Seabreeze Park to Port Aux Basques (2 days)

Animals on the Road!

Wednesday June 28 

Right after we left Seabreeze Park and Cow Head we encountered these sheep on the road. They appeared to be roaming freely, and didn't seem to think they needed to care about these big things barrelling down the road towards them. We all missed them though, as far as we know.

We expected to use two days to get to Port Aux Basques for our Friday ferry, mostly just driving. However we had a side trip each day that added much more interest to the drives. Today we took the turnoff to the Tablelands Discovery Centre. We had heard of the Tablelands area in Gros Morne of course, but had never given much thought to them. Well if you're ever in the area, the Discovery Centre and area is worth a look, especially if you have an interest in geology.

The Discovery Centre is some 30 km from the highway, and the Tablelands area is on beyond that. A beautifully hilly and twisty drive it is:

Rain was coming

Lots of hills but the road is pretty good

Once in the Discovery Centre there were many exhibits. Here is a sampling:

Different types of rock and their source

The Earth to scale, showing the thin crust we live on

Biological and Native exhibits too

After we left the Discovery Centre we kept on through the Tablelands themselves:

Exposed Tableland is mostly brown, little grows there

The town of Trout River is at the end 

Trout River had a nice surprise - a hiking trail up on the cliffs around the town:

The trailhead. Yes, through someone's yard. Steps visible in back.

Partway up, the van's looking smaller

Some of the steps

Aahh, rest stop

Carrying on

Wild Iris in bloom

Some of the cliffs

Tonight we ended up at the Kinsmen Prince Edward park in Cornerbrook, after surviving some construction on the way to town:

 

 

Thursday June 29

After a nice quiet night at the Kinsmen park in Cornerbrook, we headed south on the main road. The driving quickly became tiresome, so we decided to head in to the Port au Port peninsula, and on out to the Cape St George loop road. We took it clockwise.

One of the first things that caught our eye was this huge CEMEX mine. Cemex is a minerals company, extracting "something" here (gypsum?) and shipping it elsewhere. How's that for a good technical description eh! There was no information at the site, except that security was on a high alert.

Extract and process in this beautiful spot

A closer look

The shipping connection

A little further on was a nicer attraction, called the Hidden Falls trail, a short walk along the coast:

These weren't the Hidden falls, just pretty

Lovely shoreline

The base of the Hidden Falls

Looking up at part of the Falls

From the little trail

Further along the way:

Neat little sea observatory, looks like it has heat too

Then on to the actual Cape St George:

What a neat address, Seashore Lane, off of Oceanview Drive

Beautiful sea views

The little bread oven is used 6 days a week in July and August, 12-2 pm

Unfortunately it's still June today, so no bread.

Some nice-looking boondock spots (get here early for this one!)

And on around the loop road:

 

The little town of Mainland (yes really Sheila lol)

Known for its Red Rock island

Tonight we're boondocking at a beach parking lot in Port Aux Basques, a short drive to the ferry tomorrow. The sunny day started out warm and humid, reached 29C/84F with humidex much higher. As we approached Port Aux Basques the temp took a sharp drop down to 18C, then on down to 15C now, almost 8pm. Cloudy and drizzle too, to go with the wind. Nfld wants to make an impression today!

Our windshield view tonight. There are picnic tables over there.

 

The view when the fog lifted some

Viking RV park to Seabreeze RV Park NL

 

Icebergs and Woodpiles, seem to go together here

We're starting to head back to the mainland today, catching the ferry Friday the 30th. First we had to take a little tour around the nearby town of Quirpon. More icebergs, imagine that. Quirpon is close to the L'anse Aux Meadows National Historic park, where the Viking settlement recreations are. We decided to not go there this time, having been there on our first NL visit in 2013.

Colourful playhouse or storage shed

This berg looked a lot like a fishing boat

While stopped at the St Anthony airport we had to wonder - why are there wipers on the back of this van? Maybe the seemingly-opaque back windows are a one-way blackout, but it looked strange:

We stopped for an early lunch at the restaurant we mentioned a couple of days ago, L&E Restaurant:

No fancy building here, just good home cooking at a reasonable price

 

Mine was fish chowder. Excellent in spite of the looks

Cathie had Cod Nuggets, with onion rings for a veggie :))

 

The fish chowder looked like potato soup, but very little potato, lots of cod and scallop pieces. Cathie had this on our earlier visit, and highly recommended it. I'll second that. We pretty much split the onion rings, yummy. We won't be having much supper.

Here are some scenery pictures of the drive south. The road runs along the western coast, and sometimes is a true coastal drive. In places it reminded us of the Trans-Canada across the north of Lake Superior:

That's the Labrador coast over there

And of course, more potholes

We had a stop and tour of a nice town park and lighthouse in Nameless Cove:

Lots of little waterfowl right now

The ferry to Labrador was in at St Barbe and loading for a return trip:

The ferry itself looks quite different than the one in use in 2013, much nicer paint job and design.

Several have asked about the status of Cathie's finger. We won't really know how it's doing for another month or more, as the initial healing splint has to stay on until then. No bending of the finger at all, while the tendon re-bonds the broken end. If the finger gets bent, the 6 weeks starts all over again.

We finally replaced the tape dressing on Monday. This is the new version:

The exposed fingernail looks sorta mouldy. That's a paper tape that wraps the finger first, so that the real sticky tape wrap doesn't come in contact with her skin. This makes it a lot easier to get the old wrap off every few days. We were both nervous doing the change, but it went well. Cathie says it still doesn't hurt, it's awkward though.

Tonight we're back in Seabreeze RV park in Cow Head. The weather has turned warm and humid, 23C right now, and this camp (really a nice small gravel parking lot with hookups) is open to the sea breeze.