LABRADOR AND NEWFOUNDLAND

Day 35, Sun, July 6

LABRADOR (Happy Valley, Goose Bay, Red Bay)
It was 520 km from Labrador City to Happy Valley, a distance covered on a good road.
Trans-Labrador Highway. Highway 510 – good pavement but no rumble strip, a gravel shoulder and a speed limit of 80km/hr (although I averaged over 100). 530 km from Labrador City to Happy Valley. Excellent road, initially with frost heaves. Almost zero traffic. Lovely terrain of black spruce of all heights, good views, and hundreds of lakes. 430 km to Mary’s Harbour.
Churchill Falls. At 245 ft (74.7 m) on the Churchill River, the diversion of the river for the Churchill Falls Generating Station has cut off almost all of the falls’ former flow, leaving a small stream winding through its old bed and trickling down the rocks.
Originally called “Grand Falls,” they were renamed for Winston Churchill.

Following the development of the iron ore mines in western Labrador and the construction of the Quebec North Shore and Labrador Railway in 1954, the project became workable. Construction on the Churchill Falls Generating Station started in 1967 and, in 1970, almost all of Churchill’s water was diverted into a reservoir upstream of the falls. Only a small stream remains; even when the reservoir hits its maximum water levels, which occurs only once a decade, the controlled release over the falls amounts to only about 10% of the falls’ former flow.

HAPPY VALLEY / GOOSE BAY
Outside a Tim Hortons (again).

Day 36 Monday, July 7
Melville Lake is an estuary of Hamilton Inlet (itself an extension of Groswater Bay) on the Labrador coast. 140 km (87 mi) inland to Happy Valley-Goose Bay, it forms part of the largest estuary in the province, primarily draining the Churchill River and Naskaupi River watersheds. Both Lake Melville and Hamilton Inlet are encircled by mountains, with primary settlements at Happy Valley-Goose Bay, North West River, and Sheshatshiu. It is the 46th largest lake globally.
A ferry can be taken to Newfoundland. Route 520 is a paved highway on the west coast of Lake Melville connecting Happy Valley-Goose Bay, Sheshatshiu and North West River. Rigolet and Mud Lake are the only two communities in the region that cannot be reached by road.
The area around Lake Melville was historically inhabited by the Inuit and the Innu, who migrated to Labrador from Baffin Island. In 1824, the population around Lake Melville was 326, which consisted of 160 Inuit, 60 ‘half-Inuit’, 90 European settlers, and 16 Canadian settlers.
Labrador Military Museum, Happy Valley. All about the CFB 5 Wing here, the most extensive air force base in NE North America. The airport was built here in 1941, primarily as a ferry airport for American and British planes during World War II. NFLD was still part of Britain then. Planes with short range could refuel here, in Greenland and Iceland. 24,ooo planes passed through here since its activities have been Cold War, search and rescue and other jobs like aerial refuelling (the US left in 1976).
The airport is situated on a total sand base (from the estuary of the Churchill River, packs well, drains so gets no frost heaves) and sits on the path of the jet stream (warm air going north hits cold air going south and gets a constant west to east wind), so flights are much faster. Free

Mary’s Harbour. In a NM small town in New Mexico, there is nothing special here. One general store, no restaurants or any tourist activity. It is 2 km off the highway.
ON Red Bay WHS parking lot

Day 37 Tuesday, July 8
RED BAY BASQUE WHALING STATION WHS. This is an underwater archaeological site dating to between 1530 and the early 17th century, when it was a central Basque whaling area. Several whaling ships, both large galleons and small chalupas, sank there.
Red Bay is a natural harbour with Penney Island and Saddle Island, where the Basques used both for their whaling operations. The location of the sunken vessel, San Juan, is near Saddle Island.

