2016 Road Trip: Saint John’s and East coast
Heading east… Onwards to Saint John’s in overcast and rainy skies. The wind was a fair bit up so it made driving the RV a bit of a challenge. We pulled into Saint John’s and stopped for lunch before heading over to Signal Hill. Unfortunately the fog was with us so not much could be seen of the Cabot Tower nor the ocean and city views. We did trek around the Signal Hill trail for a bit and explored Cabot Tower and its gift shop.
Then we headed out to see if we had better visibility at Cape Spear. Nope… fog still with us, but the lighthouse area is only open Wednesday to Sunday so we’re taking our chances and parking it is parking lot overnight.
I walked around the area in the fog for awhile. Not even realizing how close the lighthouses (old and new) were. But the fog dissipated as the late afternoon turned into evening. The cold remained. There are old battery ruins build into the hillside facing the open ocean from sheer drop offs. The waves crash against the coastline and can easily be hears from paths that extend to land’s edge.
The waters must teem with fish as the gannets were active dive bombing from height right into the surface. No whales to be spotted - darn. Later that evening I watched the sun set framed alongside a peninsula and the shoreline. Next morning I awoke early to clear blue skies without fog and again went searching for sunlit photos. The fog rolled in, the clouds build to full overcast and once again we are in the murk…
Time to head out.
Next stop was La Manche Provincial Park. The campgrounds had no one in attendance at the ticketing office so we headed around the park to an East Coast trail entrance. The trail led us to a suspension bridge over an inlet to a salmon ladder. The bridge was part of the community of La Manche that got wiped out by a rogue wave in 1966. Pretty amazing given that the village houses had to have been at least 100 feet above the sea level. We also carried on the trail to Doctor’s Cove - a a rather boulder strewn gravel beach with some crashing waves just off the headland. We did spend some time at this turnaround point to watch the waves crash in. Around one of the bends we glanced down and saw a lump of brown … turned out to be the body of a moose that somehow slipped off the edge of the rocky cliff face (a reminder for us to be careful). A round trip of 5.2 km. Then back to the campground with still no staff. We parked anyway, showered, had lunch, and stayed overnight - thanks Parks Newfoundland.
The next morning we headed out on a nice hour long stroll to a small waterfall. Then it was on our way again. This time down to the southern end of the Avalon Peninsula and up the other side to the beach at St Vincent’s. The landscape again was like tundra with short stubby trees where they did exist, and a very barren and boulder strewn vista. At St Vincents and when whales are in the season (apparently starting June) they tend to come in close to the shore there as it is deep right up to the beach. Unfortunately for us no whales. But we did have some time rock hounding for polished stones on the beach.
