Day 3 Cape St. George Tour
We departed the B&B around 9 AM and drove the short distance to the Memorial Site for the Newfoundland Acadians, Cape St. George was a centre for the Acadians in Newfoundland. We toured around the small site viewing the memorial and the bread oven as well as viewing the cliff face and the wind blown trees at the top of the cliff.
From there we continued around the north coast of Cape St. George, during the drive I spotted a sign for a WWII aircraft crash site and had to stop. There is a sign there commemorating the meeting of U.S. resident Franklin D. Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Atlantic Confernce in Newfoundland , August 1941, Ernrest Harmon Air Force Base, the US Army Air Force (as the U.S. Air Force was known as at that time) Douglas C-54 which crashed at this site. Following a trail over the bedrock marked with painted arrows on the rock we found the few remains remaining of the aircraft. We also saw the evidence of a large Moose population by having to walk over many mounds of moose droppings on the trail.
After the aircraft site we continued on to Lourdes, an Acadian town on the north coast, and drove the northern spit of the Cape looking for a geological site on the east coast of the spit, we arrived at the location of the site but couldn't find the old trail that travelled down the cliff face to the site at ocean level. This was disappointing but just part of life.
We retraced our route back to Lourdes and then continued down the highway to the next geological site located below a service station. The trail to the site was destroyed when the service station increased the area of their parking lot which meant we couldn't get down the cliff face to see the site. But just back up the road was an old stone quarry where the rocks of the site were now exposed. The site contains a mix of mixed sandstone and shale (known as "flysch") and limestone all from the Middle Ordovician. We then looked for the Aguathuna Quarry but were unsuccessful. The route then left the peninsulla as we turned northwards towards Gros Morne National Park
Day 3 Part 2 Cape St. George to Gros Morne National Park
We continued to drive eastward off of the peninsula to Stehenville towards the Trans Canada Highway where we turned northwards towards the National Park. The route took us past Corner Brook and up the Trans Canada Deer Lake where we left the Trans Canada for the next while and turned towards Gros Morne National Park.
The drive up the TransCanada had some great scenery but no places to pull off and take photos. Much of Newfoundland is that way, no place to safely stop to look and get memories. After leaving the TransCanada and onto Viking Route, or Highway 430 the scenery was still great but the even narrower highway made stopping even harder. Upon reaching Gros Morne National Park highway construction is rampant. They are widening the highway in many areas which requires a lot of rock cutting. The construction slows things down but looking at the rocks as we passed was great. We stopped in to the Visitor Centre and looked around (too bad all the electronics were not working) and went into the gift shop and spent some money! We then headed up past Rocky Harbour to Lobster Cove Head and the lighthouse.
Getting out of the car to walk around the Lighthouse and grounds was great. Parks Canada has done a nice job in interpreting the site and the Interpreters on site had great knowledge and were fun to interact with. We walked over to the garden plot and down to the beach. Of greatest interst in the Lighthouse living area was what looked, at first glance, like a period wood stove. In fact it is actually a new electric stove that looks like a wood stove with the controls hidden in the top warming oven area. Wish I had one.
After that it was time to go to the B&B in Rocky Harbour. Supper was had at a restaurant in town called Earle's Newfie Mug Up which was recommended by our B&B hosts. We ended up having to wait a while to get in so went into town to have a look around and found a gift shop that Karen had to stop in! Getting back to the restaurant we were seated quickly and ordered our food, Karen ordered the halibut, we waited and waited for our food and finally another waitress came out to us and with apologies told Karen there was no Halibut, the previous server should have known. So she ordered a different meal and after another short wait we ate. The food was passable but plentifull, the staff is friendly and were very apologetic about the mixup.