We left St. John’s in the morning and started the drive towards the west coast. The drive on the Trans Canadian Highway takes you to the base of Trinity Bay and then along the west side, where you can take routes into the water views. The first town that we visited was Brigus, the birthplace of Captain Robert A. Bartlett, the master mariner of arctic fame who has immortalized the town in the annals of history.
“It’s all right while you’re exploring.
You get used to rotten meat, frozen fingers, lice, and dirt.
The hard times come when you get back.”
– Bob Bartlett (Log 13)
During the more than 50 years of his seafaring life, Captain Robert (Bob) Abram Bartlett skippered some of the most famous, dangerous, and controversial exploratory expeditions to the Arctic. He traveled further north than almost any other living person, was shipwrecked at least 12 times, survived for months in the barren Arctic after sea ice crushed his ship, and journeyed hundreds of miles by dogsled to reach civilization. Despite these hardships, Bartlett returned to the Arctic whenever circumstance allowed and almost always returned with photographs, film reels, and scientific data that significantly contributed to the world’s understanding of the north.
There were signs leading us to the “Tunnel,” Janice was afraid we would get there, and the RV would not fit; it was not part of the road!
The tunnel is through solid rock on the waterfront. It was built in 1860 under the supervision of John Hoskins, a Cornish miner. It took 4 months to sandblast the tunnel, which allowed easy access to a deep-water berth for the Bartlett sailing ships. Today, the harbor is a great protected overnight anchorage for sailboats.
We then continued to Trinity, a viable North Atlantic community, for hundreds of years. Its defensible harbor, with abundant room for the ships of the day and shores well suited for outbuildings, wharves, and fish flakes, made it ideal for the early migratory fishery. Later, Poole, England merchants made Trinity the base for a new-world fishery. During the 1720s, Trinity was home to about 30 permanent families and hosted 200-300 seasonal fishermen yearly. By 1869, the population peaked at more than 800 people. Until recently, the coastal, Grand Bank, and Labrador fisheries sustained the community. The buildings in the town are well-preserved, and it is as much an active residential working town as it is a most notable “heritage community”. Sustainable growth in existing and new businesses, including theater, is evident as Trinitarians and residents of the surrounding communities play host to thousands of visitors per year.
We arrived just in time for The Rising Tide Theater’s The New Founde Lande Trinity Pageant. The play takes you on a journey through the lanes, roads, and historic sites of
Trinity. The characters are wonderful as the story unfolds, giving a sense of history to Newfoundland with humor and sadness from the early settlers through the 1830s and 40s in story and song.
It presented the resourcefulness of the people, the hardships of death and being “owned by the company store” and not being able to bring enough catch to pay back
the advances and interest for the winter. The play is very well done and one of the highlights of our trip. If you come to Newfoundland, make plans to see it performed. It is presented every Wed & Sat at 2 pm.
We spent the night at Terra Nova National Park which was just beautiful. We were sorry we hadn’t planned a few days in the park. In the morning, we were surprised at the oncoming traffic going east to St John’s. We then remembered a major Windsor/Grand Falls concert the night before. We stopped in a Micky D’s to use the internet and were amused by all the kids from the concert wearing Aerosmith t-shirts. They loved Stephen Tyler. It is amazing what American Idol and Donald Trump’s show, The Celebrity Apprentice, can do for washed-up careers in the entertainment business.
When we got to Windsor/Grand Falls, we went to the Salmonid Interpretation Center, where the Atlantic Salmon travel up the fish ladders; many were making their way upstream.
on their way to their spawning grounds. We visited one in the Yukon last year, and there were a few differences between the Atlantic and Pacific salmon. The Pacific Salmon spawn only once and die, the Atlantic Salmon can spawn several times. The Atlantic Salmon is so “fished out” that there isn’t any commercial fishing, and individuals can only catch 6 per year. We kept looking for fresh wild Atlantic salmon in fish stores and now know why only farm-raised ones are available.
Janice, who has the “patience of Job” regarding picture-taking, stood for 30 minutes to get these few great pictures of the fish flying over the ladders.
On to Gros Morne National Park. This is considered Newfoundland’s greatest treasure. Geologists have shown that 420 to 570 million years ago, the rocks in Gros Morne were part of an ancient ocean that was later thrust up to become part of the Appalachian Mountains as two continents collided. These rocks support the theory of plate tectonics and have provided essential insights into how this process works. More recently, in geological terms, glaciers carved this place into the spectacular landscape that we visited.
The first evening, we were told about a great evening cruise out of Norris Point. We arrived at about 6:00 for the 7:00 cruise and were told they did not have a Sunday cruise. Two couples were in front of us and had confirmations for the evening. The cruise provider apologized for the problem and gave comp tickets to them for the next day at Western Brook Pond. Surprise of surprises, they comped us as well. We then had several beers with Tom, Joanne, Natasha, and Richard from Ontario and met them the following morning in the parking lot for the Western Brook Cruise, where we first had to walk 3 km to the boat dock, through the bogs and tundra, up and down the hills. Of course, the worst part was we had to walk back!
We took a boat trip on Western Brook Pond, a Canadian fjord or lake. They say glaciers carved the massive granite cliffs and gneiss on their slow path to the sea. The land rebounded, and the fjord was cut off from the sea. Saltwater was eventually flushed from the fjord, leaving it fresh. The waters feeding Western Brook Pond are filtered by the rocks, creating this oligotrophic (two bits for that word), meaning an unproductive lake characterized by nutrient deficiency. The lake has no vegetation or enough nutrients to sustain fish. The area between the lake and the sea is composed of rock with relatively thin soil that has created bogs over 100 yards thick that are higher than the surrounding ridges that stop any seawater from getting to the lake. In one area of the bog, the plants are so starved for natural nutrients that they have actually reversed nature and live off the bugs that normally would eat them.
Stag Brook feeds it at the extreme eastern end of the lake and by numerous waterfalls cascading from the plateau above. One of these, Pissing Mare Falls, at 1,150 feet, is one of the highest in eastern North America.
When we saw it, there had been little moisture, and it was DRY!
The cruise was interesting, and we arrived back at the main dock in a light rain. The trip back through the bogs developed into a full rain storm, so we were happy to have dry clothes to change into when we got back to the RV.
We drove around and saw many sights in the park and the local towns. Since rain was the outlook for the next day, we changed our reservations for the ferry back to Nova Scotia for that night. We drove down to the ferry, stopping in Corner Brook just to drive through the city, and came to the port and saw a Holland America cruise ship. We were amused because we couldn’t find anything for the passengers to do. We researched it later on the web and found that there was nothing to do outside of a few hikes! We then continued to Port Aux Basques. There were warning signs for about 13 km that indicated high winds were possible; in fact, the sign said that wind gusts have been measured as high as 200 km per hour, but there were no warning mechanisms like lights to let us know if it was a problem. Thankfully, it was a calm day. We arrived for the 1:30 AM ferry at about 7:00 P.M., spent time in the terminal waiting for the loading, and ate dinner in the rig.
We arrived back in North Sydney in the morning around 7:30 A.M.
