This is part 2 of my summer travelogue that I wrote for my friend and workmate, Lora. Part 1 is here.

July 18, 2021

Hi Lora – I’m on the annual ‘Girl’s Trip’ that I take with my sister and niece. (So this one is not about beaches as much, which might be a nice break for you!) This is our sixth annual but seventh time we have done this. We went two times last year to extend the summer. We may try that again this year too.

We walked some of the trails my brother takes with his dog in Gorge Park. We hadn’t gone this way before as my niece was too young to make the trek. Now she is leading the way.

She also found a NL Rock Art painted rock on the trail. These are hidden in places all over the island. I found one last year. It’s a real thrill to find one when you are just out walking.

It was very cool because cats are one of her favourite things. So of course we had to get some rocks and paint them up for hiding as well. These two were going somewhere in the Grand Falls Windsor area to replace the found rock. This one was nestled away on the Corduroy Brook Nature Trail.

And this one somewhere that I’m not telling!

When we were on the trail, my niece saw this robin’s nest very close to the trail. It wasn’t even an arm’s length away. We quickly and quietly took a pic before moving along.

My sister and I noted that it was July 18 and it seemed a little late in the year for birds eggs to be unhatched. But neither of us is a ‘birdologist’ so what do we know.

We spent some time playing and relaxing at my brother and sister-in-law’s place, and I took note of the new things in her garden. I like the new frog and adorable watering can.

We did go to Kona beach again – we always enjoy going there and seeing how far my niece has advanced in her swimming, but I won’t count it as a beach because it’s on a lake.

But we did go to King’s Point and had a nice lunch by the water, and we visited one beach in Springdale. Both of these were on the ocean so I will count them towards my total.

As always, this was a great trip. I do hope we get to go back and visit again before the summer is over.

Beaches total = 64/100

August 2 to August 9, 2021

Hey Girl! How’s summer going on the homestead? It’s the dog days and I hear it’s really hot up there. Partner and I are off to the west coast of the island for a week. We usually visit his mom over here each year, but this time we are going to spend a few days exploring around the coast first. I haven’t been up this way since my university days so I’m really excited to see it again. I’m not really looking forward to the seven hour drive, but this is the way.

Our home base for the first part of this trip is in Rocky Harbour. It’s a very colourful place with lots of tourists out and about.

We didn’t do much the first night except eat and set up the cabin with our supplies for the next few days. We were only a two-minute walk from the beach. I went there each morning at dawn. Each day I was the only one there that early. It was very relaxing. I wish I could start every day this way.

August 3, 2021

The next day we set out to see the area and visit a few communities and sights. This side of the island has mountains and fjords and waterfalls and some different geography, and, as always, the ocean.

Like this place. You could sit in these chairs in the far right of the pic below.

And look at the ocean and the mountains and the moss covered rocks.

Or find a lobster pot or two.

Or other colourful spots.

And if it doesn’t have colour, it just might have character – like this place.

There is a lot of coastline and a lot of tuckamore over here, Lora. (A tuckamore is an evergreen tree that is bent, gnarled, and stunted in growth because of the constant ocean winds. They grow low to the ground in clumps and look windswept.)

The wind and salt take their toll.

People leave these all over the coast.

For some of the drive, there are mountains on one side…

the highway in the middle…

and the ocean on the other side.

(I used all those ellipses just for you – cheeky but on point!) I’m going to try to keep this one a little shorter than the others because, my god, I can ramble on! I will try to let the pictures speak for themselves and keep my motor mouth shut for a hot minute.

There are many sea arches around Newfoundland. I showed you some pictures of these from Dungeon Park and Elliston in my notes on the Upper Amherst Cove and Bonavista trip. These are the arches at the Arches Provincial Park on the west coast, between Cow Head and Daniel’s Harbour.

More about sea arches.

Person out on sea arches for scale.

We also visited the shipwreck site of the S.S. Ethie.

This is some of the shipwreck that is still left.

There’s also a place to sit with a nice view if you don’t want to trek down to the shipwreck site.

We checked out the lighthouse at Lobster Cove.

And then we headed back to Rocky Harbour for something to eat and a quiet night in the cabin.

August 4, 2021

Hey Lora! Yesterday we explored north of Rocky Harbour, today we go south to check out the Bonne Bay area and go out to Trout River. Woody Point is in Bonne Bay – another very beautiful part of the province. There are views of the mountains and the water everywhere you turn.

