The Road to the Isles and on to Avalon
Friday June 21 2002
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Location
|
Odometer (km)
|
Time of Arrival
|
Rest Time
|
Gas Expenses
|
|
Twillingate
|
4028
|
08:30
|
3 hrs
|
-
|
|
Dildo Run
|
4052
|
12:00
|
3 hrs
|
-
|
|
Lewisport
|
4122
|
15:50
|
-
|
$43
|
|
Gander
|
4179
|
16:35
|
25 min
|
-
|
|
St. John's
|
4579
|
20:30
|
1 hr 15 min
|
-
|
|
Cape Spear
|
4596
|
22:15
|
8 hrs 15 min
|
-
|
 |
After a great coffee and bagel at Tim's we headed off to Twillingate. A picturesque double island in a small chain of islands. These isles were only connected to the mainland by causeways (known locally as "tickles") around 1970. The thick accents of the locals was a reminder of the isolation of these parts until the tickles were built. The picture at left was taken after a short climb up a steep rock that overlooked the town. That's our van in the center left of the picture. |
| Twillingate proclaims it is "the iceberg capital of the world" and from what we saw in mid June it surely is. The one seen here is a large berg that has ran aground and is slowly shrinking. Pods of pilot whales are often seen in the bays and coves here as well as humpbacks who come here during the summer months. |  |
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Another shot of Twillingate as we headed to North Point where a lookout is said to be a great place for whale and iceberg sightings. |
| Turn of the century homes are common in this community and are part of the charm of the area |  |
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Looking down 200' from the North Point lookout at the bluest ocean I've ever seen (no I don't travel much) |
| Looking outward from North Point there were plenty of bergs to be seen but we only saw a couple of water spouts from a whale in the distance. |  |
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With the long trip down to the Avalon Peninsula ahead of us we stopped at Dildo Run to find a site for lunch and some relaxation. |
| Before leaving Twillingate Céline bought a lobster right off the dock and was heating it up on the fire an hour later. I cant stand the beasties but she proclaimed it to be the best lobster she ever had. |  |
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Some things in nature are just amazing. This tree and rock union in the Dildo Run campsite just stopped us in our tracks. From one vantage point it looked like a large dragon trying to lift a rock with it's claw. |
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We left Dildo Run at 3pm and made St. John's (544 km) by 8:30pm where we grabbed some quick supper at a take out and wandered aimlessly through town a bit. Beautiful place St. John's, pictures will have to wait till Day 10 our camera didn't like the dark apparently. After an hour in St. John's we headed to Cape Spear and the most easterly point of North America as well as our journey. Arriving at the Cape in the dark was kinda cool, the nearly full moon bathed the lighthouse, rocks and sea in a eerie blue light. We parked ourselves away from any ledges (remembering Chetticamp) and settled in to sleep. The setting moon and the slow light flashes from the lighthouse sent me into a deep sleep with anticipation of the morning sunrise on the ocean in front of us... |
