Driving to St. John's

The drive from St. Anthony to St. John's is roughly 1050km and 11 hours without stops. Who in their right mind would take on that trek especially after having gotten up early on drive day to take an iceberg tour? Well certainly not us, even we aren't that crazy despite some of the lengthy drives we've had on this trip. We broke the drive up with two stops in between. We did end up driving back on the Viking Trail because there is no other road on the east side of the peninsula where St. Anthony is located that brings you to St. John's. St. John's is on the most easterly side of Newfoundland. Seemed a little strange but if you see how remote and rugged the trrrain is between most of the towns, it's understandable that the fastest route was to double back. This gave us the opportunity to be on the coastline side as we drove through all the small fishing villages and through Gros Morne National Park. 

Our first stop was in Springdale; still a long 6 hour drive from St. Anthony. Because our tour had been delayed it did get us on the road a little later than we originally planned so we didn't have time to stop in the park to do any hiking. We pretty much just drove straight through. With such long driving time swapping drivers is key to ensuring one doesn't get too tired potentially putting both of us in danger. It all worked out and I figured out that I'm best at driving in the morning than in the afternoon.the Viking Trail, or route 430 brought us to Hwy 1, or TCH as they seem to sign it in Newfoundland, in The community of Deer Lake. From there we continued on to Springdale, our stop for the night. Along this journey we once again saw a moose, this time on the side of the TCH. This one had the full antlers and ended up running back into the forest after being scared off from the traffic noise. I was driving at this point and could see him a ways down the road. He was very pronounced and not difficult to see; quite the large creature. 

In Springdale we stayed at a fairly new inn nestled along the Indian River. This was a great little stay even if it was for only one night. We had a river view from our room and in the morning we went for a nice walk on a trail beside the river. We saw a couple local men wading out of the river with their morning salmon catch. Guess what they might have been having for dinner that night. There river also spared to be a great place for bird watching. After our morning walk we set out to keep on schedule to get to St. John's. from Springdale to St. John's is another 5.5 hour direct drive. But we of course decided that taking the long way around and detouring ourselves completely out of the way to Bonavista would be the way to go. So instead of that 5.5 hour drive we drove just shy of 5 hours to Bonavista. This drive took us through Terra Nova National Park. Throughout our entire travels we had no issues outside of missing half of the Cabot Trail due to a motor vehicle accident. Our luck changed in Terra Nova National Park through no fault of ours. We were driving along when a truck travelling in the opposite direction threw a rock in the air which struck our windshield and caused a sizeable ding. So unfortunate because now we would have to deal with this upon returning the vehicle. 

We arrived in Bonavista early afternoon which gave us plenty of time to see the sights. We stayed at the Harbour Quarters Inn, a heritage inn built in circa 1920 and restored in 2004. Each room is furnished with locally made furniture and the inn is located right in the harbour. Looking from the property to the North Atlantic, we could again see an iceberg floating by. Our first sightseeing stop was the Ryan Premises, a national historic site. The significance of this site was learning about the local fishery which influenced settlement, culture and economic development on the east coast for more than 500 years. The site consists of 5 separate building, each showcasing different exhibits pertaining to the fishery and life as both a fisherman and a fish merchant. 

Bonavista is thought to be where John Cabot first spied land in the New World during his 1497 voyage from Britain. It's his report of abundant cod stocks that enticed centuries of English and Irish settlers to fish there in the summer months. On the road to the town's lighthouse, you can find a large statue of John Cabot on a hill overlooking the sea. Cape Bonavista lighthouse was first lit in 1843. The life of a lighthouse keeper was a difficult, yet extremely important, one with gruelling long hours. From the lighthouse we followed the main road to The Dungeon. This is a massive collapsed sea cave formed by the restless pounding of the North Atlantic waves against this rock formation. You can get some good views of the dungeon up close, but be vary of the signs that indicate that should you fall in it is difficult to get out. 

From there we venture to our last sightseeing spot. Z said he wasn't leaving Newfoundland until he saw a puffin and he was serious. We ventured out to a somewhat remote area about 20 minutes away where he read that he was guaranteed to see puffins. Fingers crossed his intel was correct because we only had a few hours of daylight left and the next morning we needed to move on to St. John's. We arrived and had to walk a few hundred metres before we came to the edge of the coastline and just another few hundred metres across the sea on a large rocky formation were the puffins. A whole lot of puffins, along with their seagull friends. Puffins are a small little bird. They have a cute face with a. Lack and red beak. The Atlantic puffin also known as the common puffin population has declined significantly and they are now rated as vulnerable by the IUCN. It was interesting watching these little puffins as they took off to fly and dive into the ocean to feed. We both thought they had a funny landing and looked somewhat like a helicopter landing; though maybe not as steady as a helicopter. There was a large number of puffins hanging out in this area and it satisfied someone's need so we could safely move on with our trip the next day. 

