Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

We woke to fog Tuesday morning and drove to Terra Nova National Park in fog and wind.   Luckily it was a short drive and when we arrived it was sunny and 88 o F with a heat index of 98 o F.   We are staying at Newman Sound Campground.   We stopped here on our way to the east coast for an afternoon hike on July 17 th and wanted to spend a little more time here. When we arrived it was too hot to hike so we waited until after dinner and hiked the campground trail which started with a descent down these stairs.           The evening view of Newman Sound was beautiful. Wednesday morning, we woke to rain, so it was a good morning to sort through pictures and work on the blog.   After lunch we hiked on the Coastal Trail.   This is the same trail we hiked on when we stopped here earlier but we are starting on the opposite end of the trail. We liked all the moss on the rocks. The view of Newman Sound and the overcast sky. The trail went d...

Monday, we drove to Conception Bay to the town of Cupids to hike the Burnt Head Trail.   On the way we stopped at the Seven Island Overlook just outside of Placentia.   Here we got a great view of the seven islands in the Northeast Arm River – although you cannot see all seven islands in the picture.                A beautiful place for a photo. We continued our drive to Cupids and found the Burnt Head Trail – a 3.1 km loop trail through woods and meadows to the cliffs on Conception Bay.           Every turn in the trail led to beautiful views. The trail wound through forest areas between the overlooks.                               Our first view of Burnt Head. More beautiful cliffs. We were surprised to find this arch in the cliffs with beautiful turquoise water flowing under it. Tacky taking a rest while we had ...

Sunday, we took a drive along Placentia Bay to the southwestern tip of the Avalon Peninsula.   We stopped at Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve to view one of the most accessible sea bird colonies in North America.   Since 1983, this area has been protected as a provincial Ecological Reserve.   The views were spectacular as we hiked along the cliffs. We started seeing birds at Bird Cove. The cliffs are home to:   Northern Gannet, Common Murre, Black-Legged Kittiwake, Razorbill, Black Guillemot, Cormorants, and Thick-Billed Murre. The waves crashing against the rock formations were spectacular. Wild Iris – we have seen these beautiful flowers almost everywhere we have hiked in Newfoundland. More beautiful cliffs. Not sure what these purple bell-shaped flowers are but they were very pretty. Bird Rock had hundreds of nesting pairs of Northern Gannets. Their golden heads were beautiful to see up close.    We enjoyed watching the birds for a while but the nois...

  Saturday, we moved to the southeastern part of the Avalon Peninsula and stayed at Argentia Sunset Park in Placentia. After getting set up, we drove a short distance to Castle Hill National Historic Site.  By 1600, France and England dominated the European migratory fisheries to Newfoundland.  Small-scale English settlement began in 1610, and in 1662 France established the royal colony of Plaisance to secure its fisheries and check English expansion along the south coast. For the first three decades the defenses received little attention.  War between England and France led to the construction of newer and better defenses.  In 1692, defense works on Castle Hill were instrumental in repelling an English naval attack.  Between 1696 and 1709, forces from Plaisance conducted destructive raids on English fishing settlements.  By the Treaty of Utrecht in 1713, France recognized British sovereignty over Newfoundland.  After Britain took possession of Pl...

Friday it was raining so we stayed at the campground in the morning to do laundry and other chores and to rest. In the afternoon we drove to St. John’s, the provincial capital.   We walked the downtown area past the bright houses of iconic Jelly Bean Row. We enjoyed the humor of this request to not throw your cigarette butts on the ground. The Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. We walked George Street which is a pedestrian only street lined with bars and restaurants.  We had booked dinner reservations at O’Reillys Irish Newfoundland Pub.  Three of us had a Jigg’s Dinner – salted beef, diced root vegetables, and diced potatoes.  A very bland dinner but the drinks were great. We enjoyed listening Fergus O’Bryne as he told stories and sang great Newfoundland songs.  Fergus was one of the founding members of Ryan’s Fancy and one of the first artists to play the O’Reillys stage – 27 years later he is still performing here weekly. We had a great afternoon and evenin...

  We decided to take another whale watching tour in the hopes of seeing whales.   We booked a tour for Thursday morning with Gatherall’s Puffin and Whale Watch.   The tour goes into Witless Bay where we were told we would see whales. The captain and crew on our boat were great - many were of Irish descent and had wonderful Irish accents.   They told lots of great jokes but the one we liked best went like this:   “In England they drive on the left-hand side of the road and in Newfoundland we drive on what’s left of the road.”   We can certainly agree with that as many of the roads are very bad and there is not much left to drive on.   We also enjoyed the traditional Newfoundland music throughout the tour. Not far into the tour – Whales!!!   Two Humpback Whales were playing by a ship anchored in the harbor. We were able to watch the whales for a long time and got this great video – watch to the end because one of the whales waves to us.  The cr...