July 22-31 Newfoundland the East Coast, Central, and West Coast

Tent camping has its ups and downs.

Ups: straining to think of some

1. it is pretty cheap way to go
2. and camp can either be set up or taken down in record time.
3. You learn to improvise – rock for hammer, Swiss army knife can opener.
4. I have learned that you give me an electric coffee pot and a fry pan and it is Julia Childs move over. I even figured out how to make oatmeal in the fry pan!

Downs: there are many many more.

1. I cannot stand up in the tent so I either have to lie down and try and put my pants on or I try to discreetly stand by the car and get dressed. By the 3^rd day it was heck with discreet, I ain’t never seeing these folks again so I just dress or undress where ever. Saw an old guy walk to washroom in his skivvy’s. I said, “You go man”
2. I rarely get up in the middle of night to potty. But while we have been tenting, I have left my midnight mark in all the campsites.
3. Everything must be packed back up just so or else it does not fit back into the truck and there is a lot of stuff! Cooler, tent, tent poles, food box, dishes, shoes, hiking sticks, chairs, water jugs (all water must be boiled), backpacks, pillows and blankets, personal items the list is endless it seems.
4. Rain presents the problem of a) too early to go to bed but no where to go to get out of rain so bed it is b) midnight runs and you are all wet getting back into bed c) anything inside tent touching the sides is now wet d) when it is time to move on, the tent is wet.

Bonavista/Trinity – John Cabot landed here in 1497. Beautiful fishing town nestled in the crooks and crannies of the ocean. Here we saw puffins, whales, and root cellars. Elliston is famous for having over 100 recorded root cellars nestled in the area. Had our first real hike that circled Fox Island. What views!! Saw whales.

Rained like crazy that night – Mila held.

Twillingate is another fishing town, has a museum that use to be was a rectory (these people know how to repurpose stuff) that was representative of the days gone by. Then off to the lighthouse – of course, where there were more Puffins and whales and a few icebergs way off in the distance that you needed binoculars to see them.

Beothok (pronounced B-o-tuk) Interpretive Center

In Twill this is also an archeological dig. The Beothok were indigenous people that migrated from the Bering Straits, thru Labrador settling in Newfoundland most prominently in the Twillingate area (at least that is the only known area) in AD 1200-1850. When the French came into the area to fish the cod, these people kept their distance, not interacting with them. When the French left in the fall to return to Europe (yup they summered (fished) in Newfie), then they would raid the village and take and repurpose materials. Things like nails they refashioned into spear heads, they collected discarded beads and buttons to make jewelry, and other things that the French discarded. Eventually, the French encroached further and further, there was conflicts and then disease, smallpox, tuberculous that completely wiped out the Beothok. They are now extinct.

Snipe do exist!

Ever been on a snipe hunt? That was an annual thing for our kids to do when we were camping. Give the kids a paper bag and tell them to go down just by the edge of sand where there is still grass, not the water, and try and catch one. Then an adult would throw rocks by the kids pretending it was snipe running. Well a quick hike in Gander around a pond to stretch our legs before jumping back into truck to finish off ride to Western Coast (6-hour ride across) and what do we see? Snipes! My apologies to my kids, nieces and nephews for the joke – but it was fun!

Western Coast

One the final leg of this journey and notice that the topography of this side of the island is very much different than the east coast. Mountainous, trees, sheer cliffs. Still have the sweet fishing villages, however, they are much sparser and few and far in between. Intent is to do as much hiking as possible and we do! Noticed that my hiking boots after 4+ years are getting pretty darn thin, I can feel every stone and even the slate spaces on the boardwalks. Oh this is interesting, because so much of the area is bog many of the trails have miles of boardwalk making for easy hiking.

Caribou at last

Port au Choix: Of all the places to see a caribou the visitor center is the most unlikely. As we were departing on our hike, the ranger (he came out to show us where the trail was) and said, “oh look, there is our resident caribou coming now. Just crossing the road” Turns out, this caribou has been coming to the visitor center everyday to graze and hang out on the porch out of the sun.

Nice day for a hike out to the ocean. Trail was interesting as in the beginning it was mostly on gravel land marked by painted rocks. After about a mile of that it descended into a more forested area before opening up on the seashore. It led to a place that was inhabited by indigenous sealers thousands of years ago – coming from the Bering Straits.

Iceberg Alley: Sure enough we saw many flows on this strip of sea (Strait of Belle Isle). One iceberg in the harbor, our good chance to see on up close. Beautiful blue/white colors. The information sign it takes 2 years for the flows to travel down from Greenland.