NEWFOUNDLAND & LABRADOR CANADA--JULY AND AUGUST 2023

WHERE I AM GOING ON THIS "BUCKET LIST" JOURNEY

THIS MAP SHOWS THE ROUTE OF THE TOUR OF NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

2023 NEWFOUNDLAND/LABRADOR BLOG

 

INTRODUCTION

I will be traveling to Newfoundland and Labrador on July 21, 2023, for a 10-day tour with Globus Tours.  The actual tour begins July 23; however, since I will have a 4 ½ hour time difference and an all-night flight to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, I decided to have an extra day to recover from the trip before the tour formally begins.  I hope you enjoy my observations as I journey around the province.

This immature northern cardinal is a regular visitor now to my feeder and water dish.  The picture has been posted so everyone (including me! LOL) can experiment with enlarging it for a better view.  Click on the image OR right click on the picture (or the maps) and select "Open image in new tab" to enlarge the picture for viewing.

DAYS 1-3, JULY 21 - 23, 2023-TRAVEL TO CORNER BROOK, NEWFOUNDLAND

The day finally arrived for my departure to Newfoundland.  It was a very busy and hectic couple of weeks before I headed out, but I believe I got most of the things done that “had” to be done. LOL.  I  departed PHX at 4 p.m. on Friday, July 21 and landed in Corner Brook, Newfoundland at 1:40 p.m.     local time after a long 5 hour layover in Los Angeles and another 3 hour layover in Toronto.  All of the flights operated on time and were full.  

On approach into Deer Lake, about a 45 minute drive to Corner Brook.

Corner Brook is on the west side of the island and is the 2^nd largest city in Newfoundland with a population of about 30,000. The town sits in a beautiful bowl-like location surrounded by tree covered hills and the Humber Arm (renowned for its Atlantic Salmon runs) which comes off the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  It started as a company town, developed around the harbor-front pulp and paper mill that is still in operation. The town has grown to become the commercial, educational, service, and governmental center of western Newfoundland.

Corner Brook, Newfoundland

It took over an hour to get into my room when I arrived, but when I finally got into it, I began getting acclimated to the local time zone which is 4 ½ hours ahead of the Phoenix time and to catch up on sleep that I missed out on the past 48 hours.  By Sunday I was in good shape and, after getting a couple of doughnuts and a cappuccino at the local Tim Horton’s (a food chain found throughout Canada), I was ready to take on the day.  To begin my adventure, I climbed a hill near the hotel to get 2 geocaches. Bagging these added another Canadian province to my statistics, and they were the first caches I have found in the eastern part of Canada.  I was able to drop a couple of travel bugs in the second cache, one of which was mine and the other was one that I had found some time ago and it needed to continue its travels with another geocacher.

My first geocache in Newfoundland.  Note the AZ Foothills 911 whistle.  The first caution at the trailhead was about the wild animals present in the area.  Newfoundland has bears, moose, and caribou among other species.

My second geocache in Newfoundland.  I was wishing I had my walking stick when I went after this one!

For a little perspective on this province, we must consider that Newfoundland and Labrador are considered as one province and is named using both place names.  It became the 10^th Canadian province when it joined in 1949.  The population is just over 500,000 with 95% of the population concentrated in Newfoundland (known as “The Rock”) The mentality in Newfoundland is still quite insular after being a province for 70 years and their countrymen from other provinces are frequently referred to as “Canadians”—outsiders from another nation.  They even have their own time zone here which is ½ hour ahead of Atlantic Time.  Fishing was the primary industry here until it began its decline in the last century as a result of poor resource management and overfishing of the fisheries.  The fishing industry has diversified as a result of the decline; however, many people have moved on to other industries for their livelihoods.  Despite the new diversity, the Atlantic Canada provinces experience higher unemployment, higher underemployment, and lower income than any of the other provinces. Unlike the other provinces, the Atlantic Canada provinces still find their economies rising and falling as conditions cause fluctuations in the fisheries and other natural resources.

