Day 23 - Back To The New Land

The possible lifting of the fog didn’t happen. There was a drop in the wind around 4 am and the fog must have lightened because the beacon at the lighthouse got brighter, but the southerly and the fog were back by daybreak. We pondered what to do while we had coffee and breakfast. If it was still windy and extremely foggy at Cape St. Mary’s, we figured that the conditions were similar along the south coast, so we decided not to backtrack. The option was to go north towards Placentia, the next big town, do a bit of shopping and see if the weather was better inland.

The primary concern we had was that we were now well ahead of where we expected to be and our trip to St. Pierre was not until next Wednesday. After discussing this conundrum over a second coffee and muffin and Internet access at the Placentia Tim Horton’s, we decided to go back to Terra Nova National Park. They had a nice campground and good trails for hiking and there might be no fog. It was not too far out of the way to the Burin Peninsula, Fortune and St. Pierre. So off we went.

The conditions improved as we went north and by the time we reached the Irving Station in Clarenville, it had dried out completely. It was still overcast, but much brighter. After refueling Speedy, we looked for a parking spot. There is a Tim Horton’s right next to the gas station and parking was totally filled. There was a farmers market at the otherend of this plaza, so we tried there, also no parking. Finally, we found space in the other gas station in the plaza.

I don’t quite get the Canadian addiction to Tim Horton’s. It is the equivslent to Dunkin Donuts in the states, ubiquitous and have similar offerings. But at virtually every Tim Horton’s we’ve stopped at, the parking lot has been full and cars in the drive-thru lane are lined up into the street. The one in this service plaza was no different.

We had lunch in Speedy, then walked over to the farmers market, which was heavy on crafts and prepared foods and light on farm goods, but they did have a large garden and greenhouse on site. I forgot to ask if you could buy direct from the garden. I did try a fried whole Capelin. It was not much different than a large anchovy, tasted fishy and one was enough.  We also bought a couple of date bars for tonight’s dessert.

We got to the Newman Sound campground before 2 pm. When we got to the registration kiosk, they had only one electric site available. We wanted electricity because of the problems we’ve been having with propane refrigeration in warm weather...it was fine last night in the cold wind and fog. The available site was in an area that we thought was quite crowded and noisy when we were here last, so we went to take a look at it. W.e figured it was okay for one night, but by the time we got back to registration it was gone. We then went to look at a series of unserviced sites that were available and by the time we got back again our first two choices were gone. We just took what was left. We also managed to get the site we had last time for tomorrow. 

We finally settled in as the blue sky appeared an we could identity six species of birds singing around the campsite. The weather at the south coast was still being reported as windy and foggy.

While I was writing this, I heard clunking behid the engine firewall right next to me. Argh!—the squirrels are back. I have no idea why and how squirrels are attracted to the insulation on the firewall. This is the same place where Speedy was attacked in Alaska. Lifting the hood up caused today’s rodent to jump down an into the tree next to the van, where it ran out onto an eye-level branch and scolded me. I put in a new bag of Fresh Cab rodent repellent back by the firewall and sprayed the insulation with ammoniated window cleaner. Hopefully, one or both will deter the beast.