St Anthony NL area and LOTS of icebergs

 

Fishing Point lookout, St Anthony

Today we left Pistolet Bay in good time, heading to St Anthony. I had to visit the NAPA auto supply store, hoping they would have a light bulb for one of the van's driving lights. They had the right bulb so I bought 2, and installed the replacement for the bad one. That's the first bulb I've had to replace, and the van will be 10 years old this December.

On the way in to St Anthony we could see some fair-sized icebergs. This was a pleasant surprise, we didn't really expect any bergs here right now, so a nice bonus.

We quickly found a parking spot at Fishing Point lookout (where the lighthouse is) and started berg-watching. Lots of iceberg pictures today! Here's a series of 3 from a pair we watched a lot. The bergs really changed as the sunlight progressed:

Here's a series from what we thought was one berg, but turned out to be two of them, sometimes together:

As often happens, there were a couple off in the distance that never really came closer:

Hard to see but there are 2 more bergs to our left of this large flat one

This one peeked around the corner for a long time

 

When we left the Fishing Point area we stopped at this exhibit of an old water bomber plane:

The wheels fold up so as not to interfere when loading water

Then we took a drive out to Goose cove, just outside St Anthony. We had gone there on our trip 10 years ago to find a couple of grounded bergs there, close to shore, and even a whale hunting along the shore too. No real luck today, but a nice place to visit:

The trailhead

The large-looking woodpile was a work-in-progress today. The gal you can barely see in the middle of the wood is splitting and stacking this for her Mom, who lives across the road and will burn this whole pile to stay warm this coming winter.

The lookout kiosk

The closest bergs we saw here today

Along the road there are many other woodpiles being prepared for winter. The residents buy a cutting permit for a particular area and are allowed a cutting quota. Usually the wood is cut and brought out in winter, then split and stacked in the spring, somewhere accessible for drying:

The raw materials brought out of the bush

Similar to the woodpiles are the roadside gardens. In some areas suitable soil is hard to find, so people can claim gardening areas other than their home land:

We decided to check out a private park, Viking RV Park, before returning to Pistolet Bay PP for tonight. The Viking RV Park turned out just fine, with different levels of serviced sites, good washrooms and showers, laundry and WiFi, and just $22 cash for a site with electric and water. After checking in (only about 2:30) the host told us about a walking trail nearby that would give us some good iceberg views:

 

We took the 4 km (return) trip on the Cobbler Loop. It's a nice trail still under development, so a little rough and wet in places, but worth the walk:

Trail is a bit wet in places

But very scenic even with no berg view

On the way to the hike we came closer to hitting a moose than I care to think. It came out of the bush on the driver's side. We were going very slow, and it had time to react, otherwise it would have hit us dead center in the side. Phew!

 

Port au Choix to Pistolet Bay PP

Along the Thrombolites walking trail

Another grey cool day today. Nice in spite of that though. The coolness meant no black flies or mosquitoes today. No risk of sunstroke either. :))

We had a leisurely start this morning. I don't know how these gulls know when we're eating, but we had a visitor while we ate breakfast in the van:

Sitting on our van hood, which is not large

Along the way, we noticed a diehard fisherman fly-casting in the rain:

Castors River, an appropriate name

You can't see it in the picture, but the rain was coming fairly hard, almost horizontal. The wind must have made casting with the fly rod difficult. 

 

On the way in to a nearby town, this place caught our eye. There's a master mason around here somewhere:

 

Very appropriate for "The Rock"

Flowers Cove features an attraction called the Thrombolite Trail. We had no idea what a Thrombolite is, so had to take the trail. Here's a link (Click Here) for more Flower Cove info, or (Click Here) for Wiki info.

It's a short hike, with some orientation info at the start:

The Skin Boot Church mentioned on the above placemat was built in 1920 with proceeds from villagers making and selling sealskin boots. We had an excellent lunch at this restaurant.

The part of the walking trail itself that we took is short, which was good today as the threatening rain caught up to us there:

There's our van in the background, not far

Those large rounded rocks are the Thrombolites

Like insect damage under tree bark

 

Out on a point a lonely lighthouse, and an even lonelier cabin:

It seems like they should have been reversed, with the lighthouse further out

This house had a "Congrats Grad" sign on it, and lots of toys ready to go for the grad: 

 

A little further north, around Eddie's Cove, we started seeing small icebergs, and a lonely fishing shack:

3 icebergs, may have been 1 larger one not too long ago

Lobster traps neatly stored

We lucked out again today when we saw a couple more caribou, this time two bachelors roaming:

Have to be careful, they DO cross the road sometimes