There were quiet little places to park and just take in the view.

We saw this weird and alien-looking piece of wood on the big rocks by the beach. We decided to take it home with us. We are nothing if not welcoming to the weird.

We explored all this area on the map before heading out to Trout River.

An area known as the Tableland Mountains are on the way to Trout River. These mountains are unique. They are made up of the earth’s mantle, which is usually only found many kilometres beneath the earth’s crust. You can see the scale of these mountains from the cars in the parking lot.

The rocks that make up these mountains are full of toxic minerals, so there is not much vegetation or life up there and everything has a bit of an orange-ish tinge. I’m no ‘rockologist’ but these mountains are definitely a sight worth seeing. And it’s the only way to get to Trout River.

This is the beach in Trout River. It is just lovely.

There is a sea-stack in the community that is unusual because it is quite the distance from the sea. It is called ‘the old man.’

After that, it was back to Rocky Harbour for nice dinner at Java Jacks and a last little walk about the town. Tomorrow we are heading to our next stop on this trip.

August 5, 2021

Hey Lora! We are off to Corner Brook today. We are visiting my better half’s mom for a couple of days and we are going to explore the area.

The Newfoundland Emporium is always a great place to visit.

This parking meter has a nice scarf…or is it a legging?

Then we went down to see the ‘Newfie Bullet,’ one of the historic trains of the island. Unlike you, we no longer have any trains that run in Newfoundland.

More about the trains in Newfoundland.

Then we took a drive down to York Harbour, in the Bay of Islands. Again, more beauty everywhere you turn.

We took the road as far as we could on this drive, hitting Bottle Cove.

And then over to Little Port, which, admittedly, is very tiny.

We also saw a small flock of roosters along the way.

Then we headed back to Corner Brook in time for our reservation at the Crooked Feeder Gastropub. Me and he had a great time and stayed much longer than we thought we would!

August 6, 2021

Hey Girrrl! I hope you are having a good day and looking forward to the weekend! We are doing what is called the other side of the Humber Arm today. This includes many communities that I have never visited (as an adult at least, I was probably here with my family when we were all young). We visited a lot of little communities. These were some of my favourites.

Cox’s Cove was very peaceful and feels so secluded.

It was so nice to walk this beach and just breathe it all in. There were lots of other pretty scenes to be seen along the way.

We saw some cute goats along the way – this one was so pretty!

One of my favourite beaches we visited in this area was in a place called Meadows.

We had a nice walk on the beach and afterwards I got my camera for a few pics of this pleasant place. I took this one below.

And then something in the water caught my eye.

It was an otter! I watched and waited and it came back up again – this time it had a crab for lunch!

I kept snapping pics until it made it to the rocks where it could have lunch in private without my inquisitive gawking and clicking.

Again, I was pleased as punch for this unexpected interaction with the wildlife.

We left Meadows and stopped into a place called Hughes Brook for a look at this little community. We happened upon this field with a stunning stallion.

But it became immediately obvious that he did not want his picture taken. We were a far distance away, but he stamped and snorted as soon as my camera ‘clicked.’ I hopped back into the car and we left him be.

We left that side of the Humber Arm and took a drive to Deer Lake to check out Rough Waters Brewing Company.

I love their labels – so cute and funny. We had a nice little snack and then headed back to Corner Brook for our last night there.

Along the way back, we saw this sign.

I didn’t really see the ‘+’ in the sign, so I thought it said ‘stone garden’ and asked my partner if we could see what that’s all about.

Well, it turns out that it is both a place to buy stone for landscaping and a garden you can visit with trails to walk (the Tuach Garden and Arboretum). It was late in the day and we were still 40 minutes or so from our hotel so we didn’t get to walk the garden fully. But we took a few pictures and vowed to come back for a more thorough visit next year. This place was so adorable, unexpected and secluded.

We finished up in the Stone + Garden and headed back to the hotel. We were having dinner and then a relaxed night as we packed and prepared for the trip back to the east coast of the island.

August 7, 2021  

Hey Lora – I’m a little sad to be leaving this side of the island today. Honestly, I could stay here for another week and just walk the beaches every day and I’d be happy. But there are other places and adventures to be had, no doubt!

We are not going directly home from here. We are going to Bay Roberts and that area for a night and the next day. Bay Roberts is only an hour from home, but there is a lot to see there too.

We didn’t have a lot of time the first day, and, after a seven hour drive, we were kinda beat. We had supper at Madrock Café, a wonderful down-home place to eat.

