Backwoods Blog

ST. JOHN’S

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

The Roses B&B in St. John’s, Newfoundland

One of the reasons Linda and I wanted to go to Newfoundland was to travel to a place that wasn’t excessively overrun with tourists and we wouldn’t have to wait in long lines everywhere we went. Traveling four-lane interstate highways (paying tolls) and navigating congested areas of the United States and Canada is not what we had in mind for this summer. We picked up the Trans-Canada at the border crossing in Houlton and just kept heading east until the Trans-Canada ended in St. John’s, Newfoundland! Labrador and Newfoundland have a combined provincial population of just over 500,000 with 120,000 living in St. John’s alone. That means there is a lot of sparsely populated space on the island to explore (and the traffic shouldn’t be bad). Please note that the island is larger than it looks on the map. It’s 560 miles across the island from Port Aux Basques to St. John’s. That is a lot of remote driving with service stations well spaced from one to the next. Plan accordingly.

When we arrived in St. John’s we stayed at The Roses B&B, a Victorian style jellybean row house that the city is so well-known for. The renovated third floor served as the kitchen and breakfast area which also included two outside decks. Linda and I claimed a favorite table which happened to have a nifty view of the harbor, unless the heavy Newfoundland fog moved in first. Three of our favorite destinations on the Avalon Peninsula were Signal Hill, Cape Spear and Ferryland Lighthouse. Signal Hill is located at the mouth of the harbor in St. John’s and is the first place most people visit when they arrive in the city. Cabot Tower, where the first transatlantic wireless communication was received in 1901, sits on top of Signal Hill and there are numerous trails that traverse the hill and loop back into the city. We also went to Cape Spear which is noted as the easternmost point in North America. We didn’t make it for sunrise, which is the classic “check-list” thing to do, but we did go as far east as we could possibly go and cast an eye at vast, endless ocean. When Linda and I were researching the trip we saw a YouTube video of people eating picnic lunches at Ferryland Lighthouse. Demand is high during the busy season, but we made reservations early and ordered curried chicken salad sandwiches, homemade lemonade and chocolate fudge cake for dessert. They even provide picnic blankets and metal wire baskets to return the glass mason jars. It was yummy! 

Newfoundland is a massive land of wind, rock and ocean (with a few tourists scattered in popular spots). Much time was spent just watching and listening to and experiencing waves, water birds and overhead sky. Nature is a constant companion no matter where we might be, but in a large land such as this, the spaciousness lends itself to an expanded sense of one’s own being. This is one of the reasons I came as well. In a world jam-packed with human activity, stress and over-productivity, are there still places where the pace of living is more in line with nature itself? (Even the traffic in St. John’s seemed more polite.) In this episode’s drone footage you will see a jelly bean row view of St. John’s and the harbor. If you look closely in the distant fog you can catch a glimpse of Cabot Tower on Signal Hill. The drone shot flight plan is (a simple) straight up behind our hotel, pan, zoom and then straight back down. I didn’t want to try flying around downtown St. John’s. Next time we go to scenic Quidi Vidi.

On the road,

Dave

September 7, 2023

Signal Hill in St. John’s (Cabot Tower in the background)

Hiking the ocean front trails around Signal Hill

Cape Spear (easternmost point in North America)

Cape Spear Marker Rock

Cape Spear panoramic

Ferryland Lighthouse

Picnic lunch at Ferryland 

Waves crashing the shore at Ferryland

More waves at Ferryland… (Linda taking a picture of Dave taking a picture)

Our breakfast nook at The Roses

View of St. John’s Harbor from our breakfast table