17 – St. John’s Newfoundland, Part 1

Friday, July 21, 2017 – We left Rocky Harbour/Gros Morne this morning.  Dropped off our rental car at Deer Lake and then started the long trek across Newfoundland.  Stopped for lunch in Gander.  Until modern long-range airliners were developed, Gander used to be an important refueling stop for transatlantic travel.  Still used for that purpose today for shorter range business jets.  Arrived in St. John’s after a long day’s drive, the GPS took us right to the park and we quickly set up and had dinner.

Pippy Park is very nice.  It is actually in St. John’s and is a city park.  Campsites were spread out with lots of trees so that we couldn’t see the rigs on either side of us.  St’ John’s is the Provincial Capital and the Provincial Building where the Provincial Legislature meets is right on the edge of the park.

Saturday, July 22^nd, first thing we did was to get a rental car.  In this case it was a large Dodge Ram 150 4X4 pickup truck.  It sat so high off the road that we had to use step stool that we had bought for the RV so that Pat could get into it.  Here is a photo of it.

We then headed out to Cape Spear which is the easternmost point in North America.  Found out some interesting geology.  St. John’s is located on the Avalon Peninsula of Newfoundland and it is not an original part of the North America continent.  Over the eons and due to movement of the crustal plates due to tectonic activity, the continents of Africa and North America merged in what was called the Gondwana super continent.  They eventually separated again but a small part of Africa was left attached to North America and that’s the land we’re on.  This area is also where some of the oldest fossils are found dating from the Ediacaran (Pre-Cambrian) period 635 – 542 million years ago.

The coast is very rugged as seen in this photo looking north up the coast above St. John’s.

As we got to the visitor’s center, one of the local residents had brought out her dog, a Newfoundland.  I had never seen one before but they are similar to St. Bernard’s, big dog.  Here is a photo.

Looking to the north, I could see the entrance to St. John’s harbor.  In this photo you can see Signal Hill just on the north side of the harbor entrance with Cabot Tower on top and Fort Amherst and its lighthouse just on the south side of the entrance.

There has been a lighthouse on Cape Spear for a long time.  This is the original lighthouse that was built and started operating in 1836.

When it was first built it used a lamp fueled with sperm whale oil with a parabolic mirror behind it.  Sperm oil was selected as it burned without any smoke.  Smoke would darken the mirror and reduce the effectiveness of the light.  However, over the years they used a number of other fuels as sperm oil became too expensive.  In the early 20^th century the mirror was replaced with a Fresnel lens and the clock work mechanism that rotated the light was replaced with an electric motor.  At the same time, they changed over to an electric lamp.  Here is a closer look at the top.

And the lighthouse keeper’s bedroom and fireplace.

Here is a photo of the new lighthouse built in 1957 to replace it.  The Fresnel lens and light from the old lighthouse were transferred to the new one.  The Fresnel lens is now over 100 years old.

Looking out to sea I was able to spot a small iceberg in the distance.

And some whale activity.  This photo shows a whale breaking the surface. (644)

This photo shows the flukes of a whale that was diving.

Our next stop was the tiny fishing village of Quidi Vidi (pronounced "Kiddy Viddy" by the locals).  This village is located on a small harbor just north of St. John’s.  Here are photos of the main fishing wharf and the harbor.

This is the small church in the village.  It was built in 1842 to serve the Anglican, Methodist and Congregationalist communities.  However, after a few years the squabbling  led to a split and the church ended up being Anglican.

Our final stop for today was Signal Hill.  Signal Hill is a large hill on the north sides of the narrows that leads to St. John’s harbor.  Signal Hill has a long history as a lookout point dating to 1704, a signal point and a location for gun emplacements to protect the harbor.  From on top of the hill you get spectacular views such as this looking south and seeing Cape Spear and its lighthouses.

And Fort Amherst and its lighthouse just on the other side of the narrows.

 You also get a great view of St. John’s harbor and the narrows that lead from the ocean and into the harbor.

Here is what the gun emplacements looked like back in the 18^th and 19^th centuries.

The most famous installation on Signal Hill is Cabot Tour.  Construction of this tower began in 1898 and it was opened in 1900.  It was here 0n December 12, 1901 that Guglielmo Marconi received the very first radio signal sent across the Atlantic Ocean.  Unfortunately, the owners of the trans-Atlantic cable, who feared competition, filed suit in court to block any further test.  So, Marconi packed up all of his equipment and moved his operation to Cape Breton, Nova Scotia where they were happy to have his business.  Here is a photo of Cabot Tower.

That was it for today, so it was back to our RV for dinner.