This sign in the café had me laughing out loud for the word play.

Toutons are just fried white bread dough. They are traditionally served with molasses and butter. I love them, but don’t have them too often. They are ‘moreish’ as we say around here – meaning that they are good and make you want to eat more of them. After I was already stuffed from my meal, I had a touton. It was some shockin’ good!

They also had this little display that was just so retro with some little underpinnings of nostalgia – I remember Scotties Chips.

After our bellies were full we headed to the bed and breakfast. We were going to take a little walk about the property before settling in to watch a movie.

August 8, 2021

Hello Lora! I can’t believe it’s the last day of this trip. It’s day eight and I really feel like I could do this forever (or at least another few weeks). We headed out to Port de Grave Harbour today. I loved this elaborate display that welcomes visitors to the area.

My favourite part was this saying ‘Will your anchor hold in the storm of life?’

Hard to say, hard to say.

I saw this shag drying itself out on the rocks. A ‘shag’ is local-speak for a long-necked cormorant – a sea bird.

We visited a place called ‘Hibbs Hole.’

There is also a fisherman’s museum there.

After that, we took a drive to Upper Island Cove to visit a fossil site.

Then we went to the Longshore Lookout.

Lora, you know I’m not a ‘signologist,’ but I gotta tell you, I love these signs! I take pics of them whenever I can on my travels.

There were sayings from this community all over the lookout and the benches – very endearing!

‘Marnin’ means ‘morning.’

We saw this nice goat and his friends on the way home.

This is the S.S. Kyle, a ship that has been like this in Harbour Grace since 1967.

This last pic on my camera roll for this trip is this one, another weathervane.

A little postscript Lora – there was a pic on my phone from this trip and I couldn’t let this one pass! Did you know you can get most anything at this place – hardware, footware, workware, musical instruments, accessories, and fireworks – what else could you possibly need?

Lora, I visited 24 beaches on this trip. I’m getting close to my goal and I’m looking forward to keeping you updated on my progress!

Beaches total = 88/100

August 23, 2021

Hey Lora – there’s no beach trip today, but I wanted to share this with you.

So my sister and I went out to lunch with mom and her siblings (our aunts and uncle). After awhile, we were talking about the beaches and our trip later this week. I was blabbing on about my goal of 100 beaches. And my sister and I told them about some of the places we had been to recently. When we don’t know the name of a beach, we just give it a name so we know it for ourselves.

For example, on our travels so far, we have beaches we have named like ‘Hidden Beach’ (because we missed the turn-off road three times) another was ‘Bird Nest Beach’ (no surprise – because there were many bird’s nests there), and of course ’20 Minute Beach’ (because that’s how long we had to wait until the local restaurant opened up). We described these places and where they were located.

Mom and her siblings laughed at me and my sister. They said those weren’t ‘beaches’ those were just ‘landwashes.’ Of course I’ve heard the word more than once. I figured it was just a matter of choice on what word was used to describe the place where the water hits the land.

Nope, not for them. Apparently, a landwash is just the part of the shore that’s exposed between low tide and high tide. There’s no ‘beach’ to speak of when the tide is high. Interesting, I thought and said, you learn something new every day. I was raised in the ‘city’ so I’m not always aware of the nuance in how we refer to things around here.

But the bottom line is that I’m too deep in now to parse a beach from a landwash and change everything I’ve written so far. Not to mention changing my goal this late in the game. So I vowed to take it under advisement going forward.

But for now – onward – the next little trip is right around the corner!

 

August 24 and 25, 2021

Hi Lora! Well, my sisters and I are feeling the pull of the ocean again so we are off for a two-day one-night trip down the southern part of the Avalon Peninsula. Part of where we are going is where my mom and her siblings were raised. We are going to visit some of the beaches that they grew up with.

When you live on an island, there are always boats around – whether seaworthy or not.

In fact, the place we are staying is the site of a famous shipwreck in Newfoundland history. We are staying in Cappahayden, near where the S.S. Florizel crashed on the rocks in February 1918. This is the site of the crash.

And the marquee that tells about that night in the community. There were 137 people on the ship, 93 perished.

This is our place in Cappahayden.

It had a trail down to the water.

And this was part of our view.

Not too far from where we were was this bench dedicated to a man who loved his shed. We sat for a moment and enjoyed the view.

And this here brown shed caught my eye, near the post office in town.