The next day we had another 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get us to our final destination, St. John's. All along we were very fortunate to have had good weather and not much rain. The most rain we experienced until this day was one afternoon while we were driving and so it really didn't matter. Our luck ran out that morning. The rain started and was rather heavy at times. The great part about it was that we were in the vehicle and by now the vehicle was absolutely filthy with dead bugs stuck all over the front grill and hood. The rain washed all that away and we didn't feel guilty about returning a dirty vehicle. The drive was pretty noneventful and as I started to dose, which I easily can do on long road trips, Z yells moose. We saw another moose at the side of the TCH. Because I was dosing I wasn't camera ready and so Z did try to circle back because the moose stayed by the side of the road for awhile, but just as we were approaching several other cars came around the bend and scared the poor moose back into the woods. 

We arrived at St. John's airport to return the vehicle and thankfully didn't have too much trouble with the car rental agent given the windshield ding. After filing the incident report we were on our way to catch a taxi to our hotel. 

Icebergs galore

Part of the reason we drove all that distance up the Viking Trail, through the UNESCO World Heritage site of Gros Morne National Park, to St. Anthony was so we could embark on our quest to see an iceberg, or in actuality an abundance of icebergs. Z quickly nicknamed these massive icebergs "ice cubes". Perhaps the humour in this only lies with the two of us, but hearing him call them ice cubes was quite funny. 

We had booked a ice berg and whale watching tour with Northland Discovery Tours out of St. Anthony. Now, we could have actually booked a similar type tour that didn't take us to the northern tip of the island of Newfoundland, but where would the fun in that be? Our tour was scheduled for 9am and we were told to arrive 20 minutes early. We planned accordingly and got ourselves up with enough time to have breakfast at Tim Hortons because we had read that the Timmies in St. Anthony is the only location that offers a speciality donut during the Iceberg Festival; the iceberg donut. So with a name like that, why wouldn't you want to try it? It was a very delicious novelty to try once. 

We arrived at Northland Discovery Tours at the time we were told and found out that our tour was actually pushed back to 10am because they were expecting high wind later in the day and had to adjust their schedule and were trying to accommodate a bus tour group. No big deal, we really had no other choice and just went with the flow. We thought it a little strange though that when we called a couple days earlier to confirm nothing was said to us then. We sat by the water as we waited and ended up having some good chats with others who arrived early as well and had no clue our tour was heading out an hour later. The morning was beautiful, the sun was out, the scenery absolutely incredible and the company great so it made the time go by that much quicker. 

Our tour was amazing. The weather was perfect, the wind was not too strong and so we only experienced about 1 foot swells so the boat was not swaying too much. Our guide, Steve, was not only quite humorous, but also very knowledgable and informative. As we approached the first iceberg for an up close view, we heard the theme song of the movie, The Titanic playing. This really brought the enormity of icebergs to reality. And to think that only 1/9 of the entire iceberg is visible above the water level. It's truly amazing to think about. While we were passing one iceberg we were treated to the loud thunderous cracking sound of a chunk of the berg breaking away from the main structure. It was pretty cool to hear. At one point Steve fished out a small piece of berg from the ocean and broke it up so we could taste it. First though he asked whether we thought it would taste salty or not. Surprisingly, to me, it was not in the least bit salty. Because the iceberg is so dense, the salt water is unable to penetrate it. We had heard from someone that there were about 25% more icebergs floating around Newfoundland this year compared to last. It's not surprising given the amount of bergs we got to see. I read after the fact that almost 1,000 icebergs had been counted in Iceberg Alley off the coast of Newfoundland making the North Atlantic shipping lanes extra dangerous this year. As global warming continues it can be expected that the numbers will only increase. The bergs are all originating from Greenland, making their way down to the coast of Newfoundland and according to Steve the bergs we saw on that day would be gone within a month. Gone not because they continued to flow south, but because they would be melted. We were the second tour of the day and Steve and our skipper both indicated that since the first tour some of the bergs had already shifted their position from the morning and certainly had shifted from the previous day. One of the icebergs we passed was concave and in the middle was those most brilliant turquoise coloured water. It was such a sight to see this smaller area of turquoise water within the great Atlantic ocean. There was another berg we saw up close where you could see very distinct water lines within it. 



As we continued on with the tour we were told to keep our eyes open for the spray of a humpback whale which shoots up into the air about 10 feet when they come up for air. While the tour had no guarantees of a whale sighting, there had been a couple sightings the day before, but none earlier in the morning. At one point I saw a head pop out of the water and while it wasn't a whale we encountered a seal. This seal seemed very aware that we were there and he was rather playful as he popped in and out of the water and flapped his fin on the surface. Towards the end of the tour a whale was spotted in the distance and we were off to chase it down. It took us some time to find it, but we did finally get a good glimpse of the lone humpback whale as he arched his back preparing for a dive into the deep. We also got a glimpse of his flukes and the distinct white markings on the underside These markings are what are used to tell one whale apart from another. Getting to see a whale at the end of the tour really made the tour feel fully complete. It was a great way to end a fantastic 2 hour tour. 

Once we were back on dry land, it was lunch time and we decided to head back to the Lightkeeper's Restaurant. We had dinner there the night before and really enjoyed the atmosphere, and food. We wanted to try their moose sliders (which were super tasty!) so it was the perfect place to have lunch as it was only a 5 minute drive from the dock. For lunch we got a window table and could age out and admire the icebergs floating by. It was a great way to cap off our time in St. Anthony.