May 24, 2006

May 24, 2006

Green's Harbour to Witless Bay, Newfoundland

YEAR 2 DAY 341

 

Today was cloudy and cool.

This morning we prepared for departure, hitched up, and left Golden Arm Park in Green's Harbour. We drove south on Hwy. 80 back towards the Trans-Canada Hwy. 1. We stopped at a Salvation Army Thrift Store in South Dildo to drop off some stuff we need to get rid of. They wouldn't take it. They're going out of business in a month, and won't accept anything more than what they already have. We usually drop off stuff we don't need any longer at Escapee RV park bargain tables, but it will be a long time until we're back at another Escapee park.

We turned east on TCH 1 heading for St. John's, Newfoundland's capital city. As we were driving, Joanne was studying the map, and decided to change our plans. We turned south on Hwy. 90 to drive around the southern portion of the Avalon Peninsula. We drove south along Hwy. 90, eventually reaching the coastline of St. Mary's Bay at Salmonier. We explored all the little villages along the coast, until we reached the village of St. Vincent's on Holyrood Bay.

We stopped at a picnic area on Holyrood Bay, with the village of St. Vincent's on one side of the bay, and the village of St. Stephen's on the other side. Holyrood Bay is deep, and whales often come quite close to shore, visible from the picnic area. This isn't whale season yet, so we didn't see any. We walked along the dark pebble beach out to the crashing surf, took photos, then went back to the trailer for lunch. After lunch, I took Bo for an off leash obedience session along the pebble beach. He did well. Good dog, Bo.

The overhead console trip computer said we had about 150 km. "distance to empty" so we began to look for a service station with diesel in the many sea side villages we passed through. There weren't any ! The road turned inland for awhile, and we crossed Newfoundland's southern tundra. Twice we saw small groups of the world's southernmost herd of caribou. We've seen a lot of wildlife in our travels. Seeing caribou was certainly one of the more exciting experiences !

We were going to stop for the night at a provincial park unserviced campground, but at the entrance to the provincial park we realized the unserviced campground was 6 km. down a gravel road, so we decided not to stay. We had driven south the length of the west side of the Avalon Peninsula, and east across the southern edge, and were now heading back north along the east side. We stopped at the town of Fermeuse to take some pictures in a ship yard. We continued to search for diesel. The "low fuel" light and alarm came on. The trip computer read 30 km. "distance to empty". Finally we found an Ultramar station at the town of Cape Broyle that had diesel. We cut it pretty close !

We stopped for the night at the town of Witless Bay. We have a small campground all to ourselves. Our site is on the shore of Witless Bay. We can hear the surf crashing behind us. It's getting louder as I type this shortly after 9:00 P.M.. The tide must be coming in. A short distance off shore is an island where large groups of Puffins gather.

When we stepped inside the trailer after arriving here, we found some problems. The back roads of Newfoundland are in poor condition. Yesterday Joanne discovered a broken plate in a stack of plates in a kitchen cupboard. Today we found that the cutlery drawer had opened, then fallen out. While Joanne picked up the scattered cutlery, I took the drawer outside to straighten out the bent drawer slide wheel. I broke it as I straightened it < sigh >. I walked to the Home Hardware a short distance down the road to buy new drawer slide hardware, but it was already closed. I'll have to return tomorrow morning. Then we discovered a broken shelf in a rear cupboard in the kitchen. The weight of the items in the cupboard, bouncing up and down on these bad roads, broke the shelf. I guess we'll have to put less weight on that shelf.

We decided to take a day off from travelling tomorrow, and stay here to do some errands. I have some phone calls to make tomorrow, and now I have some repairs to do.

While Joanne prepared supper, I downloaded and processed today's photos. After supper, I did today's accounting and journal entry. Bo is feeling ill tonight. No doubt from eating whatever it was I saw him eating on the beach at St. Vincent's this afternoon. I tried to stop him, but he can chew and swallow faster than I can run on a soft pebble beach.

DSK