September in the Maritimes

Welcome to our blog. We thought this might make it easier for you to share in our adventure and keep track of where we are and where we've been. The most recent pictures are at the top so if you want to start at the beginning, you will need to scroll down to the bottom and work your way up to the top. We will try to update the blog every week, but no promises!!

September 6. This picture was placed out of order. Sorry about that. It is a view of the rocky shoreline below the Crow Head Lighthouse at Twillingate. We really loved the rugged beauty of Newfoundland.

September 30. Cap le Moine on the Cabot Trail. This is the home of Joe's Scarecrow Village. (I think someone had too much time on his hands!!)

This is a view of the Cabot Trail from Wreck Cove. It's definitely a long and winding road!

The trail also led to a replica of a Scottish crofter's hut. Here's Ted pretending he's a crofter!

September 30. Lone Shieling on Cabot Trail. This trail leads through a forest of 350-year-old sugar maple trees. Wish we could have seen this when the leaves turned to shades of red and gold.

September 30. Green Cove, Cape Breton Highlands National Park (on the Cabot Trail). The shoreline was covered with huge rocks of pink granite worn smooth by the ocean waves. Again it was a calm day so we missed a lot of the wave action.

September 30. The Cabot Trail. We hiked to the top of Broad Cove Mountain where that amazing camera took our picture again. We always wanted to drive the Cabot Trail when the leaves were turning colour, but I'm afraid we were about 2 weeks too early for the full effect. It was still extremely beautiful. The Nova Scotians are so proud of their fall colours that they honour it with a music festival from Oct. 5-15 which is known as the "Celtic Colours".

September 29. This picture is the culmination of a huge number of coincidences or whatever you want to call it. While we were at Cape St. Mary Ecological Reserve, Ted found a watch on the floor of the Interpretive Centre and turned it in. Before we left the building, a lady came in to claim it and then she and her 3 companions drove away. Fast forward 6 days and we are in our campground in Baddeck switching campsites when a man came over to help guide Ted into our new site. We started talking, as RVers do, about our respective trips and soon realized that the watch that Ted had turned in had belonged to his wife (Coincidence #1). We then discovered that he and his wife (Wayne and Audrey) were from Millet, where we had lived for many years. We knew many of the same people and he had actually worked with a good friend of mine. They had also owned the Millet Burger Barn which made the best mushroom burgers ever (Coincidence #2). That evening we took the dogs for a walk and stopped at their campsite for a visit. They were travelling with a couple (Don and Cathy) from Edmonton, Alberta and as soon as introductions were made, Cathy said excitedly "You're Kathy's friends!!!" (Coincidence #3). Sure enough, Kathy (maid of honour at our wedding) is also a good friend of Cathy's and when she heard that we were making similar trips east, she tried to hook us up with each other before we left Alberta by sending us each other's email addresses. Unfortunately, none of us had the time to connect before we left, but in the end it didn't matter because we met anyway. When we emailed Kathy the news, she couldn't believe it - in a country the size of Canada with so many campgrounds; what were the odds that we would all end up in the same place at the same time twice!! Pretty high odds, I'd say.

One of the highlights of the boat tour was watching the bald eagles that John summoned with frozen fish. As soon as John waved it in the air, one of them would circle the boat and when John threw the fish into the water, the eagle would swoop down, pick up the fish and fly off with it. They were beautiful to watch and their wing span is huge.

We sailed around the summer home of Alexander Graham Bell and his family. Their home had 37 rooms, 11 fireplaces and 4 chimneys. At the top of the estate, known as Beoin Breagh, is an area known as the "Tetrahedron" where Bell and his wife, Mabel, are buried. The estate is still owned by the family - the Grosvenors of National Geographic fame. We also visited the Bell Museum in Baddeck. He was an absolute genius; not only did he invent the telephone, but he designed and built the first hydrofoil, was the first man in Canada to design a plane that could actually fly and worked for years teaching the deaf (including his wife).