History

I won’t go into a lot of history here because a lot of this trip will focus on visits to historical sites in the province and I will write about it as I go.  With that in mind, I will say that Canada’s first inhabitants arrived in Labrador about 9,000 years ago, camping near the large rivers and hunting seals and walrus during the summer.  They hunted caribou as they went inland.  Eventually, they crossed into northern Newfoundland and established encampments dating back to about 2300 BC.  The first Europeans may have explored the area as early as the 5^th century when Brendan the Navigator, an Irish monk, was thought to have gone through here.  The Vikings established a temporary settlement around AD 1000 in northern Newfoundland which is on our itinerary to visit, so I will save writing about their visits until later.

The formal tour of Newfoundland and Labrador begins tomorrow morning so stay tuned to future posts.

Fish & Chips and a local beer for dinner. Yummm!

DAY 4, JULY 24, 2023: CORNER BROOK

The tour group met for breakfast and introductions before boarding a bus to see highlights of Corner Brook and to pick up groceries (think fruit) and snacks at the largest grocery store in west Newfoundland (NFLD).  We won’t have an opportunity to find similar supplies for several days and were advised to get them here.  The tour guide has been doing this type of work for many years and seems very knowledgeable about the province.  The 45-member group is composed of 2 Australians, many Canadians (especially from the Toronto area), and about 7 or 8 from the U.S.  There are several single folks (all women) in the group.

I know I am back in the North Country when I see these wildflowers!  

And it feels, Oh, so good!

Then it was off to the Humber Arm South to see beautiful scenery, small coves, fishing boats, waterfalls from the tall mountains along the route and a good lunch at Myrtles on the Bay, a pub and eatery near the end of the road.  We returned to the hotel early to allow everyone to pack up in preparation for a long day tomorrow. 

Frenchman's Cove

Lunch Time.  Elvis Presley and other notables have found their way here in the past.

Bottle Cove

Fog moving into Bottle Cove from the Gulf of St. Lawrence

Fast Fact:  It is not unusual to see houses with doors to the outside but no steps leading down from the door.  These are known locally as mother-in-law doors. J  The guide said she is not aware of the reason for this anomaly, but it was likely due to tax considerations because of the requirements for the doors and/or the cost that would be incurred to construct stairs that would not be used.  Currently, stairs are required to lead down from the doors that are installed in homes.

DAY 5, JULY 25, 2023: ST. BARBE

Did I say that I am glad to be in the north country?  It feels so good!  I am loving the long hours of daylight and, although it is quite hot for this part of the world, it is much cooler than Phoenix which tied the temperature for the 4^th hottest day yesterday.

 We had a beautiful day for the drive up the west coast of NFLD with lots of sunshine and occasional areas of fog.  We drove along Gros Morne National Park which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Long Range Mountains.  It is known for its exceptional beauty and unique geological features.  The park doesn’t have roads into it so we had to observe it from it’s western boundary along the shoreline.  It is considered a geological playground where the whole timeline of geology is found.  The theory of plate tectonics was confirmed here.  For serious hikers, this is a world-class place to go!

GROS MORNE NATIONALPARK

We stopped at Cow Head which had a beautiful sandy beach.  This is unusual in NFLD since most of the coastal beaches are rocky or there are steep cliffs down to the water.  The land in western NFLD gently slopes down to the coastline which is different than the rest of the island.

FIREWEED AT COWHEAD

NOTE THE BEE

We drove further up the coast to Port au Choix which is a national historic site highlighting archaeological finds of Maritime Archaic and Dorset peoples who settled here before 2000 BC.  In fact, archeologists have found evidence of people having been here as much as 5000 years ago.  Because of its location, it has been a crossroads of ancient, indigenous, and European cultures through time.  We saw 8 caribou while visiting the historic site.

CARIBOU

Fast Facts:  NFLD is known as “The Rock” in Canada. Four moose were brought into NFLD in 1904 as a future source of meat for residents.  The number has now grown to over 120,000.  The government is trying to become 20% self-sufficient for people and animal foodstuffs.  There is very little tillable land in the province and root vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, and turnips are grown during the short growing season.  Even animal feed is imported.

DAY 6, JULY 26, 2023: RED BAY, LABRADOR

We boarded the ferry for the trip to the mainland.  The ferry docked in Quebec about a 10 minute drive from Labrador.  The day had mixed fog and high clouds as we drove up the coast to Red Bay.  Labrador is 3 times larger than Newfoundland and has about 30,000 residents.  Mining is big in the west part of Labrador and many NFLD residents travel there to work.  (They also go to other mining areas in western Canada.)

