2011 East Coast - # - mokzone's Photos

The coolness of icebergs.

...and Newfoundland delivers the goods, pretty much immediately. We just fueled ourselves at a hopelessly overrun Tim Horton's, and I drain some oil from my airbox. I didn't find out until later that I'd lost a grommet from my side cover in the process :-(.

Preparatory mess

The bon voyage photo.

Initial mileage for posterity. Fresh new gauge and CNC'ed aluminum bracket fabricated a week ago!

On the ferry from Plattsburg, NY.

We're already in Mexico ??!!

We ended up at this Kiwanis campground in St. Andrews, NB. Not our thing, but they had some nice wooded sites in the back. Woken up in the middle of the night by a wild boar discovering a pack of Jos Louis, from the sounds of it.

Five Islands PP, NS.

Mm, shiny things

Bay of Fundy rocks

Bay of Fundy shoreline

Every night the jack-in-the-box sproings out of the luggage. Whittled down to almost the bare essentials we are still carrying nearly 200 individual objects.

The mornings soggy tent fly ritual

Old phone switchboard in NS

Taylor Head Beach, NS. An accidental find and a welcome break.

Taylor Head Beach, NS.

Brr!

Aww...

Seen better days...

Fleeing some weather, we land in this strange RV park smack in the middle of Antigonish, NS.

...basically a park in people's backyards...

halooo... can you spot the tent?

at Bras D'Or Cape Breton, our first mega-deluge. We were heading the same way, so it was either wait it out and get rained on for a long time, or push through. We pushed through. Rain gear did it's job, mostly.

Informative fellow at Louisbourg.

Replica old stuff at Louisbourg.

Our ride for the night, the MV Blue Puttees. Funny name.

Waiting for the boat. 2 hours in advance of sailing, but we didn't realize they start loading the boat a good hour or more before departure. Motorcycles always first!

Waiting to drive into the cavernous belly.

Everything lashed down well in case of rough seas. They provide the straps. Big trucks come rolling in slowly beside you, about 12" from your foot 8-0

Hey, this is pretty nice! Our first 'real' beds in almost a week.

Bathroom, shower and everything! Cutie not included.

Shoot, this thing is way more styling than we thought it was going to be.

Cheers!

The boat pitched a little through the night, and I thought I might get sick, but I was fine. Showering was interesting, with the water sloshing back and forth in the shower stall. Here's an arrival shot from PAB.

This is maybe 7am, after getting off the ferry at sunrise and have a bit of breakfast.

First side trip: The Port-aux-Port peninsula. Stellar weather and no traffic.

Cape St. George. Well, that is cool.

Cape St. George.

Erwin and Linda turn out to be acquainted with our good friends Phil and Janet, also Rialta owners.

Cape St. George "the boot". There is a little picnic bench up there, if you squint. I briefly considered riding up, but the road was just too knarly. Our suspension is maxed already.

Cape St. George.

Blow-me-down PP. Luckily, it didn't.

Blow-me-down PP.

First of many boats. Some nice examples, though.

This fisherman seems to be doing well.

Steve's caption: "I see... the FUTURE". Space-Karen examines Gros Morne tablelands.

The tablelands.

An easy hike into the tablelands. Kind of Mars-ish.

An easy hike into the tablelands.

Gros Morne.

A Rock Ptarmigan leads the way. Or, refuses to get out of the way.

Rock Ptarmigan guide.

Rock Ptarmigan guide. This went on for a minute or so.

A longish, but easy hike to...

...a lovely waterfall.

Our boat tour of Western Brook Pond was cancelled. Irene missed NL but left some HOWLING winds.

Chairs on the point.

An easy 90 to 100kph winds here. Could hardly stand. While shopping in Rocky Harbour, The wind took Karen's jacket and blew it to the ground, and then it proceeded to blow -- nay, fly -- across the parking lot towards the ocean. We both thought we might just lose it.

Amazed these flags are still attached.

Next morning, still windy, but the boat will run. It's a 30-45 minute walk across the peat bog to get to the boat launch.

