ready for their season of camping. What fun! After exploring a bit with the rv and trying to decide where to park it we found a lovely spot by a radio tower out on one of the headlands of St. Lawrence, NL area. We visited Shoal Cove Beach (several miles on a gravel road), Salt Cove and walked all around the headland we were parked on…more sea polish rocks for my garden. A beautiful sunny day with some rain coming in tomorrow. Our nights entertainment (no sunset tonight as rain is coming) is watching the shrimp boat net its catch and watching a man walk/run his dog Newfoundland style. Let your dog out a couple of miles away and he jogs ahead of you. When you get to the headland you sit in your truck for maybe 5 minutes and then repeat for the way back. Dog is happy, you are happy.

Day 23 - Little Catalina, NL to Burin Peninsula

Murphy's Cove trail

Day 23/May 26, 2016 Little Catalina, NL to Burin Peninsula It rained hard last night for hours. I am thinking that the trail will be one soggy mess to walk on… The next 8 days the night temps which have hovered around 42-49 degrees F are going to plummet to 35-39 degrees. Here comes the camping part! Motorhomes do not retail heat well at all. Propane to fill up our internal propane tank (not the bbq sized ones) is hard to find in NL. So far we only know of two places in which we can do this in all of Newfoundland…still researching….

We are smarter this time and we have a bbq sized tank that can be filled in many more places in NL and we use that to refill our coleman canister sized tanks to run our Mr. Buddy heater that will heat our house. Hopefully all will work out fine. The internal propane will run our refrigerator, hot water heater (which is only on 25 minutes before we take showers). Today we hiked the Murphy’s Cover to Lodge Pond Trail in Port Union, NL. Of course, there is no one else on it. A brisk 49 degrees and we both enjoyed the 4.8 mile trail. With the heavy rain last night, there were parts of the trail that were wet but we managed. There were plenty of boardwalks and steps constructed along the way to help manage wet and steep parts (thank you Port Union). Scenery was in the trees and also followed the coastline. We saw a fair amount of moose scat but no actual moose. By the time we got back we both had pretty wet feet despite trying not to get them wet. Our drive today took us down the Burin Peninsula towards Marystown. We didn’t make it that far because it was getting dark and that is moose time…don’t need any of them jumping out in front of us! Pulled into a roadside parking lot by a pond to park for the night. Newfoundland is thick with ponds; a mosquitos delight.

Day 22 - Dungeon Provincial Park to Little Catalina, NL

fog rolling in across the water

Bonavista Harbor

sun is rising

Day 22/May 25, 2016 Dungeon Provincial Park at Cape Bonavista, NL to Little Catalina, NL Woke up this morning and looked out the window. Two icebergs were gone (big ones) and there was a thick roll of fog coming off the water. The foghorn at the Cape Bonavista lighthouse was sounding off in the distance. Probably the pictures won’t do it the justice it deserves. Next stop was Elliston. We spent the day between Ellison, Sandy Cove, and Maberly. Elliston is home to a puffin colony and has many root cellars cut into the sides of hills…135 approximately. There are some that are in use today but probably not many. Puffins unfortunately none of them where on the area where we could walk to…last time they were so they were maybe 12 feet away. This time much further. Eight icebergs in view and some bergy bits as well. There is a walking trail in Maberly and David was into doing a long walk; I was not. It was a linear trail that ended in Little Catalina 16.5 km away. David came back bushed; not the leisurely walk he thought. Sorry I missed it…he is wearing hot packs as I write. Unfortunately I have not yet made a full body pack; he misses his hot tub. We were going to park overnight in Elliston but decided instead to move on as it was only 5:30. It was decided to chance it and see what Little Catalina would bring us. We headed off to find the trailhead for the other end of the walk from Maberly. We are staying here for the night…with a scenic view of water.

Little Catalina overnight parking

Elliston berg

Cute little puffin watching

David loves icebergs...

