The Western Shores!

Sept 6, 2019

Today was another day of exploration.  The Chefs in Residence were putting on a breakfast in the Anglican Church social room, and the cost for the breakfast was by donation, profits going to the local school arts program.  The Chefs served up Irish Griddle cakes and potato bread, with scrambled eggs and bacon.  The cakes were delicious and a perfect way to start the day.  

We are driving to Corner Brook and area.  Although the roads in Newfoundland are paved they are still very rough, with huge bumps and potholes.  We had decided to leave our trailer in the campsite and use it as a home base.  We want to kayak in Gros Morne but so far the winds were not going to allow that. 

We have also been following the latest updates on Hurricane Dorian as it was starting to travel north into the Maritimes.  We were not sure yet what we were going to do, but if it was going to become a threat in this area, we would be moving inland.

The town of Corner Brook, reminded us of Port Alberni.  It is situated at the end of a long cove, is a port city and the residential areas fan out from the down town core into the hills and niches along the coastline. 

After driving through Corner Brook, we decided to visit Cape St. George.  This point of land juts out off the coast into the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  It is surrounded on three sides by water but the coastline is sensational, with very high headlands and then small coves with fantastic beaches.  The winds are still high and the surf is rolling against the shores.  It was simply a beautiful drive and certainly underscores the many televised Newfoundland tourist advertisements.

We had purchased tickets to see a performance in the Gros Morne theatre in Cow Head.  Since we were having such a great time in Cape St. George, we suddenly realized that we had better start making our way north again in order to be on time for the show.  As we started back onto highway #1, Debbie did the calculations and if all goes well we should make it back about 15 minutes before showtime!  All things were going well until we met the paving crew, about 20 kms south of Cow Head.  We sat in the line up for about 10 minutes as the paving crew was moving their equipment off of the highway for the night.  Those packers do not move very quickly.  Nevertheless, me made it to the theatre and into our seats just as the general instructions of no cell phones and photos was being announced.  Whew, another close call!

The show was a one-man performance.  It was a self-portrayal of Joey Smallwood, the colorful and egotistical premier of Newfoundland.  Smallwood is well known in Canadian politics and is regarded as the “father of Newfoundland” for bringing the province into Confederation.  The actor, Colin Furlong did a brilliant and entertaining performance.

We carefully drove back south to our campsite (hoping not to meet a moose). Debbie calculated our mileage for the day and realized that we had driven almost a total of 600 kms today!  We have certainly seen a lot of the Western shore of Newfoundland.