From See Two See: June 03, 2019

Well, there was no problem in dealing with that terrific view out the living room window this morning.  Yup, you guessed it, fog, rain, and a lot of wind took care of the view.  Off to St. Anthony’s.   Today’s adventure actually started last night.  We had no idea if we were going north to St. Anthony or east to St. John’s.  We did know that with the rain and the wind warnings (50-60) km), too yucky to do some of the hikes in Gros Morne, we were heading elsewhere.  We had internet, but no phone coverage.  The big Iceberg festival was soon starting in St. Anthony so we decided it would be smart to book accommodations BEFORE heading out on the 5 hour drive. 

Through the internet we booked a place in Raleigh, a small fishing village near St. Anthony.  Great.  We receive an email confirmation, great, we are going to St Anthony to see icebergs.  Ten minutes later we get an email from Booking.com that they could not confirm the reservation and would process our refund in the next 10 – 14 days.  WHAT?!?!?.  90 seconds to take our money and 2 weeks to give it back. That’s just wrong.  We contact another place via email, but they don’t have the openings (more on this one later). Send an email to another place, but by now its getting late.  So off to sleep we go.  This morning we still had no idea what direction we were going in.  We had not yet heard from the other place in Raleigh.  So what to do.  Marion walked down the hill to the office/store and asked if they would let her use their landline which they did.  No answer.  Hmmm, we just received an email from the second place in Raleigh saying they have room.  Sounds good, we will head north and phone them when we get cell reception again.   At the last minute Marion decides to send an email directly to the first place in Raleigh.  We continue to load the truck and are all set to roll, when bing-bong, we get an email from the first place in Raleigh saying that everything is okay and waiting for us.  So now you are back to the start of this section, “we are off to St. Anthony to watch icebergs”.

I am getting fascinated by the names of the places we have passed on this trip. Today my curiosity is struck by Cow Head.  Why would you name your town that?  We did see a dairy farm but it was no where near Cow Head.  I wondered when I saw Three Mile Rock if it got its name from the directions we used to give… go till you see the yellow house or in this case go till you see that big rock about 3 miles down the road.  I was fascinated by the sign for Nurse Bennet House and Park found  at Daniel’s Harbour ( I did wonder why Daniel had a harbour named after him).  So as we have wifi tonight I looked up Nurse Bennet.  It turns out that Myra Bennet was known along the coast as “the nurse”. She came to NFLD in 1921 being convinced by the wife of the NFLD governor of the dire need for medical and nursing care.  At that time Daniel’s Harbour was an isolated community with the nearest help being at the Grenfell mission in St. Anthony, a 160 kilometers away. She officially retired in 1953 and estimated that she delivered over 5000 babies as well as serving as dentist and surgeon.

We did stop and try and do a good deed. Saw a woman stopped with a flat tire (near Cow Head).  Greg tried to help with the tools we had with us but whoever had put on her winter tires had over torqued the nuts on her tires using an air impact gun.  Despite Greg’s best efforts he couldn’t break them loose. She had called a garage and someone was supposedly coming to help her in 10 minutes. We waited with her for 45 minutes or longer and learned about her life in Labrador. She and her son had come over on the ferry to see the dentist and eye dr.  She wasn’t in a panic as she learned the ferry had been cancelled because of the wind.  As the ferry is seasonal I wondered how they got to see the dentist in winter.

 We stopped along the way to take pictures of various trails and scenery. A good part of the day our highway was close to the Gulf of St. Lawrence and numerous brooks, rivers, lakes and streams. We saw caribou walking along nonchalantly within 3 meters of the highway.  We were so excited when we saw our first baby icebergs in the Gulf at a small community called Blue Cove.  Hopefully more in the next few days as the St. Anthony’s iceberg festival starts on the 7th.

After a tiring drive (due to wind and rain) we arrived in Raleigh where we will stay for the next 3 days. Hopefully it will warm up from the 4C and the snow will melt more.  Had moose soup (tasty) for supper and Greg had a moose steak philly sandwich. I gave him a kiss and had cod. We learned from the owners (Marina and Ted)  that they can kill and serve the moose they shoot in their restaurant but can’t buy it from somebody else and serve it.  Someone introduced moose to NFLD and as they had no predators their numbers grew quickly. In Gros Morne park itself they had about 7800 in 1995.  People can now get a license to shoot moose (for free) even in the park.  We have seen 2-3 already and there are signs warning people to watch for them.

We got the answer to 2 other of our questions at supper. We have noticed piles of wood all along the highway and wondered who it belonged to. As many of the homes use wood for heat, people are given permits to cut down trees on public land during the winter and bring it out to the highway/road on sleds etc. In the summer they then will go in their trucks to pick it up and take it home. People are respectful of each others work and do not take the wood that isn’t theirs.  Our other question was whether these fenced in plots we saw along the road were gardens.  It turns out they are. They are fenced in to prevent the moose from eating their vegetables. Guess they put these plots where they find half decent soil.   More tomorrow.

We have to comment on the incredible nature of the people in this area.  Earlier I referred to a hotel that did not have room for us.  I have to commend Cathy from the Grenfell Heritage Hotel & Suites, as although they did not have room for us, she took the time to send us a list of hotels and B&Bs in St. Anthony.  This is way above and beyond any expectations we had.  So if you are in the area, with service and attention like that, how can you go wrong. Call them! (Grenfell Heritage Hotel and Suites click here)

Next amazing response was from the owners and staff of the Raleigh Rooms & Taylor’s Crafts.  I noticed the indicator that the motorcycle battery level was getting low.  I brought a C-Tek battery maintainer, but not an extension cord.  I asked if they would mind if I plug in the charger and if there was a place I could buy an extension cord.  I was immediately told that that they would show me where the plugs are and that there is no need to buy an extension cord.  She would round one up for me.  We walked around the corner and had that great supper we told you about, walked back and there was a 16 meter extension cord waiting near our door.  What a great warm and friendly reception.

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