Thursday started cloudy, rainy, windy, chilly, at the French Oven, Port aux Choix, NL
It was howling windy all night long. Luckily we had our levelers down which helped reduce the van swaying and shaking in the wind gusts. We woke around 8, got up, dressed, had nice, hot oatmeal for breakfast and drove to the ancient Indian grave site near the French Rooms Cultural Center. The rain had stopped so we were able to walk around it until it started raining again.
Then we drove out to see if there were any on the local caribou herd at the lighthouse. There weren’t any but we stopped at the Visitor’s Center to use their facilities and WiFi. I also got a pair of the nice socks like the ones I got in Alaska with bears on them. These had puffins and moose. A tour bus also pulled in and got a special talk by one of the rangers that we listened to as well.
Back on the Viking Trail heading north. Saw lots of stacks of cord wood by the side of the road and lots of little garden plots as well, some of them being tended to as we drove by.
Also saw three more moose and more snow on the ground here and there.
We stopped at St. Barbe to check out the ferry to Labrador and had lunch of liverwurst on toast and the last of the clementines.
Driving near the coastline at Eddie’s Cove we could see an iceberg floating in the Strait of Belle Isle, the channel between Newfoundland and Labrador.
Hanson decided that we could make it all the way to St. Anthony so we continued on and went to the Provincial Park at Pistolet Bay to get a campsite first. Turns out they weren’t open yet. They were two weeks delayed opening due to snow still hanging around but would be open the next day. We asked and got permission to drive around and found several sites that would be nice for us, then drove to St. Anthony Bight.
St. Anthony Bight had a loop road on which were some boondocking spots but the road was so full of potholes and far from the town we decided to look elsewhere for a place to stay the night.
Went to the town hall and got a brochure for the Iceberg Festival. Made a couple of phone calls to make reservations for some of the events and then drove up to Fishing Point to see the lighthouse and possible boondocking spots up there.
The Fishing Point Emporium had a wonderful little museum that answered our questions about the piles of firewood (permitted cutting on Crown land for winter heating) and the roadside gardens (roadbuilding turned the soil), whales, mummers, and symbols of Newfoundland (bird: Atlantic Puffin, flower: Pitcher Plant, tree: Black Spruce, mineral: Labradorite). The store was nice too. Hanson found a long-sleeve shirt and I found a Labradorite necklace that I liked. Almost got a ring too.
We went back to our coach and parked it overlooking the mouth of Saint Anthony Harbor and Saint Anthony Bight and had dinner of leftover mac and cheese and broccoli and Founders KBS. Took a walk out to the lighthouse but didn’t go on the boardwalk over the rocks below because it was so cold and windy.
Came back to the coach, made hot drinks, and caught up on some stuff before going to bed.