Day 13 - a car, two lighthouses, five pins and a whole lot of rain

It’s our last day.

We had to have the van back to the airport by 11am, but our flight isn’t until midnight, so given we have a whole day spare, and there were some important stops on our St John’s list that we didn’t have time for at the start of our time here, we decided to hire a car. So we spent the morning packing and cleaning the van. We left behind spare toiletries in the washrooms at the camp for anyone to take.

We met the RV man at the airport and then picked up our car. We loaded in our bags and set off for St.John’s - Andrew amazed at how easy it was to drive a car!

The weather started off with blue skies and sunshine, but by the time we arrived at cute little Quidi Vidi (pronounced "Kitty Viddy"), the wind picked up and the skies turned grey. Quidi Vidi is a tiny fishing village with a brewery now well established in one of the old fishing buildings. We had a short walk around and then set off to Signal Hill.

Signal Hill overlooks St John’s harbour and has been a lookout since the 1700s. It has a tower called Cabot Tower which was built to celebrate Queen Victoria’s diamond jubilee and the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's landfall on the continent. But it is probably best known for Marconi receiving the first transatlantic wireless transmission from Cornwall. Most believed that due to the earth’s curvature it couldn’t be done, but due to some science that I don’t really understand, he did it. Clever fella.

We walked back down the hill and by now it was sooo windy.

At this point the rain started, but we pressed on to our next stop - Cape Spear.

Cape Spear is the most easterly point of North America. It also has two lighthouses - win win.

The weather was AWFUL, but we don’t ever let that stop us. We walked down to a viewing point and made sure to note that we were standing on the edge of the ocean that divides us from this beautiful province. Then we walked up the hill to the lighthouses - the first, a more traditional looking one was built in 1955 and had it’s light (and foghorn) going, and the second built in 1836. We went into the older one which was set out as the original lightkeepers would have lived.

We were now wet and cold, so we decided to go back to Bigs and have a late lunch and watch USA play Australia.

Clutching for the next thing to do we suddenly fell upon the idea of bowling! A nice, dry, indoor activity. We found the Paradise Bowl alley that was a five pin bowling lane. They have a smaller ball too. The good thing is that you pay for the hour rather than the number of games you play, so you get a good amount of play. It was lots of fun.

Now it was time to go back to the airport and drop off the car.

We have had the most wonderful time. Quebec seems like a lifetime ago. It’s been an experiment with the RV, and we have enjoyed that a lot. It’s not going to be something we do regularly, but we can imagine doing it again someday. Newfoundland has exceeded all expectations. Have you ever seen the show ‘Come From Away’ which tells the story of the Newfoundland town of Gander during the week following the September 11 attacks, when 38 planes, carrying 7,000 passengers, were ordered to land unexpectedly at Gander International Airport? The characters in the musical are based on actual Gander residents and the stranded travellers they housed and fed. The residents were kind and welcoming and just accepted these scared people into their homes. It is an excellent show and now I can really imagine how wonderful the people of Newfoundland were at that time. It’s just a little sad that we found this kindness so surprising.

From another wonderful Three Bryan trip - this is over and out x