We spend the night in a vacant lot in a small town. This area is the heart of Quebec separatist and is very french. Hwy 138 runs along the north shore of the mighty St. Lawrence River. This is still mountainous country with many rivers emptying into to St. Lawrence making for a very pretty drive.
We stopped at Quebec City to see the old town and tour la Citedalle, the largest British fortress built in North American. It is a unique location high on a hill above the river with a star shaped design that is made to protect every angle. It has over 300 years of military history and is still a active base, home to Canada's 22th regiment.
The old city renowned for its steep streets and hundreds of stairs. there are sidewalk cafes everywhere however the menus and service is in French. We think it's too bad the government of Quebec won't relent on their language policy for this charming city.
We continue on through the rich farmland of Quebec's bread basket showing corn, wheat , oats ,beans and dairy farms for many miles. The hills are behind us and the road is straight and we make good time past Montreal, into Ontario and home.
We travelled 11420 kms (7138 miles) in 33 days. We travelled in 5 different provinces saw more than we can really remember, there is lots we missed. Each province has it own special sights, food and people. Newfoundland is unique in every way, the land, the food, the culture, the words and phrases they use, and the people are very, very friendly.
And Labrador, how do we describe it , Labrador is an experience as much as a place, people who love the vastness of the land and love the 7-8 months of winter every year are special in every way. The communities are so far apart it draws each community together and makes them each different.
The Trans Labrador highway trip is something we really wanted to do, we are both glad we did it, would recommend it to anyone with a spirit of adventure but we don't want to do it again.
We have taken a trip on a highway that wasn't even build a few months ago and we are among the first to drive the circle route through NFLD. Because of its remoteness and difficulty there will be only a few brave folks taking that route daily.
The plan is to pave the entire 1000 plus kilometres in the future perhaps that will make it more appealing and more accessible to more people and make it less of a challenge. As for us we will remember and cherish that drive and those people for a long time.
Thursday, July 29, 2010
HWY 389
TOWARDS HOME
Woke up this morning it was just 50F, most days we wore sweaters in the morning but it warms to the seventies in the afternoon.
We said goodbye to Lab City and out of Labrador and into Quebec, our first stop was Fremont, a iron ore mining town with about 2600 residents. It too is a company town owned by Quebec Cartier Mining and is completely french. The center of town features a huge building that has shops, school, gym, swimming pool, hotel, restaurants, supermarket and over 500 apartments all under one roof. The building is 1300 metres (1400 yards) long and 16 stories high. It is designed so that no one, except mine workers, needs go outside during the 7+ months of winter. At the edge of town is one of the trucks used to haul ore from the mine, it is nearly 20 feet high and the tires are about 8 feet and are fastened with 56 lug nuts. each truck can carry 170 tons of ore.Continuing south on Hwy 389, Quebec Hydro has build 5 dams on the Manicouagan River and named them Manic 1-5. Manic 5 is the largest multi arch and buttress dam in the world. It is over 650 feet high and 4200 feet across the top. It is truly an impressive sight.
The road again is gravel and in pretty good shape but the terrain is mountainous with very steep grades as high as 18% with so many sharp curves you can almost see your own tail lights. The towns of Fremont and Lab city are served by trucks from Baie Comeau over this road, the trucks kick up a huge amount of dust on the gravel road so that it is impossible to see for about 8-10 seconds, it is a total dust out, very scary indeed.
Finally at 4:17 we left the gravel behind for good, it was sure nice to have pavement under the tires again, but still lots of twist, turns and hills. At Baie comeau we turned west towards home.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
CHURCHILL FALLS
We did finally arrive at Churchill Falls. The Churchill River is the biggest in eastern N. America and the falls were at one time wider than Niagara with more water flow. The river was diverted to power a hydro electric power station. It is known here simply as the company. The company owns everything here, the houses, the stores, the school even the churches and all the land. No one lives here who does not work for the company. When a employee retires from the company they must move away.
The plant is located 1000 feet below ground in a chamber carved out of solid granite the whole underground area is bigger than 3 football fields. The water from the river drops 800 feet at a sixty degree angle through eleven 20 ft diameter tubes to turn the turbines, to produce the power.
Each of the eleven turbines weighs 400 tons, are were transported to the site on specially designed flatbeds, with a tractor at each end, they travel at top speed of 5 mph and can only be used in winter when the ground is frozen. Even the transformers each weigh 60 tons each.
