View topic - Things to not miss in Newfoundland enroute to your paddling

Art Galleries in Twilingate
The Conche Tapestry...simply amazing

http://www.cbc.ca/landandseanl/2011/01/ ... onche.html

Community dance in Trout River, NL.

Thanks!
Those items on my bucket list get more pressing each year.
I hope to get down east this summer and paddle in all four provinces there.
But I sure want to see much else as I celebrate my good fortune to live here.

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

We'll be paddling in NL soon and touring as well.
We're a bit put off by the long drive to the Twillingate area and are considering Burgeo instead (shorter drive on however a worse road).
Any comments on the relative merits of Twillingate and Burgeo as far as tourism (rather than paddling - will do that in the Gros Morne area) goes?

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

Burgeo is pretty amazing too. Little local gem of a museum. The road to Burgeo is good. Not rough at all. Four bar cell service too, though rarely a settlement. We landed in Burgeo in three days of rain. Both areas have good hiking though the pictures from Twilingate were better. They are just so different with relative merits. Few tourists seem to make Burgeo from what we saw..(ie NO buses)

Re: cell service in Newfoundland - it's good if you have Bell as your provider. If you're a Rogers customer, you can get service in Cornerbrook and in the immediate St. Johns area. And that's it.

BTW, if you're in St. Johns, a visit to The Rooms gallery/museum is worth while. I can recommend the restaurant on the top floor for both the food and the view over the city & harbour.

Witless Bay, south of St. Johns, has a bird sanctuary island that is worth paddling out to see. And smell! The town of Ellington, just south of Bonavista, has both root cellars and a puffin colony that you can walk out on the cliffs and be within fifty meters of the birds. Both are free. And finally, if you're into bird, LOTS of birds, the ecological centre at Cape St. Marys (south of Plancentia) is well worth the drive. Something like three million nesting pairs of gannets, and you can walk out along the cliffs and get incredibly close to the birds. We laughed about the sign at the visitor centre that warned of slippery wood on the decks around the centre, but said not a word about the dangers of falling off the cliffs on the walk out to the birds. (About a mile, IIRC, and completely free.)

Thanks for the help!
We're constrained at both ends of our trip by unmissable, unchangeable medical appointments (Bette Davis said it well: Getting old ain't for sissies.) and can't make it to the east coast of NL this time.
So we plan to see Twillingate and the east coast next time 'round.

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

OK, in the east, I can recommend Trout River Pond as an interesting and easy paddle. There is also a hiking trail along the fiord (or fjord, if you prefer the Scandanavian spelling) for those who prefer dry land. It's in the southern section of Gros Morne.

Norris Point has a kayak rental, and the waters there are well protected from the open sea. I expect there would be good paddling in that area.

A walk up on the Tablelands, also in Gros Morne, is worth while. I looked in vain for caribou up in the snow, where they apparently go to escape the summer insects.

Also, Western Brook Pond, still in Gros Morne, has a boat tour. I've seen photos of the place and it looks spectacular. The downside is that you have to walk over a mile to get to the water from the parking lot. Better men than I might consider this a doable portage....

Thanks, Darryl!

SO and I have reserved places on the Western Brook Pond boat tour (lazy or gone wimp or gone genteel, not sure which; sure don't fancy carrying a tandem kayak on that portage!) and I'm working on renting kayaks for Bonne Bay from Gros Morne Adventures at Norris Point.

Also, we're booked for
“Belle of Bonavista Bay” at the Warehouse Theatre, Cowhead
and
“Anchors Aweigh” in the pub at the Ocean View Hotel in Rocky Harbour; hope that our room is not above the pub!

After 3 nights in Rocky Harbour, it's off to St Anthony and L'Anse for 2 nights.

Sad that we have only 10 nights in NL and so can't get to Avalon, etc.

Thanks again, Allan

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)

3 km each way to Western Brook Pond. We did our tour later in the day and kept tripping over moose. One pair was a momma and baby who would not move off the trail as baby was nursing.

We liked the Green Gardens trail too in Gros Morne.

My wife keeps wanting to go to Alaska. I keep saying that Newfoundland and Labrador are closer. Yeah, I know they aren't the same, but Labrador and NF sure have some great glacier-carved topography.

And the bears are smaller.

But the blackflies are out longer. In Burgeo in 2010 we were beset with them in August. Probably because the clime is always damp and cool.

But NL does not have extant glaciers IIRC. You can view icebergs however.

Take your hiking Poles,
Tour boat or not, Western Brook Pond is one of the few boat tours I could recommend.
For this view of Western Brook, after you finish the boat tour take the loop trail that goes north and will then loop around to the trail back to the parking. All flat and easy.



For the Table lands you can do the self guided tour route or park in the lot and hike here, very steep some loose rocks but what a view.



And take in the Sunset at the Rocky Harbour light house. gorgeous! And if the tide is out there is some good hiking along the point.
and Keep your eyes open for Whales, most likely Minke's but we saw some close to shore.

Great (but long drive to St. Anthony's If you can and the seas are calm and you have the kayaks still you can paddle off the viking settlement!
There has been good iceberg viewing up there this year.

And take the road down to Goose cove, again some good easy hiking and some harder stuff too. (it was too foggy when we where there last year, so just the easy one.)

And Enjoy!

Oh yeah the best tasting fish we have had both times is in Cow Head, Just north of Gros Morne, A little converted house on the corner where the road loops back and one road goes to the Harbour. and they sell local made souvenirs there.

And Another place to stop either on the way up to St. Anthony'e or on the way back Is the Arches PP. no camping but right by the main road, good parking.



And enjoy!
Jeff

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Choosing to save a river is more often an act of passion than of careful calculation. You make the choice because the river has touched your life in an intimate and irreversible way, because you are unwilling to accept its loss. — (David Bolling, Ho

Green Gardens

And below taken on the loop side trail coming back from Western Brook Pond

We spent 10 days in Newfoundland and that was far from enough.
We got as far east as Twillingate before having to turn back.

Loved the place!
Far more civilised than Ontario!
1. Beer, wine, even hard stuff available in grocery stores.
2. No separate schools.

Unmissable places in Newfoundland:
Gros Morne National Park, especially Western Brook Pond.
Anchors Aweigh at the Ocean View hotel in Rocky Harbour; make an early reservation.
L'Anse aux Meadows, where humans who migrated west after leaving Africa about 70,000 years ago met those who migrated east, completing the circumnavigation of the planet by the species. Not such a happy meeting, but then many meetings in those times and much later weren't happy either.
St Anthony and the Grenfell mission.
Twillingate; get there by early July to see the bergs.

People are great, accommodation is less so (we can give some specific tips; generally, buildings are mostly frame so you want to stay on the top floor).
Seafood can be superb.
There`s lots to see in the St John`s area, I know, but we couldn`t get there.

Other unmissable places:
Louisbourg on Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia.
Prince Edward Island, especially Charlottetown (the Confederation site and pubs).

Go east!

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A literal mind is a little mind. If it's not worth doing to excess, it's not worth doing at all. Good enough isn't.  None are so blind as those who choose not to see. (AJ)