The Most Beautiful Campground in the World

After getting all the business stuff taken care of, my next stop was to be Twillingate. It's known for its icebergs – they float down from Greenland and are often seen right off shore, and occasionally they are grounded right in the bay at Twillingate. This happens mostly in May, June, and early July, so I was too late for the icebergs.  So scratch the cruise I had planned to take to see them.

The best place in Twillingate to see the bergs is a place called Long Point, with a lighthouse and some walking paths and viewing platforms. It's a very pretty place, and the views from the platforms were really incredible. Where you could see water color, it was green, almost emerald green, a most beautiful color. I spent several hours wandering around the grounds of the lighthouse, taking photos, and just trying to imagine what those icebergs must look like. 

 

The ocean below Long Point

Long Point Light House

View into the distance

Driving back to my campground from Twillingate I took several side roads just to see what was there. I saw some really picturesque sights, sharing them here.

 

Love these colorful fishing huts

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But the smartest thing I did on that part of the trip was stop at a provincial park to have lunch. It's a small park, called Dildo Run Provincial Park (yes, what a name….) but it is the most beautiful campground I have ever seen. When I decided that I wanted to stay here for a night, the ranger told me that the best site in the park was available and I could have it - #14.  Oh, my, he was right. I've never seen a site like it – right on the tip of a peninsula with ocean all around, and trees shading it. I was even able to get the back of my car right up to the picnic table, so preparing meals was easy!

It was a sunny afternoon (the eclipse was about to happen, but I didn't have glasses, so I just glanced at it and saw a chunk was out of the sun (it was at 4:30 PM here!) But who needs an eclipse when you have this to look at! The tide was coming in, so I sat and watched, occasionally going down to the water to see what I could see there. Partway through the evening, I decided that one night here was not enough. I wanted more! So I signed up for another night, and I've spent the whole day here, wandering the beach (as the tide goes out). This morning, the water was very smooth, and I saw something under the water, coming up occasionally, so went down to investigate. It was jelly fish, and there were 3 of them. They were softball size, kind of grayish brown, and just amazing to watch as they moved through the water.

 

Jelly fish -- you really must click on this photo to make it bigger

The tide is all the way out now, and there's lots of seaweed visible on the beach, so I can't really get close enough to see into the water. But you can be sure that tomorrow morning I'll be down there again, watching till I have to leave. This is one place that I will remember always, and will always be glad that I had the chance to camp here.

L'Anse aux Meadows

Hundreds of years ago, long before the Spanish explorers, Vikings settled on the northern tip of Newfoundland at a place called L'Anse aux Meadows. The long day exploring this place started in Labrador with plans to take the 8 AM ferry from Labrador back to Newfoundland. I got up really early (5 AM) so that I could drive back to the ferry – a 45 minute drive – and get there 2 hours before the ferry left, hopefully securing a spot on that crossing. But I had misread the ferry schedule – the 8 AM ferry left from Newfoundland to go to Labrador, and the one going my way left at 6 AM.  It was pretty much loaded by the time I got there, but luck was with me and there was one spot left for a vehicle my size. No waiting this time!

The view of the site from the visitor center

By the time I got to L'Anse aux Meadows the rain had stopped, although the sun had not come out, and it was pretty windy. It was a fascinating place to explore – there was a reconstructed long house plus 3 other buildings. They were constructed of bricks of sod, whose closely interwoven root system kept the logs together.  I couldn't tell how thick the walls were, but they seemed to be at least 18" thick, maybe more. The long house had 3 rooms, and there was a fire going in each one (and it was most welcome, too!). Costumed interpreters lounged on the benches along the walls, and they really looked the part!

One of three doors

Front of long house

Those benches seemed to be the place where people sat, where they stored things, where they slept, and where they did their work.  They were more like boxes, about 2 feet off the ground, built in to the walls, and although I couldn't see it, I'm sure the tops lifted up to provide storage inside the boxes. The roofs were narrow-diameter branches leading up to a roof beam, and on top of all that was dirt and more sod.  There were rafters going across the building, and there was stuff stored across the rafters in some places. There were even some little cubby holes that looked like sleeping cabinets (not sure what else to call them, they were so small). It wasn't smoky inside, although I had expected it to be. Perhaps that was because they were burning dry wood (not sure where they got it, there didn't seem to be forests anywhere near).

Interpreter

This man really looked the part!

Inside the long house -- sod walls

Driving into the site I encountered the most amazing views of the ocean and cliffs and islands around them.  There are no pulloffs, no places where you can safely go to the side of the road to take a photo, so these were taken

Beautiful roadside view

through my windshield (I had stopped in the middle of the road – no cars were coming!).

On the road coming in to L'Anse aux Meadows

After leaving there, I drove back toward Gros Morne park to find a campground for the night – another beauty right on a river with huge sites, and not many people camped there.

From there, I drove to the center of the island of Newfoundland to a fairly major city (McDonalds, lots of car dealers, fairly big hospital) for a couple of days of taking care of business – you know, laundry, clean sheets, oil change for the car, grocery shopping.  It took two days to get it all done (they don't have jiffy lube here where you just drive up and get in line – you have to make an appointment, which took a couple of days!). But it's done, all is clean, the cooler is full, and I'm back on the road again! And the campground I had there had great wifi! 