The plant produces 5600KW at peak and when build was the largest generating station in the world, it is now the ninth largest but is still the second largest underground generating station.
It is truly a engineering marvel when it was built in the 1950's, and was built completely with Canadian technology. Security is very high and we were not allowed to see the control room or anyone working in the area.
We left Churchill Falls for Labrador City, the site of the worlds largest open pit mine, the drive was not as bad as yesterday but still the rain had left this section of 238 Km in just fair condition, however we past at least 6-7 graders working on the surface and behind them the road was good and we could travel at 70-80 k.
We had wanted to tour the mine at Lab city but the next tour was not until Thursday, so we dropped off the satellite phone, spend the night and tomorrow will cross into Quebec and the last 386 km of gravel road to Baie Comeau. Here's hoping the road is good.
The plant is located 1000 feet below ground in a chamber carved out of solid granite the whole underground area is bigger than 3 football fields. The water from the river drops 800 feet at a sixty degree angle through eleven 20 ft diameter tubes to turn the turbines, to produce the power.
Each of the eleven turbines weighs 400 tons, are were transported to the site on specially designed flatbeds, with a tractor at each end, they travel at top speed of 5 mph and can only be used in winter when the ground is frozen. Even the transformers each weigh 60 tons each.
The plant produces 5600KW at peak and when build was the largest generating station in the world, it is now the ninth largest but is still the second largest underground generating station.
It is truly a engineering marvel when it was built in the 1950's, and was built completely with Canadian technology. Security is very high and we were not allowed to see the control room or anyone working in the area.
We left Churchill Falls for Labrador City, the site of the worlds largest open pit mine, the drive was not as bad as yesterday but still the rain had left this section of 238 Km in just fair condition, however we past at least 6-7 graders working on the surface and behind them the road was good and we could travel at 70-80 k.
We had wanted to tour the mine at Lab city but the next tour was not until Thursday, so we dropped off the satellite phone, spend the night and tomorrow will cross into Quebec and the last 386 km of gravel road to Baie Comeau. Here's hoping the road is good.
Monday, July 26, 2010
LABRADOR PICTURES
After our day on the road, a reminder that God is love
A typical Labrador highway
Our first and only iceberg
From highway
LABRADOR
The ferry runs from St. Barbe NFLD to Blanc Salbon Quebec, you exit the ferry, turn right and within a few minutes you are in Labrador. Labrador is called the big land, everything here is big, the sky, the water, the size, the amount of snow and the size and number of mosquitoes and black flies. We will return home with scars.
It was quite foggy so unable to see much for a while, just stopped at a few villages before we got to Red Bay. Red Bay is the place where Basque whalers came during the 16th century for whale oil. Records in Spain tell of a ship that sunk in a storm in 1645, and archaeologist found it in 1992 in fairly good condition and they were able to built an exact replica .The site also revealed graves, buildings and equipment left behind.
Red Bay is also the end of the paved road in Labrador, we now face 1200 km(800miles) of gravel road in unknown condition. This road runs over mountains. through valleys, across rivers, and over bogs, muskeg, and swamp.
The first leg is from Red Bay to Port Hope-Simpson, road in pretty good condition, drove about 70kph (45mph). Along the way we see hundreds of lakes, streams and rivers, the countryside is dotted with black spruce and lots of short bush, lots of grass and rocks. As we go north we go closer to the Mealy mountains.
Port Hope-Simpson is at the edge of the frontier. Here you are given a satellite phone to carry the next 1000 kms in case of emergency, there are very few other as venturesome as we, you can go for a hour or so and see no one else. The next town(and gas station) is 542 kms (393mi) so you fill up with gas at $1.284 a litre, check the oil and the tires and off you go.
For about 250 kms the road was not too bad, there was more bog land and it got more hilly as we went along. We stopped for the night at one of the site that the road construction and maintenance crew used. They find a spot near a lake(not hard to do) put in a septic system, a generator for power and set up camp. The workers live in trailers on site and work on the roads 7 days a week. These site are about every 40-50 kms alone the road. This site was not in use now but will be used later for a maintenance crew. There was a travel trailer there and the guy was a Newfi who had lived in Ottawa for a number of years and was now back home.
A short lesson on road building in Labrador. They cut down the trees, blast the rock from the hills to fill the low spots, then they dig out gravel from wherever they can and dump in on top, level it out, all done.
