Corner Brook, Newfoundland

I didn’t have my pictures of the Alpaca feeding when I wrote the last blog so this is a picture of Bernita and I feeding the Alpacas. You can see it was another foggy wet day in Newfoundland.

After Stephensville we drove to Corner Brook, the second largest town of Newfoundland with a population of 20,000. We parked at a shopping mall on a hill with great views of Humber Arm and the Bay of Islands.

We did a scenic drive along the south shore of the Bay on route 450 to Lark Harbour and Little Port. Along the way we stopped at Frenchmen’s Cove. The fishermen had just returned and they had halibut and cod for sale. Of course, seafood crazy as we are (Bernita even liked these fish), we bought a 24 lb halibut and 15 lbs of cod. The fishermen cleaned them while we drove the coastline to Lark Harbour and Little Port.

In Little Port we had a picnic and watched the fishermen unload their catch. The halibut season in this area is a 24 hour time limit. So the dock was very busy. Some of the halibut were very large. We saw one that was close to 200 lb. This was a beautiful little fishing wharf and the day was sunny and warm.

After picking up our fish and returning to Corner Brook we drove up a hill to the James Cook Historic Site, a scenic overlook of the city and bay.

On Thursday we drove TCH 1 (another beautiful drive and great highway) to Hwy 430 and then up through Gros Morne National park to a little town of Cow Head. We are going to the Lobster Festival for a few days.

Ferry and Stephensville, Newfoundland

We made it! We are in Newfoundland.

We boarded the ferry on Sunday. There was quite a long line of truckers, RVs, and cars. The ferry workers quickly and efficiently packed us into the 3^rd floor of a ten floor ferry. Chica had to stay in the rig for the 5 hour trip but she did just fine. A little Dramamine helped also. Ron and Bernita were in front of us going into the hold so I got some good shots. We passed the time on the ferry by updating our maps with the Days End BD locations, playing hand and foot, and talking to the locals.

When we got to Newfoundland it was terribly windy. After a quick dump and fill just outside the ferry terminal we stayed near the D&W spot but found out it was a place for the locals (kids) to drive fast and reckless. So we left and went to a spot on Hwy 1. The next day we headed into Stephensville. We parked at the old Air Force base on a very level part of the old runway.

We drove the French Ancestors Route (Port au Port Peninsula) along Hwy 460 and 463. The West coast was known locally as the French coast because until 1904 France had exclusive fishing rights here. We stopped at Sheaves Cove Hidden Falls, hiked around and took a lot of pictures of the falls and coastline. Then we drove to Boutte Du Cap Park for views, to look at the bread oven (only cooking on Fri-Sun) and another granite memorial commemorating the Acadian deportation from Nova Scotia. As we were driving back to Stephensville we happened upon a wharf where some locals were picking mussels out of nets that fishermen had brought in. So of course we jumped right in and started picking. By the time we were finished we had a cooler full of mussels and very muddy hands. We drove next door to the fish market and they let us clean the mussels there. For two nights we had a feeding frenzy with all the mussels we could eat.

On Tuesday we drove to the oldest established business on the West Coast (126 years) – Abbott & Haliburton Co. Ltd. The lower level was hardware and the upper level was a really nice gift shop. Then we went to an Alpaca farm on scenic St. George Bay where Bernita and I feed the Alpacas. They were very cute but some had serious teeth issues. The morning was cloudy but in the afternoon the sun came out and it was beautiful. After another wonderful night of mussels we were ready to move the next day to Corner Brook.