Between 1550 and the early 17th century, Red Bay, known as Balea Baya (Whale Bay), was a centre for Basque whaling operations. Sailors from southern France and northern Spain sent 15 whaleships and 600 men a season to the remote outpost on the Strait of Belle Isle to catch the right whale and bowhead whales that populated the waters.
In 1565, San Juan sank on a whaling expedition to Labrador. Red Bay had included many whale bones on the beaches, large numbers of clay roofing tiles (the remains of buildings put up by the whalers) and burnt animal fat associated with stone foundations.
As funds were not available, the ship was returned to the water, being stored in a carefully designed environment in 1985. Other vessels have also been recovered – a chalupa, a galleon, 25–35 feet below water in 2004.
A cemetery on Saddle Island holds the remains of 140 whalers, most from drowning and exposure. A decline in whale stocks eventually led to the abandonment of the whaling stations in Red Bay.
Today, the population of Red Bay is 141.
My experience. I had little desire to see Sable Island as there is nothing there but a long boardwalk that follows the shore (I would have also had to wait 2 hours for the English tour. The museum gives a good description of the whaling port, how it was done, a chalupa and a range of artifacts. Free (all NP in Canada are free this summer)

I left Red Bay forgetting to fill up on gas. I went to Tracey Hill and drove on, only to return to Red Bay. There was no gas station. I tried to siphon gas from a Home Hardware Truck. A guy phoned a friend who brought down a 5-gallon can. I had no cash, so I left it filled at the diesel station in L’Anse-au-Loup when I also bought $50 worth. It cost $1.72, and I thought it would be cheaper on the NFLD side. 

Tracey Hill Trail. A constructed boardwalk to the top of Tracey Hill.
Point Amour Lighthouse,  L’Anse Amour 58. Built between 1854 and 58. 105′ tall and 180′ above the water. Walls are 6′ at the base and 4′ at the top, with a diameter of 24′ at the base and 9′ at the top. Restored parlour and house. Four members of the Wyatt family tended the light for 84 years. $4 reduced

Ferry to Newfoundland from Blanc Sablon, Quebec to St Baibe, Newfoundland, 36 km, 1’45”. Tuesday (summer) departs Blanc Sablon at 10:30 and 15:30. It is best to reserve, especially on weekends and holidays. Go down to the ticket office and pay, then move into the lower lots. There was only a 50% chance, but I got on. $32.50!!
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NEWFOUNDLAND WESTERN (Corner Brook, Gander)
I got off the ferry and decided to drive 120 km to St Anthony. 
Great Northern Peninsula (St. Anthony). DARE
ON Tim Hortons

Day 38 Wed, July 8
7 km back to the highway and then to the WHS.
L’ANSE AUX MEADOWS NATIONAL HISTORIC SITE WHS is an archaeological site, first excavated in the 1960s, of a Norse settlement on the northernmost tip of the island, dating to approximately 1,000 years ago near St. Anthony.
With carbon dating of 990 to 1050 CE and tree-ring dating of 1021, L’Anse aux Meadows is the only undisputed site of pre-Columbian trans-oceanic contact of Europeans with the Americas outside of Greenland. It is notable as evidence of the Norse presence in North America and for its possible connection with the accounts of Leif Erikson in the Saga of the Greenlanders and the Saga of Erik the Red. Which were written down in the 13th century. Archaeological evidence suggests the settlement served as a base camp for Norse exploration of North America, including regions to the south.
Spanning 8,000 hectares (31 sq mi) of land and sea, the site contains the remains of eight buildings constructed of sod over a wood frame, with over 800 Norse objects unearthed. Including bronze, bone, and stone artifacts, and evidence of iron production.
Five Indigenous groups have existed for 6,000 years. None were contemporaneous with the Norse occupation. The Dorset people occupied the site about 300 years before the Norse. It was occupied at least sporadically for perhaps 20 years, but not a permanent settlement (a temporary boat repair facility). There are no findings of burials, tools, agriculture or animal pens—suggesting the inhabitants abandoned the site in an orderly fashion.
There is no way to know the site’s population at any given time, though the dwellings could accommodate 30 to 160 people. Most groups consisted of 20-25 men and 2-5 women. 