Heading out again in the morning we soon got to a stretch that was still under construction. We were over two hours going the next 30 kms, there were boulders on the road nearly 2 feet in diameter, there was some of the rock they had blasted that the sharp edges were protruding up 3-4 inches, there were places that were not much more than a car width wide, there are no guard rails and in places the drop off was 50 feet. You also had to dodge all the heavy equipment and men at work.
Not our best day for sure, but we did finally make Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
We looked around town and went to the air force base, filled up our tanks and made the turn west towards Churchill Falls 288kms(178mi) in a heavy downpour.
This part the country in much more bog and the road is older with not as much rock, so when you have heavy rain on loose sandy gravel with soft bog underneath the sand tends to wash away into the bog and you are left with the biggest potholes we have every seen, I mean 5-6 ft big 6-8 inches deep or more and the rocks sticking up everywhere. Now add to that the transport trucks that are driving waaaaay to fast, wet brakes from all the rain filled holes and that was our Sunday afternoon drive.
It was quite foggy so unable to see much for a while, just stopped at a few villages before we got to Red Bay. Red Bay is the place where Basque whalers came during the 16th century for whale oil. Records in Spain tell of a ship that sunk in a storm in 1645, and archaeologist found it in 1992 in fairly good condition and they were able to built an exact replica .The site also revealed graves, buildings and equipment left behind.
Red Bay is also the end of the paved road in Labrador, we now face 1200 km(800miles) of gravel road in unknown condition. This road runs over mountains. through valleys, across rivers, and over bogs, muskeg, and swamp.
The first leg is from Red Bay to Port Hope-Simpson, road in pretty good condition, drove about 70kph (45mph). Along the way we see hundreds of lakes, streams and rivers, the countryside is dotted with black spruce and lots of short bush, lots of grass and rocks. As we go north we go closer to the Mealy mountains.
Port Hope-Simpson is at the edge of the frontier. Here you are given a satellite phone to carry the next 1000 kms in case of emergency, there are very few other as venturesome as we, you can go for a hour or so and see no one else. The next town(and gas station) is 542 kms (393mi) so you fill up with gas at $1.284 a litre, check the oil and the tires and off you go.
For about 250 kms the road was not too bad, there was more bog land and it got more hilly as we went along. We stopped for the night at one of the site that the road construction and maintenance crew used. They find a spot near a lake(not hard to do) put in a septic system, a generator for power and set up camp. The workers live in trailers on site and work on the roads 7 days a week. These site are about every 40-50 kms alone the road. This site was not in use now but will be used later for a maintenance crew. There was a travel trailer there and the guy was a Newfi who had lived in Ottawa for a number of years and was now back home.
A short lesson on road building in Labrador. They cut down the trees, blast the rock from the hills to fill the low spots, then they dig out gravel from wherever they can and dump in on top, level it out, all done.
Heading out again in the morning we soon got to a stretch that was still under construction. We were over two hours going the next 30 kms, there were boulders on the road nearly 2 feet in diameter, there was some of the rock they had blasted that the sharp edges were protruding up 3-4 inches, there were places that were not much more than a car width wide, there are no guard rails and in places the drop off was 50 feet. You also had to dodge all the heavy equipment and men at work.
Not our best day for sure, but we did finally make Happy Valley-Goose Bay.
We looked around town and went to the air force base, filled up our tanks and made the turn west towards Churchill Falls 288kms(178mi) in a heavy downpour.
This part the country in much more bog and the road is older with not as much rock, so when you have heavy rain on loose sandy gravel with soft bog underneath the sand tends to wash away into the bog and you are left with the biggest potholes we have every seen, I mean 5-6 ft big 6-8 inches deep or more and the rocks sticking up everywhere. Now add to that the transport trucks that are driving waaaaay to fast, wet brakes from all the rain filled holes and that was our Sunday afternoon drive.
LÁnse aux Meadows
LÁnse aux meadow is another world heritage site and is claimed as the most significant archaeological site in N. America because it documents the first European visit to this continent. The Vikings settled here on the extreme northern tip of NFLD around 900-1000 AD. They had left Scandinavia area to Iceland and on to NFLD. Artifacts discovered on site showed that they also traveled down the coast as far south as Maine.
There houses were built with sod walls nearly 6 feet thick and then trees were used for rafters and then sod on top, This stays quite warm in winter. There were 10-12 buildings on the site and it is thought that 30-40 people lived there and stayed about 20 years and then left. They would have fished, hunted, and grew vegetables, likely killed whales for blubber and meat.
