La Manche Bridge, June 23 Wednesday

This B&B is called "The Pond View", aptly named. We've had really good luck booking our B&B's as we go except for this time. After several calls to places in the area, we found this place. Not a historic one but it was pretty nice. It was recommended from another B&B. The owner's name was Sheila Tobin but no relation to Nadine. She rents it out usually as a summer vacation rental. It was great and we just had to drive a few minutes down the road to reach the trail head for our next hike on the East Coast Trail.

We're in beautiful LaManche Provincial Park and had to visit Doctors Cove! We think that it was called "Doctors Cove" because of the risk of breaking an ankle while scrambling around on the rocks! Fortunately, according to the sign, there is a trail in just about any direction that you want to go.

You feel like you're on another planet. Huge, black rock that seemed so porous. We climbed up and walked around an enjoyed the view from up here.

These two pictures are for Martin's daughter Aline, who is studying geology. You can see the layer of quartz in these 500 million year old limestone rocks!

Just a peek from the trail through to the ocean below. This is called "Big Gulch."

We can see the La Manche bridge that leads to the old La Manche Village that was abandoned in 1966 after an enormous storm with either a storm surge or a tsunami (accounts vary) destroyed the village.

The bridge was rebuilt in 1999 and officially opened in 2000. I like the last line by Thomas A.Clark reads: "There are things that we will never see, unless we walk to them". In Newfoundland one really has to get out and walk about this beautiful country to really appreciate how amazing it is.

This picture was taken from the end of the bridge looking out to the ocean. It is such a beautiful cove it's hard to imagine how big this storm must have been to take out the whole community. It seems to be tucked away and protected.

Some foundations of homes in what remains of this village.

A good view of the suspension LaManche Bridge that connects the East Coast Trail to both sides of the harbour.

Another gorgeous brown waterfall from the one side of the bridge which flows under it and past the village out to the ocean. Such a beautiful spot where these people once lived....except for the black flies that were really bad in this area. I guess it couldn't be perfect!

Back down from the trail where we parked our car just a common picture you'll see often in coves and bays of Newfoundland. When we first arrived and parked there was a young man painting the inside of this boat. We drove down a little further from here and found a bakery and had some tea and freshly baked Partridge berry cake..mmmm good! Partridge berries and Bakeapple berries are indigenous to Newfoundland. It makes really good jam and we had it at every B&B. Next stop was Bay Bulls and our boat tour...check out the whales!

Cape Bonavista, Tuesday June 22

This is the picture of a B&B called the Jubilee House located in Bonavista. This is a registered Heritage Home built in 1887 and completely restored in 2007. It was so lovely I had to take some pictures to show everyone and to give you an idea what these B&B's are like here. We have been lucky as every night we've been able to find one as we go along our day not knowing exactly where we'll end up, part of the fun!



Beautiful Window!!

This bathroom had a jetted tub and I took advantage of that! It was cold and raining that day and night so it felt even better. I had pea soup for dinner and it was the best I've ever had!

Bonavista: it's where the New World began! Bueno Vista- O Happy Sight! is how it translates from Italian. Legend has it these very strong words rang from the deck of John Cabot's ship when he landed in 1497. We walked up and around the lighthouse on Cape Bonavista built in 1843 with gorgeous views of the rugged coastline. Puffins were perched on a cliff out in the ocean but we couldn't see them without binoculars. Still cloudy today after the rainy night and we could see some fog rolling in.

We had to have a picture of the statute of Giovanni Cabot (John Cabot)who was said to have sighted the land and claimed the island for Britain (the debate rages as to where exactly it was that he landed. ( Nova Scotia claims that he landed in Cape Breton). Lots of history on Cape Bonavista.

My Dad used to own a 'Dairy King' when we lived in North Battleford, Saskatchewan in the early 1960's. Apparently this store is doing very well.

Just a mile south down the Bonavista Cove was a very unusual rock formation known as The Dungeon. It's a twin entrance sea cave with a collapsed roof. Very cool!

We found this hike called' Skerwink Trail', a world-renowned trail ranked among the top 35 trails in North America & Europe by Travel and Leisure Magazine. It is a beautiful 3.5 mile loop, a majestic coastal trail. We're so awestruck with the beauty of the coastline at every trail, cove and view we have the privilege to see!

This picture shows the lush meadows and the groundcovers of the terrain.

Just another gorgeous cliff edge showing the beautiful coastline, same old..same old.

