johnboystravelblog

July 28, 2019

With apologies to the Sesame Street brand….

In addition to what they taught me Saturday night about gannets, my Airbnb hosts also helped me understand what a “tickle” is in the nautical sense.  I had seen several “tickles” on maps of Newfoundland and Labrador.  Black Tickle in Labrador is known for having an abundance of polar bears.  In Newfoundland there is Tickle Cove, Tickle Harbour and, my favorite, Leading Tickles.

A tickle is a short, narrow strait between two pieces of land.  The waves in the water “tickle” the coastline or “tickle” the bottom of a boat.  Apparently it is a nautical term unique to Newfoundland and Labrador.

If I understood my host correctly, this is a “tickle” on the opposite side of town from where they live in Quirpon:

 

July 28, 2019

I live in Durham, North Carolina and people often combine our town with our state capital, Raleigh, which is about 1/2 hour away.  They then call our area Raleigh/Durham.

There is a town called Raleigh not far from where I was staying in Quirpon so before I left Sunday morning I had to go check it out.  They recently completed a Historic Village, recreating what the town’s cod fishing area looked like years ago.  They built what would have been fisherman’s bunkhouses…

… and a pier, or wharf, with buildings called “stages” out at the end.  These buildings were where the cod were processed for salting and drying.

The photo above is almost identical to the picture on the cover of the Newfoundland and Labrador travel map!

These metal bars appear to be anchors.  I wasn’t allowed to walk all the way out on the wharf since I wasn’t on an organized tour.

July 28, 2019

My Airbnb hosts told me that if I was up early enough Sunday morning to be sure and go outside to see the sun rise:

While I was waiting between shots I got some photos of what appears to be a cormorant and (definitely) a seagull hanging out together in the water.  The cormorant would dive periodically and the seagull would flap it’s wings like it was going to fly away but they pretty much stayed in the same area for a while.

July 27, 2019

Saturday, after my boat trip on the Western Brook Pond fjord, I continued north on Route 430 up the west side of the long Northern Peninsula portion of Newfoundland.  After leaving Gros Morne National Park the road pretty much runs right next to the Gulf of St. Lawrence most of the way north until it turns inland towards St. Anthony which is on the east side of the Peninsula.  I would be spending Saturday night at an Airbnb in the little town of Quirpon (pronounced kar-POON – which I wouldn’t have guessed in a million years), north of St. Anthony – almost as far north as one can drive in Newfoundland.

I made a quick side trip into the town of Port au Croix.  There I found a replica of a “chaloupe,” a longboat often used by 8 to 10 oarsmen.

Further up the road – more mountains, different in appearance from what I had seen so far while in Newfoundland.  These have some lighter shades of green and have “bands” of rock running across them.  They were pretty far from the highway so I can’t tell of they are covered with trees or just vegetation, and they appear to be bare at the top.

As I drove further north this is a closer shot of the mountain on the left in the photo above:

And even further up the road, another one.  I can’t tell from my map which mountains they are or how tall they are.

Meanwhile the road continues to go straight for long stretches as a time, right next to the water.

I finally made it up to where the road crosses the Peninsula over towards St. Anthony.  I passed the St. Anthony airport, whose three letter designation is YAY which I thought was pretty cool.

I finally made it to Quirpon.  Quirpon used to be a fishing town until the government put the kibosh on the commercial cod fishing industry in 1992.

This is the view from my Airbnb host’s front yard overlooking Quirpon Harbour.

We sat around a fire pit (without a fire – it was quite warm all day) talking and my host pointed out something I had never seen before.  Out beyond the first island which juts in from the left of the photo, white birds were diving into the water from fairly high up.  These were Northern Gannets (rhymes with Janets).  I was too far away to get photos, even with my zoom lens, but here are photos I found online:

(Photo credit: en.wikipedia.org)

A unique thing about gannets is that when they dive they pull in their wings and develop a long, slender profile – like a dart.  Here is a sequence showing the dive.  Note how the bird looks just before hitting the water:

(Photo credit: benporterwildlife.wordpress.com)

July 29, 2019

Sometimes I see things that bring out the juvenile in me.  There are now three things I have to tell you about – one I knew about before I left home but the other two I only discovered during this trip.

ITEM ONE – Simple

When driving near Belfast, Maine the day I arrived in the area for my 4-night stay at the start of this trip I drove over a bridge with this sign next to it and had to chuckle to myself.  I didn’t go back to take a photo of it as I assumed I would find one online (I did):

(Photo credit: tnotw.com)

I hope you find it as amusing as I did.

ITEM TWO – More complex (and arguably adult content)

You may want to send the children outside for a while…..