We went into St. Anthony and walked around the harbour area, it was quite cool and windy. We drove around the town and stocked up on groceries.
Took a leisurely drive along the coast through 8-10 villages on the strait of Belle Isle to St. Barbe where we will catch the ferry to Labrador.
There houses were built with sod walls nearly 6 feet thick and then trees were used for rafters and then sod on top, This stays quite warm in winter. There were 10-12 buildings on the site and it is thought that 30-40 people lived there and stayed about 20 years and then left. They would have fished, hunted, and grew vegetables, likely killed whales for blubber and meat.
We went into St. Anthony and walked around the harbour area, it was quite cool and windy. We drove around the town and stocked up on groceries.
Took a leisurely drive along the coast through 8-10 villages on the strait of Belle Isle to St. Barbe where we will catch the ferry to Labrador.
Friday, July 23, 2010
July 22
After leaving Gros Morne on Wednesday we continued north on the only highway on the northern peninsula. We stopped at the ''Arches', where over time the waves have washed out the softer rock and left 4 huge arches about 35 feet high at the water's edge. We stopped and visited Cow's Head, it is on a perfectly round cove on the gulf, don't know about the name. We stopped off highway for the night miles from anywhere. It was a perfectly clear night so got up at 3:00 am the do some star gazing. The milky way was incredibly clear and the sky seemed so close. Hoping we get some clear night later. The temp was 53F.
On Thursday morning we went on to Point au Choix There is a Indian burial ground there that is several centuries old and there is a unique limestone barrens and some plants that are found no where else in the world. Apparently 4 or 5 different cultures have lived on this site in the past.
The great northern peninsula here is about 60-70 km wide, we crossed toward the east side towards St. Anthony.
We have seen in the last couple of days vegetable gardens planted at the side of the highways right up to the pavement, and wondered about that. We stopped where a couple of women were working their garden and to talk, they said that no one would want a garden in their yard , they visit during the summer to tend it and harvest in the fall and no one every touches anyone else's garden. We did notice that it looked like good dirt that had been hauled in when the highway was built.
We also have seen all over the province piles of wood mostly cut to stove size stacked and sitting by the road side. We were told that a person only needed a permit and they are allowed to cut all the wood they wanted and they cut in the winter, hauled it out to roadside and leave it all summer to dry then take it home to burn for heat the next winter. Sounds like cheap heat to us. Again no one takes any of the wood. Good honest folks to be sure.
It seem everyone in NFLD, outside the cities, has a pickup, a ATV and a snowmobile and burns wood.
We drove to 'LÁnse aux Meadow, another world heritage site were the Vikings settled over 1000 years.The park was closing so we did a walk about the area and will return in the morning. Found another great fish and chip dinner and stopped for the night.
On Thursday morning we went on to Point au Choix There is a Indian burial ground there that is several centuries old and there is a unique limestone barrens and some plants that are found no where else in the world. Apparently 4 or 5 different cultures have lived on this site in the past.
The great northern peninsula here is about 60-70 km wide, we crossed toward the east side towards St. Anthony.
We have seen in the last couple of days vegetable gardens planted at the side of the highways right up to the pavement, and wondered about that. We stopped where a couple of women were working their garden and to talk, they said that no one would want a garden in their yard , they visit during the summer to tend it and harvest in the fall and no one every touches anyone else's garden. We did notice that it looked like good dirt that had been hauled in when the highway was built.
We also have seen all over the province piles of wood mostly cut to stove size stacked and sitting by the road side. We were told that a person only needed a permit and they are allowed to cut all the wood they wanted and they cut in the winter, hauled it out to roadside and leave it all summer to dry then take it home to burn for heat the next winter. Sounds like cheap heat to us. Again no one takes any of the wood. Good honest folks to be sure.
It seem everyone in NFLD, outside the cities, has a pickup, a ATV and a snowmobile and burns wood.
We drove to 'LÁnse aux Meadow, another world heritage site were the Vikings settled over 1000 years.The park was closing so we did a walk about the area and will return in the morning. Found another great fish and chip dinner and stopped for the night.
Wednesday, July 21, 2010
GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK 3
Took this as the fog was beginning to lift
The water in this pond is over 350 feet deep and cold
JULY 20
Woke up to rain and heavy fog so decide to get some practical things looked after, changed oil, fill up propane, groceries etc. Drove up to Gros Morne Park Not much of a day to hike or take pictures so we did a museum or two found a campground and relaxed with a book.