The trails were so well maintained. They had many wooden steps as well as flagstone steps like these ones. I'm sure it was a tough job to assemble these!

Look closely at the above picture, you can see the trail on the right hand side from the dark green area moving into the light green area. This picture really demonstrates how close the trail is to the cliff edges and then opens up where you can walk around and admire the view, trying to keep your jaw from dropping!

As we come around the loop there was this great view of the little community called Trinity. Of all Newfoundland's heritage communities, Trinity defines them the best. Trinity is one of the most historically significant community in the province. Trinity was a crucial pioneer settlement, with some of the first clergy, doctors and professional trades people in Newfoundland.

We came across this beach area with an unusual sea stack out on the cliff's edge.

Still in Trinity in this cove is a Mussel farm. They are ropes attached to these pots that dangle down in the water that the mussels attach to. We had mussels a few times and they were very good. After our hike we stopped in Trinity, really a neat town with all the restored historical buildings. We ate lobsters at the seaside restaurant called Dock Marina. It was very good!

Leaving Trinity with the last look some fishing boats docked.
On our way now to find a B&B for the night. Another great day...

St. Mary's Reserve, Sunday June 20

Our first stop today was the Salmonier Nature Park
where you can view wildlife in developed enclosures representing their natural habitat. Sounds cruel, but these animals are "resuce animals", most of which have had injuries or amputations that privent them from living in the wild. It is actually a very natural open environment for the animals, and we were impressed. The snowy owl and caribou were the only animals visible enough to take a picture. All we saw of a Moose was his ears. He was laying down in tall grass but that was as close as we could get even though there were numerous warnings of moose encounters especially while driving. The lynx was busy cleaning himself so his back was to us, there were no foxes, beavers or hares...so that was about it for that park. Nice walk though.

On our way to St.Mary's Cove was The Cataracts, where we found deep river gorges with two cascading waterfalls. There is water everywhere in Newfoundland, with streams, rivers and lakes ("ponds", as they calll them here) everywhere. It's like the province is one big rock (pre-Cambrian limestone, to be precise) covered with moss, heath, balsam fir forests and water. Most of the streams are a brown colour because of the bogs everywhere. I'm sure that if the Newfoundlanders claimed that there were anti-oxidants in the bog water (which is likely), they could make a fortune.

On the Cape Shore Loop is Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve, one of the most accessible seabird colonies in North America. This picture shows where we began the trail that leads over to the sea stacks where the birds are. So in this first picture you'll notice something white on the cliffs, looks like snow maybe....it's birds!

Another look as we continued our walk along the cliff tops from the lighthouse to the Bird Rock, a 200 foot high sea stack that is home to many species of birds.

This shot just demonstrates how close we are to the edge of these cliffs as we continue to walk down the path....it's just incredible.

Look closely at these two pictures above and below...those are all birds on the ledges of the cliff, mostly Gannets, Murres, and Kittewakes, with some other more rare species. The Gannets have yellow heads, while the Murres look a lot like little penguins. In fact, they have stubby wings that are very good for gliding under water, just like penguins.

This is a shot just looking down the coast. We are pretty high at this point looking down.

The Gannet is the prodominent species on the Bird Island. This picture just shows a few of them on the cliff...

These pictures just don't show the perpective of the height of this rock and the cliff edges in the back drop, but think of 70,000 birds perched 500 feet above the sea and the acitivty of their lives that we could witness. It was a National Geographic moment....just absolutely an amazing sight.

We are 'perched' ourselves on this cliff, if you notice what the sign reads beside us, it was very dangerous up there so you made sure you were surefooted! You just can't see the spectacular view over the cliff right behind us. The seastack behind us was one huge rock by itself, loaded with birds in every crack. Along the cliff walls were different species of birds, all segregated in a hierachy, with the dominant species occupying the prime (safest) layers. The sound of all these birds was incredible and you really had to stay focused while you were on the cliff to take in all that was to be seen. We could also see whales out in the ocean numerous times...easy to see the spouts of water spraying up. This was an experience that is hard to describe but one that I will never forget.

Martin wanted to get a picture of the lighthouse when the beacon came around so he had to time it precisely but a gannet flew in at the same time which is such a great shot. We finally dragged ourselves away from this place and made our way to Placentia where we found a B&B on the harbour front. Another historical home that are restored so beautifully, and the owner was a pastry chef...need I say more?