Sunday, 30 July 2006

Green Island Brook to Pistolet Bay Provincial Park (Newfoundland)

From my campsite by the beach, I only heard the occasional beat of the music from the band between the lullaby of the waves breaking on the shore. By morning the flapping of the tent in the wind had been added to the orchestra of the sea and gulls, but when I looked out of the tent it was foggy and cold. I finally motivated myself to make a move and set off through the fog by 8 am. No-one stirred in Green Island Brook - I'm sure that there were some hangovers being nursed.

After only a few km I had passed through Eddie's Cove and climbed up away from the coast as the 430 headed east across country. As soon as I was away from the coast I was out of the fog and the wind was pushing me along at a good rate of knots along the flat road across the barrens. Soon there was some blue sky and even some sun. I was worried I might see a moose related accident as one crossed the road just in front of me as a car came up behind me. Once they decide to cross there's no stopping them. Fortunately there was no collision.

For the whole morning I passed through no settlements, there was just the barrens and wilderness on each side of the road (and the occasional small potato allotment in the middle of nowhere) After I had passed the St Anthony airport, the road became hillier; the predominant traffic on the road was RV trailers and motor homes, mostly heading the other way.

By noon I had cycled 80 km as I reached the turn-off for the 437 road, which heads west, so I was now cycling into the wind and the last 9 km to Pistolet Bay Provincial Park was slow and tiring. There are guided tours of Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve that are organised out of the Park (9:30 and 2 pm) so I just had time to pitch the tent, have a bite to eat and a quick shower (bliss) before the 2 pm tour. ($5)

It's a nice easy tour as you get driven around the reserve and get out occasionally for a short walk. The best time to visit Burnt Cap is at the end of June as that is when most of the plants are in flower. (Although this year it was 3 weeks early since it was so warm) As a result, the plants weren't at their 'best' or most photogenic, but it was interesting to see them in their barren limestone habitat, especially the patterns of rock on the ground called 'frost polygons' that are created slowly by the freeze/thaw cycle. It was much colder and windier here on the exposed headland.

Last year on one tour with about a dozen people, when they visited the Big Oven sea cave, there was a polar bear in the water. The tour guide was obviously very worried and was trying to get everyone back to the vehicles but they just wanted to stop and take photos. They thought it was a young polar bear stranded after the ice had melted and that it was feeding on a dead stranded whale (luckily for the tourists!) They closed the reserve for a few days and tried to scare the bear off using loud noises; eventually it jumped into the sea and swam over to Labrador - from Burnt Cape that must be at least 30 km not counting tides and currents.

It seems that the tendency in speech here on the Northern Tip is to drop your H's and add them to any other word that starts with a vowel, hence; "The h'area we h'are h'accessing 'as very h'old h'alpine plants special to this 'abitat" Funny.

When I got back from the tour, I was walking through the park to the campsite area when a big moose came crashing out of the scrub and into the road just ahead of me. It gave me quite a start. I snapped a couple of photos as it nonchalantly sampled the vegetation at the side of the road before disappearing into the scrub on the other side. When I went out later on the bike to the Burnt Cape Cafe, I came across yet another moose by the side of the road; being on the bike meant it was startled straight away and ran along by the road before bolting up a side track. It seems you can hardly go out here without tripping over a moose! Having seen no moose for weeks, I'm now seeing quite a few. I just need a big bull moose with 'a nice rack' to pose for me.

Distance: 102.5 km
Cycling time: 5:14
Total distance: 4935.7 km