Little Things

It's not always the big, huge things, or events, or sights, that make a trip special, sometimes it's just little things.  I've been paying attention to some of them, and thought I would share a few.

First off is Canada's gift to the world: free admission to all its National Parks, Historic and Interpretive Centers, and other national places in honor of Canada's 150^th birthday.  I found out about it as I was researching this trip, and requested a pass that seemed to be available to anyone who wanted one – whether you were Canadian or not. It came in the mail, and has been living on my rear view mirror.  I have seen lots of other cars with these passes on the mirror, and they don't even ask for it when you get to a park or interpretive center – they just say welcome!  No entrance fees are charged for any of these places (although you still have to pay for camping, but that's not very expensive).

Along the roads where electrical wires are strung, the utility poles often have cages full of rocks around their bases.  I saw this when I was in Alaska too, and have wondered about it. There are many more of them here.  I don't think they would be sufficient to keep the poles upright; they seem too small for that. Although I googled the rock cages, I didn't find any answers, and the next time I see a ranger or other person who might be able to answer the question I'll ask.  Meanwhile, if anyone knows, please enlighten me!

On the Northern Peninsula of Newfoundland I saw lots and lots of wood piles along the road – usually pieces cut in equal-sized lengths and neatly stacked. There were no houses nearby, and no apparent sawmills or any other business, so my curiosity was piqued. I asked a ranger at L'Anse aux Meadows and her response was really interesting.  She said that anyone could get a permit to cut up to 8 cords of wood (I think per year, but I'm not sure). The people go into the forest, cut the wood, then stack it in these huge piles along the road. It is mutually agreed that nobody touches your wood, and you don't touch theirs.  The wood stays there a year or two until it is dry, then is used for supplemental heating in the homes. Most people have either oil or electric heat as their primary source. They use the roadside because it is convenient.

This one I don't have a photo of, because there were never any pulloffs, or even driveways where I could safely pull over to take a picture.  These are the little garden plots alongside the road, not near any houses, just out there alongside the road. It seems that much of the soil on the Northern Peninsula is not very good, so folks dig garden patches where they find a section of good soil along the road. They are fenced off with rope, or something like crime scene tape, or plastic snow type fencing, or even wooden fences.  Sometimes you'll see 3 or 4 of these gardens in a row, then nothing for a long time. I saw potatoes and cabbages growing that I could identify, and lots of other things too. Again, that mutual respect for each others' gardens is evident.

This last one had me puzzled for a long time. At the end of almost everyone's driveway were these containers that look like lobster traps, or barrels, or something similar. They are occasionally painted a bright color, although more often just that lovely weathered gray that you see at the seashore. I couldn't imagine what they were for, until I was driving through a small village fairly early in the morning and I saw people walking out to the end of their driveways with plastic bags of garbage!  That's what they are, garbage cans! I'm not sure how they get emptied; I never saw a garbage truck. But who knows, I still have some time here in Newfoundland, maybe I'll find out about that too!

Labrador

I wanted to include Labrador on this trip, because it's as far as you can go on paved roads.  Yes, there is a gravel road that goes beyond the end of the paved section, but I decided long ago that I would consider Red Bay the end of the road.

That meant another ferry, this one about 1 ½ hours, from St. Barbe, Newfoundland, to Blanc Sablon, which is actually in Quebec, although it's only about ½ kilometer from the Labrador border.

I arrived plenty early for this one too, the sailing was at 3:30 and I got there about 11 AM.  Ah, the story of my life!  Hurry up and wait!

 

Fascinating to watch the prow of the ferry rise up and then watch the gangplank  go down. 

This time I knew where I was going when I got off the ferry – to Pinware River Provincial Park, the only campground in this most southern part of Labrador. I was a little concerned since I 

had not made a reservation and they only had 22 sites, but it turned out that not many people were camping; I think there were only about 8 sites in use.

It was cold, in the 50's, so I cooked some dinner and holed up in my camper to write a blog post and catch up on my journaling. Next morning it was really cloudy, windy, and threatening rain. It had rained during the night, but wasn't coming down when I woke up so I quickly made some breakfast.  When you are camping like I am, cooking in the rain is no fun!! I managed to get the dishes done before it started raining again.

This is what it looked like to drive!

 This southern coast of Labrador is only about 30 miles long – from the ferry to Red Bay. The main attraction is the town of Red Bay, which is the site of a Basque (Spanish) whaling operation that spanned about 70 years in the 1500's. Their ships arrived from Spain each spring, and left again in the late fall, laden with barrels of whale oil that they had rendered from whales caught over the summer. It was quite an operation, according to the artifacts and sites that have been recovered. The visitor center there is quite an operation, the people are as friendly and helpful as can be, and the views from the windows of the two buildings are just beautiful. You can almost imagine the operation in action.

 

One of the whaling ships they found submerged in the harbor

Red Bay 

Love these little stone figures!

Recreation of the whale oil processing station.

Of course by now it was pouring with rain and the fog was really thick – so much so that it was hard to see the road in some places.  But I did manage to do a selfie at the end of the road – that major goal of this part of the trip!

 

The end of the road! 

From here on, everything is "on the way home." Of course that won't be for quite a while, I have a lot of exploring left to do.