The Flat Earth Society

I guess there are still folks who believe the earth is flat.  Anyway Brimstone Head of Fogo Island is one of the four corners of the flat earth.  We camped at the foot of Brimstone and guess we were lucky we didn't fall off during the night.  Yesterday morning I hiked up to the top of Brimstone Head and observed the warnings as I climbed.  Was very fortunate to make it back down.

We left Fogo on the ferry yesterday and stopped at Gander for the night.  This morning we drove to Eastport just north of Terra Nova National Park and continued on to visit Salvage at the very tip of the peninsula.  It's very scenic there,  had lunch at a little pub by the sea then drove back to Eastport where we are staying for the night at a Shriner campground with wifi.  So here we are catching up on the blog and emails.

Pics, warning, Brimstone Head, looking down at campground, cloudy day scenes at Salvage.

Happy Birthday Nita

Thursday was Nita's birthday,  her chef started the day off by making strawberry pancakes for her.  We had to find a different chef for dinner, the Wells suggested that Nichole's Cafe was the best restaurant on Fogo.  So after some sight seeing and a hike off we went to Nichole's.  Now cod may sound kind of common to some but fresh from the sea it is hard to beat, that's what birthday girl ordered.  While there we meet some folks we met on the ferry coming to Fogo, they want us to visit them in St John's.

Pics, dinner, sauteed cod-new potatoes-spinach and tomatoes, view of  Fogo village from Marconi telegraph hill-mound in background is Brimstone Head-camped at the foot of it.  Nita is not saluting, she is holding onto her hat in the 50mph wind

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Fogo Island

We met Harv & Barb Wells on the ferry from NS to NL.  They have a summer home on Fogo Island and said the island was so nice that we should visit there on our travels.  We followed their advice and Wed. morning we caught the ferry to Fogo Island.  Spent the first night in Tilting, a pretty village with a concentration of Irish descendants, in fact the geography of Tilting almost seemed like Ireland.  There were no rv facilities and we were told to park anywhere.  Found a nice grassy spot by the beach and spent the night.  We almost had a mishap coming into Tilting, a caribou came out of the trees right in our path, we braked, and he scurried back into the woods, there is a large herd on the island. Wasn't quick enough to get a picture of him.

Thurs. morn we stopped at the village of Joe Batt's Arm on Fogo.  Called Harv and Barb to ask for some travel advice.  They asked us to stop by, their summer home is a lovely place right on the sea.  We got to meet some of their family and enjoyed visiting with them over a cup of tea and some fig bars.  Got to taste some bakeapple jam, bakeapples are a small fruit that grows wild and each plant bears one fruit.  Their daughter went out on a 4 wheeler and gathered a bucket of them.

Pics, Piloting ferry to Fogo, kids buried on beach at Tilting, boondocking at beach, Harv-Barb-Nita and Ryan, bucket of bakeapples and waterfront of Wells home.

Toutons, tea and partridge berry jam

We attended a show in Twillingate tues. nite, a group of 7 women called the Split Peas.  They sang NL songs and played instruments and were very entertaining.  At intermission time they served toutons which is a bread dough fried in butter and doused with partridge berry jam or molasses.  As you can see from the pics I put to much jam on mine and had it running down my arm before getting it to the table, delicious.

Twillingate is a very active fishing village, the big harvest at this time is shrimp and turbot.

Pics, toutons, dance partner had a mask on-believe it or not I didn't, unloading tons of turbot from boat.

Twillingate

We departed Deer Lake Sunday morning and arrived in Twillingate around 4.  This is a small lsland in the north central NL.  Stopped at a lobster fishermans shack just before arriving and got a 3 pound lobster to take to the campsite, strawberries are just in season and got a box of them, never had such sweet strawberries.  Did a short hike, had a glass of wine overlooking the sea, then had our dinner.  It rained all night and are we are having a few drizzles now, parked at the library using theri wifi.  Will tour around the area to sight see and plan to camp tonight at Dildo Run not too far away.  We have a lot of places we still want to visit and have no schedule as to when we will depart.  Have had not problems getting camping spots.

Tuesday: Still in Twillingate and raining, will attend a play tonight called the Split Peas then depart in the morning for Fogo Island.

Pics, checking out wild flowers, dinner, and the Twillingate harbor/

Catch up day

We left Port aux Choix this morning, came through Gros Morne national park, it is a hikers paradise with magnificent scenery.  However we just stopped for lunch and came on down to Deer Lake which is the jumping off point to head east on Trans Canada Highway 1 all the way over to St John's, there is no TCH 2 or above, only 1 through road.

