GASPE/ATLANTIC PROVINCES 2013: Day 46 -Free day in St. Anthony, Newfoundland

Our Free Day on Wednesday started slowly, as many slept in after the long day in Labrador. As the sky had cleared and the sun was starting to warm things up, some of our members congregated around the fire ring without a fire at 11:30 AM.

St. Anthony is a very nice area, but we were not given any hints on what to see by the AAA Tour Book or in our Rand McNally or Magellan GPS points of interest.

Therefore, we started out exploring. The first place we came to was the Post Office in St. Anthony so Cheryl could buy some stamps.

The next stop was the Memorial in St. Anthony for forest fire fighters Captain Ronald Penney and 1st Officer Yannic Dutin who were killed on 7-12-67 fighting a forest fire. The picture on the left shows a retired PBY Canso Water Bomber used to fight fires located at the memorial park.

After this we proceeded to the end of the left fork of Hwy 430 to the Fox Point Light house. This is also where the Iceberg Trail is located and is a moderate 300m walking trail that follows along the tip of St. Anthony’s Fishing Point Park and is an excellent place to view icebergs. The sign for the trail states “The pristine waters of St. Anthony are famous for their bounty of icebergs that have originated from glaciers off West Greenland and only appear in Newfoundland after two years of travel carried south by the Labrador Current.”

Next we went to the small fishing towns of Goose Cove, St. Anthony Bight, St. Carols, and Great Brehat. Along these roads we saw examples that Trust and Honesty are still alive and well. Along the roadside, often miles from the nearest building, are cords of fire wood and small vegetable gardens right next to the road which go unmolested according to our bus driver the past few days. Apparently the land where the towns are located is not suited to growing vegetables and Newfies don’t want what yard they have cluttered with firewood.

At every stop in Newfoundland we have been told how fishing was the driving force for immigrating to this area, processed by drying it in the sun. In Great Brehat we actually saw that this is still being practiced by the current residents.

On returning to the campground, it was time to get ready for the Wine and Cheese party that was to be held in the meeting room. This was preceded by our travel briefing for Thursday which included awarding Mo to Lloyd & Hazel Walker.