31st
May 2016
Moose, Fog, cold
– Then warm sunshine !!
I know I have
mentioned the incredible changeability of the Newfoundland weather before, but
today really takes the cake. When I woke
up it had been raining, but was now only drizzling, overcast, and misty over
the water. The park ranger had told me
the forecast for today was bad, so I wasn’t surprised, nor was I upset. Black wine gums and all that. So I packed up, filled up my water tank, and
had the best hot shower, with only one other couple in the campsite, and they
were still fast asleep in their tent when I left, so I had everything to
myself. I decided that I would head
south down the east coast of the Avalon peninsula, towards Trepassey, just to
see if there was anything there.
As soon as I
turned onto the main road, the mist got worse and worse, and the rain also
increased, and after about 20 kms of not being able to see anything apart from
the edge of the road, I thought this was ridiculous, so I turned round and
headed north. Bay Bulls was not far
north, and this is where a lot of the best iceberg / whale / puffin boat tours
go from, so I thought I would go and check it out in case the weather improved
in the next 2 or 3 days. 5 minutes after
I turned around, I spotted a moose eating the dandelions in a children’s
At Tors Cove
there is not only a bit of a (misty) view over some islands, in a bay, but also
a hydroelectric plant that is still active after being originally built in
1942. The earliest record of settlement
at Tors Cove is in 1677, and it seems that for some years it was only a summer
residence, with the people returning to England and Ireland after the fishing
season finished each year. Most of
todays inhabitants are descended from Irish fishing servants who were brought
out by English West Country merchants who eventually decided to settle in
Newfoundland.
As far as the
hydro electric plant goes, they were doing quite a lot of work round there, and
while I saw a large bore steel pipe that was in use now, I also noticed what looked very like an old
wooden pipeline, albeit it now in a sad state of repair. Maybe this was the original pipeline for the
hydro electric plant ? I would like to
have got closer to inspect whether it really was an old wooden pipeline, but
that was where the bulldozers etc were and it was a very muddy work site that I
couldn’t get into. I got a couple of
pics, and may have to see if I can find out more on google later.
By the time I got
to Bay Bulls, the weather was still bad – foggy, drizzling, and still only
about 5 deg C. Ah well, I needed some
food supplies so I stopped in a shop and managed to get most of what I needed –
I was just about out of everything having not been in a shop for 10 days or
more. There was an information office in
the car park, so after I had shopped, I dropped in to see what they had to
say. Weather ? Going to be like this all day. Worth going out on a boat ? Not really in this mist because, like in Aus,
the boats are supposed to stay 100 metres away from wildlife, so if visibility
is only 50 metres, you won’t see much !
Fair enough – May as well just wander round the peninsula to the west of
St John’s and see what they have to offer.
So after chatting
(individually) to about 10 people who all came up to me in the car park while I
was trying to work out which way to go, I finally got away and headed west on
Hwy 13 – A road with a big sign that says “Road may closed when impassable
during severe storms”. Off I go, and the
fog gets thicker and thicker, although the rain stops, and the temp creeps up
to 8 deg C. So since it is after lunch
time and I am a bit peckish, I pull over and quickly make a couple of
sandwiches and then jump back into the warm car to eat them. Once I get going again, about 10 kms later,
I come over a hill and the mist suddenly clears, the temp shoots up to 13 deg
C, and there is even enough sun to cast a bit of a shadow. This is unbelievable – all within half an
hour I have gone from damp and cold to warming up and trying to be sunny !
So I head up around
the coast line of the NW part of the Avalon Peninsula, and find all these
delightful little fishing villages dotted along the coast, many with a lot of
history. As I entered a little port
called Brigus, I saw a sign to “The Tunnel”, which intrigued me, so I did a U
turn and headed down the little street, to find all these old buildings in
beautiful condition and still being lived in, and an old stone museum –
Unfortunately closed. Following the
signs to The Tunnel, I eventually found this hole in the rock – And parked
beside it a new model bright yellow Chevy Camaro with Ontario plates. Got chatting with the couple and it turned
out he was born here in Brigus, has been living in Ontario for years, and is
now planning to move back to Brigus, so he knows the area well.
Unfortunately he
told me the tunnel had nothing to do with pirates or anything exciting like
that, but was simply built by a Cornish Miner in 1860 to provide better access
to a deep water wharf for the ships of a certain Abraham Bartlett. Abraham’s son, Robert, was later to command
the ship “Roosevelt” during Peary’s Arctic expedition of 1905-06, and
accompanied Peary to his last relay point on his trek to the North Pole in
1908-09.
After Brigus I
went on to Cupids – Another town with a lot of history. In August 1610 Cuper’s Cove (now Cupid’s),
was the site of the first attempt to establish a colony in Newfoundland. They also had dealings with the Mayflower
settlers that had come from Plymouth.
All in all, a very pleasant couple of hours in unexpected sunshine and
warmth !
After that I went
into Bay Roberts and found a McD’s where I got myself a cup of coffee and spent
a couple of hours doing my banking, catching up on emails, and posting my blog
for the last couple of days. By 5 pm I
thought I had better find somewhere to sleep, so I set off down the road south
again to where there were a couple of camping signs on my map. I headed to the first one, and had to turn up
a dirt road with houses all along it – Not too promising, I passed what looked like a driveway to a
house that went in roughly the direction I wanted to go, so went up the trail –
Only to find a camp site !! But not a
normal one – This is like a fishing / hunting camp on a lake, where all the
caravans have wooden patios around them so they are basically permanent. I drove around trying to see if anyone lived
here full time, but it looks like it is just a weekend camp for people who come
out of town. So I found a spot down at
the far end, away from everyone, and set up camp in the warm sunshine – Now 18
deg C !! 
SO enjoy reading your blog Giles. As it is now minus 4 degrees here in Canberra with thick fog in the mornings we can almost believe we are in Newfoundland with you. Keep well and happy and thank you for the lovely family photos you sent a while back, Caroline
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