(Page 1 of 2)

When Joe and I first moved to Texas, we were excited about our prospects for travel.  Our plan was that we'd plan our travel in three year cycles, one year for ourselves, one to see Joe's family in Newfoundland and one to see mine in BC.  So far that's worked out pretty well: in 1999 we went to Ottawa to see my cousin get married (in March), visit some of Joe's friends and see Canada's capital.  In 2000 it was time to go home to Newfoundland.  It had been so long since we were there in 1994, it was actually well past time.  The timing turned out to be really good for other reasons.  We had enough air miles to get there for only $40 (yay) although because they were air miles seats, we did have to stay overnight in Toronto.  Oh well.

The other good thing about the timing is that it was just in time for "Vikings! 1000 years!", a celebration of the Viking habitation in Newfoundland around 1000 AD.  There were many events planned for the Viking Trail and all around the province, so what better time to go?  The viking sagas had long indicated that they had been to the new world long before Columbus "discovered" it, but there was no consensus on where they lived until 1961 when Helge Ingstad and his wife Anne Stein Ingstad unearthed clear evidence of Viking occupation on the northern tip of the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland at a site that is now a National Heritage Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site named after the nearby village of L'Anse Aux Meadows.  We had been close to L'Anse Aux Meadows in 1996 when we visited Grose Morne National Park, but never made the trip up the peninsula due to time constraints.  Newfoundland is a beautiful rugged scenic place, filled with wonderful friendly people.  Go if you can.
 

The trip:

We got settled into our room (Joe's childhood bedroom) and then got some serious visiting in.  On Sunday we slept late and had a leisurely day readjusting time  zones, relaxing and catching up, and visiting some more.  We went to Chapters to see the newly opened store in town and naturally I found a bunch of books to buy.  Joe's mom made us a lovely dinner and we started making plans for what we were going to see -- there were so many choices!  We'd been tourists here in 1996, so we wanted to do some new things (you'll have to wait for the other trip page to find out what we did before!).  St. John's has a rich history, the city was founded in 1497, and the entire province is just steeped in history, from the Native peoples to the Vikings to the early French and English settlers.  So we studied all the tourist information we'd picked up and started making plans.

Monday found us sleepy, me especially since I'd been up to 4:30 am reading!  We took our time getting going, but then headed out to the Village Mall to look around and to Tim Horton's for lunch.  The chili was very good and, of course, the donuts were delicious!   Mmmmmm, sour cream glaze!  We picked up some food so we could cook for Lyn and Joe -- no sense them doing all the work!  That night I made Burritos and they were a hit.  Lyn said she'd make them again.  The best part of all was getting to chat with her in the kitchen as we cooked.  Joe's sister, Nicole called that night so they had a great catch up call and we told her we'd be out to see her perform at the Gros Morne Theater Festival and would let her know as soon as we were set up with accommodation.  We headed to bed early because in the morning, we were going to tourist!

Tuesday we got an early start, and headed out to the Village Mall to cash some traveler's cheques, get Joe a haircut and catch the bus over to Memorial University of Newfoundland, Joe's old school.  We miscalculated our stop and got off one early at the Confederation Building, which meant we had a little walk to the St John's Art and Cultural Center, near MUN.  We were there to get into the spirit of the Vikings by seeing "Full Circle, First Contact", an exhibit chronicling the Vikings in Newfoundland and their contact with the native people there, whom they called Skraelings.  There were lots of artifacts and also a tape to tell of what was going on.  The tape was a little too long for the displays, you had seen everything in a lot of detail before the tape was ready for you to go on to the next exhibit.  All in all a very interesting exhibit.  We stopped at the gift shop for a few things, Joe got a great t-shirt.  Then we wandered over to MUN where we checked out the new bookstore (and Joe got a golf shirt he could wear to work in the summer when they dress casual) and I picked up some gel pens (my personal addiction).  Then we had lunch at the new student center (which is four stories over the highway!) before bussing it back home.  That night we went to Nanny's home for a wonderful dinner and picked up our rental car on the way.  Back home that night we started phoning for B&B's on the west coast for the western portion of the trip.

