May 23, 2006

May 23, 2006

Gander to Green's Harbour, Newfoundland

YEAR 2 DAY 340

 

Today was mostly cloudy and cool, with strong winds.

Newfoundland has very interesting place names. Today we drove by, or through St. Jones Within, Little Heart's Ease, Heart's Delight, Heart's Desire, Come By Chance, Goobies, South Dildo, and Dildo.

This morning we got up quite early. I did regular morning chores and preventive maintenance, then took Bo for an obedience session before preparing for departure from Country Inn & Trailer Park. We drove through Gander back to the Trans Canada Highway 1. Gander's main industry seems to be the airport. I think the Gander airport is the last / first refuelling stop before / after crossing the Atlantic Ocean by air. I think it's also the main Air Traffic Control Centre for trans-Atlantic flights. We drove southeast, then south, passing through Terra Nova National Park. We'll stop there on the way back. We stopped to refill with diesel just south of Terra Nova National Park, at Port Blandford. Geeezzz ... a hundred and fifty bucks ! Once we got to the southeast section of Newfoundland, the Avalon Peninsula, we turned north on Hwy. 80 to follow the west coast of the "upper" Avalon Peninsula, along the coastline of Trinity Bay. We drove past Dildo Pond, and the town of South Dildo. Here in Newfoundland lakes are called ponds. We passed Dildo Arm on Trinity Bay, and the town of Dildo. We arrived in Green's Harbour and found our way to Golden Arm Park. We registered and got set up in a campsite. While Joanne prepared lunch, I unhitched the truck from the trailer.

After lunch I napped briefly, then we set off for an afternoon of exploring. First we stopped at the Home Hardware in front of the campground to refill some water jugs, buy some hardware I needed, and buy ... milk. In small town Newfoundland, Home Hardware sells all the essentials. We drove north on Hwy. 80, following the west coast of the "upper" Avalon Peninsula, along the coastline of Trinity Bay. Now this is what I expected Newfoundland to look like. We drove through many little towns along the coast, including Heart's Delight, Heart's Desire, and Heart's Content. Each little fishing village was a collection of white clapboard houses perched on cliffs overlooking the water. We stopped frequently to take photos. The wind along the coast was very strong.

At one point, the land between the road and the edge of the cliff was fairly flat and clear. It looked like the kind of cliff that vehicle manufacturers would use to shoot truck commercials. I couldn't resist. Lanoire got her first taste of "off roading". I turned off the highway, and drove slowly to the edge of the cliff. Joanne took Bo for a walk along the edge of the cliff, and I took photos.

We turned east on Hwy. 74 and drove across the peninsula to the east side, the Conception Bay side. We explored south along Hwy. 70, following the coastline of Conception Bay through Carbonear, Harbour Grace, and Bay Roberts. We stopped for a few more groceries at Bay Roberts before crossing the peninsula again on Hwy. 73 back to the Trinity Bay side, where we returned to our campground at Green's Harbour.

While Joanne prepared supper, I did today's accounting and started today's journal entry. During supper we read tomorrow's newspaper which I bought late this afternoon in Bay Roberts. Must be a quirk of Newfoundland's ! I finished my evening by downloading and processing the photos from the camera to the computer.

DSK