MV Blue Puttees - August 5, 2016

Today was our day to travel 98 nautical miles aboard the MV Blue Puttees from Channel Port aux Basques, Newfoundland to North Sidney, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia.

As you can see from this photo.  We arrived plenty early for this ferry.  There were only a handful of tractor trailers there and a dozen cars when we arrived.

We had the option of renting reclining seats in the rear of the 9th level.  We decided to reserve 4 of these chairs.  This is the view from that level.  
Collectively we decided that it was a waste of money.  There are plenty of less plush recliners on level 7.  Also the ferry seemed to have a bit more motion on the higher level.
It took 6 hrs. 45 min. for our crossing.  It was cloudy and cool when we left NL and it cleared up and was warm by the time we arrived in Nova Scotia.

Looking over the rail on the 7th level.

Yes, there was a porthole.

Prior to arriving in North Sidney we met the MV Atlantic Vision on it's way to Argentia, Newfoundland.  That trip takes approximately 16 hours.

Allan and I made a tour of the upper deck as we approached North Sidney.  We discovered this helipad is on the top front of the ferry.  

With luck we will make it home tomorrow.  We have about 600 miles between here and Hampden.  At that point we will have traveled 3,300 miles through Maine, New Brunswick, Quebec, Labrador, Newfoundland, and Nova Scotia.  We will have been on the road for just over two weeks.

We have had a truly splendid adventure with our great friends: Lynn and Jeff Fish, Chris and Bill Fowler and Susan and Brian Smith.  I'm looking forward to many more to come...

For now, there are enough home improvement opportunities for us back in Hampden to keep us busy for the remainder of the summer.

Cape St. George - Blue Beach - Chanel Port Aux Basque - August 4, 2016

We started our day by driving down a dirt road to a beach and informal park.  We took the trail to the Hidden Falls.  

These falls are really well hidden.  We couldn't see them.  I guess August is not the time to visit.  Allan and I saw pictures on the web and the water was pouring down from the top.

Another pebble beach with rocks of many colors.

There are cliffs everywhere and the views are out of this world. While we were here we saw a Minke whale swim past.  

This was the extraordinary view from the one-holer!

???

This is a picture of our Garmin as we drove down a dirt road on a spit of land to look for fossils.  It gave me a chuckle.  No road and just a little land between the blue water...

We came upon a small seasonal fishing village and these limestone ledges.

There is our Toy Taco perched atop the limestone.

 I found some stones with fossils in them that I will be bringing home.  The pictures above are of fossils in the ledges.

This little outpost was not on our map but apparently we arrived at Blue Beach.

The mountains are everywhere even out here on Cape St. George.

This area of Newfoundland was settled by French fishermen about 500 years ago.  This is a one quarter scale traditional French community oven.

As a welcome to visitors, bread is prepared and provided free of charge daily in the summer except on Sundays.  The bread is ready to eat beginning at noon.

The Mildhogs were delighted that there was still hot bread available when we arrived at 1:30.  It is served with margarine and homemade jam or molasses.  It was a culinary highlight of the trip for most. 

This house typifies many of the small houses that we have seen in the rural areas of Newfoundland.  Many of them seem to be split-level.  Few of them have garages.  Most of them have metal chimneys. 

We have arrived at Chanel Port Aux Basque.  Tonight we went downtown to hear some traditional music.  We found the songs to be a bit depressing.  One was about someone who committed suicide, one was about a man who shot a groom on his wedding day because he was in love with the bride and another was about a fella that came back from somewhere, maybe jail from shooting the groom, to find nobody home.

To lighten our mood after the concert we went to a beautiful sandy beach and walked along a boardwalk and watched the sun set.  I left my camera at the hotel or you would have another sunset picture.

Tomorrow we will bid a fond fair well to Newfoundland, the rock. Well that is if we make it to the ferry on time...

Cape St. George, NL - August 3, 2016

Today we drove 290 miles from Lewisporte southwest to Cape St. George.  

Along the way we saw a ski resort and summer zip line.  We drove on past with no zip line takers today. 

We passed several really large lakes.

This dwarf thistle was plentiful in a spot where we stopped for our picnic lunch.

Birdsfoot Trefold - Lotus corniculatus

I'm quite sure I should know this plant but can't come up with the name.

This was the view where we stopped for our lunch.  

We drove out to our lodgings, The Inn at the Cape, and passed by many limestone cliffs like this one.  This cliff is topped with a limestone mine.  40 - 60 ships a year are loaded with this product. Some is used in conjunction with iron ore to make steel and some is used to make cement.

The inn is on the side of a hill and this is the view off the front 2nd floor balcony.

This is the view to the east.  Traveling here on the cape is the first time we have seen open fields and livestock.  In several places along this road people were raking fields of hay.  I think that means that the weather should be fair tomorrow.  Our fingers are crossed for another lovely day like today.

Oh no, what has come over me.  It was 46 degrees when Allan got up this morning and we had a high of 68 degrees with sun.  Two weeks up here and I think that's a lovely day...

This was our sunset view to the southwest.  Another gorgeous sunset.