The following day we got up early and headed out to Cape St. Mary's where there is an ecological reserve.  It was kind of a gray day for our visit out there and took a while to get there.  When we arrived, we found that it was very foggy, which fooled us into thinking that there'd be no wind.  Wrong!  When I opened the car door, the wind practically took it right off!  That woke me up -- the wind and the smell it carried.  We found our way to the visitors centre and we just in time for a tour.
 Good thing too, with all that fog, we might not have found our way!  The reserve at Cape St. Mary's is a haven for bird life -- there are literally thousands of birds nesting on Bird Rock.  Priscilla guided us out to Bird Rock with eight layers on -- you have to dress for anything there.  There were lots of horizontal trees and 10 cm high vegetation, the headlands are too windy for anything to grow taller.  We'd come to see the Kittiwakes, Gannets and Murrs.  We didn't expect sheep!  The park is a traditional grazing area for sheep too and evidence of their presence was everywhere.  When we got out to bird rock, we couldn't believe how close it was to us.  It was hard to see anything beyond bird rock, but we could hear the birds fine!  Two humpback whales surfaced (they were hard to see in the weather though) as they were feeding on the caiplin.  As we stood in the wind and fog, the rain started!  We headed back to the interpretive centre and it was very hard to see in the weather.  We didn't stay too long, there wasn't anywhere to eat on site and it was way past lunch, so we headed out.  It took 10 miles of driving before I had my hair untangled!  We stopped for lunch in St. Brides then back on the road again heading back towards St. John's.

Along the way we stopped at Castle Hill National Historic Site in Placentia.  The town is the site of the first official French colony in Newfoundland, established in 1662.  We walked up to the fort and were impressed with the amazing view of Placentia.  The fort was original manned by the French who called the town Plaisance and the fort Fort Royal.  From this vantage they could hold off anyone.  Unfortunately they could not take St. John's (though they tried) and ceded the territory and fort to the British under the treaty of Utrecht in 1713.  There was an interesting display at the visitor's center as well.  Then back on the road to St. John's.  On the way we passed through Markland where we went in search of the Rodrigues Winery.  Our friends Trevor and Nicole are big fans of the fruit wines made here so we had to check it out.  It took a bit of looking since it's called the Markland Cottage Winery and we were looking for something called Rodrigues Winery.  We got ourselves sorted out and found it in the back of the town hall!  It was worth the hunt though, the wines are delicious.  We especially liked the Bakeapple and Barrens Bend.  For those of you who have never been to Newfoundland and have no idea what a 'bakeapple' is, it's a very rare berry also known as the cloudberry that grows one berry to each plant -- in bogs!  Hard to get but worth it.  Newfoundlanders love their bakeapples.  We ended up buying 6 bottles of wine (the dessert wines come in 375 ml bottles) including one bakeapple.  We then headed back home for dinner which Lyn and Joe made, including caplin, a small fish that 'runs' this time of year.  I wasn't sure I'd like it (not being a big fish eater) but it was very yummy.

The next day (Thursday) we got up early to find that it was sunny out!  Yay!  After a little laundry, we headed to downtown St. John's to do some sightseeing and shopping.  St. John's, known as the City of Legends, has many attractions, many of which we saw in 1994 when we did some walking tours of the city.  This time we walked along Water street and the Murray Premises where we found lots of great stuff.  We went down to the water where we had an amazing view of the fog rolling in through the narrows.  It was awesome and beautiful.  Then we headed up to Duckworth Street where we also found some cool stores with good gifts.  Then off to lunch at the India Gate -- an example of the increasingly cosmopolitan nature of the city, more so than the last time we were there.  The pakoras were delicious!  We picked up some secondhand cd's after lunch (we had brought a ton of tapes only to find the rental car had a cd player only -- and it's a long drive to the west coast!) and then back home.  Dinner was my doing that night, we made Jambalaya and Red beans and rice -- treating Lyn and Joe to a little of our (now) local cuisine!

