Newfoundland Day 4

Yep, I'm hopping around in seemingly random order. It all depends on how much sitting still time I have each day to work on photographs and laptop.

 On day four we visited Cape Spear, the eastern most land in Canada/North America. This is the "new" lighthouse (light station) in that location. Look out there in the distance - can you see Ireland?

 And this is the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland built in 1836. At that time the lighthouse keeper and his family lived right here in the lighthouse. It has now been restored to that time.

 Look carefully - can you see a whale? Well no, not in this photo. But after I had taken the photo of the old lighthouse we were leaning on the fence and looking out to sea when suddenly I caught a movement and for a few seconds I saw a whale back come to the surface and then dive under again.

No whales in this later shot of the lighthouse either but we watched with keen eyes for quite a while. This is the beginning of the time of year when you can spot whales in this location. Mostly they are humpbacks but there are also minke and fluke.

 By now we were getting hungry for lunch so we got in the car and went a few kilometers down the road and turned into Petty Harbor. Still a working fishing village (mostly known of the cod and snow crab fishing) this is also famous for having the first hydro-electric generating station in NL. Built in 1900 it supplied power for the streetcars, homes and businesses in St Johns and today is still generating supplying 4% of the power produced by Newfoundland Power. Of course maybe you would be more interested to know that it is the home village of John Doyle of Great Big Sea fame. Petty Harbour also has the claim of being the most photographed town in Newfoundland.

Lunch was eaten at Chafe's Landing in Petty Harbour; another glorious plate of lightly battered cod and chips with an accompaniment of live music from a local artist performing traditional Newfoundland music.

 As a working fishing village boats like this are coming and going - but quite quickly and I didn't have time to avoid the top of the safety barrier.

 The marker buoys make spots of color in the harbour environs.

 Crabbing season seems to be over and the gear is set aside. How much rope might there be coiled in here do you think?

 The entrance to the St John's harbour is very narrow and was fiercely defended during wartime (when Newfoundland was still a British territory). You can see here just how narrow as both sides are in this photo. Also note the current restoration of the old military defenses just below the lighthouse.

This is Cabot Tower on Signal Hill above the St John's harbour entrance. Construction of the tower began in 1898 to mark the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's discover of Newfoundland and also to celebrate the 60th anniversary of Queen Victoria's reign. This makes me wonder what has been planned to be built to celebrate Queen Elizabeth II's milestones. Speaking of wondering we could not figure out why the flagpole were bare. And those men in the dark suits? There was a wedding party there having their photo shoot; likely highly delighted that the weather made it possible.

From Signal Hill we could look back over to Cape Spear where we had begun the day.

A beautiful ending to a lovely day here in eastern Newfoundland.