September 27. We left Newfoundland on Sept. 24th and took up residence at a campground just outside of Baddeck, NS. One day while shopping in Baddeck, we decided to hop on board the Amoeba for a tour around Lake Bras d'Or, but we were a little nervous when we noticed John, our captain and tour guide, reading a well-used edition of "Sailing for Dummies" upside down. Actually he and his wife Bev gave us a great, amusing tour which we thoroughly enjoyed. He actually gave me the jacket off his back and found a second one for Ted when the wind came up and it got a little chilly.

September 21. Placentia. Once again the camera managed to capture us as we sat on a rock wall surrounding Castle Hill National Historic Site - the remains of Fort Royal, the capital of French Newfoundland in the 17th and 18th centuries. Behind us is the town of Placentia and Placentia Bay.

September 21. Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. Another high point of our trip to Newfoundland! This is the most accessible seabird colony in North America. Known as the "Big Rock", this 200 foot sea stack is home to Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, Northern Gannets and Black Guillemots, to name just a few. Most of the birds in this picture are gannets. It's not as heavily populated as usual, because several species have already moved on to warmer places. I'd hate to be there when it's really crowded. The noise would be deafening!

September 21. Salmonier Nature Trail on the Cape Shore Loop. This was an amazing place where we met a park naturalist who knew the history of Newfoundland from the time it was discovered. He had lots of opinions on a variety of topics and was just fascinating to talk to (plus I love listening to the way Newfoundlanders talk!). We saw owls, voles, eagles, moose, peregrine falcons, martens (plus many more species) in their natural habitat. The picture above is of a sleepy Arctic fox who doesn't have his winter coat on yet.

September 18. Port de Grave. Another lighthouse. I'm sorry, I couldn't resist. This one is known as Blow-me-down Lighthouse. It is surrounded by acres and acres of bog where people were down on their hands and knees picking cranberries. Of course, we had to pick a few and they were really good, but quite sour. Berry picking is huge in Newfoundland. All along the highways cars were parked and their occupants could be seen out in the bush and bog picking all kinds of berries.

September 18. Cupids. The Burnt Head Trail took us past two abandoned communities - Deep Gulch and Noder Cove. It also gave us a wonderful view of Conception Bay and beautiful shoreline.

September 17. Grate's Cove. Gotta love those timers on cameras - otherwise we'd never have a picture together. Grinning at a camera makes you feel silly, but no more silly than watching Ted race over the rocks to get into the picture before the timer counts down! It is believed that John Cabot landed here in 1497 and actually carved his name into a rock which was later stolen so there went the proof!! At this point we are only 2575 km from Ireland - closer to Europe than we are to home. Oops, I forgot, we don't have a home anymore.

September 17. Grate's Cove. These are rock walls that were built to wall vegetable gardens and keep animals out. This area has now been designated a National Historic Site.

September 17. Job's Cove. We drove down a really steep, narrow trail to discover what a "Droke" looks like. It is a huge ravine which I think would be better appreciated from the ocean or air. We preferred the beach which was spectacular.

September 17. Perry's Cove. We went on a short hike which led to a few really interesting finds. One of these was the Witch's Rock. I dipped my hand, but I'm still not sure if it brought me bad luck or good luck or something yet to be determined. We also saw a "Blowhole" in the rocks at the foot of the cliff, but the water was so calm that we didn't get to see any water blowing through the hole. Our reward at the end of the trail was a 175-year-old "Rock Root Cellar" plus a beautiful view of Conception Bay.

September 15. Cheryl and the dogs resting beside the cairn at the top of Spectacle Head. Cupids and Conception Bay can be seen in the background.

September 15. View from the top of Spectacle Head. Behind Ted you can see the village of Cupids where we visited the archaeological site and museum.

September 15. Cupids. This is a view of Spectacle Head. If you look really, really close, you can see a tiny cairn at the top which was constructed as an early navigational aid. Take note, you'll see it again!