Today, the area mainly consists of open, grassy lands, but 1000 years ago, some forests were convenient for boatbuilding, housebuilding and iron extraction. The remains of eight buildings (labelled from A to J) were found. They are believed to have been constructed of sod placed over a wooden frame. Based on associated artifacts, the buildings were identified as dwellings or workshops. The largest dwelling (F) measured 28.8 m × 15.6 m (94 ft × 51 ft) and consisted of several rooms. Three small buildings (B, C, G) may have been workshops or living quarters for lower-status crew or enslaved people. Workshops were identified as an iron smithy (building J) containing a forge and iron slag, a carpentry workshop (building D), which generated wood debris and a specialized boat repair area containing worn rivets.
Other things found at the site consisted of common everyday Norse items, including a stone oil lamp, a whetstone, a bronze fastening pin, a bone needle for nålebinding, and part of a spindle and stone weights.
Food remains included butternuts, which do not grow naturally north of New Brunswick, which suggests that the Norse inhabitants travelled farther south to obtain them. They hunted caribou, wolf, fox, bear, lynx, marten, many types of birds and fish, seal, whale and walrus. Harsh winters and ice cover force the game either to hibernate or venture south, and the lack of game must have made overwinter occupation difficult for the Norse.
Based on the idea that the Old Norse name Vinland in the Icelandic Sagas meant “wine-land”, historians had long speculated that the Norse had landed in a region with wild grapes. The common hypothesis before the Ingstads was that Vinland could not be north of the Massachusetts coast, the northern limit of wild grapes. Though they are also found in New Brunswick and the St. Lawrence River valley. Vinland was like Greenland, an optimistic name to entice others.
ON Parson’s Pond wayside.

Day 39 Thur, July 10
GROS MORNE NATIONAL PARK WHS
At 1,805 km² (697 sq mi), it takes its name from Newfoundland’s second-highest mountain peak (at 806 m or 2,644 ft. French for “large mountain standing alone,” or more literally “great sombre.”) Gros Morne is a member of the Long Range Mountains, an outlying range of the Appalachian Mountains, stretching the length of the island’s west coast. It is the eroded remnants of a mountain range formed 1.2 billion years ago. In 1987, the park was awarded World Heritage Site status by UNESCO because it is a rare example of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth’s mantle lie exposed and its exceptional scenery.|
Oceanic crust and mantle rock exposed by the abduction process of plate tectonics, as well as sedimentary rock formed during the Ordovician, Precambrian granite and Paleozoic igneous rocks. The Basement Gneiss Complex consists of quartz–feldspar gneisses and granites that are up to 1550 Ma in age. Mt. Gros Morne and Mt. Big Level lie within this Inlier. The western boundary of this inlier (along Western Brook Pond, St. Pauls Inlet, and south of Portl Creek Pond) consists of Devonian and Ordovician thrust faults, where crystalline rocks thrust over Cambrian–Ordovician carbonate rocks and the Lower Paleozoic Humber Arm Allochthon.
Western Brook Pond is a freshwater fjord which was carved out by glaciers during the most recent ice age, from 25,000 to about 10,000 years ago. Once the glaciers melted, the land, which the weight of the ice sheet had pushed down, rebounded, and the outlet to the sea was cut off. The 16-kilometre (9.9 mi) long narrow “pond” was then filled in with fresh water. The water in the fjord is extremely pure and is assigned the highest purity rating available for natural bodies of water. Pissing Mare Falls, the highest waterfall in eastern North America and 199th highest in the world, flows into Western Brook Pond.
Getting there. It is 3 km to the boat launch on the lake. Take the golf cart ($10 return), or walk or bike on the good trail. Boat tour: 2 hours, $103. You must make a reservation at 1-885 458 2016.
The Tablelands, found between the towns of Trout River and Woody Point in the southwest, look more like a barren desert than traditional Newfoundland. This is due to the ultramafic rock, peridotite, which makes up the Tablelands. It is thought to originate in the Earth’s mantle and was forced up from the depths during a plate collision several hundred million years ago. Peridotite lacks some of the usual nutrients required to sustain most plant life and has a toxic quality, hence its barren appearance. Peridotite is also high in iron, which accounts for its brownish colour (rusted colour). Underneath the weathered surface zone, the unweathered rock is a dark green colour.
It was a long drive here through villages and over a mountain—a 4 km round-trip walk.