So we caught up with laundry and blog this afternoon, tomorrow we head east to somewhere. Picture taken in Gros Morne, see the lake in the valley many miles behind us

Port aux Choix

Friday pm

From New Ferolle we drove on south to another peninsula town of Port aux Chiox,  another archaeological site of aboriginal cultures.  We didn't take in the sites but toured the point lighthouse area and found a Lions club rv site right on the water to spend the night.  It was a long day and Nita retired about 8pm and I join a group around a fire on the beach to bs, one guy was a ventriloquist who was to perform at the Lions club the next night, had a lot of stories, not sure they were all true.

Pics, Lighthouse, Nita checking out tidal pools, crab in tidal pool, nice campsite, mymaid on rock, sunset on beach and in the opposite direction-moon rise at sunset

Off the beaten path and meeting the nicest poeple

Friday noon

The long road up to St. Anthony is a one way deal, you have to come back the same way.  However you can make many side trips.  There is a narrow strip of land that goes out into the Bay of St Lawrence, and at the very end is a little fishing community called New Ferolle.  We drove up to the fish processing plant there in hopes of observing the activity, but they seemed to be finished for the day.  We stopped along the road to watch a boat being drug up the bank by a pickup truck.  A young woman came out of her house and I asked her about the fish plant and if there were some fisherman there we could get some fresh cod, her name is Lucy Doyle and she said she just finshed her lunch of cod fish and she had some left and asked us to come in for lunch.  What a nice treat, she served us cod filtets and cod britches, they are called britches because they are shaped like a pair of britches, they are the cod roe.  Along with the cod she served homemade bread, potatos, tea and some good molasses for the bread, then gave us a big fresh cod filet to take. We enjoyed talking with Lucy, she spends the summer here and teaches in St Anthony the rest of the year.  She is very self sufficient for food, she hunts moose and has the meat for all year, fish is plentyful and she grows her vegetables.  Her son works in the fishing business and she has relatives in other parts of Canada and the US, she said if all the Newfoundlanders returned home at once it would sink the island.  Many thanks Lucy, you made our day.

Pics, boat being pulled out with truck, cod britches and filets, Lucy-our charming host, Lucy and Nita and comunity of New Ferolle.

Moose, woodpiles and gardens

Friday 23rd, AM

Last night we stayed again in St Anthony as it was too late to head back down south.  Left this moring and enjoyed seeing moose along the way.  Many don't drive at night due to the the risk of hitting a moose, if hit they do more that damage your vehicle, some as big at 1500 pounds can come right through the windshield and wipe you out. In the daytime they are still a hazard but you can see them better and they are not as active.

All along the roads there are hugh stacks of firewood, most are not anywhere a home.  Each stack has a permit no. on it that some resident has bought.  This allows them to harvest wood from Proviencial land for heating.  There sleds by some that are used when the ground is snow covered to pull the wood home behind a snowmobile.  It's the same deal with vegetable gardens along the roads and highways, most nowhere near a home.

Pics, bull and cow moose, 2 cows and a bull, decorated lawn(see bed of roses), flyfisherman after salmon and trout-has a bug net over his face, garden along road-fence to keep moose out, woodpile.  Order of pics mixed up but you can figure them out.

L'Anse aux Meadows

Thursday, 22nd

L'Anse aux Medows is a small fishing village and a World Heritage site on the no. tip of NL.  In 1960 a 11th century Viking settlement was discovered with remains of several houses, a forge and other buildings.  It proved that the Vikings were here 5 centuries before any other Europeans arrived on the continent.  Replica sod houses have been erected on the old foundations.  The sod/peat walls are 6 feet thick to ward off the cold. There are some nice hiking trails along the sea and through the bogs.

Pics, Nita and a Viking, sod houses, very northern tip, doorway-peat/sod walls and bog walk

North on the Viking Trail

It was a nice sunny morning when we got up at Rocky Harbor.  We wern't going to go up to L'Anse Aux Medows since it was 200+ miles up and 200 back down the same road.  But changed our minds, had a great tail wind blowing us all the way up the Gulf of St Lawerene and the Straits of Belle Isle.  The Straits of Belle Isle is also call iceburg alley, 18 years ago when we took this trip it was full of iceburgs, with the warming weather there were no burgs to be seen today.

Arrived in St Anthonys around 4pm.  Stopped to get directions from a guy washing his rv in his driveway, also asked him were we could get some fresh cod fish.  These NL folks are so nice, he went into his house and came out with a big cod filet, wouldn't take anything for it.  Found an rv park with wifi near the heart of the major sites and will probably spend 2 nites here.

Pics, The Arches--my rock hound--think we must have 20 pounds of rocks in the trunk, didn't keep my rock, view along the Straits of Bell Isle, co-pilot on the lookout for moose and last proof reader of the blog.