WEDNESDAY.. Gros Morne park is a world heritage site and one look will tell you why. There are stunning sights everywhere you look. It a nice sunny morning and we had booked a boat ride and tour up the Western Brook Pond. (almost every body of water here is called a pond, there are no lakes, and if it is flowing it is a brook not a river)
The boat tour was about three hours and the mountains on both sides were up to 2200 feet 700 meters. most of the rock walls were nearly vertical and there were dozens of waterfalls.
Rather than us trying to describe it just look at the pictures.
WEDNESDAY.. Gros Morne park is a world heritage site and one look will tell you why. There are stunning sights everywhere you look. It a nice sunny morning and we had booked a boat ride and tour up the Western Brook Pond. (almost every body of water here is called a pond, there are no lakes, and if it is flowing it is a brook not a river)
The boat tour was about three hours and the mountains on both sides were up to 2200 feet 700 meters. most of the rock walls were nearly vertical and there were dozens of waterfalls.
Rather than us trying to describe it just look at the pictures.
Tuesday, July 20, 2010
Monday, July 19, 2010
Sunday July 18
Just another easy day today, did church in St John's then had lunch at Ches's fish and chips. St'John's is well known for its colourful houses and they continue that tradition in all their new houses they build today, they are always stepped because the city is build on hills. Advertised as the best in NFLD and we think they are right on that, they were really good. After lunch we found Quidi Vin The oldest continually inhabited community in North America and the cottage that is unchanged since the 1600's. and still occupied. We then climbed signal Hill were Marconi received the first trans Atlantic radio signal in 1899. It overlooks the narrows in St. John's harbour and has cannon placements to protect the city. Leaving there we went to Cape Spear which is the most easterly point of North America, it also has huge gun placement from the WW2 Saying goodbye to St. John's we again headed northwest towards the Twillingate area.
Monday July 19.. Drove along the coast through the communities of Hare Bay, Dover, Centreville, New-Wes-Valley and on to Musgrave Harbour, the scenery along the way is much the same as most of the coast way here in NFLD. Our destination today is Twillingate, the iceberg capital of the world, except this year has been exceptionally mild and no icebergs here. Maybe we will see them when we get to Labrador.
On a sad note 2 young boys and two men drowned here yesterday when their fishing boat capsized, the whole town and surrounding area is now involved in the search including the coast guard helicopters.
Leaving Twillingate we follow the road south west and stopped in Cambellton to look up some old friends from Carleton Place but were unable to find them. We made our way back to the TCH and to Deer Lake for more fish and chips.
Tomorrow on to Gros Mor.
Monday July 19.. Drove along the coast through the communities of Hare Bay, Dover, Centreville, New-Wes-Valley and on to Musgrave Harbour, the scenery along the way is much the same as most of the coast way here in NFLD. Our destination today is Twillingate, the iceberg capital of the world, except this year has been exceptionally mild and no icebergs here. Maybe we will see them when we get to Labrador.
On a sad note 2 young boys and two men drowned here yesterday when their fishing boat capsized, the whole town and surrounding area is now involved in the search including the coast guard helicopters.
Leaving Twillingate we follow the road south west and stopped in Cambellton to look up some old friends from Carleton Place but were unable to find them. We made our way back to the TCH and to Deer Lake for more fish and chips.
Tomorrow on to Gros Mor.
Saturday, July 17, 2010
SATURDAY JULY 17
We wanted to have a easy weekend, not too much driving or travel so we chose to tour the southern Avalon peninsula. We saw a salmon run and a area where the salmon stop to acclimatize themselves between salt and fresh water. Unfortunately for the salmon someone told the seals about it and they come in and have a feast.There are a few less salmon when the seals leave.
Further down the road we stopped at a fishing village named St. Vincent and spent two hours there talking with some of the locals. The majority of the people they are pensioners, most of them have been there all their lives and many don't drive. There is no store ,no bank, no gas station, no clinic, no nurse. There is one person who makes a 5-6 hour round trip to St. John's twice a week to pick up supplies, gets their groceries do banking and whatever. Of those who are younger, most of the men work in Alberta and make the 6000km drive twice a year, the wives stay in NFLD. Only a few people now fish and just a few days a month. There are only 3 kids in the village, they are bussed 45 minutes in school. Yet everyone we talked to seem happy and planned to stay, maybe they are happy because the men are away making big $$$ in the oil fields or maybe just happy they are away. We did have a great homemade lunch there of pea soup with bun, fresh from the oven cinnamon bun and coffee, then got a couple of lemon squares for evening snack. All that for $13.
