Sunday, July 23, 2017 – Happy Birthday to me. Today is my 76th birthday.
This morning we headed into downtown St. John's to go to Mass at the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist. This church was built between 1839 and 1855 to serve the Irish population of the area and sits on a high ridge overlooking the harbor. The Church is unusual in that it was constructed using limestone and granite brought in from Galway and Dublin, Ireland and 40,000 bricks from Hamburg, Germany. Here is a photo.
Here is the altar.
And here is an overall shot of the interior.
Lots of stained glass as you can see in these photos.
Had a very interesting ceiling with lots of detail.
From in front of the church you get a very good view of the narrows that leads from the ocean into St. John's harbor.
After Mass we took a drive down one of the scenic loops south of St. John's. This one is called the Irish Loop and it is called that because it passes through lots of fishing villages that were populated by indentured Irish fisherman who were brought over by the English gentry who owned most of the land. Our main goal was to visit the lighthouse at Ferryland. Ferryland was used as a fishing port by the French, Spanish and Portuguese in the late 16th century. It was permanently settled starting in 1620 by the 1st Baron Baltimore under the name Avalon. We had planned on visiting the archaeological site for this colony but there was some sort of music festival going on and we couldn't get near the place. Ferryland itself was established as a station for indentured Irish fisherman. We drove out on a very rough gravel road to the peninsula where the lighthouse is located. The road was so bad that we were glad we had a 4 wheel drive truck.
We drove out on a spit of land and parked just before the headland. Pat didn't feel up to the hike the rest of the way so I had to go by myself. Here is a photo of the Ferryland bay.
And the shore of the headland.
Once I got out on the headland, there was lots of whale activity. Here is one spouting and broaching.
And his tail flukes as he dives.
Two more whales spouting.
Some were playing around. This one popped up and then flipped onto his side. There are actually three whales cavorting.
And here are two views of the lighthouse.
And here is a photo of the shore of the headland with a small island just off shore.
Interesting sign. I guess the locals were nervous about us.
From Ferryland we headed back north towards St. John's. We stopped at the town of Witless Bay. This town dates from the 1670s and was established for housing indentured Irish fisherman. According to the locals the name derives from one of the original settlers a Captain Whittle and eventually Whittle's Bay devolved into Witless Bay. It is still a fishing village but its main claim to fame is that there is an ecological preserve of several islands just off shore for sea birds. Here are two of them. Great Island in the center and Ship Island to the right.
The third island is Fox Island shown here. This island has been owned by the O'Driscoll family for over 200 years.
And as you can see in this telephoto shot, the O'Dricolls still graze sheep on it.
After this we finished our drive back to our campsite. Tomorrow morning we leave Newfoundland and head for Prince Edward Island. However, it's going to take two ferry rides, a 16 hour one and a 75 minute one, and some driving in between.
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