We saw an iceberg out in the Labrador Straits on the drive to Red Bay.  The tour guide said it takes 2 years for icebergs to get here from Greenland.  It was very foggy on the drive up; however, it was not so foggy on the return trip and I was able to get a decent picture while we drove by.

ICEBERG NEAR L'ANSE-au-LOUP, LABRADOR

The Red Bay National Historic Site was our highlight for the day.  Basque whalers started coming here in the 1500s and whale oil was shipped to Europe for use in lamps.  They were the first to import construction materials to Canada, bringing clay for pottery and roofing materials for their dwellings. The visitor center had a wonderful exhibit about the early settlers in the area and it also showed a lot about the ships used by the whalers since one in very good shape had been found years ago on the sea floor in the area. Three-mast ships were used to transport workers and take the oil back to Europe.  The population of Red Bay at its height in the 1500s was estimated at 3,000—now it is about 120 with 80% of the residents retired.

The oldest known funeral monument in the New World is found in Red Bay. It is a mound of rocks marking the burial place of an Indian child who died about 7500 years ago.  The Maritime Archaic people, to whom the child belonged, occupied this area between 9000 and 3500 years ago.  The body was covered with red ochre, wrapped in skins or birch bark, and placed in a large pit about 4 ½ feet deep.  Fires were lit on either side of the body, and several spearheads of stone and bone were placed beside the head. A walrus tusk, harpoon head, paint stones and a bone whistle were also placed with the body.

I found a geocache outside the visitor center—my one and only in Labrador.

 

We made a stop at Point Amour Lighthouse Provincial Historical Site, the second highest lighthouse in Canada and the light still works.  There was an amazing map display at the lighthouse focused on maps from very early primitive maps to the present day.  I could have spent a lot more time there.

 Labradorians call this “The Big Land” and I find that a very fitting description.  It is wild country where we were with mountains, quite a few trees in areas and barren in other areas.  We stopped at one place to observe boulders, known as errata,  left by icebergs.  Much of the landscape was rocky and we saw a lot of ponds, streams/rivers and bogs on our short (+/- 50 miles) drive up the coast.

ERRATA

Fast fact:  The last significant snowfall at Red Bay was the third week of June.

DAY 7, JULY 27, 2023: RED BAY, LABRADOR TO ST. ANTHONY, NEWFOUNDLAND

It was very foggy when we crossed the Labrador/Quebec border enroute to the ferry but we stopped for a photo anyway.  We didn’t have time to do it on the trip up to Red Bay yesterday.

The ferry trip was through choppy water, so I had find my “sea legs” to walk about the boat.  The fog dissipated midway through the trip and we had good weather the rest of the day.  A thunderstorm hit just after we got into the hotel which was fortuitous.

We drove along the coastline of the Great Northern Peninsula.  The trees were very small, as was the underbrush.  It looks like the weather is very harsh everywhere here.  Towns are small and mostly have “cove” in their names.  Our guide told us that if there is a large house in one of these towns, it is a sign that the owner commutes to Alberta or elsewhere out west to work and he makes enough money there to build the big home.  Nearly all homes that I have seen on the trip so far have vinyl siding and have a variety of bright colors.

VEGETATION DOESN'T GROW TALL ON THE NORTH END OF THE ISLAND

We stopped at L’Anse aux Meadows which is as far as you can drive up the Northern Peninsula.  This is where the Vikings first came ashore more than 1000 years ago—the first Europeans to step foot in North America.  The area was identified in the 1960s by a Norwegian scholar/explorer and his archeologist wife after being led to the site of small mounds by a local fisherman.  Digs have uncovered eight complexes of rudimentary houses, workshops with fireplaces, and many artifacts that verified the Norse presence.  It is believed the Norse were at the location less than a decade.

L’Anse aux Meadows

We took a short drive beyond St. Anthony to Goose Cove to see another iceberg which was quite close to shore before calling it a day.