Then we were off to the beaches! There are a lot of big beaches in this area. There are some that we have visited more than once during the summer, like St. Joseph’s beach on one side and Ferryland beach on the other. But we added a lot more to my list on this trip. Here are a few of my favourites.

Biscay beach is sandy and shallow and very photogenic. In fact, there was a group of people doing a photo shoot in the surf while we were there. They looked like they were having fun but the water must have been freezing, even if just up to the calves.

Then we headed to Trepassey, which has two beaches. We were very surprised to find a couple swimming in one of them. There are some brave souls out there indeed. They also had two playful dogs who were very calm and inquisitive and followed us around a bit while their masters had a dip.

We sat on the other beach for a while too.

One of the beaches I liked a lot was in St. Shott’s. There’s a long drive with not much to see to get there, but it was definitely worth it. It’s not a huge beach and you have to walk down a steep hill to get to it. But it had fine sand and soothing surf sounds and lots of birds flying about. Of course I forgot my camera in the car so it was another memory for my mind’s eye only.

Pic of hidden valley on the way to St. Shott’s.

But my favourite beach of this trip was definitely St. Vincent’s beach.

The entrance has these painted rocks up against the fence around the beach.

And this one has a seal painted on the rock.

Which is the first thing I saw in the water when we finally got down to the beach – a seal in the waves! It was there and then gone in a second. Lora – this beach is MASSIVE! When we first arrived, it was foggy and we could barely see a thing.

But, as luck would have it, the fog lifted while we were there. It was a treat to watch the view change from the grey fuzz to the bright colours as the sun shone and the fog retreated.

In this picture below, you can see just how big this beach is. The three sitting at the bottom right of the photo are just dwarfed by St. Vincent’s.

I also loved these two home-made warning signs at the entrance to the beach.

The warning signs were true. We could see it when we got close to the water’s edge, but not too close. And we could feel it. This was no shallow beach where you could walk the water’s edge. This was a big dangerous beauty who would take you in a blink if you got to close and she felt so inclined.

It was here, at St. Vincent’s beach, that the words of my mother and her siblings came back to me. There certainly was a big difference between some of the places we visited and called ‘beaches’ and what they considered ‘landwashes.’ They grew up in this area, with the big sprawling majestic beaches we were visiting. I could easily see how they noted the difference. And, even though I don’t particularly like being corrected, I was glad they schooled me on what beaches are and grateful I could visit the places where they got their education on the subject.

Another wonderful trip, and less than a month left to the summer. I’m only one beach short of my goal.

Beaches total = 99/100

September 17 to 19, 2021

Hi Lora!

Well, the summer is almost over so I booked a place on the Baccalieu Trail again and partner and I are having another weekend away before the summer officially ends next week. Our place this time had this colourful view from one side.

And this view from another.

We saw this rock on one beach.

Not to mention this shed with the colourful fish!

So, Lora, this is it. It’s the end of summer in a couple of days. But I’m not too worried about hitting my goal. I am at beach number 99/100 right now. We will go to many beaches I’ve visited before, but there are lots around here I haven’t gotten to yet. And I only need one.

That one last beach for my goal ended up being Salmon Cove Sands, in – you guessed it – Salmon Cove! It’s actually one of the beaches we have avoided over the summer because it is quite a popular spot with the parking lot usually full and cars often lined up the narrow road. But this time of year – not so much.

It’s another big beach, and another beauty. It’s shallow and sandy with interesting views.

It was a wonderful end to one of the longest summers I’ve ever had!

And I reached my goal. I’ve visited 100 beaches since I started on April 2. Even if some of them were merely ‘landwashes,’ I don’t care. It’s good enough for me and it made for a truly wonderful summer.

Lora, if you’ve made it to here – thank you for sticking it out! I hope I haven’t bored you too much with my obsession and my travelogue. (Like I said in the beginning – be careful what you wish for!) Again, thank you for asking for this in the first place – I totally enjoyed putting it together for you. And I hope you know that you are more than welcome to join me (and my assorted travelmates) anytime you can get your butt from where you are to where I am.

C

Beaches total = 100/100

Postscript: Lora, I just had to add this – my sister-in-law and I revisited a beach in a place called Renews on Thanksgiving Day. We kept hearing this barking and thought it was a dog – or dogs. Turns out it was seals – in the water, sunning themselves on the rocks, and feeding. It was hard to get a good pic, but it was an awesome sight and sound!

See you next year Lora!

©CRodgers