Wildlife. The most notable animal is the moose, part of a booming population that was introduced to Newfoundland around 1900. Other common wildlife in the park include red foxes and Arctic foxes, an ecotype of caribou (R. T. caribou), black bears, snowshoe hares, red squirrels, lynxes, river otters, and beavers. Harbour seals are common in St. Paul’s inlet, and cetaceans (minkes, humpbacks, fins, pilots, orcas, Atlantic white-sided dolphins, harbour porpoises).
Trails. Hiking. Twenty marked day trip trails. 16 km hike over Gros Morne Mountain on the James Callaghan Trail. The multi-day Long Range Traverse between Western Brook Pond and Gros Morne Mountain provides access to the interior of the park.
Baker’s Brook Falls.
ON Deer Lake, Tim Horton’s

Day 40 Fri July 11
CORNERBROOK
Railway Society of Newfoundland. Locomotive 593 ran 1.5 million miles. The last passenger train was in 1969, and the last freight train was in 1988. The model train hasn’t worked for years. Many meaningless photos. Snowplow. Locomotive and caboose. The Newfie Bullet has been renovated and is lovely with unique bench seats that fold down to make a bed. Red regular seats and black first-class seats, $5
Captain James Cook National Historic Site. On top of the highest hill above Corner Brook (but with only a view of the pulp mill), is a bronze statue and several storyboards. Cook mapped the coast of Newfoundland from 1763-67 using a plane table (a telescope on a table with a straightedge), where he learned most of what was needed for his future voyages. Free 

Port aux Port Peninsula is triangular, extending into the Gulf of St. Lawrence, and is joined to Newfoundland by a narrow isthmus connecting at the town of Port au Port. It has a rocky shoreline measuring approximately 130 km in length, with the fingerlike Long Point that is 25 km in length. There are no natural harbours along the peninsula’s rocky coastline. The peninsula was once heavily forested, but many areas along its shores have been cleared for subsistence farming. The southern coast is hilly, with the northern shore having a sloping lowland.
The Port au Port Peninsula represents the most varied ethnic and linguistic mix in the entire island of Newfoundland, including Mi’kmaq families with the highest proportion of French-speaking settlement on the island (15%). The French minority, A mix of Mi’kmaq, Acadian, French, and Basque has had an iessential influence on the area’s culture. Newfoundland’s unique folk music is exemplified by Émile Benoît. The area’s strong Roman Catholic tradition is reflected in the high visibility of curches. The peninsula has been designated the only bilingual district on the island of Newfoundland since 1971.
It was an 80 km drive here. I stopped in Port aux Port and didn’t drive around the peninsula. 
ON Tim Hortons in Deer Lake 

Day 41 Sat, July 12
Mary March (Demasduit) Provincial Museum, Grand Falls-Windsor. This Beothik woman was kidnapped (after her two male companions were shot) in 1819 and died of TB in 1820. By 1830, the Beothuk were extinct. In 1500, it was thought there were about 1000 Beothuk primarily living along the NE coast, and by 1800, their population had shrunk to 50.
Exhibits on pulp and paper, the Gander 9/11 Safe  Haven, Bechans Mine (lead, zinc, gold, silver). $5

TWILLINGATE
Prime Berth Fishing Museum. Just across the causeway to Twillingate, this collection of shacks contains a lot of junk, little of any interest. There are small plaques that explain fishing techniques. $5
Durrell Museum. Durrell is the community across the bay from Twillingate—a small museum featuring eclectic exhibits on the area’s ethnography. I had never seen bark tubs. Come for the incredible views. Free 
Twillingate Museum. In St Peter’s Rectory (1915). Exhibit on Marie Toulinguet, an opera singer in Europe and the US. Sealing and garments.
ON Twillingate on the water, lovely.

Day 42 Sun July 13
Fogo Island. Access from ferry from Farwell, 1.5 hours (stops sometimes at the Chain Islands), $16.50 (free on the return).
I visited an old friend from the West Kootenay, Don Paul, the Fogo Island Beekeeper. We drove down to Tilting and stopped at Foley’s Shed. He took us out fishing and caught 12 cod (most about 5-7 pounds and one over 30). The food catch allows five fish/day on Saturday, Sunday and Monday. They fill the freezer for the winter when they don’t fish. The cod’s stomachs were interesting. One was full of eggs, and another had 12 small fish. There were two minke whales close, both showing good tail fins on their dives. It was a great experience.
The Fogo Island Inn costs $4000/night. We saw an art installation there. Don owns a small art gallery.
ON the Fogo Ferry line-up for the 7 am ferry.

