Our time at St John’s went so fast we had to reup for another week. It is about an hour trip into town from our campsite in Clarke’s Beach, the first day we visited Signal hill and Cape Spear. Cape Spear is the Eastern most point in North America; sure there is a light house there with a lot of history.. On Dec 12 1901, Marconi received the first wireless signal from across the ocean at Signal Hill. The hill has been used to signal the townspeople of ships coming into the harbour, each merchant would know which ship Our week at St Johns went by so quickly with so much to see we decided to reup for was coming by the flag that was displayed on Signal hill. They then would go out to meet the ship and gather their wares. Canons were also fired to announce 12 noon, much to the dismay of ministers on Sundays as they claimed the noise distracted the parishioners.
American soldiers established a barracks there in WW2, to look out for German Submarines. A Newfoundland ferry was blown up during the war.
Next we toured the Marine center which is part of the University of Newfoundland. This center teaches everything you need to know about ships and navigation. Because of this years 100 year anniversary of Perry’s reaching the north pole, there is a special exhibit there to honor Bob Bartlett, a native son of Brigus Newfoundland who was the captain of Perry’s expedition. We were treated to a play and a trip in a simulator that took us to the north seas on the Roosevelt with Captain Bob and Perry. While standing on the bridge we could feel the rocking and rolling of the ship and feel when she crushed the ice and bumped the icebergs. We could see the shore and life in those times. It was a special treat! The school has many other simulators for students to use to practice navigation on the high seas.
Brigus is just about 4 miles from our campsite and we went there for the arrival of the schooner Bowdoin. It was sailed in by students of the Maine Maritime Academy, and will be visiting 11 other ports to celebrate the 1909 exploration of the North Pole. We spent the afternoon listening to local bands and doing a walking tour of Brigus.
On the weekend we played washers and swinging golf balls with the other campers. They are a wonderful bunch of people and have made us feel so welcome, bringing us homemade wine and homemade pie.
The Rooms, is a new museum in St Johns that has panoramic views of the city and Harbour. There was a wonderful exhibit on Dr Wilfred Grenfell a doctor who came to Newfoundland Labrador in the late 19th and early 20th century’s and helped the people, providing medical care and he formed the international Grenfell Association to improve the lives of the people by teaching them crafts, and self sufficiency in agriculture. We’ve seen his name on buildings and it was nice to learn more about him.
We revisited Brigus to tour Bob Bartletts boyhood home, Hawthorn Cottage, his sisters lived there until the 1970s, and ran a tea room in town. When he left Brigus, he lived aboard his ship, skippering more than 40 voyages to the far north.
We also visited a telegraph cable company just several miles from out camp at Hearts Content. Trans Atlantic cable came to land here in 1866, from Valentia Ireland. Western Union operated from here until the mid 70s.
We were able to spot a few whales from shore at several places but we never did see the caplin, a small fish that comes to shore and the people go out and get them with buckets, when they are “in” the whale follow as well as puffins.
On our way back across the rock we stopped at Grand Falls Windsor for 1 night, then on to Corner Brook where we just happened to meet up with the Airstream caravan. We knew 3 people on it, one was on our Baja Caravan earlier this year and the Chellmans from TR.
We also drove to Cox’s cove to visit Paulette and Mike who we met at Clarke’s Beach. They were fishing for cod, and were cleaning them when we arrived. They wanted to take us out but it started to rain and the forecast for Sun was not good either. We had a nice visit with them and Paulettes sister and Brother in law who both work for a mink farm nearby.
Sunday we ate at the Glenmill Inn in Corner Brook, then drove to Big Falls and were so lucky to see lots of salmon jumping the falls, I just wanted to help them they just kept trying!
It is Tue the 28 of July and we are sitting in a large lot at Port au Basque waiting for a ferry to Nova Scotia. The ferry was to depart at 1:30 pm and we were told when we pulled in at 11:30am that it would be a bit late and we would be leaving around 8pm. We are lucky to have our home with us! There is a nice terminal with a cafeteria, a gift shop and lounge showing movies, just across the lot. Well we were off by 8:30pm, a long day! We started to drive onboard at 7:30 and the joker was on by 9pm. There was entertainment in our lounge, a singer with a keyboard singing Newfoundland songs, he was pretty good. The ship MV ATLANTIC VISION can take 800 persons and 531 cars, with births for 662. We made the 100 mile trip in about 4 hours, but had to wait for another ship to leave the dock before we could go in. About 1am we pulled into the shopping mall in North Sydney for some much needed sleep
Bye for now, Lois
American soldiers established a barracks there in WW2, to look out for German Submarines. A Newfoundland ferry was blown up during the war.