Fast Facts:  The soil is poor on the Northern Peninsula, and we saw a lot of little gardens along the road.  Residents take advantage of roadway right of ways to plant the gardens in better soil there, planting root crops such as potatoes and turnips.  Each plot was surrounded by a short fence of some sort.

There is a dictionary, sold in nearly every shop we have been in, with about 2000 words translating Newfoundland words to English.

DAY 8, JULY 28, 2023:  ST. ANTHONY TO ROCKY HARBOUR (GROS MORNE AREA)

Last night, as I was getting my computer set up to do some work, the screen started separating from the top cover. It was an “Oh, no!” moment. The plastic border around the screen was separating and the two hinges connecting the top of the computer to the bottom were not functioning correctly. I went to the front desk to see if they had any duct tape on the premises and the lady there reached under the counter and handed me a large roll of tape. I taped the border around the screen and reinforced a few areas and everything seems to be working okay. It is not pretty, but it works and that is what matters.

Most of the day was spent driving back south along the west coast of the Great Northern Peninsula and parallel to the Long Range Mountains. The day was clear, and I could see the mountains in Labrador across the Strait of Belle Isle as well as the iceberg we saw while in Labrador. The area in the northern part of the peninsula is prime moose country but we didn’t see any. In fact, moose are prevalent in much of the area we have traveled through; however, they seem to have taken refuge from the above normal temperatures by moving back into the shade of the trees and away from highways. Polar bears are frequently seen in northern coastal areas of NFLD and southern Labrador when the sea ice gets packed in those areas. St. Anthony, the largest city in the northern peninsula, seems to have its share of sightings each year.

LABRADOR COASTLINE TAKEN FROM THE BUS IN NFLD

We made a brief stop at Arches Provincial Park to see arches that have been eroded into a rock stack that sits along the rocky beach. Much of the underlying bedrock along the coast is limestone and studies have revealed that this area as well as the Long Range Mountains was once part of the ancient Appalachian Mountains now found in the U.S.

ARCHES PROVINCIAL PARK

Continuing down the coast in Gros Morne National Park (a UNESCO World Heritage Site) we arrived at Rocky Harbour in the afternoon where we boarded a boat at Norris Point for a scenic cruise on Bonne Bay. We traversed two fjords that cut inland from the Gulf of St. Lawrence while admiring the stunning parkland around us and learning of the fascinating geology that is present here. The Tablelands is geologically the most significant area of the park and, fortunately, we were able to see the yellow and tan hue of the terrain in the distance. This area once lay beneath an ancient ocean, but violent internal upheavals eventually brought it to the surface. The igneous rock cliffs and boulders that resulted were once part of the earth’s mantle. (The mantle is the mostly solid bulk of earth's interior, and it lies between the earth’s dense, super-heated core and its thin outer layer which is the crust. It is about 1800 miles thick and makes up 84% of earth’s total volume.)  As I mentioned in a previous post, the discovery of The Tablelands confirmed the theory of plate tectonics.

NORRIS POINTE & BONNE BAY (THE TABLELANDS IN THE RIGHT BACKGROUND)

THE TABLELANDS (ABOVE)

Fast Facts:  Dr. Wilfred Grenfell, a British physician-missionary, was attracted to Labrador’s harsh living conditions and lack of medical care. In 1892, after visiting the area, he decided that serving people in remote Labrador and northern NFLD was his calling and he proceeded to establish hospitals and treatment centers in the area. From his large mission in St. Anthony, he sailed along the coast in boats, treating 15,000 patients in 1900 alone. By 1907 he had opened ten treatment centers in remote areas. His legacy is still readily apparent in St. Anthony where I saw several buildings that had been built over the years by his mission, including newer hospitals that still carry his name.

The population on the Great Northern Peninsula began dwindling because of the downturn of the fishing industry in the 1980’s and 1990’s. The population outflow continues today as people move to St. John’s and other areas of Canada to make their living.