This one I knew about before I left home.  Tuesday I left where I was staying in Deer Lake to head east towards Gander.  Along the way I made a few side trips on scenic roads, including a drive up to a town called Twillingate.  As expected, I drove past this Provincial Park near the north end of that drive:

Once again, laughter from JohnBoy.  But it gets even better.  There is a town of Dildo in southeast Newfoundland (I may be driving through it tomorrow on my way to St. John’s).  The New York Times wrote an article about the town’s bizarre name back in 2016 and included this photo (in color so I assume it was on their website):

(Photo credit: nytimes.com)

The article started out as follows:  “An hour’s drive from the town of Come By Chance, past Spread Eagle Island, there is a large green traffic sign that often functions as its very own destination: “Dildo,” the sign proclaims, with an arrow pointing straight ahead”.

Now the definition of dildo used to include such things as a cylindrical object, a type of tree, or nautical pins.  Let’s just say my Google search didn’t bring up any photos of trees or nautical pins….

As for the locations name, they are mostly accurate.  And the arrow on the Dildo sign points left, not straight.  As I write this I am staying at my Airbnb in Sunnyside (south of Clarenville and Goobies).  Come By Chance is only 3.7 miles away, in fact it was the same exit I took off the TCH but I would have turned right instead of left.  I can’t find Spread Eagle Island but there is Spread Eagle Bay just across from the town of Dildo and there is a Dildo Island located inside Spread Eagle Bay.  I will let you ponder that and make your own conclusions.  The town of Dildo, population around 1,200, is 38 miles from where I am sitting but requires that you overshoot it on the TCH and then backtrack, so it would be shorter as the crow flies.

I’m not making any of this up (I’m not nearly that clever).  Feel free to Google all this to confirm the facts but before you do let me caution you – I already did and now shutter to think what kind of pop-up ads I’ll be seeing as I surf the web for the next month or so…..

ITEM THREE – Current events

This one I just learned Saturday as I took the boat ride through the Western Brook Pond fjord.  The crew of the ship pointed out several waterfalls along the sides of the fjord.  Unfortunately, most were on the side facing the sun and from 11am to 1pm my photos of them were all washed out.  I did post one photo of a very thin waterfall on the “sunny” side of the fjord walls.  We could see mist from the others but they were hard to photograph.

The funny thing is the name of the last waterfall they told us about.  It is called “Pissing Mare Falls”.  Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up.

(Photo credit: bobsnewfoundland.com)

Here is another photo I found online which doesn’t so much show the falls but does show it at that perfect moment on the right day when the setting sun hits it just right and makes it appear to be on fire:

(Photo credit: curiocity.com)

 

The Gros Morne posts (1-4) are complete.

Please enjoy!!

July 27, 2019

Saturday I took a 2-hour boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located inside Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada. After FINALLY arriving at the parking area (see earlier post!) it was a walk of about 45 minutes down a wide gravel path to the boat dock.

We would ride back into the roughly 10-mile long fjord, which was originally saltwater but has since transitioned to freshwater, and would provide everchanging views. The mountains and cliffs on either side can be as much as 2,000 feet tall. The fjord covers almost 9 square miles. This fjord is part of the Long Range Mountains which are the northernmost section of the Appalachian Mountains (which start in Georgia and run through western North Carolina).

We were told that caribou will descend from the left side (as we went in), swim across the Pond and climb the other side where they will give birth to their young.

I apologize if you see the tops of people’s heads in some of the photos. Keep in mind, I was on a moving ship and it became extremely windy during the ride. I had to keep popping up and down to shoot photos so as not to block the views of others. I generally took photos facing the front of the boat but would occasionally go to the back and take a shot of where we had just been. You may see what seem to be duplicates or similar shots of the same thing but again, we were moving and I just kept shooting nice images. Add to that, once we reached the back of the fjord we turned around and came back out so we basically saw everything twice.

There are several boat tours available at other parts but my Airbnb host I would be staying with Saturday night said that this was, hands down, the one to pick. I am sure glad I didn’t miss it!

I am saving one surprise from this excursion for a separate post which I will make tomorrow (Tuesday) night when I arrive at my next stop.

But for now, please enjoy!

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

This is what’s called a “Hanging Valley”

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

The photo above was taken after we reached the back of the Pond and had turned around to return to where we boarded.  What you will see next are shots of the trip out.  You may see duplicates of the same photo taken earlier.  These are posted in time order.

 

 

July 27, 2019

More photos from my boat ride onto Western Brook Pond, a landlocked fjord located in Gros Morne National Park in Newfoundland, Canada.

These were the folks I was sitting with on the boat.  When I saw they were having this scene taken by someone using their camera I snagged one with mine and told them I would be posting it on the blog.  They are from Clarenville, Newfoundland, near where I will be staying the day after I post this!