Cornerbrook Nfld

Snow removal attachment

 

 

 

We did a trip down to Cornerbrook as needed a few supplies we could not get in park area.  This is where most people in the area do their major shopping as there is just about every big box store you could want around.  We stopped at a small railway museum and had a tour.  It had the original narrow gauge trains as they were smaller and easier to maneuver. They also needed to remove snow from tracks so this machine was attached at the front of the train, but was on its own system, no facilities.  The fellows working in this had to be awake the whole time and watching the tracks, very stressful job at the time.  The locals called the train, the “Newfie bullet”, it wasn’t very fast, but it stopped wherever anyone wanted it to. Unfortunately, they did not match up with any other trains that CN had running elsewhere across the country.  The last passenger train in Newfoundland was in 1969 and last freight was in 1988.  It has all been replaced by truck traffic.

We have always joked that all RV Parks are near working railway lines, this is the place we have ever staid that this is not the case!

 

South Gros Morne Park Newfoundland

 
We did another drive around the south end of Gros Morne towards the Tablelands and this section is very barren and is where the plates have shifted on the island and moved the mountains up, pictures not close enough but you can actually see where the land was on its side as it turned into the mountain. On the other side of the mountain, it is all green and bog and trees.  This is an amazing island.
 

Tableland - rugged

Other side

 

Driving into a cloud

Snow caps on mountains

I wish my geology was much better, there is so much information, and we can only take in so much!  Drove through a cloud or two as well which is always kind of neat, back home we call it ‘fog”.  There is a Discovery Centre in this section of the park that is totally amazing; if you ever get to the island and head up through Gros Morne, you have to take this in.



The day we were there was July 1^st and could not figure out why so many people dressed up.  They were having a citizenship swearing in at this location, MP’S, Mounties, Veteran’s – it was really an amazing process they were doing for these new Canadians.  We left before actual ceremony as we had an agenda but glad to see this happening across our great land.

Farewell Newfoundland

 

From here we set off to get ready to get on to ferry and leave Newfoundland.

This was a beautiful province, scenery was amazing, and people were great. We are really glad we did this trip.  As I mentioned before, if you are contemplating this province, give yourself lots of time.  As there is only the Trans Canada Hwy to go from east to west, you can be doubling back over same territory a lot but do go to the different “loops” that all head up to the ocean at some point, if you hit water, turn around and go back or swim!!!

If I were to recommend any thing if you were pulling an RV, take ferry in on one side of the island and leave the other – Argentia (east side) or Port aux Basques (west side).  The Argentia trip is longer on ferry (12-14) hours, but book a berth and make it a mini cruise.  We did berth coming over on shorter ferry (5-7 hours) as we travelled at night since we were going to friends place in middle of province to stay for a while which was great.

So farewell Newfoundland…..

and our one and only moose!!!

 

Nova Scotia - Lunenburg

Nova Scotia

When we were down east when we first got our rig (2006) we went to PEI, NB and did Cape Breton Island but not the rest of Nova Scotia so decided to spend some time here.

We stayed in an RV Park in North Sydney (Arms of Gold) that was quite nice and right near the ferry (we stopped here on way down as well). The owner told us about the anniversary of Lunenburg, so we decided to do a day trip while we were here.

 

 

Lunenburg   

This year was the 300^th anniversary of Lunenburg. You drive to the park area for your tickets and then a shuttle drives you out to the actual Fortress location.  As we were entering, there was a French “soldier” questioning people as to why they wanted in; since the family in front of us was French, he was questioning them in French and was telling them that they had to be careful of “English” spies trying to get in. (Remember this was a French fortress) He then asked about rest of people, if French or English, I responded “un petit peu” (a little bit) and was accused of spying and to be careful if they let me in.  Couple behind us piped up, “thanks, we may never get in” – all good fun.

The have rebuilt some buildings and you can go through the, others are just maintained to the minimum so that they can be seen from outside.  One of the ones inside was the home of a commanding officer and had people telling of them having several servants, cooks, gardeners, etc. 

 

 

 

At noon they have a ceremonial shooting of the cannon on the grounds accompanied by drum corps and riflemen.  The cannon, if it had actual ammunition, would go a couple of miles but may or may not hit anything – not accurate but pretty explosive.  The worst part is the soldiers that were in charge were more likely to be hurt or killed than the enemy!

 

Drummers and pipers

 

Ready, aim

 

FIRE

Load

 

Fire

As this is part of Parks Canada, we used our discovery passes again; these were definitely worth the price we paid and can be used until next June across Canada.

Nova Scotia - Halifax/ Peggy's Cove

 

We moved to an RV park outside of Truro for a few days to do some touring around Halifax.

 

The day we went was a drizzly day, so we walked the boardwalk down the pier to where the cruise ships come in and over by the boats and tours. Saw a few cute ships while we were here.

 

Bridge to Halifax

 

HMS Sackville, last of the Corvettes

 

Tall ship Sylvan

 

Theodore Too - tug contender

 

From there, we went to Peggy’s cove because everyone said you have to.  I will probably be charged with heresy by some of you, but I thought it was very commercial and not as interesting as a lot of other areas we have been in the Maritimes and looking at lighthouses and area.  There were several tour buses there so I guess these tours are offered by the cruise lines and if you had never seen any bays or lighthouses before, this would have been a great one to see, but there is no tour in it nor any write up of any kind on the actual lighthouse.  (I am a bit of a lighthouse nerd you may have guessed – love seeing them and climbing when we can)

Peggy's Cove lighthouse

Peggy's Cove from the other side

Town of Peggy's Cove - all tourist centers

Constant searching for whales

 

This is one of the cases of doing the touristy things that was just ok.

