Maritimes, final part 4 - Eastern Newfoundland
- Jocelyn Timmermans
- 2 minutes ago
- 8 min read
June 28 - July 4, 2026
As we progressed from the west to the north and then in this final blog, to the east and a bit of the south, we noticed more civilization, more sea birds and whales, a more diverse vegetation and warmer temperatures. The moderate hikes were often high above the sea, hugging the edges of cliffs.
June 28
On the road from Terra Nova National park to Bona Vista.
Hawkweed
This was the first day in Newfoundland that it was warm enough to wear shorts and T-shirts. A friendly man that lived there invited us to stand on his dinasour.
Lupines grew in abundance by the roadsides.
Tickle's Cove
Dames Rocket
We stopped when we saw these two fisherman unloading their catch with a crane on the dock. This friendly man patiently answered our questions. The second photo shows the fish they use as bate to capture the lobsters.
The Devil's Footprints in Keels. Imprints in these rocks resemble a cloven hoof-shaped footprint. Local stories go that the tracks are impressions left where the devil danced over Keels. They're actually chort in limestone that is more resistant to erosion.
The Cape Shore trail: 3.5 km as a crossover, key swap.
Although the Norse (Vikings) reached Newfoundland 5 centuries earlier, an Italian navigator sailing under the employ of King Henry VII of England, discovered Newfoundland in 1497. He is said to have named Saint John's on the feast day of John the Baptist, on June 24, 1497.
The trail ended at the Bona Vista Lighthouse. Newfoundland has over 180 historic lighthouses of which 23 are still officially staffed.
This lighthouse was built in 1843 and is one of the few left in the world where you can still climb up the stone tower to see the same seal oil fueled light used in the 19th century.
We were told we were very fortunate because usually its bad weather at Cape Bona Vista. Also the timing was perfect to view the grey whales and seabirds. For only two days of the year, the small capelin fish come in to spawn. This is what the whales feed on. The sea birds were nesting on off-shore rocks so as to keep their eggs safe from predators such as the fox, mink and coyotes.
Almost ever 15-minutes we could see grey whale activity.
Watching the puffins was more entertaining than any movie.
Spillars Cove trail: 3.5 km / 1 hour
The trail came to an abrupt halt by this hugh crack. Spillars Cove is in the English Harbour fault zone.
Stayed two nights at Dorman Manor.
June 29
I think the fox is carrying a baby mink.
It was nice and cool in the root cellar. Elliston is the root cellar capital of the world, featuring over 130 historic cellars built into the hillsides to keep the winter crops fresh.
This monument is of a father and son who died during a dual disaster March 31, 1914 when the SS Newfoundland captain sent 132 sealers out onto the North Atlantic ice floes. A blizzard hit and they were left without shelter for two days and nights. Rescue came too late and 78 men died. In the same fierce blizzard the SS Southern Cross ship sank while hunting for seals. All 174 men and drowned. A stone wall close by lists all the names and ages of those who perished + the survivors.
Elliston Puffin view in Port Rexton.
Cormorants
Puffins are the clowns of the sea. They come to shore May - September to breed and nest. They mate for life and reuse the same burrows they dug with their feet.
Coming in for a landing.
Flirting. She's being shy.
Maybe a flower would be a nice romantic gesture.
Or two flowers?
Ah. At the kissing stage.
Discussing their future.
Finding her burrow to lay her eggs in.
Sherwink trail: 5.9km / 183m gain / 1:30 hours
In 2003 this trail was selected by Travel & Liesure magazine as one of the top 35 walks in North America + Europe. It was recommended to us by two separate people that we met during our travels.
A school of capelin fish.
View of the "prettiest town in Newfoundland", Trinity.
Long rows of dead and very smelly capelin fish were lining the shore.
There were a lot of white picket fences, Victorian homes and quaint little shops in Trinity.
Out to watch the sunset not far from our vacation house in Bona Vista.
Using a net to catch capelins. They remind me of hooligans. The man in the last two photos used a different method of casting a wider circular net. He got a lot more fish a lot faster.
June 30
I started the day with an early morning 40-minute walk through the town of Bona Vista. The others said the day before that they were going to get up very early to see the whales again at point Bona Vista. I said I was not interested and wanted to sleep as usual till 7:00pm. But since I was sleeping in the livingroom on the floor, they woke me up when getting ready to go. So I still got up early and thought I'd catch some of the lovely light that dawn brings with it. Turns out I missed a very active show of whales back at Bona Vista Lighthouse.
Compared to the west and north coasts, we were now starting to see more stores, larger homes and even some landscaping.
In the 1830s Bona Vista was a fishing community of about 1500. The ocean was it's only link to the rest of the world. It was often crowded with ships bound for the seal hunt or the Labrador fisheries.
We drove 3 hours to Placentia.
Brigus Lighthouse trail: 8 km / 380 m gain / 2 hours
Chokeberry
A long ways down.
Water lilies in a pond hust a little ways along the ridge from the lighthouse.
Dragon's Mouth Bog Laurel
We stayed in Cozy New Home for the night in Placentia.
July 1 - Canada Day! Castle Hill Historic Site. We were back to not-so-nice weather so we checked out the museums. There's so much history on the east coast of Canada!
