Trips to the Northeast Avalon

For a few years I have been aware of my incredible lack of personal knowledge of the towns and geography of Newfoundland. Unfortunately, aside from glancing at maps occasionally it has been hard for me to find ways to rectify this problem.

One obvious solution seems to be to visit some of these towns. Unfortunately, this has frequently been difficult for me to do. As my family has only ever had one car, the idea of me taking the car for an extended cross-island trip is usually out of the picture. Furthermore, the idea of just driving great distances for no tangible reason has been discouraged on both environmental and financial grounds.

So when I had unlimited access to the car these past few days it seem an appropriate time to try and get out of St. John's, if even only by a few kilometers.

The weekend before last, my friend Peter and I cruised on over to Petty Harbour, a small town near St. John's. For some reason I was of the long-standing belief that I had never visited Petty Harbour. Upon arrival I came to the conclusion that I had in fact visited Petty Harbour, though it must have been before the age of 10. As Peter had transcribed headstones in cemeteries there we ended up with a visit that was slightly slanted towards gravesites. Anyway, it turns out that there are three cemeteries in Petty Harbour, all of which have very different feels.

This past weekend Peter and I continued our journeys, this time heading to the North of St. John's. Our first stop was the Torbay cemetery. While there we saw the monument for Father Troy (a big figure in Torbay) and the monument for the three Torbay rowers who drowned during a race at the Royal St. John's Regatta.

From Torbay we drove up to Flatrock. While we did not stop to visit a cemetery in Flatrock (mainly because we didn't see one) we were able to stop and visit the Our Lady of Lourdes Grotto. It seems that during his 1984 visit Pope John Paul II paid a visit to this site. This visit was of such consequence that there is now a stone marking the very spot where the Pope knelt to pray.

From Flatrock we continued on to Pouch Cove (pronounced ‘pooch’). As it turned out this visit was really just a drive by. The somewhat heavy rain in part motivated this weak excuse for a trip to Pouch Cove.

From Pouch Cove drove North along a dirt road for what seemed like a half an hour. While driving along this road we passed over all kinds potholes and rocks. We also managed to see about 7 or 8 hares while driving along this route.

Eventually we arrived in what I assume was Biscayan Cove, something that seemed to be an abandoned fishing village. We did find an operational lighthouse with helipad. Strangely, this odd complex looked more like a bunker than a traditional lighthouse.

From Biscayan Cove the decision was made to return to St. John’s as the weather was not really ideal for touring. Additionally, the lack of food from which we were both suffering was getting to us.

Amazingly the next day the sun was out and the sky blue. I called Peter and suggested that we pick up where we left off and head to Bauline.

Upon entering Bauline we immediately located the cemetery. While in the cemetery we noted that the names LeGrow and King were particularly common. The next stop was the wharf. We then noticed that there were all kinds of crab legs on the bottom of the harbour. This is something I still can’t quite figure out, as there isn’t a plant in Bauline. Out a little further than the crab legs there seemed to be another batch of foreign objects. At first I couldn’t quite make anything out, though eventually I came to the conclusion that some of the things that I was seeing were rib cages. This led me to the presumption that what I was looking at were seal carcasses (I kind of hope that is what I was looking at based on all of the available options).

The huge rocks that formed the breakwater also proved to be an interesting place to explore. Aside from the pleasure derived from hoping from rock to rock, it was impressive to find evidence that these massive rocks actually moved on a pretty regular basis. In many cases it was possible to see pieced of driftwood trapped between rocks that must have each weighed several thousand pounds.

Hopefully in the coming weeks I will be able to see a few more communities in the region. Though I will still be an “uncultured townie” I will least have seen a little more of the province than before.