Friday was time for some more sightseeing.  We booked a tour on a Bay Bulls Whale Watching boat for 2 pm.  It was gray and foggy and rainy as we set out.  We left early and I thought we'd pass Cape Spear on the way, but it turned out that it was towards town.  We looked at the weather and thought that being out in that in a boat was probably not going to be fun.  We went to Cape Spear anyway but canceled the boat trip.  Good thing too -- it was very wet.  We did find it rainy, windy and foggy at Cape Spear too, quite different than the last time we were there.  Cape Spear is the most easterly point in North America.  In fact, when you are in St. John's you are closer to Europe than to Vancouver.  We also found that the fog horns were working well!  We couldn't stand the rain that much so beat a hasty retreat to the Avalon Mall, where it was warm and dry.  We stopped in at the Second Cup for Lattes, the newspaper and biscotti.  Now that's vacationing!  After a relaxing time there, we headed back to Lyn and Joe's to join Nanny and Nathan for a dinner of Salmon steaks.  Yum!

Saturday, Canada Day, dawned cloudy but not raining.  We re-booked the Whale watching tour with O'Brian's for 2pm.  We headed out there a little early and as we approached Bay Bulls it seemed to be  brightening up a little.  We went into the O'Brien's shop where we found some good souvenirs (which we decided to pick up later) and paid for our tour.  We asked if they'd seen any whales today and the girl radioed the boat.  They said they hadn't seen any and were just rounding the iceberg, on their way back in.  Iceberg!!!  Yay!  I had wanted to see one on my first trip to Newfoundland but there weren't any around then.  This time I was going to get to see one.  We went up to the restaurant and ate outside as the weather started to clear.  After a nice lunch we wandered around the beach for a while before boarding the boat.

We found a good spot and snuggled in for the ride.  Even though the weather was clearing up, it was still quite chilly on the water.  Our guide introduced herself, sang us a song (something about dying a spinster in the garret??!?) and then gave us the safety information.  Then we headed out to the islands of the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve.  First we headed out to Gull Island, which I thought should have been named Puffin Island!  There were tons of them out there, on the island, in the water and in the sky.  You could really see how the poor little fellers have to work like crazy to keep aloft, they're not the most aerodynamic creatures!  They are about 14 inches long, so not that big either (which was a bit of a problem when trying to take pictures of them -- I'll have to get a longer lens for the next time we do that!).  You can see in the picture below that I wasn't able to get a close shot of them, but they were really cute.  They are very social birds who make their nests in burrows.  They actually dig their burrows themselves (unlike the Burrowing Owl who takes over the burrows of groundhogs etc.) if they can't find an abandoned and they also appear to mate for life.  The male and female will return year after year to their burrow.  The island was also populated with Kittiwakes and Murrs (or as our guide called them in the local parlance, "Turrs or Supper!").

Our next destination was Green Island which wasn't that Green, but the smell could turn you a little green...  Guano anyone??  Just then the sun came out, warming things up considerably.  Green Island had more Murrs and some more Puffins.  Next we headed out to see the Iceberg.  I had really wanted to see one  the last time we were in Newfoundland in 1994 and there just weren't any around.  This time I was actually going to get to see one.  Now it turned out to be a smallish one compared to the massive ones that make the news there, but still it was an iceberg!  And a pretty respectable size.  I was surprised at how blue the ice was though.

After circling the iceberg we went back by the islands (still teeming with birds) then past Bay Bulls to see if we can find some whales who want to show themselves to a boat load of tourists.  Unfortunately the didn't want to come out and play so we started to head back.  On the way back in they "screeched in" 5 visitors, making them honorary Newfoundlanders.  I still need to get screeched, somehow we always miss it.-- the first time we went down to Trapper John's but it was the night of the OJ Simpson chase and it never got done.  I guess we have to save something for the next time.  As we were heading home for dinner, we noticed we were getting a little pink -- yep, we got ourselves sunburned.
 
 

This page and all photos © Copyright 2002,  Lynda M.R.
 unless otherwise indicated.