Day 45, Mon, July 14
GANDER
North Atlantic Aviation Museum. The ferry command. 9/11 and 7000 passengers landed in Gander and were shown great Canadian hospitality. Four planes – Canso, Hudson, Voodoo, and a Beech. $10, $9 reduced.
Silent Witness Memorial. The Avro Air Disaster, on December 12, 1985, a DC8 with 256 members of the US Army’s 101st Airborne crashed shortly after takeoff from Gander on their way to Fort Campbell in Kentucky. They were peacekeeping in the Sinai of Egypt and had flown via Cologne to Gander. There are five flags and an Unknown Soldier holding hands with two children, each carrying an olive branch. The Dark Side
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NEWFOUNDLAND EASTERN (St. John’s)

Terra Nova NP. The most easterly NP in Canada, it has many short hikes to the SW Arm, Newman Sound, Ocre Hill, and South Brood Cove. Free
TRANSATLANTIC CABLE ENSEMBLE Tentative WHS, Clarendon. The first Transatlantic Telephone cable from Scotland reached Clarendon in 1955, operated until 1978 and extended to Sydney Mines, NS. In 1958, 2 ships in the mid-Atlantic laid cable from Valencia, Ireland, to Trinity Bay. There is a small memorial (with no mention of WHS status) and two storyboards.
ON Tim Hortons in Marystown.
The ferry to St Pierre doesn’t leave till Wednesday, so I have a day to kill.

Day 46 Tuesday, July 15
Provincial Seamen’s Museum, Grand Bank.
I drove to Fortune and bought return tickets to St Pierre and Miquelon at 9 am and 5 pm for July 16.
On Fortune near the water.
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Day 47, Wed, July 16
FRANCE – ST. PIERRE and MIQUELONI
It is a self-governing territorial overseas collectivity of France, an archipelago of eight islands. St. Pierre and Miquelon are a vestige of the once-vast territory of New France. Its residents are French citizens. The collectivity elects its deputy to the National Assembly and participates in senatorial and presidential elections. It covers 242 km² (93 sq mi) of land and had a population of 5,819 as of the January 2022 census.
It is neither part of the Schengen area nor the European customs territory. On the other hand, Saint Pierre and Miquelon are part of the Eurozone, and their inhabitants have European Union citizenship.
The islands are in the Gulf of St. Lawrence near the entrance of Fortune Bay, which extends into the southwestern coast of Newfoundland, near the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. St. Pierre is 19 kilometres (10+1⁄2 nautical miles) from Point May on the Burin Peninsula of Newfoundland and 3,819 kilometres (2,373 mi) from Brest, the nearest city in Metropolitan France.
History.
In 1520, the Portuguese explorer João Álvares Fagundes landed on the islands. In 1536, Jacques Cartier claimed the islands as a French possession on behalf of the King of France, Francis I. The islands were not permanently settled until the end of the 17th century.
Under the terms of the 1763 Treaty of Paris, which put an end to the Seven Years’ War, France ceded all its North American possessions to Britain, and Britain returned Saint-Pierre and Miquelon to France’s control. After France entered the American Revolutionary War on the side of the United States and declared war on Britain, a British force invaded Saint-Pierre and Miquelon. Briefly, it occupied them, destroying all colonial settlements on the islands and deporting 2,000 colonists back to France.
After 1815, the islands were resettled in 1816 by Basques, Bretons and Normans. Only around the middle of the century did increased fishing bring a certain prosperity to the little colony.
1990-1945. During the early 1910s, the colony suffered severely as a result of unprofitable fisheries, and large numbers of its people emigrated to Nova Scotia and Quebec. The outbreak of World War I in 1914 crippled the fisheries, as older men and women, as well as children, could not process their catch. About 400 men from the colony served in the French military during World War I; 25% died.
Smuggling had always been an important economic activity and was prominent in the 1920s with Prohibition in the United States. In 1931, the archipelago imported 1,815,271 U.S. gallons of whisky from Canada in 12 months. The end of Prohibition in 1933 plunged the islands once more into economic depression.

