NEWFOUNDLAND
JUNE, 2007

This was our first visit to this Province and we thought it was about time that we went to see "The Rock". The Maritime climate was what we expected, but did have more cloudy days than we would have liked. The fog rolled in, the rains came down in buckets, the sun came out and the scenery was spectacular.

We spent a sunny day walking the streets of St. John's with visits to the downtown and on to Signal Hill. Here we had our first view of icebergs floating past the entrance to the Harbour. This was the first year in the

past 3 years that icebergs were seen around the island and we were to see many more as we toured the coast line on the Atlantic side. From Signal Hill the view of the city and harbour is quite spectacular. A very historical area!

The downtown is very colorful with the "jelly bean" painted houses. It is a very old city and some buildings have been replaced with high rises which cuts off the view from the houses behind the modern buildings. This was a disappointment as the Harbour is not visible from a couple of streets away. They do have a very open Promenade along the harbour front. While walking along this area we met a crew from a Cruise boat, Cruise North, that was leaving the next day for the north and on to Churchill via Labrador, Baffin Island and Nunavut. Very interesting itineraries according to their brochure.

Cape Spear is the most Easterly Point in North America.

We rented a car for the 2 weeks and drove almost 3500km. It is a larger island than one imagines. The roads were good (except for the gravel road to Cape Race). One was always on the look out for Moose as they have really populated the Province and we spotted them any time of the day - not just in the early morning and late at night. The Gov't posts signs on the Highway state how many accidents have occurred.

We had some unbelievable birding experiences at Cape St. Mary's where the Northern Gannet, Black-legged Kittiwakes, Common Murres, Thick-billed Murres and Razorbills are nesting. It was quite fascinating to watch the action of 1000's of birds and the cacophony of sound is something else. We visited this area twice as the first time it was so fogged in we could only see a few feet and the next time was a beautiful sunny day. We just had to go back to hopefully
have a better view of the birds.

We had another unusual birding experience at Bonavista where the Atlantic Puffins nest in their burrows on the side of a rock island. They arrive quietly in the evening, gather together on the water, start their flying formations around the rock, drop down to their burrows and stand around for a short time and on some silent signal they all instantly disappear into their burrows for the night.

Our tour took us to Gros Morne National Park where we took a boat trip up the Western Brook Pond. This was another beautiful day of sunshine. To get to the Pond one has to walk 3 km on a good trail to the boats. This area is locked in and the two boats were brought in by helicopter or on sleds in winter and are only used for tours down the fjord. Quite rugged, spectacular scenery.

Our next boat ride was taking the Ferry from St. Barbe across the Strait of Belle Isle (Gulf of St. Lawrence) to Quebec/Labrador. Many icebergs were seen, a few pelagic birds (not as many as expected) and one whale. The trip was uneventful except having to purchase return tickets in Quebec. We thought we had purchased round trip tickets but Quebec wants to sell their portion there. It was a fair little walk to the ticket agent as they do not have them right on the dock - we were not too happy about this inefficiency.

We passed Daniel's Harbour where the houses have slid into the ocean and many more may find this fate as the ground is unstable. The area was roped off with Security Guards at either end of the area. There was really nothing to see from the street side, but only visible from the ocean as we have seen the pictures on TV about the disaster.

L'Anse aux Meadows was very interesting. The Vikings had lived there in the year 1000 - travelling to and from Greenland. When they lived there the temperature was believed to be warmer by 5' Celius as grapes were growing and they called it Vinland. (Wineland) It was very foggy on this northerly point but it added to the character of the visit. We saw our first Common Eider on the rocks.

We stayed in small motel units which were very common - like many motels one can hear your neighbor next door and it would be nicer if there was more sound proofing in the walls. We did not reserve rooms anywhere (except for St. John's) and had no problem except we got the last room in Deer Lake. This town has an airport that services the east of the island - so there are many people coming and going.

We were fortunate to be leaving the day planned as on the previous day planes were not taking off due to fog. The air portion of the trip from Winnipeg takes longer than going to Europe. We had at least a 4 hour wait in Toronto and a stop in Halifax.

It was a very good trip and we had a good look at our 10th Province and it certainly is unique.