Eastern Canada With The Man In the Hat

Saturday, July 2, 2016

Whew 30th Post! July 1st (Happy Canada Day!) and 2nd

July 1st and bit of a late night as we caught up with Mansell and Sue in Twillingate! We left our stay near Cornerbrook and made our way quickly up to the east side of the island using Hwy 1 which was very quiet due to the holiday. All the roads here are pretty quiet compared to home though.

We checked out the east side of Twillingate and revisited one of the icebergs we had met over a week ago when we were here. Wow! It had melted significantly which puts some perspective on what it may have looked like when it began heading south 2 or 3 years ago.

The operators of the campground Mansell and Sue were staying at promised up fireworks when it got dark so we made a plan to capture some of those (Sue got a new camera and wanted to learn) when they were on. Ha ha. Lots of fun catching up and going for dinner and more catching up and meeting many locals and discovering more about islanders, including things like ditch gardens and snowmobile trails. Listening to stories of touching whales with paddles while in small boats, watching caribou move like blades of grass across a vast landscape in Labrador while listening to a few musical folks play some maritime music.

Today we came back to St John's for our last two nights. We explored a bit of the city that we missed last time and were rewarded by with a pretty cool evening sky.

Tomorrow, Sunday, we are going south and a bit west to a wildlife/bird sanctuary and later in the day Monday we will pass back our car and get on some planes to come back home.

We have settled into a comfy routine during the past five weeks but we are looking forward to some basic home food after every variation of fish and chips possible! Randy "did" chowder for the first half of the trip but hasn't had any for a few weeks... maybe tomorrow.

And now a few pics...

This could be the last blog post and if so... see many of you very soon and others of you I hope to see sooner than later!!

If any of you are blogging or thinking of it - link me in! Thanks for following along!

Take care and be good!

Another point of view for the Twillingate Lighthouse.

Massive cliffs. Atop this cliff is Signal Hill and those tiny teenie dots along the top are humans!

Sunset in the St John's harbour.

St John's lighthouse tonight. See the bank of fog along the horizon?

Lupins have exploded everywhere in the last two weeks!

The fireworks! Not sure which was funnier. The fizzles and malfunctions or the "bang" followed by suppressed laughter emanating from the galley and the ignition crew! Thanks for the fun memories!!

Remember that whale? This is him just over a week later... :(

Twillingate from across the bay.

Thursday, June 30, 2016

June 30th Exploring this Corner of NL

Actually the area around, in and through, Corner Brook. A crazy twisty city of 20,000 arranged in a corner, with ledges of roads and houses in random order! Today we went to the coast on the south side of Corner Brook returned and went to the sea on the north side! We saw a lot, got wet, dried out, felt the humidity of 100% at 24 degrees, got wet and dried out! And we breathed in more incredible air. The day ended with one of the best meals so far... On a bed of garlic mashed potatoes, stacked, were grilled greens, pan fried cod with a circle of bbq pulled pork butter (melted with a torch) and topped with a Johnny Jump Up! Yum Yum Yum!
Today's pics:

Lark Harbour view!

End of the day for the fisher people.

Fox Sparrow... we are hearing them a LOT! Finally captured one!

The rain moved in, in layers! Massive coastal mountains!

Ready for tomorrow! Happy Canada Day!

Common Tern near a nesting island!

Still finding lighthouses... this one was relocated to a family park on a beach.

At a rest area which we had all to ourselves. There are very few other travellers here.

Yellow Warbler same park:)

Female Rosy Finch, we didn't see her partner.

Yellow and purple go so well together... Can you see him??

One human can you see him?

Watching the rain come in!

Bye Bye west coast of NL... till we meet again!

Wednesday, June 29, 2016

Oops June 27th, 28th AND 29th...

