At the edge of the world
Cape St. Mary, Mistaken Point, and Cape Spear Newfoundland
There are two ferries from North Sydney on Cape Breton, Nova Scotia to Newfoundland. The first is a regular service every day that takes 7 hours and goes to Channel-Port au Basque. It costs just under $200. The second is a seasonal ferry to Argentia that is further south and closer to St. John’s. The latter only operates during the summer, probably for the tourists. It takes 16 hours and costs $350 for a person and a vehicle. It departs Wednesday, Friday, and Sunday evenings. My planning for Newfoundland and Labrador consisted of maybe two hours internet search in Bridgewater and a lot of desire from when I was quite young and first wanted to travel the Maritimes. Way back when, I thought it was really cool that there was an overnight ferry and so it was always my intention to take the Argentia ferry. The difference in price, including gas turns out to be only $60 and saves a day of a driving so it seemed like a good play. As well, it makes it so that my trip around Newfoundland would be as close to a loop as possible with the least amount of backtracking.
I decided to head for Newfoundland straight from Halifax instead of driving Cape Breton mainly because the weather was looking iffy in Cape Breton but better on the island. This alteration had the added benefit of 1) not having to rush Cape Breton in a set number of days to hit the ferry reservation, 2) hitting northern and eastern parts of the country earlier in the year and presumably lowering my risk of bad weather, and 3) Returning to Cape Breton after schools start in the fall which should result in even fewer people. This was all possible because in Bridgwater I also discovered that my original plan to drive Expedition 51, the highway from Labrador to Quebec, would include several extended stretches of gravel roads frequented by mining vehicles in the absolute middle of nowhere. With a lowered car, road-bias tires, and no full sized spare, this did not seem like a prudent route so I adjusted my plans to return to Nova Scotia after Newfoundland and Labrador.
To prepare for Newfoundland I stocked up on nonperishable camping food (mainly canned food and instant noodles) because food would be more expensive on the island and restaurants fewer. Then I drove to the ferry terminal where the ferry waited, looking awfully like a Greek ship. The ferry leaves at 5:30pm but everyon needs to be there by 3:30 at the lastest. While waiting to board I repacked my bags taking out stuff I’d left in there since Europe including my travel adaptor and spare contacts. Once onboard you’re not allowed to return to the vehicle deck so everything has to be taken up with you. Most people get cabins for about 50$/person but they were sold out so I was relegated to the air seats. I’m not really sure I would have splurged on a cabin even if it was avaliable. I didn’t mind this and probably would have done it anyways to save money but when I went into the lounge I was dismayed to see European plugs. A sign on the wall confirmed that this ship was indeed Greek made.
Luckily the other lounge had a North American power bar and I was able to charge up all my electronics as well as watch a movie. The seats were pretty uncomfortable for sleeping on, kinda like an airplane, and I didn’t think it would be good to sleep on the floor when specific tv screens in other parts of the ship forbid it so I had a rough night and didn’t get much sleep. I was however happy to have a shower once before bed and again in the morning.
It was exciting driving onto Newfoundland and being in the far reaches of Canada, putting my clock half an hour ahead. I was now in Canada’s fifth time zone (sixth if you include daylight savings). Newfoundland is 3 hours and 30 minutes behind Greenwich time instead of four hours (which would be Atlantic time) like the rest of the Maritimes.
Once on Newfoundland, near the ferry terminal is a national site called Castle Hill that use to be an important French settlement before the English took over. There’s a small visitor centre and up on the hill are the remains of a fortress.
My plan was to drive the coast edge counterclockwise like I’d done the other maritime provinces. Down the first peninsula I found Newfoundland to be a flat topped island where vertical cliffs become barren grasslands. Though the road fell to sea level along the many coves and bays where small communities sat, I spent a lot of time on rolling parries which I found rather beautiful in their emptiness. A large part of of South Avalon is the Burin oceanic barrens with carpets of moss and lichen along with low-growing shrubs and drawf trees in the shallow valleys. peat-covered terrain forms wetlands and standing lakes perched on the edge of of the hillsides.
