June 30/July 1: Terra Nova to St.John's

Today the destination was St. John’s!  Since we were a little ahead of schedule due to leaving Gros Morne early, we decided to take a few detours along our route to check out what else Newfoundland had in store.  Our first stop was a little town called Trinity.

  

According to our Lonely Planet guide, “Trinity was first visited by Portuguese explorer Corte-Real in 1500 and established as a town in 1580, Trinity is one of the oldest settlements on the continent.” 

 

From there we headed to Bonavista.  “‘O buona vista!’ (‘Oh, happy sight!’), shouted John Cabot upon spying the New World from his boat on June 24, 1497. Or so the story goes. From all descriptions, this pretty spot (population 4000) is where he first set foot in the Americas” (Lonely Planet).  We stopped by the lighthouse for lunch, to soak in some sun and enjoy the beautiful view! 

And if whales and moose and all the wildlife we are wanting to see aren’t going to come to us, then we are going to have to go to them!  Sooo, next stop, Elliston where there is a Puffin colony! 

Elliston is also known as the root cellar capital of the world.  We passed many root cellars, the oldest surviving one dating back to 1839, newer ones being about 60 years old.  They were built to keep things cool in the summer and cold in the winter but not frozen.  Some are still in use today!

Then the clouds once again rolled in and we drove through some thick fog and big downpours BUT I think we have finally outrun the rain!  We arrived in St. John’s, set up camp and headed downtown for dinner and to start our exploration of the city!

July 1

It was so nice to be able to sleep in today and know that we didn’t have to get up, pack up and get on the road!  We spent the day walking around downtown St. John’s in 31 degree weather!  It was beautiful, maybe a little too hot (you can never please a pregnant woman)!  Downtown is not very big so it didn’t take long to explore.  To fill up the rest of our day we went to Signal Hill and did a little boat cruise to do some whale watching!  Signal Hill was the reception point of the first transatlantic wireless signal by Guglielmo Marconi in 1901, as well as the site of harbor defences for St. John's from the 18th century to the Second World War.  

The view of St.John's from Signal Hill

Atop Signal Hill we saw that we were 5031km from Vancouver!  Of all the places listed, we were the farthest from home...Ok except for maybe Kabul BUT we were way closer to Paris than we were were to Vancouver!

On our whale tour we saw some Minke whales!  

Yeah ok so I stole this photo from the Internet – mine just aren’t as good.  

We passed Cape Spear, the most easterly point of land in North America

My favourite part of Newfoundland was the colourful houses that lined the streets!

And here is a random sign that to me looks like a guy riding a unicycle and trying to juggle?

Since it was Canada Day, we decided to go to Quidi Vidi Lake in St. John’s and enjoy some live music and fireworks!