The colony became a French Overseas Territory in 1946 and a territorial collectivity in 1985, thus withdrawing from the European Communities.
Saint Pierre and Miquelon sends a senator and a deputy to the National Assembly of France in Paris and enjoys a degree of autonomy concerning taxes, customs, and excise.

The economy of the islands, due to their location, has been dependent on fishing and servicing fishing fleets operating off the coast of Newfoundland. France heavily subsidizes the islands.
Tourism. There are, as of mid-2024, six hotels on Saint-Pierre as well as B&Bs on both main islands, and 13 restaurants and bistros on Saint-Pierre and one on Île aux Marins. The islands’ tourism bureau promotes their authentic French cuisine.
Currency. Euros. Most businesses accept Canadian dollars (CAD) at a rate below the interbank exchange rate.
Demographics. The population in 2022 was 5,819, of which 5,223 lived in Saint-Pierre and 596 in Miquelon-Langlade. In 1999, 76% were born on the archipelago, while 16.1% were born in metropolitan France.
The archipelago has a high emigration rate, especially among young adults, who often leave for their studies without returning afterwards.
A Basque Festival has demonstrations of harri-jasotzaileak (stone heaving), aizkolaritza (lumberjack skills), and Basque pelota (more widely known in the Americas as frontón/jai alai). The local cuisine is mainly based on seafood such as lobster, snow crab, mussels, and especially cod.
My experience. I was at the ticket booth at 07:30 and got the last passenger ticket (188 are sold and I hadn’t been able to buy it online) – $106 return, $25 for parking (there is an area next to the water close to the ferry that was free with a sign for no overnight parking and this is where I stayed overnight). Boarding supposedly starts at 8:30, but didn’t until 09:20. 1 1/2 hours to St. Pierre. It is 1/2 hour earlier, so adjust your watch for the return.
Stamp in the passport. I was carefully searched for marijuana.
St Pierre itself is underwhelming. There is no unique architecture – it is clapboard houses and newer construction with some bright colours. There is no square, no benches or seating anywhere and only one convenience/grocery store (the Boucherie) that had reasonable prices. I just wanted to let you know that there is nothing of interest to see. All the businesses and restaurants close from 12-2 pm.
The only worthwhile thing to do is to visit the formerly inhabited island, Isle-aux-Marins, a short distance from the port of Saint-Pierre. It has been uninhabited since 1963. The architecture is more interesting. There is a lovely church, and you can walk to the Transpacific Shipwreck. One could spend the entire 3 hours you have over here. Catch the small boat near the ferry terminal, every 30 minutes (closed from 12-1:30 pm), 4€ or CAD$6 return.

ST. PIERRE
Musée de l’Arche, Saint Pierre. A cute small museum with the history of the islands and some ethnography. 4€
Transpacific Shipwreck. On the south coast of Isle aux Marins, is the Transpacific wreck. Launched in 1954, grounded on L’Île-aux-Marins on May 18, 1971, where she remains to this day. There is just a rusting hull.

St Pierre and Miquelon were one of the most worthless (and expensive) trips I have made. Over 200 km each way from the Trans Canada (a tank of gas $150), parking ($25 but could be avoided if I park where I suggested), ferry $106. L’ile-aux-Marins is nice, but there is nothing exceptional, and the shipwreck is a piece of rusting metal that can be seen from the ferry on arrival and departure. 
Because I didn’t know Tuesday didn’t have a boat, I could have timed it better to avoid wasting almost 3 days doing this. 
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ON Tim Hortons in Marystown.

Day 48 Thur, July 17
I got up early to see all of St John’s drive to Mistaken Point in the evening.
Avondale Railway Museum. The quaint original station with a train, a toy train and odd RR paraphernalia. $5, $4 reduced 
Brigus. In a NM small town in New Mexico, I ended up on my search for gas. Brigus is famous as the second English settlement in NA in 1610 when a plantation was started in what was then known as Cuper’s Cove. It is known for its sea captains. It was in 1819 when Captain William Munden built the schooner Four Brothers, the first one-hundred-ton schooner in Newfoundland.