DAY 9, JULY 29, 2023:  ROCKY HARBOUR TO GANDER

I woke up to high clouds and rain today; however, the skies cleared as we drove through the interior of NFLD on the Trans-Canada Highway headed to Gander.  Indigenous Beothuk people migrated from Labrador in AD 200 and settled along our route in the interior.  Many Beothuk were killed by Europeans when they arrived, with the last person of their race dying in 1829.  We stopped for lunch and a stretch break at Grand Falls which is the approximate mid-point of the NFLD portion of the Trans-Canada Highway.  The town had a papermill for 100 years before the mill closed in about 2008, after which the government established some offices to serve the interior.  The population has actually grown here since the mill closed, which is unusual for many towns in NFLD.  People living on the south coast of the island have a 3 ½ drive north on the only north-south road in the interior to get supplies in Grand Falls.  This part of the trip reminded me of portions of my previous drives through northwest Canada and Alaska.  I love seeing this kind of countryside and enjoy watching the changing landscape while watching for animals coming out of the brush to the roadside.  The downside on this trip is that I had a very limited view because I was in a large bus instead of driving my motorhome.

Our next stop was in Appleton located a short distance west of Gander.  We walked in the Peace Garden which has the largest piece of beams from the Twin Towers that went down on 9/11 that were sent to NFLD.  I thought it was displayed very nicely.  There was also a nice peace monument in the park “dedicated to peace loving people throughout the world.”  Appleton residents took in some of the 6,000+ “plane people” who were stranded at Gander after the Twin Towers went down in New York City.  Everyone was very quiet and somber as we walked through the park, wrapped in our own thoughts and memories of that day.

Soon we were on our way to Gander where a local guide joined us for a tour of the city.  Gander has a very long aviation history dating back to the first trans-Atlantic flights.  The town was founded in 1951 after the military decided to convert the Gander airport to civilian operation. The town was a “planned” community with the streets named after aviators.  On 9/11 the population of Gander was 9,600 when planes carrying approximately 6,700 passengers and crew members were diverted to the airport.  All the restauranteurs and shop owners met at Tim Horton’s (a restaurant chain that spans Canada) throughout the next four days to make plans for feeding the stranded passengers.  The mayor decided to turn the local hockey rink into a walk-in freezer so perishables could be stored on the ice.  Gander, and other areas around it, have grown since 9/11.  Quite a few Americans and people from other areas have bought homes and land since 9/11 in the Gander area, and especially, to the north around Twillingate.  Land was/is cheap and passengers who were on the planes liked the friendly people here, so they came back to summer homes or to live.

We stopped at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum which featured exhibits about Gander’s strategic role in WWII and the development of trans-Atlantic aviation.  There were displays of early equipment and uniforms, photographs, and a restored DeHavilland Tiger Moth.  A list of pilots that passed through here in the 1930’s, their aircraft, their destinations, and other information pertaining to their flights was displayed.  I recognized Amelia Earhart’s name among several other early pilots that I recognized.  Unfortunately, I could not get a decent photo of that old paper because of the lighting and reflections in the room—plus the fact the paper was old and crumpled.  Static displays outside included North America’s only intact Lockheed Hudson MkIII bomber, a CF-101 (aka Voodoo), a Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A (aka a Canso) amphibious water bomber used to fight fires and a Beechcraft 18.  Sadly, the aircraft on static display are not being kept in good condition and need refurbishment even to be on display.

DeHavilland Tiger Moth

Lockheed Hudson MkIII 

CF-101 (aka Voodoo) 

Consolidated Catalina PBY-5A (aka Canso) 

As an aside, I saw PBY's used on northern California fires in the early 1970's when I was flying on U.S. Forest Service and CA State Fire contracts.  I guess that makes me eligible for a museum, too.  LOL

Beechcraft 18

Fast Facts: Gander airport was originally built in the 1930’s and it was the largest airport with the longest runway at the time.  It was the busiest airport in Canada when NFLD/LB became a province in 1949.  Only three streets in Gander are not named for aviators:  Airport Blvd, QEII Drive, and Memorial Drive.

On September 11, 2001, over 200 flights were redirected to alternate airports in Canada with 42 of those flights rerouted to the Gander airport.

DAY 10, JULY 30, 2023:  GANDER TO CLARENVILLE

We were up early for a long day of touring northeastern Newfoundland today.  First, we drove north to Twillingate, at the end of an archipelago of islands linked by causeways.  The rugged coastline and countryside along the way was beautiful.  Our first stop was at the Twillingate Museum which had a fascinating collection of historic fishing gear and tools, antique dolls, and rare Dorset Inuit artifacts.  One room was dedicated to a famous American expatriate who went to NFLD to pioneer medicine in remote areas of the island.  The time allotted to spend here was way too short!  I easily could have spent a day or more at this museum.