In my defence I did encounter a rare but significant #firstworldproblem: crap for internet! I did try but after being frustrated repeatedly by dropped signals, stalled transmissions and communication failures; I gave up. Oh Main Brook your internet is not mainstream!
Two days in Main Brook and vicinity and another day travel here to Steady Brook just outside of Corner Brook.
We stayed in a hunting lodge near Main Brook. I was hesitant at first when noticing the hide and fur of a polar bear splayed across a massive wall and a caribou head, with antlers, hung over an entry. The log building was an amazing structure, with wonderful people employed within. After being in the area for that bit of time, I know that survival would mean harvesting animals for consumption and materials....
We spent time in St Anthony with icebergs, great food, it has all been good; time in Wild Bight with more than fifty, yes FIVE ZERO Humpback Whales, or Humpies as they are referred to by locals; and we found time to explore L'Anse aux Meadows at the top of the province.
The wind blew like none we have felt until today when the rain fell like none we have seen... And all is well.
Nearing the end of this amazing experience, not sure how we will fit back into a "normal" routine when home. Sorry to have missed Brandon's graduation (fail) happy to get texts from him (win)

Marble Falls! Those are full sized trees on beside this very tall falls! I'm getting pretty darn good at going up and down heights! Something about this solid old NL rock just feels right.

Tall tree covered mountains, on a very rainy day, in Gros Morne National Park!

They kind of add a dimension to a stark harsh landscape! ;)

Everywhere in all numbers... Yellow Lady-Slippers!

A bouquet!

And now for those never-ending pics:

"The Arches" Gros Morne. These people were taking their shots so I made a pano and included them in mine!

St Anthony. She stood in the perfect place at the perfect time. The rest is history.

Wild Iris. They show up on cliffs, beaches, in very inhospitable places!

She lived in AB for a while now came back home to open a B&B

Crazy skies, iceberg and coast guard ship!

Dinner view!

L'Anse aux Meadows and the end of another amazing day! Sun has come out every time we needed it!

He grew up in L'Anse aux Meadows, played on the ruins as a kid, and helped excavate them when Parks came along in the early 1970's. Tells the stories with wonderful passion!

See the wee gull? Upper left? Gull, rock outcrop, iceberg, cool wave...

Gannets! Gizzilions of Gannets!

Low ball estimate is 50 Humpback Whales gorging on krill! We spent a few hours on a very lonely beach with this herd - us and three other humans... very very privileged! Experiences like this have brought tears to my eyes...

Beside the whales and gannets.

Gannets and Gulls with another bit of history...

At one time.

There are three can you see them?? A few fisher people we know would never come out of the water if they lived here! #flyfishing_heaven

Monday, June 27, 2016

June 26 Norris Point One more day...

A full day in the Norris Point, Gros Morne area yesterday. We slept in a bit, and after breakfast we set off to explore the park. After a stop at the visitor centre, where we picked up a trail map, we headed north in search of yellow lady slippers. No luck finding lady slippers but - we both walked the 6 km into the Western Brook Pond. We arrived too late to take the boat tour but Randy was impressed (as was I) that he could make it there and back. Back being operative! Then we carried on up to Cow's Head where there was a lighthouse on the map. Hmm. The lighthouse involved a 2 km walk and Randy was not up for that so I said I would just go as far as I felt safe, which hopefully was to the top and the lookout! Randy stretched and scanned the sea for wildlife. I headed UP. The path was a narrow track but it had very thick trees on both sides and I felt completely safe (out of breath but safe) there were no other souls about. In fact, this edge of the world is very bare of people. The wind may have blown them all away! The winds are incredible! Anyway, I got to the lookout. Took a look and saw more empty skies and BIG sea. And a sign that said "Lighthouse." figuring that I was that close, I should go a bit further and see it. More up and a lot more down I went. I came across a family who were taking a break at another lookout and I asked if I was close to the lighthouse. Yes the Dad said you are just about there, just before you get there, there are some really steep stairs. Oh geez. Oh what the heck I came this far. I will recalculate at the stairs. It seemed like quite a bit further when I got to the stairs. They were steep and windy but they were also hugged by trees. And as I pondered I realized I could just about touch the roof of the lighthouse. So down I went. And when I got down I realized I was too close so I needed to go down further to get a shot. So more down! Grabbed some shots and then went back up up up up and over and up a bit more and down and up and way back down to the car! Whew! Earned more supper than I ate! Finally!

Menus here have many items that we call staples: hamburger, peas and potatoes; gingerbread and brown sugar sauce; fish cakes made with mashed potatoes (and peas) .... a few that come to my morning mind. Oh yes and french toast and they leave the ketchup on the table!

Okay a few pics whilst Randy stirs and we pack to leave up to Main Brook and L'Anse Meadows for the next two days.