Part 1: St. John’s to Deer Lake

Its July 17th 2008 and twenty senior folks (average age 64.3) begin to gather in St John’s, NFL to spend a couple of days sight-seeing in the local area before beginning a magical trip cycling across Newfoundland.

We began our trek with a short (35 kms) but very hilly ride to Cape Spears, the most easterly point in Canada with an amazing old lighthouse and a view of whales, dolphins and birds all included. We think our leader Gladys Schmidt started us out with this ride to see if anyone threw up on the hills – we all survived and were ready for the rest of NFL.

The next day we received a police escort out of town, TV coverage of our departure and a radio interview on CBC’s Morning Canada. Sonia Ward was asked by a young store clerk if we had done something really bad to warrant an escort out of town by the POLICE?  We left her guessing….

The first half of our trip included visits to Hollyrod, Dildo, Clarenville and one of my favorites Arnolds Cove.  All of us were amazed by the beauty of the small, charming communities nestled into the coast line and the very friendly and hospitable people of Newfoundland.

Diana Keith

Part 2: Deer Lake to St. Anthony.

The second half of the tour started with an interpretive walk on the Tablelands in Gross Morne Park led by an excellent guide. The next day’s ride followed a beautiful scenic route to Rocky Harbour with a moose-burger stop for lunch. Mike clocked an impressive 75.3 kph on a long downhill and for some reason was surprised that Betty topped it at 87.7 kph.

As we continued our ride up the low-lying west coast of Newfoundland we saw familiar sights along the way: piles of lobster traps and green fish netting, stacks of firewood and teepees of spindly logs that are hauled out of the woods in winter and left to dry, little gardens alongside the road of potatoes and cabbages, the occasional portable sawmill, and people picking cloudberries in the boggy fields. The traffic was light and the road good. We took a side trip to Labrador and visited the Basque whaling museum.

The tour was topped off with a trip to Great Brehat where Gladys taught school about 40 years ago when they had no road and no electricity. The locals put on a Sunday scoff for us: a dinner of peas pudding, blueberry pudding, salt beef, cabbage, turnip, and potatoes, which are all cooked in one pot. There was also roast beef, chicken and moose with gravy. This was followed by music and a screech in where we ate a capelin (like a sardine), bologna, lassie bread, and then kissed a fresh-caught codfish. It was a great evening.

That’s it, my love. I thinks by and by you’ll have to goes to The Rock and sees it for yourself.

Janice Wilson