 

Nova Scotia - Maitland Tidal bore

 

We had been to the Bay of Fundy to see the Hopewell rocks back in 2006 and it was amazing.  When researching this area, we were told of a town on the Shubenacadie River, South Maitland which is the Fundy Tidal interpretive center where we could go to see the tidal bore. They are partially funded but have a token fee of $3.00 per person.  When you do this, they have a pathway that is blocked off that takes you to a platform over the water.  One of the fellows comes out when the Tidal bore starts and gives quite a bit of information.  The tide is totally out and comes in very quickly during high tide. It actually is a tidal wave travelling upstream. When it comes in, it temporarily reverses the flow of the river. It does make quite a noise as it comes in. It was amazing to watch where there were mud flats and have them starting to disappear before your eyes. Some of the highest tides are in this area which can get to  39m.There are a couple of tour companies that do Tidal bore rafting, not as exciting as white water rafting but looks like fun.  The sand in this area is very red and when you do go swimming or mud sliding, you wear old clothes as they will never get clean!

Start time 11:10

Mud flat

Mud flat under bridge

Mud sliding and getting ready to raft the waves

Start

Covering

Waves and rafting - all covered

Beach

No beach and waves

End 11:55 - then needs to fill up to height in about 3 hours

L'Anse aux Meadows

The next day we headed back south and we stopped at an historic site in L’Anse aux Meadows which is a UNESCO world site.  It contains excavated remains of an 11^th century Viking settlement.  It is the first and only known site established by Vikings in North America and the earliest known settlement in the new world.  What I keep finding out is that some things we have learned just don’t stay with us as we used to learn so many things by rote, and history was NOT one of my best subjects. I had forgotten that the people were actually Norsemen from Norway and that Viking was actually means raider which is what they did as explorers.  When Eric the Red left Norway, he went to Iceland and from there to Greenland.  They headed for Newfoundland looking for lumber and other goods that they could not have.

 

Soddy - Chieftains hall

Inside

Viking church

"Viking" and ship the "Snoori"

Helmet in blacksmith shop

Inside church

 

Parks Canada has several exhibits which were along a walking tour which we did not take – it was COLD and I am still a fair weather traveler!  We did take in the view and the information on the Vikings.

There was also another area Norstead, a Viking settlement with several buildings and reenactments.  There was a shipbuilders building that had a 52’ ship the “Snorri” which was a replica that was built in Maine, shipped to Greenland and rebuilt, then sailed from there to L’Anse Aux Meadows by 9 men; there was a replica of a Chieftain’s hall that they had women showing the interiors and actually cooking in the traditional style which was over open fires and pits.  In the actual day, the majority of the women only lived until around 25 as they quite often died from smoke inhalation as there was very little ventilation in these huts as they were also built to protect everyone inside in case of invasion. There was also a church and several outbuildings for the animals – very interesting and worth a visit – for $6.00 each, it is a must see.

 

When we left the next day, we were rounding a bay and in front was another iceberg, further out but we were really excited about seeing any of them and we did see quite a few so was well worth it.

 

St. Anthony's - Iceberg alley

We left Terra Nova Park on Tuesday and headed to Gros Morne.  A few hills to climb to get up to our campsite as the Range Mountains are on this side of the island; set up camp and planned next day visit north.

We travelled north to St Anthony; the coastline drive was beautiful as it follows all along the St. Lawrence and up.  Most of the drive was through the Park.  Once we arrive in St Anthony, it was 7C or 45F!   First thing we did was arrange for our iceberg tour.  The seas were a little rocky that day, so we did not see any whales but wow, did we see icebergs.  They took us up as close as they could to look at them as the largest part of iceberg is below the surface; the colours were amazing.

 

  They were white and had blue veins up the middle which was the pure ice. There are companies that have a license to gather iceberg ice for bottled water as well as a local bear down here called Iceberg Bear made by Quidi Vidi Breweries outside of St. John’s. They have different names for the icebergs, the smallest ones are called “bergy bits” which are the size of a small house, “growlers” are the size of a grand piano.  We saw several of all kinds. 

 

There was a chunk of ice that had broken off and the tour guide “caught” it with a net and broke it up for anyone to taste.  It was of course ice cold and no taste; we all thought it would be salty but it does not come from ocean water.

 

No Rum!!!

 

It was very cold and rather rough on the water but well worth it.  This is not something you get to see unless you get here or to Alaska and a sight not to miss.  This is one of the main reasons we came at this time of the year.  The icebergs can be moving up until August but getting smaller as they melt.

There is a website called icebergfinder.com that you can access to see where they are at any given time; the visitor centres check this all the time, but most of them also have “ambassadors” that report the information so that it is current as  on the day you are travelling.

After this tour we went for a drive up the coast and got another look from one of the bay’s that was amazing.  We had dinner at Lightkeepers restaurant which had been an actual lightkeepers home at one time and converted into a restaurant, nice view and good food.

We stayed in a very nice Bread and Breakfast (Crow’s Nest Inn) with our bedroom window overlooking the harbour and I saw a beautiful sunrise in the morning, the bay was flat, not a ripple, and the colourful houses and fishing boats.