Places along the way

They say that you should get off the Trans Canada Highway if you want to see Newfoundland.  Otherwise, it's a boring drive through the forest to get from one side of the island to the other.  So like spokes off a wheel, we veered off at various points and popped into little villages for a coffee break, a walk or even a night.  So, in no particular order, I give you our impressions of the small villages we stopped in.   

Come-by-Chance

With a fun name like that, we thought we should stop.  As typical of most little villages, they’re strung out along the highway for miles and it’s really hard to determine where or if there is a town centre.  In this case, the community followed along a river and suddenly we came upon a trail head.  We pulled in to investigate and it was a short 1.3 km walk through the forest to The Gut.  The Gut being the narrow spot where the river meets the sea.  We reached a look-off and could see the estuary created by the river.  It appeared to be low tide.  On our way back to the vehicle we met an older lady walking her dog and she told us about growing up on one of the islands in the bay, being resettled to Come-by-Chance as a teen, and working all her life as a fisherwoman alongside her husband.  She still loved to go to her home on the island, off the grid, surviving the SnowMaggedon winter storm no problem!

Harbour Grace

A place with a pretty name seemed like a good place to spend the night.  We pulled into town and were met with the sight of an old steamer ship run aground in the bay.  Apparently the SS Kyle had been a sturdy ship ferrying people to Labrador, then later used in the sealing industry.  It was at the repair docks when it broke free of its moorings in a fierce storm and was pushed up the bay to its final resting place.  I'm not sure that’s the best claim to fame for a small community.  The airstrip though had a happier history, being the start of Amelia Earhart’s transatlantic flight.  The name of our accommodation: Amelia’s Vacation Rentals!

Petty Harbour 

Petty Harbour could also be called 'pretty harbour'.  We wanted to find a place for a coffee.  The only game in town was the one restaurant that wasn’t about to open until noon.  Oh well. We explored the harbour with all the boats and colourful buildings.  It was a narrow sheltered harbour, but one winter a ‘great big sea’ came and destroyed all the docks.  They built a breakwater which has withstood a few storms since. The restaurant was a very popular lunch spot and I had a great tasting chowder while Dave had pulled moose, in honour of the one that hit our truck!

Holyrood

Again in search for a coffee break we pulled off the highway, this time into Holyrood.  It was at the top end of Conception Bay and we enjoyed a lovely walk along the shore, spotted some jellyfish and watched a sailboat head out of the bay.  This was on our last day and we concluded that Newfoundland has been good to us with beautiful weather for almost the entire time.  By the time we’d completed the walk, it was time for a lunch break, not just a coffee.