At the tip of the first peninsula was Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve where a major colony of Northern Gannets live. This is the most accessible seabird colony in North America with thousands of birds. The trail to the birds was through the fog but miraculously the viewpoint was slightly lower than the top of the plateau and in clear skies. There were so many birds circling on the air currents or nesting on the rocks.
I learned later that a major avian flu is killing thousands of birds this summer but there were still so so many. Apparently there was about 3,000 when normally there’s upwards of 7,000.
My first night on Newfoundland was at the end of a long bay between the Cape St Mary pensinula and Cape Race in a small community called St. Vincent. They had a very long rocky beach and am information sign suggested that in the spring and early summer this was an active feeding ground for whales. I would read similar signs many times over about whales and icebergs in spring but not at the turn of September which was unfortunate.
The next day I woke up and drove to Mistaken Point Ecological Reserve, a fairly recent UNESCO world heritage site. Walking into the interpretive centre a woman asked me if I wanted to go on a tour to see the fossils. I didn’t realize, but the tour is the only way to see and walk on the fossil beds. This seemed pretty cool so I agreed and looked through the interpretation centre while I waited. I’d find out later how lucky I was because they only allow 30 people a day and one usually needs to reserve in advance. Since it was coming to the end of the tourist season, I was in luck and joined a morning tour that included nine woman from Toronto on a yoga and meditation trip as well as a couple from Montreal and a woman from Saskatchewan. We got chatting along the hike to the fossil beds and one took to calling me Toronto which was kinda odd seeing as we were all from Toronto yet endearing none the less.
The hike was through more of the barrens and with interpretive stops along the way by the guides. Even better, the coastline became folded sedimentary stone that was visibly bent into the shoreline and then dropped vertically into the ocean.
The fossil beds are of Ediacaran biota. They are the first appearance of large and complex life on earth between 575–542 million years ago. This is 300 million years before the dinosaurs. They look kinda of like ferns and a lot like plants but have been determined be from deep water where there wasn’t sunlight for photosynthesis. Thus, they fed by filtering the sea water and are animals. This is thought to be an evolutionary dead end because the closest living thing today is a sea sponge. More evidence of the dead-end theory can be seen by looking at the different fossil beds that are million years apart where the same creatures appear smaller because new evolutionary creatures were performing better.
Mistaken point is the most numerous and accessible site in the world to study these soft bodied organisms from the ocean floor and the only site known to be from deep waters. What’s cool is that we were able to walk on the surface and it is pretty much impossible to not step on a fossil because they are so abundant. To protect the fossils, we took off our shoes and walked in our socks. The guides also said that depending on the light some fossils are easier to identify so they’re constantly finding new ones. The rock formation extends all the way under the surface to St. John where some of the same fossils can be seen around town and in a casting at the Geo centre.
The reserve is on a federal road to Cape Race lighthouse where ships used to turn the headlands as close to land as possible and throw over a canister with the news from Europe before continuing on their journey. A small boat would be dispatched from the community to fetch the canister and the news could be disseminated to the rest of Newfoundland via telegram. The Original cast iron lighthouse was replaced in 1907 by a reinforced concrete one 32m tall. It was the second lighthouse in the world made from reinforced concrete and the first of its kind in North America. At the top is a seven ton hyperradial lens which is the the largest ever built. Having seen a lot of lighthouses on my trip so far, it did indeed look like a large lantern.
Along the edge of the Cape is vertically aligned shale which makes for some very steep and jagged cliffs. I thought it was cool to see yet another geology so close to the fossil beds.
The drive into the ecological reserve had been mesmerizing beautiful so I wanted to check out the other two publicly accessible trails on the way out. The first was to Freshwater cove and it was was spectacular. I reached the end of the trail and realized I’d forgotten my camera in the car so I ran back to get it. An old cabin is perched on the hill beside two rivers that become waterfalls. one cascades down an inclined rock face into the ocean and the other falls in a torrent to the otherside of a headland. The steep terrain made for a dramatic and dangerous viewpoint that I wasn’t quite able to capture in photograph but I think I got on video. It was beautiful and gorgeous.