Day 21 - Walmart in Gander, NL to Cape Bonavista, NL Dungeon Provincial Park

Bonavista's scenice harbor

Bonavista waterfront

Day 21/May 24, 2016 – Walmart in Gander, NL to Cape Bonavista, NL More driving today but the good news is that we won’t be travelling far over the next few days! David hike the lighthouse trail by Kings Point and I took a nap! Walking on the Cape Shore trail out of Bonavista and spent some time hanging out near the lighthouse and Landfall Municipal park. A brilliant, sunny 68 degree day. Wildlife sightings today: two foxes….and while David was walking the Cape Shore Trail, he saw a whale and was very excited! He didn’t know what kind and it didn’t matter…heard it spout and saw it. Thar she blows…not bad from shore. It appears to be a banner year for icebergs…lucky us. When we were here in 2013 there weren’t nearly as many bergs. We can see 6 from where we are currently parked right now; they are off in the distance but we can see them☺ So after dinner we decided to see if we could go stay in Dungeon Provincial Park but first made a trip in the rv up to the lighthouse. As we are getting ready to move there is a fox just sitting outside our rv. Then he decided to just laydown and stare at us. PEOPLE, people, people please do not feed wild animals because they are cute, thin or whatever. They lose their fear of humans (really it is a good thing that they fear us) and this one was begging! Did I feed him…no but I snapped a lot of photos and then chased him away. We drive up to the lighthouse and that is where everyone is…just hanging out mostly. Off to Dungeon Provincial park (a gravel road but well done) at sunset…a wicked good sunset. Dungeon Provincial park provided us with a great sunset and a place to park (it is not a campground). Just before dark we came upon a boardwalk and viewing area and decided to take a look. It didn’t look like anything spectacular worth viewing until you look down into the “dungeon”, two sea arches and if you had a small boat and the water was calm you could enter these. The last time we were here we drove through the park because the weather was windy, rainy, cold and the road surface was not great either….and missed it. There was no information posted about this park.

Lighthouse at Boavista

sun is setting

Lighthouse at Boavista

David's walk

David's walk

David's walk

A view of some of the icebergs...a banner year!

A cod drying rack...salted then dried in the breeze

He was begging...do not feed wildlife!  Cute though!

The Dungeon Provincial park

The big berg

Scenic views on peninsula Boavista

Day 20 - Beach in Stephenville, NL to Gander, NL Walmart

Day 20/May 23, 2016 Beach in Stephenville, NL to Gander, NL Walmart Although we left the beach at Stephenville early, we hit Walmart for wifi while David attempted to get coverage on his phone. Water was procured at the Canadian Tire gas bar (on Main street/chlorinated and potable…which is major concern for me). We poked around to find a dump station/potable water by the directions given us and finally found it (48 32.772/58 33.653) by Dakota Drive by the airport. So here it is almost noon and we haven’t even left yet! Corner Brook for gas. Corner Brook also had dump/potable water at the visitor information center. Exit 17 on the TCH 1 got us propane (for our internal propane tank)…a somewhat difficult task in Newfoundland. The wonderful man even said if he was closed to just call the phone number on the door and he would come out and fill us up even if it was just a few liters worth. He knows it is hard to find☺ We are making a push for eastern part of Newfoundland (as far east as we will go this time) and will then work our way back to the west and ferry. News tidbit…there were 660 moose collisions last year (moose and car) in Newfoundland. Made it to Gander today…more time than I wanted in rv with no walk. We are parking overnight in a Walmart that is closed until 8 am…making it quiet. I was going to go food shopping but when we arrived in town no grocery stores were open….Canadian holiday.

No pictures a "commuting day"...making tracks to head east!

