Our Walk Along the East Coast Trail (ECT)

Trans Canada Trail Mile Zero Exploring St. John's Newfoundland Today began with a light drizzle.  We headed down to breakfast, still without a clear idea of how we would spend the day, but after talking to some of the helpful and friendly students at the desk, we decided to explore some of the historical sites around the city. As we walked downtown, we passed the Basilica Cathedral of St. John the Baptist  and saw that the doors were open.  We stepped inside the beautiful Romanesque Cathedral with its stained glass windows and intricately inlaid and painted ceiling.  It was a quiet and peaceful space, and being inside felt reminiscent of being in the churches along the Via Podiensis in France.  We were surprised by the abundance of Portuguese artifacts and connections that were evident in the church. After visiting the church we continued downtown, pausing for a cup of excellent coffee and a dark chocolate and cherry scone at the fixed coffee and bak...

Return to the City Travelling to St. John's Newfoundland Today began early.  Rowena, one of the owners of Abbott's B & B was up early and made us a portable breakfast of yogurt and homemade scones to eat on the shuttle, which arrived at 6:30 to take us back to St. John's.  Her kindness was greatly appreciated!   Our trip back to St. John's was uneventful, thankfully.  We arrived back at Memorial University around 10:30, and sat in the food court, waiting for Foote's shuttle to pick us up around noon and take us to Fortune, where we planned to take the ferry to St. Pierre and Miquelon.  However, following an odd comment by the shuttle service as we sat in MUN waiting, we decided to recheck the ferry and taxi schedules, to make sure everything still worked.  To our disappointment, we discovered that the ferry to St. Pierre had changed its departure times, owing to Bastille Day. We were planning to spend tonight in Fortune, but this meant that if...

Puffins and Root Cellars in Bonavista  Birdwatching and History in Newfoundland Bonavista has a lot to offer, including the opportunity to visit the Cape Bonavista Lighthouse, Dungeon Provincial Park, the Ye Matthew Legacy, the Ryan Premises National Historic Site , and the Mockbeggar Plantation Provincial Historic Site. The Ye Matthew Legacy features a full-size replica of the Matthew , the ship in which John Cabot sailed from England to North America in 1497. It is located here because it is believed that Bonavista is the point at which John Cabot first made landfall in North America.  The Ryan Premises is a collection of 19th and 20th-century heritage buildings which were once the headquarters of the fish merchant James Ryan, and now showcase the history of the town.  The Mockbeggar Plantation was the former residence of politician and Confederation advocate F. Gordon Bradley, and today exhibits tell the story of life in Newfoundland in the 1930s and 1940s, when the is...

Travelling to Bonavista and Elliston Newfoundland Searching for Puffins Today was mostly spent in transit.  We spent a slow morning, packing up, having breakfast, and then making the half-hour walk to Chapters to get a book for Sean to read in the shuttle.    At 12:30 we were picked up by Marsh's Taxi .  Marsh's was one of several companies to choose from that ran a daily shuttle up to Bonavista.  Marsh's offers a shared ride for passengers in a van, which is also used to run a courier service up and down the route.  So, we stopped to pick up several other passengers on our way out of the city, and then made quite a few stops along the way to deliver and/or drop off packages.  It may not be the fastest mode of transport, but they offer prompt, professional, and courteous service, and it is far cheaper than hiring a private taxi would be.  These passenger/courier services seem to be available for multiple routes throughout Newfoundland, but they...