The other trail to Rookery was shorter and safer but no less beautiful. Standing on the barren landscape I looked down at the water washing up against the vertical cliffs and felt like I was at the edge of the world, far from anyone else. Surprisingly, that didn’t make me feel lonely, but exhilarating, like an explorer out in the world where few people dare. And judging by the trail, I was the first in quite some time.
To my surprise, the following day I began hiking part of the East Coast trail near Port Kirwan and I came upon two woman who shouted out “Toronto!” It was the same yoga-meditation group. I hiked with them partway until they stopped for lunch in a bay where we saw a seal and then continued on to my goal of seeing Berry head arch. The views along the trail were spectacular following crescent shaped bays surrounded by forest and up and over grassy headlands with commanding views. Frequent lookouts would be a step back from a steep plunge down and all along were vertical protruding rocks at the edge of the ocean.
The trail became rougher and muddier after I left the ladies to their lunch. Then while thinking about what it might be like to thru hike the East Coast Trail I ran into a girl doing it. We walked together to the arch and I found out that Lily from Ottawa had gotten on a plane for St John New Brunswick before realizing she’d bought the wrong ticket. She was sitting on the plane and had to get off right before it left the gate. Lily spent the first 7 hours of her trip in the airport waiting for a flight to St John’s Newfoundland. Atleast there was a flight the same day. This was a funny start to the hike and she was on day 3. The first day was apparently quite rough along an unmaintained trail with lots of mud but she had still hiked 17km and the next day another 18km of the 336km trip that would take 2–3 weeks.
The arch was magnificent and another wonderful geological formation. It made a good spot to have a rest and snack before departing ways, Lily northwards and me back the way I came.
On my way back I found the last two ladies also returning right before the trailhead. They’d done some meditation at the bay and on the top of the grassy headland. This seemed like a pretty cool way to travel as a group and they seemed to be having a good time.
After another snack I departed, heading north towards St. John’s. There were two more possible hikes along the way but I was pretty tired and from the highway I couldn’t tell if they’d be any good so I continued on to a Tim hortons that I sat outside of for two hours. I was trying to upload a video and download new music for future videos because after three youtube videos and only having 9 songs the music was getting stale. I got the new music, another 19 songs but my phone didn’t have space for them. I am constantly running up to against the storage limits of my phone and the few times I get wifi to backup my photos and videos it isn’t enough because the internet is so slow. It’s actually quite frustrating but there’s nothing I can really do about it other than spend a boatload of money for a large cellular data plan.
After a while I got impatient so I went down the street for a pan-fried cod dinner and then drove to the Cape Spear area to camp. A primary goal of this trip was to see the sunrise from Cape Spear at the eastern tip of Canada and North America. I ended up checking out the Cape at night as I looked for a place to camp and then returned in the morning for sunrise.
I always imagined that I’d stand on the edge of the world to clear skies and a beautiful sunrise but that day was partially cloudy. It was still beautiful though and I’m happy to have been the eastern most person for a short part of the day seeing the sunrise.
The cape is home to a lighthouse and the remains of a WW2 naval battery. It was too early to see the lighthouse museum or the tunnels near the battery but I was still able to walk around the site while the sun rose. Despite the cloud cover, it was a beautiful morning.
That morning I went into St. John’s to see the the colourful houses in the old town. It’s cool that much of the old city is built on the hillside and that each house is brightly coloured to distinguish one from another.
On trying to find another vantage point for some modern housing that is also coloured (the tradition appears to be alive and well), I stumbled into Quidi Vidi cove which was a small but picturesque harbour. There are a few of these little coves near St John’s harbour and they all retain a fishing heritage. I’d driven through one the night before in the dark but wasn’t able to get any photos.
I then went up Signal hill to see a view of the city and visit the National Park visitor centre there as well as Geo centre which had a nice collection of rocks from around the province.
The remainder of my time in St. John was spent trying to back up data at a Starbucks and upload video. It was a slow process and then I stayed another day worried about my car; but that I think I’ll leave for the next post.