Next we toured the Marine center which is part of the University of Newfoundland. This center teaches everything you need to know about ships and navigation. Because of this years 100 year anniversary of Perry’s reaching the north pole, there is a special exhibit there to honor Bob Bartlett, a native son of Brigus Newfoundland who was the captain of Perry’s expedition. We were treated to a play and a trip in a simulator that took us to the north seas on the Roosevelt with Captain Bob and Perry. While standing on the bridge we could feel the rocking and rolling of the ship and feel when she crushed the ice and bumped the icebergs. We could see the shore and life in those times. It was a special treat! The school has many other simulators for students to use to practice navigation on the high seas.
Brigus is just about 4 miles from our campsite and we went there for the arrival of the schooner Bowdoin. It was sailed in by students of the Maine Maritime Academy, and will be visiting 11 other ports to celebrate the 1909 exploration of the North Pole. We spent the afternoon listening to local bands and doing a walking tour of Brigus.
On the weekend we played washers and swinging golf balls with the other campers. They are a wonderful bunch of people and have made us feel so welcome, bringing us homemade wine and homemade pie.
The Rooms, is a new museum in St Johns that has panoramic views of the city and Harbour. There was a wonderful exhibit on Dr Wilfred Grenfell a doctor who came to Newfoundland Labrador in the late 19th and early 20th century’s and helped the people, providing medical care and he formed the international Grenfell Association to improve the lives of the people by teaching them crafts, and self sufficiency in agriculture. We’ve seen his name on buildings and it was nice to learn more about him.
We revisited Brigus to tour Bob Bartletts boyhood home, Hawthorn Cottage, his sisters lived there until the 1970s, and ran a tea room in town. When he left Brigus, he lived aboard his ship, skippering more than 40 voyages to the far north.
We also visited a telegraph cable company just several miles from out camp at Hearts Content. Trans Atlantic cable came to land here in 1866, from Valentia Ireland. Western Union operated from here until the mid 70s.
We were able to spot a few whales from shore at several places but we never did see the caplin, a small fish that comes to shore and the people go out and get them with buckets, when they are “in” the whale follow as well as puffins.
On our way back across the rock we stopped at Grand Falls Windsor for 1 night, then on to Corner Brook where we just happened to meet up with the Airstream caravan. We knew 3 people on it, one was on our Baja Caravan earlier this year and the Chellmans from TR.
We also drove to Cox’s cove to visit Paulette and Mike who we met at Clarke’s Beach. They were fishing for cod, and were cleaning them when we arrived. They wanted to take us out but it started to rain and the forecast for Sun was not good either. We had a nice visit with them and Paulettes sister and Brother in law who both work for a mink farm nearby.
Sunday we ate at the Glenmill Inn in Corner Brook, then drove to Big Falls and were so lucky to see lots of salmon jumping the falls, I just wanted to help them they just kept trying!
It is Tue the 28 of July and we are sitting in a large lot at Port au Basque waiting for a ferry to Nova Scotia. The ferry was to depart at 1:30 pm and we were told when we pulled in at 11:30am that it would be a bit late and we would be leaving around 8pm. We are lucky to have our home with us! There is a nice terminal with a cafeteria, a gift shop and lounge showing movies, just across the lot. Well we were off by 8:30pm, a long day! We started to drive onboard at 7:30 and the joker was on by 9pm. There was entertainment in our lounge, a singer with a keyboard singing Newfoundland songs, he was pretty good. The ship MV ATLANTIC VISION can take 800 persons and 531 cars, with births for 662. We made the 100 mile trip in about 4 hours, but had to wait for another ship to leave the dock before we could go in. About 1am we pulled into the shopping mall in North Sydney for some much needed sleep
Bye for now, Lois
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