Newfoundland

So, if you have been following this blog you will probably be aware that three and a half weeks ago we arrived in St Johns, Newfoundland and stayed there until only yesterday. It was amazing and we saw the family and did some really lovely things. So I am just going to do a page on my favourite things with some photos and a little bit about why we liked it so much. A little guide if anyone would make the wild trek to St Johns, if you will.

 

Signal Hill 

 

Signal Hill is amazing. Always busy, stunning view and its a lovely place for picnics and what-not.

 Its got an amazing view of the whole of St Johns and the Narrows. You can see right around the coast to Cape Spear and you can see how quickly it can go from city to wilderness. It is very popular, the car park is always nearly full. It is very windy up at the top, even when it doesn't seem so in St Johns. Lady's Lookout is also beautiful, its on a higher point than Cabot Tower and you can see absolutely everything from there. The photo in the top left hand corner was taken from Lady's Lookout in the beautiful sunset.

Cape St. Marys

 

So our family aren't big bird lovers, Nick and Joanna have been kicked out of a bird hide before for laughing and Bel and I were not exactly looking forward to a rock with birds on it.

 

It is however, quite incredible. It was a long drive and the weather looked unpromising as the fog was coming in but as we continued to drive the fog cleared and it became a beautiful day. This photo I took was not zoomed in, you could get so close to the birds. It was very noisy and a little smelly but it was still a lovely place to go. The view of the sea was incredible and we think we saw some whales. We were lucky with the fog, people there said that it is foggy 280 days out of the year. We also saw a moose in the drive.

 

 

The Regatta

 

The Regatta is just a really lovely way to spend an August day. Stalls line the Quidi Vidi Lake and in the background the rowing races are going on. It is the oldest continuous sporting event in North America.

 

It was a perfect day for it, barely a breath of wind (unusual for St Johns) and it was warm but not too hot. There was a large variety of shops, mostly food and chance games but some other interesting and cool ones. It was just cool to walk around the lake and check out the stalls. We got some good Indian food at a stall which we had for our lunch. There are also a lovely little homemade soaps and lotions stall but we didn't buy anything. Joanna would have liked some more craft stalls and a coffee stall but I thought it was great.

 

Cape Spear



 

We visited Cape Spear on our first full day of the holidays. It was really cool.

 

We saw 8 or 9 whales which was amazing because some people come a long long way just to see the whales and don't see any and we just drove up, got out of the car with our picnic and saw a couple of whales. The picnic spot was really nice too and it was just a great way to start the holiday. Cape Spear is part of the East Coast Trail and so you can go off on lots of walks around it. The sea was lovely and it is totally in the wilderness apart from the lighthouse at Cape Spear.

 

 

Middle Cove

 

Probably our favourite place of the whole holiday was Middle Cove. Its a stunning beach where you can have bonfires and swim in the sea.

 

 We went for an evening bonfire one of the nights which was amazing. It's pretty close to St Johns so easy to get to and its relatively empty, in the evening lots of people go down to the beach. When we have been there we have seen lots and lots of jellyfish, loads of capelin and a starfish. The fact you can have a bonfire on the beach is so cool and wish it was like that where we live in England. We didn't see any whales at Middle Cove but we saw enough at Cape Spear. We went for around six or seven lunch picnics including one the day before we left for Toronto which was a lovely way to leave St Johns. We 

 did try to swim but the jellyfish were in the way so we gave up. Also the sea was too cold compared to the warmth of the day! Thoroughly enjoyed every time we went there though and next time we go to St Johns Middle Cove will be a must.

La Manche and Doctors Cove

 

La Manche and Doctors Cove are places on the East Cost Trail. I went hiking there at the Godess Camp and loved it so much I wanted to take my family who loved it too. La Manche used to be a tiny village that got swept away by a by a big storm in 1966. It once had a school but only had 50 people living in the village and by the time the storm hit only 25 people living there. No one was killed and everyone was moved.

 

 At La Manche there is a suspension bridge to replace the one that got swept away in 1966. There is also a pool that is in between a small river and waterfall and the sea. Compared to the sea it is really warm and we went swimming. Quite a few other people were swimming at the same time as us and it seems

  really popular. Doctors Cove has really lovely rocks you can climb on and it was almost empty. On the hike we had our lunch their which was really nice and the walk between them wasn't too far. We could have carried on like I did on the hike but we got hungry and needed to be somewhere else.









 

Fort Amherst

 

Fort Amherst was a really nice place to view the whole of St Johns. It was on the other side of the Narrows to Signal Hill and it was nice to see it all.

 

I would have done some more photos but for some reason it will not let me do any other photos. Sorry!