TWILLINGATE MUSEUM

BELEEN FROM A WHALE

(BELEEN WHALES ARE FAMILIES OF WHALES SUCH AS RIGHT WHALES,  HUMPBACKS, AND BOW WHALES. THEY HAVE BELEEN INSTEAD OF TEETH TO FILTER, SIEVE AND OTHERWISE PROCESS FOOD THAT IS INGESTED.)

  

Lunch was at the Auk Island Winery where they had a large selection of wines for sale.  The labels from various wineries were very interesting; I would have liked to have been able to buy some wine just to bring some of the labels home with me.

Partridge berries are little red berries that grow wild in NFLD and were served in various ways during our meals.  (They are also known as lingonberries and are called red berries in Labrador.)  They are not as tart as cranberries and are frequently sold as jam.  The berries grow in circumboreal forests of northern Eurasia and North America.  I especially liked them when served on cheesecake.

We drove to the Long Point Lighthouse to take in the scenic view and where we saw the last remnants of an iceberg.  It spun in the water and changed shape while we were there.

TWILLINGATE AREA

The afternoon was spent returning to Gander where we made a “rest stop” at the airport terminal.  It was here that I sat on a chair reputedly used by Queen Elizabeth when she visited NFLD.

Then it was on south to Terra Nova National Park where we stopped at their nice visitor center that is chocked full of hands-on displays of water life found in the park as well as small aquarium tanks.  We then finished the day’s drive arriving in Clarenville.

Fast Facts:  There are a lot of interesting names that were given to waterways and villages by seamen in bygone days.  Some around this day’s travels include Main Tickle, Toogood Arm, Joe Batt’s Arm, Dildo Run, Virgin Arm, Leading Tickles, Farewell, etc.

Government assisted resettlement programs—Prior to 1954 resettlement from small outlying communities largely took place naturally due to disease, job availability, etc.  The first formal resettlement program was established in 1954 and the continuation of the programs has been controversial.

From Wikipedia:

“First Resettlement Program (1954-1965)

In 1954 the provincial Department of Welfare introduced a program to encourage residents of small coastal communities to move to larger "growth centres". The government would pay for the relocation of all of a family's belongings as well as their house to the new community. This was changed to a cash payment of $150 per family at the start of the program and gradually increased to $600 per family by the end of the program. This was a significant amount of money as a fisherman working in the inshore fishery was generally earning under $500 per year. In order for a community to be eligible for assistance every member would have to agree to relocate. By 1965 the program had helped resettle 115 communities with a combined population of 7500.”

“Second and Third Resettlement Programs (1965-1975)

In 1965 the provincial and federal governments partnered in a new resettlement program. The new program was administered by the Department of Fisheries. Under the new program the assistance was increased to $1000 per family plus $200 for each dependant in addition to moving costs. The proportion of residents who needed to agree to the move decreased to 90% and later to 80%. A second federal-provincial agreement was started in 1970, with responsibility being shared by the federal Department of Regional Economic Expansion (DREE) and the provincial Department of Community and Social Development. Between 1965 and 1975 some 148 communities were abandoned, involving the relocation of an additional 20,000 people.”

“Community Relocation Policy (2010s)

State-assisted relocation is still practiced in Newfoundland and Labrador, but the requests must come from the communities themselves. The modern Community Relocation Policy clearly states that the government cannot encourage or "initiate any actions" to promote resettlement. Essential services, including electricity, are terminated in the communities where the vote reaches a threshold of 90-per-cent. In 2013, the compensation was boosted from $100,000 to $270,000 per household.

Despite a community voting in favor, state-assisted relocation has been refused in some settlements, where the cost for compensation exceeds the amount saved in services cut. Even if Nippers Harbour voted with a majority of 98%, the government has declared that the consequences to the economy would outweigh the benefits.”

“In 2021, the provincial government's Community Relocation Policy was changed lowering the vote required for relocation from 90 percent to 75 percent.”