In 1692 the French defence works on Castle Hill were used to repell an English navel attack. They had up to 70 cannons. Fort Royal was 100m above sea level, too high for a ship-mounted cannon to hit. But by 1713 France recognized the British Sovereignty over Newfoundland by the Treaty of Utrecht.
As we drove for 1-hour to our most southern point, we saw a third fox with her baby along the side of the road.
We checked out the Dr. Leslie M. Tuck visitor centre from which it's only a 20-minute walk to Cape St. Mary.
Two hundred days of the year it's foggy in Cape St. Mary's Ecological Reserve. This is caused by warm, moist air blowing over the cold ocean water of the Labrador current. Known to the Basques as the Cape of Storms, St. Marys is just 6 km from some of the world's richest fishing grounds.
Marsh Blue Violet
Wow! Thousands of birds!
Northern Gannets
Black-billed Murre
Only 20% of the Murre have a white ring round their eyes.
Salmonier Nature Park was recommended to us by Chris who worked at the St. Mary interpretive centre. They house rescued wildlife. We also saw a grey-horned owl and white arctic fox.
Germander Speedwell
Pitcher plants trap and eat prey like insects and spiders. They're the province's official flower.
By 5:30pm we were in South Portugal Cove where we spent the night at the Green House.
July 2
Lamanche River Falls trail: 7.5 km / 177m gain / 1:30 hours MT
Doctors Cove is where we turned back.
Then we drove to St. John's which is where almost half the population of Newfoundland lives. We visited The Rooms which you could easily spend a full day in. It has museums, an art gallery and gift shop.
I had to keep reminding myself that we were in Canada. St. John's seemed so Irish. And for good reason. Half of their population are from Ireland. They were early transatlantic commuters who came to do seasonal work in the cod fisheries, most arriving before the Great Irish Potatoe Famine of 1845-50.
A giant preserved squid measuring 29' long!
Signal Hill to the left of the narrow opening to the harbour. We spent our last three nights in Harbourgate Condo.
July 3
Maddox Cove to Cape Spear Lighthouse trail: 12.9 km / 355m gain / crossover, key swap
A short uphill boulder section.
At the North Head we saw a pod of what we think were dolphins.
The bugs were horrendous in this boggy stretch.
Cape Spear Lighthouse
This is Newfoundland's oldest surviving lighthouse, built in 1836. The photo of the office shows a cupboard with various rolled up flags. These signal flags were used to alert military and commercial interests of the approach of ships. This flag service ended in 1958.
These huge guns were installed in 1941. During WWII St. John's harbour was the main base for a fleet of warships charged with protecting convoys of cargo ships that carried supplies and soldiers to Europe.
At the most eastern point in all of North America.
Signal Hill
The Cabot Tower's cornerstone was laid on June 23, 1897 to mark the 400th anniversary of John Cabot's North American Landfall and the 60th year of Queen Victoria's reign. In 1902 Marconi received the first transatlantic wireless transmission atop Signal Hill. By 1933 it became the main wireless link between Newfoundand and the world.
Quidi Vidi is a quaint little fishing town between Signal Hill and St. John's.
I should've grabbed my coat (no cars allowed in the village). When I poked by head into this little shed and saw a warm fire blazing in the stove, the lady there invited me to come in. Soon Janice & Patty joined me. This man had been cleaning a heap of cod outside. He sauntered into the room and Janice started talking to him. He said they ran tours and spotting the accordian, she asked if he played it. He grabbed his 100-year old accordian and just before he was about to start he asked us, "And what are you going to do?" We promptly promised we'd dance. He had a rather deadpan expression on his face yet his music was anything but. After that I certainly was not cold anymore.
In the evening we had reservations at the Christian Irish Pub to get screeched and earn the right to be called a Neufy.
The certificates read: "This is to cerify that Jocelyn Timmermans has consumed a bountiful taste of Newfoundland's finest rum and has performed the ceremonial rites associated herein. We now bestow the great privilege of naming Jocelyn a proud honourary Newfoundlander on this day July 31, in the year 2026".
July 4
Jelly Bean Row
The War monument built in 1924.
Standing atop of the cenotaph is the figure of Victory. Below her is the logger and fisherman who joined the armed forces. On the left is a sailor and on the right a soldier. This memorial commemorates wartime sacrifices made in the WWI, WWII and the Korean wars.
The original labrador descended from Newfoundland and was the size of a calf. Then it was breeded with an English settler and Pointer to strengthen the retriever's gaming capabilities. These matings produced a smaller animal that still possesses the main features of the Newfoundland dog.
Poppy
Terry Fox marathon of hope at Mile 0 started April 12, 1980. He ran 5373 km, nearly a marathon a day for 143 consecutive days, until the return of cancer forced him to stop. Since then Terry Fox has become a Canadian icon, having raised hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer suffers around the world.
The quote on the concrete wall from Terry Fox reads: "I just wish people would realize that anything's possible if you try; dreams are made if people try".
This is the only place in Newfoundland where we saw large stone structures. Apparently stone was shipped over from Europe and traded for equal weights with cod.
Cheers to a great trip, full of adventure, history and exploration.
We ended the trip by celebrating Brian's 70th birthday at another Irish pub where they played live Irish fiddle and guitar music. We told Brian we'd get him dancing off of the tables. Well not quite. But we did get him on the dance floor!
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