September 15. Cupids. This is the site of an archaeological dig at Cupids - the location of the first English colony in Canada established by John Guy and his companions in 1610. Excavation on the site began in 1995. Discoveries so far have included a fireplace, building foundation, a root cellar and over 100,000 artifacts including pipes, coins and pottery. September 6. The Cow Head Lighthouse in Twillingate. I (Cheryl) like lighthouses so you'll probably see a lot of them in this blog. Ted was of the opinion that "you've seen one lighthouse, you've seen them all" so after while I had to quit asking to go to every fishing village that has one. After this trip, I'm afraid he now has the same opinion of fishing villages!

September 7. Point Leamington. The Rowsell's Hill Nature Trail was our most difficult hike so far. We should have listened when the guide book said it was "a challenge for any hiking enthusiast". Three kilometers in length, the trail climbed 197 metres and consisted of regular trail plus 517 steps - trust me, I counted each one going up and each one going down. The hike was worth it when we reached the top. We had a phenomenal view of the village of Point Leamington and the South West Arm of Notre Dame Bay.

September 6. We hiked to the top of Twillingate - a nice, easy 100 metre climb. The view from the top was amazing - you could see forever in all directions.

September 7. Glover's Harbour. This is a life-size replica of the largest giant squid every landed. It was caught by fishermen on Nov. 2, 1878 and after being hauled in with a grappling hook and tied to a tree, it was left high and dry when the tide went out. After it died it was measured and chopped up for dog food! It was 55 feet in length and weighed 2 tonnes. That's a lot of calamari gone to waste!

On our way down the trail to the archaeological dig site, Ted encountered his very own Beothuk princess. The statue is known as "The Spirit of the Beothuk" and represents Shanawdithit, the last Beothuk, who died in 1829.

September 6. Boyd's Cove. This is part of the display at the Beothuk Interpretive Centre. It is the only known site where some of the Beothuk Indians are known to have stayed year round (between 1650 and 1720). The Centre describes their culture, heritage and encounters with European settlers which wasn't too successful as the Beothuk are no longer in existence due to conflict and disease resulting from these encounters!

September 5. The trestle bridge in Bishop's Falls. This was formerly a railway bridge, the longest in Newfoundland (927 feet) spanning the Exploits River. It is now a boardwalk, part of the T'Railway Provincial Park which stretches almost 900 km from St. John's to Port aux Basques along the former Newfoundland Railway railbed. It's a great place to hike, bike or quad. An imaginative way to make use of an abandoned rail line (and there are no signals to maintain)!!

September 2. Sunset at the Arches Provincial Park.

September 2. Flower's Cove. I know these look like buns or boulders, but they are actually 650 million year old thrombolites, fossil-like remains of algae and bacteria growth. They are very rare today, but these "living rocks" were the only form of life on earth for millions of years. One thing is for sure - you never know what you're going to find in Newfoundland!

Artwork at the entrance to the L'Anse aux Meadows archaeological site - known as "Meeting of Two Worlds". One piece was built by a man from Newfoundland and the other by a man from Sweden. It is supposed to symbolize the geographic points of departure and landing of the Vikings as well as the first contact between the European and the Aboriginal people.

Since Cheryl is half Norwegian, she gets to be the Viking chieftain!

Since Ted isn't Norwegian, he has to do the spinning and weaving!

September 2. L'Anse aux Meadows. One of the high points of our trip - a place we didn't have time to visit when we were first here in 1994 and have been looking forward to seeing ever since. Proof that the Vikings were the first Europeans to set foot on North American soil!! So there, Christopher Columbus!! Grassy mounds were first discovered by Dr. Helge Ingstad and Anne Stine Ingstad in 1960 in the village of L'Anse aux Meadows. After excavating and removing several artifacts including a cloak pin, a spindle whorl and iron nails, it was determined that it was a Viking village settled in 1000 AD by Norwegian explorer, Leif Ericson and his crew. After the excavation was complete, the site was allowed to return to its natural state. These are replicas of 3 of the sod huts and the forge that were excavated. Costumed Park interpreters showed us what life was like in 1000 AD - definitely not our idea of a good time!!!

This is a video of the birds at Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. It will give you some idea of the large number of birds living on the "Big Rock" and the noise they make to say nothing of the bird "crap".