Dinner is included with our stay.  It was served family style to the 17 guests.  Everything was yummy and I hear that the chocolate cake was out of this world eaten with a side of Canadian smooth and creamy Bryer's vanilla ice cream.

We are looking forward to our last full day of Newfoundland adventures tomorrow.  There is already much talk about what time we will arrive at the ferry on Friday morning.  I expect that we just might be near the front of the line. 

Twillingate, NL - August 2, 2016

Today was the day for us to take a tour boat ride out of Twillingate. We got off at 8:00 to drive the 80 km's to the dock.  When we arrived the temp was 54 degrees and the wind was blowing strong.

We have a couple of folks that might be bothered with seasickness so they picked the biggest tour boat in the Twillingate fleet. 

They were hoping against all hope that the size of the boat would save the day.

We arrived decked out in our layers of clothing.  I was clad in my long "janes", jeans, two pair of thin wool socks, a long sleeved T-shirt, a light sweatshirt, a fleece jacket, my raincoat, a winter headband (thanks Andy), and gloves.  Others were dressed in a similar fashion although I might have had the most layers.

I am delighted to report that there was no seasickness!  Let's hear it for the good sports in this band of 8 Mildhogs.  Of course, there was no sickness because the wind was so strong they canceled the boat tour. No interesting birds and whales for us today.

Next up we went to the lighthouse.  This was taken as we traveled along the way.  This area of Newfoundland is referred to as The Isles.  There sure are a lot of islands and there are people that actually live out here too.  It looks like they have a thriving tourist trade and fishing fleet.  At a population of 2,300 Twillingate has more people than all of the southern coast of Labrador.

There were a couple of viewing platforms near the lighthouse.  As sometimes happens, this picture doesn't truly represent the color of the water.  The light blue-green color in this picture was a vibrant turquoise.  

As you can see, Allan is really enjoying his summer vacation on "The Rock".  Ah, but he has a warm winter ahead.

Bottle Brush - Sanguisorba canadensis

This interesting orange lichen was growing on a rock up near the lighthouse.

After sampling and purchasing some fudge from the fudgery we found our way to the Auk Island Winery.  We took a tour and had several samples of their fine berry based wines.

Next up was the Prime Berth Museum.  Here you can see Brian checking out the skeleton of a Sei whale.   Dave the museum owner claimed this dead beached whale from the fishery's dept. and along with some family members towed it ashore.  He let the critters and birds have at it. Then he buried it for a few years.  That was followed by him cutting away blubber and whatever else was left on it.  He then put the bones out in the sun to bleach and finally he reconstructed it on his pier.

The Sei whale is the third largest after the Blue and Fin whales.  It is a baleen whale.  He had the baleen on display and it was quite hairy-like on the inside.  All the better to collect little sea creatures for dinner.

Here is another picture of some parts of the museum.  This is one man's collection of treasures.  Let me assure you that he hasn't seen anything 50 years old or older that he didn't think was worth collecting.

Late this afternoon Brian met up with another fishing guide.  He said he is tired of looking at salmon which is pretty much what we did all day yesterday.  He is ready to do some catching.  We are sitting around the motel playing cribbage with our fingers crossed that he catches something picture worthy.

Gros Morne National Park to Louisporte, NL - August 1, 2016

July 31

Allan has had the sniffles and it seems he shared them with me.  I'm all stuffed up and taking the only cold medicine we could find which is Dristan.  Didn't sleep well so decided to pass on the day's adventures into Gros Morne National Park.  The others had a great day with lots and lots of driving.  I stayed in our bay front room and got in some extra snoozing.

Really enjoyed the bay front room.

These sunset pictures were taken through the window about 10 minutes apart.  The contrast in colors I find to be most amazing.

Today we continued to drive through the Long Range Mountains for an hour or so.

There are bays that jut into the land around just about every turn.

After arriving in Lewisporte we decided to travel to the Beothuk Interpretation Center in Boyd's Cove.

It was fascinating learning about the archaeological dig begun there in 1981.   These native people lived here 300 years ago.  As with the Viking site that we visited earlier in our trip they only dug part of the site and will save the remaining 2/3's for some time in the future when the techniques and technologies might be improved.

These native people are now extinct.  The last known Beothuk died in 1829.  Many of them died of European diseases or starvation when they were forced from the shore and their fishing grounds to the interior.

Indian Pipe - a mushroom with no chlorophyl - Monotropa uniflora

Dwarf Raspberry

??? - What flower as gone by and created this seed?

Northeastern Rose - Rosa nitida

Crackerberry - in the northern part of Newfoundland these are still in blossom.

??? - This plant seems to be a bush or sapling.

???

Shrubby Cinquefoil - Potentilla Fruticosa

Bog Candle - Platanthera Dilatata

Brian, Susan and I took a walk from the Interpretation Center to the dig site.  It was a leisurely 3 km round trip walk.  We saw all these plants and many more along the path. 

This is the view from the grassy clearing where the artifacts were uncovered.

This sculpture is placed near the dig site.  This sculpture honors the Beothuk people and their last surviving tribal member.