Heading for Blow Me Down Provincial Park

Friday, August 9, 2013



We spent Friday morning uploading 6 posts onto the blog while we still had wifi. By the time we were ready to leave Trout River, the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Hmmm... the forecast was rain all day. We'll take it!!!



We made a stop at the Discovery Center to check out the exhibits before leaving the park. While we were there we had a quick lunch in the rig. I love the convenience of taking the kitchen and dining room with us! Then we made the necessary dump search. This time the park placed one on the road on the way out of the park to help everyone stuck in their no dump campgrounds.

One of many educational displays

Our best caribou sighting

One of six funny scientist sculptures- the Geologist!

Geomorphologist

Downstairs art gallery

Hand knit mittens

View from the deck

Bicyclers starting the big climb to the Tablelands

We drove the last stretch of the Viking Trail south and re-entered the Trans-Canada Highway at Deer Lake. It seemed like a long time since we were last on it. Heading south toward Corner Brook we arrived there a couple hours later. Corner Brook is the largest city on this side of the island and we landed in the middle of late Friday afternoon summer get away traffic. We finally found a Sobey's and took a short list in with us. We just wanted enough to get by until we leave on Wednesday. We still came out with $90+ worth of groceries and not much to show for it. We'll be glad to get back to the relatively cheaper Nova Scotia groceries.

ATVers crossing the main highway

Coming down to Corner Brook- Marble Mountain Ski area

We passed a big power plant in the middle of downtown with huge stacks of logs piled outside and a covered conveyor belt nearby. Are they burning wood for municipal power? When we get a chance we'll have to Google it! We passed on by and drove along Humber Arm which flows into the Bay of Islands. With steep hillsides it looks like another fjord, but one open to the sea. Capt. James Cook charted this bay in the 1760's and his maps are still accurate today. We drove west until we reached Blow Me Down Provincial Park on a peninsula jutting into the Bay of Islands near the end of the road.

We passed through several small port villages along Humber Arm- note the ramps to put fishing boats in the water

Looking down at Lark Harbor, Blow Me Down is on the right

The sky was looking threatening when we left the grocery store and all the way down the Humber Arm. During the night the rain and the wind started. The rig shook all night! Blow Me Down indeed! Guess that's where they got the name for the nearby mountains. Note from Greg – in Newfoundland, a Blow-Me-Down is a steep sided sea stack or peninsula that often produces vertical wind gusts that will hit schooners and dories nearby, making navigation difficult when sails or oars were the only power.



Saturday morning we had hoped to hike to the lookoff and maybe out to the headland at the end of the peninsula. There is also interesting geology here and at the neighboring coves and beaches. (Where isn't there interesting geology on Newfoundland?) But, after the rain and wind, we decided to pay for another night and wait for it to pass. Greg braved the wind in between the rain showers and walked to the beach and up the lookoff. He said the wind was blowing the tops off the whitecaps in the cove! They made curtains of spray that you could follow the length of Lark Harbor.

Full time resident

Looking up Humber Arm, into the gale

Lark Harbor opening into Humber Arm

Gusts blowing sheets of spray the length of Lark Harbor

The park beach

I have been typing all day and this post is happening as I type! Finally caught up! Yay! Now I am going to brave the wind and walk to the washroom for a push button shower. We may be boondocking the next night or two as we head south towards the ferry. Tomorrow night we may head for the old US military base in Stephenville that has a reputation as a good boondocking site on the runway next to the beach. We don't know what we will find in Port Aux Basque at the ferry. Word has it that accommodations are scarce due to all the extra people in town for the ferry. We'll see...