Ripping windy and cold. This is going to be good.

Damn... brr! Could have sat down below behind the glass, but we didn't come out here to sit in a fish bowl.

Western Brook Pond.

That is the wind peeling a layer of water off the pond.

Western Brook Pond.

A 100-year-old wreck. All that's left.

Up near L'Anse aux Meadows, icebergs at the end of August. A beautiful, freak and slightly scary occurrence.

Both front magnets of our tank bag ripped off within a day of each other. This works fine, but Karen has to hold up the bag while I refuel, often.

For Al and Julie's doggy, and indirect namesake.

Excavated Norse sod houses at L'Anse Aux Meadows.

Norse stood here. Way before any other Europeans, conclusively.

The replica settlement. The Norse made a camp here from Greenland, probably to get lumber and to smelt a bit of iron to fix their boats. Artefacts were found here made from materials only available in Iceland and elsewhere.

Here is a better explanation as to why the Norse didn't linger here for too long: http://harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=36

Karen does Norse impression.

What's cooking?

Icebergs are very cool.

More icebergs, at St. Anthony.

Out in the middle of nowhere, at the side of the road, these little gardens. Way out in nowhere.

Lobster season is over in NL :-(

IT'S A TRAP!

Each of these has a DOF plastic band, I guess the quotas are tightly controlled.

Some trucks have some pretty impressive moose-catchers. We saw four moose on the Northern Peninsula.

Just to show how a grey day...

...is much more cheery when you wear yellow glasses!

Gros Morne sunset. Fie, blackflies.

Gros Morne sunset.

Well, this parking lot was chained off, but that is no match for adventure Bonneville and a potential awesome photo op.

Twillingate.

Twillingate boat.

At Dildo Run PP, the scene from the tent as we wake up, looks a bit Group of Seven-ish.

A side trip to somewhere we wanted to go...

perish all ye crustaceans who enter... except egg-bearing females.

IT'S A TRAP! STILL!

Mariner stuff.

Cod traps stacked and ready for next season.

The ferry to...

Fogo Island! In honour of our dear friend Adam and all of his people.

What's this that some local guys are eating that smells so great? Toutons? Towt-ons? Gimme some of that!

Molasses?

These were... awesome. Fried dough and molasses. My new favourite thing.

Near Tilting.

Tilting, Fogo Island, NL.

Tilting.

Another one for the archive.

Fogo Island.

This couple were a hoot, on their full dress tassled-up Harley police bike. Her: "I loves to tour the island, I just loves it!". The dude was mostly incomprehensible. He has struck moose twice (in his van) this year alone.

This ferry not quite so new and swank as the other one.

They didn't have room for the third picture, the one where the guy lights up his pipe.

All the important things are gathered together.

Twillingate boats.

Twillingate at the magic moment.

Salvage, NL

Whoo, need coffee. Coffee break on the Bonavista. Here was a fellow who was trying to launch his boat for a family outing, only to discover that his cousin had borrowed it and returned it with a dead battery. What followed was a prolonged lesson in posturing and carrying on and not knowing when to let go of anger. Through a cloud of anger this fellow was unable to see that he could have easily swapped the battery for a spare (they had come in two vehicles) and been on their way. Instead, he sent the second vehicle home to get a spare, causing much delay and extended grumbling.

I kept my mouth shut. All this, and we paid no cover charge.

Random detour leads us into a herd of goats, and a lengthy conversation with a woman who lived in Ottawa for years. Newman's Cove, IIRC. Notice only two of the goats are leashed.

Bonavista lighthouse.

Dungeon PP.

Big cliffs. The dirt road was rough. We were hungry and had to pee. Bad combo.

The daily bug carnage.

Newfoundland has the best place names of all time.

Baie de Verde.

Wreck at Harbour Grace, recently painted up. The Kyle, IIRC.

Ruh roh. Something just went kaput, the speedo is not working. But it sure is pretty.

We don't need the speedo but the trip meter is essential equipment. There is no fuel gauge, for those not in the know.