Day 19 - Boutte du Cap/Cape St. George to Beach in Stephenville

All that is left off the plane crash

windblown tree

Day 19/May 22, 2016 Boutte du Cap/Cape St. George to Beach in Stephenville A short walk in the morning to the point in Cape St. George and we were off to explore again. David took a short walk to an American 1944 Militry crash site (the plane was supposed to land in Stephenville and got blown off course crashing into the side of a hill near Cape St. George. A beach stop along the way. We were going to park it for the night on Long Point in the Port au Port Peninsula but since it was early we decided to do more exploring. But first, we walked on the gravel road for a bit and then found our way down to the rocky beach (think rounded rocks of at least fist size down to smaller). It is not easy walking on that so not the ideal but the colors of rocks kept me busy hunting for some to put in my garden. The rv wandered along our chosen route and when we didn’t find something of interest (quiet, scenic, hopefully someplace to walk/hike) we decided to settle in back at Stephenville beach. We could of headed onto the TCH 1 hoping to find someplace but it probably wouldn’t have been very good (like a visitor’s info center and possibly noise). It is far better to eat, walk the beach and go early in the a.m. so that is what we did.

view of port au port peninsula

Boat winch

This is an old school boat winch

At home I have to buy peat...look at all this!

Day 18 - Stephenville to Cape St. George/Boutte due Cap Parc

Sheaves Cove waterfall walk

Day 18/May 21, 2016 Breakfast and shopping. Off we went west on 460 to Cape St. George. A stop at Sheaves Cove to walk the short trail to waterfall. Cape St. George is especially beautiful on a sunny day and it wasn’t too windy today☺ Ocean views and trails to walk. Perhaps we will be blessed with a whale sighting (like I was last time). Overnight parking at Boutte due Cap Parc….Walking the trails, exploring. Dinner with water view…cost = priceless! Watching the sunset in our “sunroom” (cab part of rv).

Views at Boutte du Cap

Views at Boutte du Cap

Views at Boutte du Cap

Views at Boutte du Cap

If you look really close you can see our white motorhome overnight parking spot.

Plant art!

Our digs for the night

Beach in Port Au Port peninsula

Check out these colorful rocks!

Day 17 - Rose Blanche Lighthouse, NL to Stephenville Beach, NL

Day 17/May 20, 2016  Rose Blanch Lighthouse, NL to Stephenville Beach, NL

Rose Blanche

Reminder to self:  every night will be a scenic spot to spend the night and in the perfect world it will have a trail to occupy us or one we can make.

Took off early to get some heat going in the rv (remember there is no heat on at night unless it gets to 38 or less…my rule)…heading back towards Channel-Port Aux Basques…west on route 470. 

Pano of Rose Blanche

Our first stop about 10 minutes west on 470 was Barachois Falls walking trail.  Just 3000 feet long but well done with gravel and boardwalks (no walking in mud or bog!).  You can see the falls from the road too.  Envigorating and we were out of there by 8:06 am.  Remember sunrise is around 4:30 am; this is my kind of world!

Pretty much standard terrain west of Channel-Port Aux Basques

Along the way we found another trail to walk.  The Harvey Trail in Isle Aux Morts was a couple/several miles along the rocky ocean…well done with decent drainage and scenic.  It is a circular trail.  George Harvey as a local hero in that saved many people from sinking vessels along the southern Newfoundland coast.

Balachois Falls walk

Next stop VIC (visitors information center) to get WIFI and further information…new maps, etc.  Along the way we found Codroy Provincial Park with a beautiful sand beach that we walked.  It is a day use park only (drat).  We were, of course, the only ones there and a partly sunny day (I am an optimist at heart) made us happy.

Balachois Falls walk

We had hoped to park overnight at Cape Anguille Lighthouse (down the road to this lighthouse) but it was prominently posted at the B&B that occupied the premises as well that camping was not allowed.   Some quick pictures and off we went to find other accommodations.

Desperation made us go 70 miles or so to the beach in Stephenville…further than we wanted and a last resort but okay for our purposes and it could be a lot worse.  Dinner and a walk on the beach. Not a really quiet location but it did have view of beach and ability to walk it.

Yup, a LOT less cars than our highways...the TCH 1 midday.

Codroy Provincial Park

This kind of looked like a wood fish???

Codroy Provincial Park

Cape Anguille Lighthouse

Our Overnight parking spot at the Beach in Stephenville

Our scenic beach view....