Farewell Newfoundland - Hello Nova Scotia

Farewell Newfoundland - Hello Nova Scotia

Gros Morne National Park

We took a short detour from our route from Kings Point to Cape St. George to visit Gros Morne National Park. We didn’t have much time to explore the province’s grandest park, barely scratching the surface of this expansive park. Parks Canada is so impressive in the development of their facilities, maintenance, and interpretation. Even with having to communicate in both French and English, they manage to provide a sufficient message to explain natural features and cultural phenomena, without overwhelming the visitor. Scenic vistas are well placed and, in Lee’s opinion, there’s not enough of them. (Everywhere you look there is vista you want to photograph.) But, the advance notice of the pull-offs is a little short. Consequently, it is easy to whiz past, especially with cars behind, and no convenient place to make a U-turn. This is a small deficiency for a park system that seems to do everything well.

Visiting Gros Morne would take several days at least. From the ocean shore to the mountains, this park has inholding communities that support tourism. Trails from easy to challenging lace the landscape. There are two sections to the park separated by Bonne Bay. One side is the largest part of the park and the Tablelands are across the bay. Both are accessible by car, but you have to go around the head of the bay to get from one side to the other. The only denizens (other than people) are moose and black bear. This is a place we want to come back to!

Inside the park at Norris Point we visited a worthwhile marine research station and aquarium, Bonne Bay Marine Station, operated by Memorial University of Newfoundland. It is interesting to see the north Atlantic fish and crustaceans, including blue lobsters which are a rare catch (about 1 in 2 million) and a wolf-fish. The marine lab facility looks impressive and the education programs were well attended by children.

Cape St. George

Another delight of Newfoundland is the Port au Port peninsula only a couple hours away from the ferry terminal at Port aux Basques. Secondary roads take off from the TransCanada Highway at Stephenville. The town was originally settled in the mid-1800s by Acadians who were leaving Nova Scotia. Farming and fishing were a way of life until 1941 when, with approval of the Canadian government, the U.S. built an Air Force base here. The base closed in 1966, leaving all of the infrastructure. Stephenville is now the 3rd largest city on the west coast of Newfoundland.

As we drove the scenic road from the narrow rocky spit that connects the Port au Port Peninsula to the mainland, through the woods, there were places where the view opened up to a windswept maritime landscape. Dramatic cliffs are chiseled out of the meadows and forest down to the breaking ocean waves. The rock walls evidence the movement of the earth with strata bent and folded and tilted by enormous pressure over time.

A geology professor from Indiana we met at our BnB exclaimed that it was the place he would take all of his students to study due to the rich examples of rocks and geomorphology in the area. In the heart of Stephenville there is even an ancient carboniferous fossil tree and petrified wood site, dating to 305 million years, on the supercontinent Pangea near the equator, before drifting over hundreds of millions of years to its present latitude via plate tectonics.

Along the road, you pass a giant quarry – perhaps a mile of operations, staging mounds of various sizes of crushed aggregate.

Down below the cliff, large freighters are docked and waiting offshore to load and transport the material to distant destinations. Imagine our surprise to learn that the quarry had recently been purchased by the international cement conglomerate Cemex, to mine limestone for use in the production of concrete. The ships were said to be destined for Florida! Oh boy! Just what Florida needs, more concrete!

The Inn at the Cape was a lovely older accommodation, more like a lodge than a home. It was a comfortable place to base our wanderings. A gravel road winds to the tip of the Cape, ending at Parc du Boutte where pen grasslands, called limestone barrens, are swept by the ocean breeze.

An enterprising couple have set up a daily wood fired bakery to sell French bread to the few campers, hikers, bikers, birders, and sightseers who ramble down to this point well off the main roads. Trails lead through the gnarled stunted spruce forest to viewscapes which are precariously close to 100-meter drops.

Northern Gannets pass by on thermals, diving for fish in the waters below and off the cliffs. This cliff supports nesting double-crested cormorants and guillemots, but most notable is the nesting colony of black-legged kittiwakes. You have to look closely through binoculars to see them on their nests

on the cliff; they are more visible when flying by.

While Florida is losing its nature and culture, the folks at a very small seaside community in Newfoundland are working to keep theirs. Signs everywhere are advocating for environmental causes with slogans like Protect Our Health, Protect Our Environment, Protect Our Tourism.

We stopped for lunch at the small community of Mainland on the north side of the Port au Port Peninsula. It was originally settled as an Acadian fishing community on an island just offshore called Red Rock. When life on the island was too difficult, they abandoned the island and moved to the mainland and called the town La Grand’Terre, or Mainland. We were lucky to catch an opening ceremony of the Tales of the Sea Heritage House, a house museum commemorating the pioneering seafaring life of settlers of Mainland.

Off the main road on a search to add to the sand collection, we took a rut road to what appeared to be a beach at West Bay Centre. Turned out it is all rocks and gravel.

Final stop on the Newfoundland segment of our road trip was Port aux Basque. Staying at the Starboard Side Guest House we met the vivacious owner, Becca. She was full of energy and information about the area and the province in general.

The comfortable modest accommodations were just what we needed to be ready to board the ferry back to Cape Breton. The location, proximate to the ferry dock, makes it easy to check in. You can see the huge ferry across the street from the guest house deck, but you have to drive around the town to get to the dock.

We know we didn’t plan enough time in Newfoundland. Everything was perfect and there’s more we missed than caught. With a little luck we will be back again. We will be a little better prepared and focused on the areas we enjoyed most and the places we didn’t get to, such as the Viking Heritage Trail.

Now we are on the ferry to Sydney, Nova Scotia starting the return trip to Rockland. We look forward to traveling through Nova Scotia over the next few days, but are anxious to get back to our own boat and bed.

All in a days work for a Harbor Pilot at Bar Harbor

On our way to our floating home

The crossing by ferry from Port aux Basques was comfortable and fast, only 7 hours, giving us much-needed time to write the blog (Marvin) and do some needlework (Lee). We retraced our route and accommodations at Cape Breton. Opting to take the scenic coastal roads along the Nova Scotia south shore toward Yarmouth turned out to be much slower but also much more interesting.

Taylor’s Head is a provincial park run by the Canadian Department of Natural Resources. It’s a short gravel road drive off the main coastal road. There are several parking lots that can handle a lot of cars; all were empty at the time we visited. At the terminus, a short trail leads to a remarkable gray sand beach. It’s a geological anomaly explained by panels in an interpretive kiosk.

Much like Maine’s only white sand beach at Roque Island, the beautiful shore reflects the sun like a tropical venue. The water colors are Caribbean hues. Soft sand is warm under bare feet and the water is warm, at least by the north standards. People were swimming - folks that could probably well-tolerate Wakulla Springs. We were so glad we took the time to explore.

Another interesting stop along Highway 7 near Sheet Harbor is the West River Falls. A small park with excellent hiking trail parallels the West River. The cascade flows under the highway bridge and cascades about 72 feet in elevation into multiple pools falling over multiple ledges to reach sea level. A pedestrian bridge downstream crosses the river to make a loop.

Our next stop will be in the Peggy's Cove area. We are looking forward to stopping in at Chester on a quest to find the schooner Elsie L.

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