Continuing on up the next hill we were surprised at the change in scenery, instead of the trees, hills and more of the same we found a plateau that was fairly flat, grassland, no trees , no houses and no people. Just grass growing in gravel. It is called 'THE Barren"' and is as wide as we could see and about 30 kms long. It was a pleasant change from what we had been seeing the last few days.
The Southern Avalon is not near as hilly as we have been used to, just a nice pleasant, restful day and time left to do some reading and catch up on some news.
Further down the road we stopped at a fishing village named St. Vincent and spent two hours there talking with some of the locals. The majority of the people they are pensioners, most of them have been there all their lives and many don't drive. There is no store ,no bank, no gas station, no clinic, no nurse. There is one person who makes a 5-6 hour round trip to St. John's twice a week to pick up supplies, gets their groceries do banking and whatever. Of those who are younger, most of the men work in Alberta and make the 6000km drive twice a year, the wives stay in NFLD. Only a few people now fish and just a few days a month. There are only 3 kids in the village, they are bussed 45 minutes in school. Yet everyone we talked to seem happy and planned to stay, maybe they are happy because the men are away making big $$$ in the oil fields or maybe just happy they are away. We did have a great homemade lunch there of pea soup with bun, fresh from the oven cinnamon bun and coffee, then got a couple of lemon squares for evening snack. All that for $13.
Continuing on up the next hill we were surprised at the change in scenery, instead of the trees, hills and more of the same we found a plateau that was fairly flat, grassland, no trees , no houses and no people. Just grass growing in gravel. It is called 'THE Barren"' and is as wide as we could see and about 30 kms long. It was a pleasant change from what we had been seeing the last few days.
The Southern Avalon is not near as hilly as we have been used to, just a nice pleasant, restful day and time left to do some reading and catch up on some news.
Friday, July 16, 2010
THE DUNGEON
You can see the caves that open to the ocean,
Sorry, you can't hear the roar of the waves or feel the wind
The power in the waves,
Some of the rock formations
The power in the waves,
Some of the rock formations
Friday July 16
There was some kind of salmon festival and lots of fiddling music in Grand-Falls-Windsor so we got out of town fast and took the road up Bonivista Peninsula. Again we are at a lost for words to describe the beauty of this province, it seems that every turn in the road bring something new and better. Diane calls this area a photographers paradise, Keith calls it a drivers nightmare, some of the hills and curves are white knuckles both hand on the steering wheel type driving and looking at the scenery at the same time. Add to that the wind is always blowing about 30-40 knots and NFLD doesn't spend much money on road repairs.
Back to Bonivista, along the way we see villages named Sweet Bay, Tickle Cove, Open Hall and Birchy Bay, finally we come to Cape Bonivista and Dungeon Provincial Park.. It seems that John Cabot also stopped here in 1492, we wondered why he would want to go to all the trouble to climb those cliffs and rocks just to plant a flag.
The cape has a really nice working lighthouse and close by is Dungeon Provincial Park.
We think that God our creator was at His best when He put this place together. There are rock formation here that are spectacular mostly beyond description, the dungeon is a hole about 200 feet across and about the same deep and there are two caves that are connected underground to the ocean and the waves come crashing in through the caves. It is really mesmerizing, one could stand all day and marvel at it. The entire area is massive rock formations, pounding waves, deep blue ocean and very windy.
We took a slow leisurely drive back to the TCH and toward St. John's and stopped at a nice campground for the weekend.
Back to Bonivista, along the way we see villages named Sweet Bay, Tickle Cove, Open Hall and Birchy Bay, finally we come to Cape Bonivista and Dungeon Provincial Park.. It seems that John Cabot also stopped here in 1492, we wondered why he would want to go to all the trouble to climb those cliffs and rocks just to plant a flag.
The cape has a really nice working lighthouse and close by is Dungeon Provincial Park.
We think that God our creator was at His best when He put this place together. There are rock formation here that are spectacular mostly beyond description, the dungeon is a hole about 200 feet across and about the same deep and there are two caves that are connected underground to the ocean and the waves come crashing in through the caves. It is really mesmerizing, one could stand all day and marvel at it. The entire area is massive rock formations, pounding waves, deep blue ocean and very windy.
We took a slow leisurely drive back to the TCH and toward St. John's and stopped at a nice campground for the weekend.
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