ST. JOHN’S
Memorial University of Newfoundland Botanical Garden. A lovely, well-manicured garden with many beds all in bloom. NFLD section. $10, $9 reduction
Royal Newfoundland Regiment Museum. Uniforms, guns, kit, medals, and many photos, but I learned more about them at The Rooms. Free
Sugarloaf Path (East Coast Trail). A section of the trail through north St John’s. I walked about 500 m of the trail and returned.
Regatta Museum. This is the regatta house, the home of the Royal St John’s Regatta held since 1818. There is a small wall of recent victors. No one there knew of a museum.
Johnson Geo Centre. Good exhibit on oil and gas illustrating several Newfoundland and Labrador fields. Many rocks and a good bit on the geology of NFLD, with a wall of Signal Hill. Space exhibit. $9 + tax reduced.
Signal Hill. The Cabot Tower was built in 1897 and looks like a small castle. It received the first transatlantic wireless signal from Guglielmo Marconi.Mo Marconi on Dec 12, 1901. A good series of trails radiates from the top—Vestige of the Past.
The Rooms. A new, attractive 4+ story museum with history (including the Royal Newfoundland Regiment). Two galleries of art, some quite good, some good photography. $8.97 reduced with tax.
Commissariat House. Temporarily closed. 
Railway Coastal Museum. In the 1903 railway station, this excellent museum gives a great history of the NFLD railway from 1898 to 1949. Built initially from St John’s to Port aux Baux. A passenger train was cut in half, with a dining car and a postal car. A lot of info on the coastal steamers that supplied all of NFLD for many years. $10, reduced $8
Fort Amherst Lighthouse. Built in 1837 to protect St John’s Harbour. No evidence of the fort remains. The road is chained, and I had a difficult U-turn. It can be seen well from Signal Hill.
Cape Spear Lighthouse, Cape Spear. The most easterly point in Canada and the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador, built in 1836. Sits behind and a little higher than the 5-sided tapering tower that replaced it in 1955. The Cantwell family were a keeper here for five generations from 149-1997. Free 

Day 49 Fri July 18
MISTAKEN POINT WHS is a wilderness area and a UNESCO World Heritage Site located at the southeastern tip of Newfoundland’s Avalon Peninsula. It is home to the Mistaken Point Formation, which contains one of the most diverse and well-preserved collections of Precambrian fossils in the world. Ediacaran fossils discovered at the site constitute the oldest known remnants of multicellular life on Earth. Mistaken Point is named for all the ships that wrecked here.
My experience. It is a 2-hour drive from St John’s along the Irish Loop on the Avalon Peninsula. It is necessary to make a reservation for the mandatory guided tour and have your car to drive from the small museum at Edge of Avalon Interpretive Centre to the site.
I had a morning tour. There is a 3 km walk to the main area with two flat rocks. The guide gives you pictures of the fossils (leaves, ferns, all small with no complex parts) to identify them. Few have been removed. Spend about an hour at the site, for a total of about 3 hours.
Whales are usually seen, but we saw only a few soouts on our day. $23.05, no reduction. Note that this is not run by Parks Canada and thus has a fee.
After, I left for my long drive back through Labrador.
After advice from my brother and an agent with the ferries, space is left for about 30 trucks on every sailing. If they are not used, then people without reservations can board. I travelled to Port aux Basques.
ON Gander

Day 50-54 Sat-Wed July 19-23
Ferries to Nova Scotia. 
Argenta to North Sydney 16 hours, Every second day, no availability with a vehicle until Aug 23. 
Port-aux-Basque to North Sydney 4 hours, three/day no availability with a vehicle until September 1!!!!!!!!!!
I phoned the ferries several times per day to Deer Lake to check for cancellations. The agents said there was no point in going to the ferry and waiting to see if there was space. All the private vehicles have reservations and are loaded first. Space is left for about 30 big trucks on each ferry, and they fill the boat.
I had a decision to make at Deer Lake – drive almost 300 km to Port aux Basque and try my luck, or resign myself to Labrador. I talked to two motorcycle dudes in the Tim Horton’s lot, and they strongly discouraged me from trying the ferry. 
ON Deer Lake, Lanz aux Loup, Happy Valley/Goose Bay, Labrador City, Baie Comeau. 
300 km to the St Barbe ferry. Blanc Sabon to Bay Comeau 1,709 km, 18 1/2 hours!!!!!!. And I will still be a long way from North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

GO TO QUEBEC EAST