Exploring St. John's, NL

July 11    Riding down from St Anthony, we see a lot of lovely scenery interspersed with rain showers. About halfway down, we pass through Gros Morne, which is a large national park, with moderate mountains and a large valley – no pics. Stayed the night in Rocky Harbour, the “best recreational area in Newfoundland”. Got a lovely almost sunset.

July 12   Heading to St John’s. Decided we should see Corner Brook, as we will probably catch the ferry near St John’s. As we head west, the clouds get lower, the rain get’s heavier, the wind blows more until finally, when we reach Corner Brook we can hardly see anything and stay on the road. So – big u-turn, we’ve done Corner Brook and head east to St John’s and sunshine.



 Signal Hill

July 13

At St John’s, our first goal is Signal Hill, where Marconi received the first trans-Atlantic radio signal. He had all sorts of fun trying to get it set up, and then when he is successful, the undersea telegraph cable companies sue to stop his development (can’t put up with competition, I guess).  There is a lot of history of the British and French seizing the port, in spite of cannons guarding the entrance.

We got to know St John’s pretty well, trying to find a motel room for the night. There was a convention o f lawyers in town cluttering up the place ;^)


July 14  Go to downtown to St John’s George Street, recommended by a couple we talked to in Rocky Harbour. It was a street of bars and discos and something called ‘gentlemen’s clubs’. Since we didn’t feel particularly gentlemanly (19 days on the road) we didn’t investigate further ;^)

We did find a statue celebrating St John’s as the cultural capital of Canada.

George street pic

Our next goal was Cape Spear, the most easterly point of Canada. Very nice layout, with a lighthouse etc. According to the chart, it is:

52 Deg 37’ 30” W

47 Deg 31’ 20” N

Barry noted that from the signs (at Signal Hill), we were closer to London, UK, than Vancouver. We talked to 2 couples from Landmark, Manitoba, which is the middle of Canada(96 deg 48’). Barry has also sailed around Triangle Island, of the north end of Vancouver Island, which is the furthest west point. We also saw some whales just off the coast.

We rode south in sunshine to tour around the Avalon Peninsula. A lovely day, till at the end we started looking for a place to stay the night and it started raining. Fortunately, modern technology – GPS, cell phones, occasionally supplemented by paper maps and tourist guides lead to success and we found a room in Placentia, only about 10 km from where the ferry leaves the next afternoon.

In the morning we catch up on our laundry, look around a little and head for the ferry terminal for a 15 hour trip. We’re trying to decide if this is a MC trip or a series of cruises.

Tomorrow we’ll be on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia