More adventure on the Avalon Peninsula

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Editor’s note:

We are back home on Pender having flown out of St. John’s the morning of the day Hurricane Fiona hit the Atlantic provinces. Apart from having a 5:00 am flight, our trip was relatively painless.

The Baccalieu Trail

We traversed part of the trail to get to our B and B in New Perlican (which apparently is older than Old Perlican) and on our first morning there we headed north to finish the job. Several towns were on our way but the main target was Bay de Verde and Blunden House. The house was built in the late 1890s which makes it pretty new in BDV terms as the first European visitors to the area came in the 1500s. It is a good example of the merchant class of housing with one section for family and the other for servants. It is now a great museum and the friendly staff of locals shared lots of interesting stories. They even served tea and scones at the end of the visit.

There were several outbuildings that are being converted to additional displays. Dianne peeked in one and found a chap working on setting up a display of tools. He said he was retired but working harder now than before. Since he had been brought up in BDV he had lots of local knowledge and was happy to share. One of the most interesting stories involved the Spring Well located halfway up a fairly steep hill. It was the source of water for many people even into the 1950s.

There were several places where we could have gone for a hike. Lots of viewpoints. One thing that was in short supply was restaurants but we did find one towards the end of our drive and had a nice lunch and an interesting chat with the staff. Part of the return trip was through Heart’s Content where we had seen the Cable Museum on our way to New Perlican. But that is part of tomorrow’s adventure. Tonight we have PB and J sandwiches and a brief stroll around New Perlican.

The Wooden Boat Museum in Winterton

We passed through Winterton on our way to BDV the day before but you do have to drive on the same roads from time to time. This is just up the road from our B and B. Quite a place. We had seen another wooden boat museum in Twillingate but we thought this one was even better. The display boards were so informative and very easy to read; great quality work. The two boat museums are related. They offer courses in how to build your own wooden boat and all kinds of related activities.

Heart’s Content Cable Station

Not to be confused with Heart’s Desire and Heart’s Delight which are further down the road, Heart’s Content is where the trans-Atlantic cable came ashore in 1866. It seemed a bit bizarre to me considering where this town is located on the Avalon Peninsula but it was explained in one of the displays that this was one of the few harbours where the Great Eastern, the ship laying the cable, could turn around. The Great Eastern was the largest ship of its time and is a story in itself. I had read about it years ago but wasn’t aware of where it laid the cable. I found the whole thing very interesting. The building is much as it was originally and the cable company, which became Western Union, was used until 1965.

Further South to the end of the Baccalieu Trail

Many interesting photo ops appear along this route. The books describe the trail ending at the town of Dildo. All jokes aside, it is a very picturesque town. We had lunch at the Dildo Brewery which had been recommended to us by our B and B hosts. The drive back gave us a chance to take some photos that we had missed on the way south. The bad news is that our route tomorrow will take us back down this stretch of highway. The good news is that it is worth it.

Placentia Bay

After passing through Dildo again, we crossed the TCH and headed to the southwestern mini peninsula. I never did discover if this peninsula had a name. We were booked into an Airbnb in Dunville. Unbeknownst to us, Dunville is part of Placentia which is spread out over quite an area. The address was on Main Street, Dunville but we couldn’t find an actual town so that we could see the street names. We asked a couple of pedestrians for help and they pointed out that the “main highway” was actually Main Street. We had driven past our Airbnb at least twice! It was very nice.

The Placentia Bay area is nice to walk around. They have a boardwalk along the bay that was 2km down and 2 km back (no surprise there). The wind was quite a challenge on the outward-bound trip. The bay has two arms, one of which has quite a breakwater of its own. We chatted with one boat owner who was about to start working on his boat. He shared some interesting personal experiences of the area. We also met some women who were running a rummage sale at the local church. They let us into the church proper which was quite different from most of the long thin churches we have seen here and in Europe. Sadly, this is one of many churches that will be sold.

Castle Hill

Back in 1693 the French built Fort Royal to guard the Harbour at Placentia. Reading about the different battles to secure territory in Newfoundland was interesting. Hard to believe how long ago this was. We learned about this period in history class at school but this was learning about it in place. We toured the various fortifications and redoubts. The look out over the town was neat although we don’t think all the trees were there back in the day.

Cape St Mary’s

Our main interest on the southwestern end of the Avalon Peninsula was the Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve so off we went. We planned to stop at the Gooseberry Cove Provincial Park but we could see a sign for it. Hmmmm. Well, we’ll try again on our way back.

Cape St. Mary is right at the end of the peninsula. There is a huge rock that the birds love for a nesting ground as there are no land-based predators. The rock is a 20-minute walk down a level but very exposed trail. The centre staff was very hospitable and Chris assured us that the 60 kmh wind was nothing. They don’t even put out warning signs until the wind hits 100 kmh. And he also mentioned that the wind was blowing on shore that day so it would blow us back onto land! We chickened out and settled for looking at the rock from a distance. It is probably my biggest regret about the trip, that we didn’t make the effort to see it.

Remember my comment about if you see a restaurant, get some lunch? Well, restaurants in this area were few and far between. Chris checked and advised us that the restaurant in St. Bride’s was, indeed, open that day. When we got there, there was one car outside but no OPEN sign. There were four people having lunch so that was a good sign. The gal we talked so said she wasn’t going to open that day because she had to go to a wedding later in the day. Surprising as it may seem, we had cod and chips. She had bought the cod the day before from a local fisher who had just landed a fresh batch. It was great. The only problem was that a couple we had chatted with briefly at the Reserve came in just as we were leaving. They had braved the walk out to the rock and said it was fabulous. That made me feel even worse about not going ourselves.

Gooseberry Cove Provincial Park.

On our way back, we kept our eyes peeled for a sign. No luck. Hmmmmm. Dianne noticed a fellow loading something into his car near the road. She pulled into his driveway and asked for directions. He thought about it for a minute then gave her the low down but also a warning to go slowly on the road into the park. Things worked out as he described and we found the park. The sign was nice but not visible from the “highway”. The road into it was more of a boulder path. But the views were great. More rocks, beach, waves…. But nice.

The fourth mini-peninsula

Back to Dunville for the night. Tomorrow we head to our last two Airbnbs that are located on the Irish Loop. We discovered Highway 91 is gravel and even the locals recommended not going that way. So it was a bit of a round-about way to get there but one good thing came of it. ToBeContinued.

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Photos

Library for kids
In the Bill Pretty Memorial Playground in Dildo. Dianne likes all kinds of libraries.

Bay de Verde
The area was first visited by the Portuguese in the 1500s. First settled in 1600s. Churches and Blundon House (bottom right) date from 1890s.

Cemetery
We wondered why there seemed to be so many cemeteries and graveyards in NL. Then we realized they had over 500 years of European settlement where out in BC we have barely 150.

Weatherbeaten
Most of the "new" houses have vinyl siding. We were told "vinyl is final". After seeing houses like this one, we knew what they meant.

Blundon House tea party
After a very pleasant tour of both the family and servants parts of the house with a very knowledgeable local guide, we were treated to tea and biscuits.

Baccalieu Island
The island that the trail is named after sits just off the tip of the peninsula near Bay de Verde. If you enlarge the picture you can read about the difficulties early fishers had using these shores.

Water Hole
I think the caption implies there were still people using the well for their drinking water up to the 1950s.

Long way from home
If one can believe these distances, we were actually closer to Berlin (4564 km) than our home island near Vancouver (4960 km). That could explain why the flights seemed so long.

SeaGlass B and B
Our home away from home for three nights. Pleasant surroundings and the studio was a lot of fun too. Yes, we bought a couple of things.

Stages and Flakes
This model from the Boat museum shows how many stages (the sheds) and the flakes (the drying racks) worked. In the early days they spread the fish out on rocky beaches to dry. The flakes kept the fish up out of the way of predators.

Henry Vokey
He lived in Trinity, across Trinity Bay in the Bonavista Peninsula. He was written up in the Boat Museum. We just liked his attitude (and his grammar).

Winterton Bay
This display shows how the stages and flakes were organized around the bay. This type of organization was used in countless little bays around Newfoundland. And there were no roads between them in the "old days".

The Cable Museum
This building was used by the original cable company and its successors for 99 years. Beautifully maintained and interesting in its own right.

The Great Eastern arrives
It must have been really something to see a ship of that size in the mid 1800s. I am still amazed they chose this location to drag that cable ashore.

School bus stop?
In our travels we passed a lot of little "sheds" which we assumed were school bus stops. This one was particularly neat.

Sunset in New Perlican
On our last night we were treated to a beautiful sunset.

Gotta be famous for something
When you look at a map of NL you realize just how dependent the province was on the sea. Almost all the towns are on the coast.

Bird Rock
Okay, so it's a picture of a picture. This is what we would have seen (from the shore in the back of the picture) had we walked out to the viewing area.

The real thing
This is our picture of Bird Rock taken from the warmth and protection of the building.

The long and winding road
The area was pretty deserted. Not many passing cars. You hope you don't need emergency road service.

Gooseberry Cove Provincial Park
It would have been nice to have this sign up at the "highway".