Brigus and Port de Grave

Friday,July 8, 2011

It was a beautiful day, 23 degrees, sunny, definitely shorts weather. Today was going to be a lazy day, but then around noon I decided I should load up my bike and go into Holyrood for a bike ride. From what we could see Newfoundland didn't have much flat land, so I have not been for many bike rides at all.  I did manage a 25 km ride along the coastline to Chapel Cove and back.  There is something about me wanting to get to the end of every road.  In Chapel Cove I found Point road which was a gravel road and then basically turned into a laneway.

Have no idea if it was someone's property or crown land, but oh well the way the Newfoundlanders are they would invite you in for tea if they saw you out walking around their property, so I certainly was not worried.  It was so beautiful and peaceful overlooking Conception Bay and Bell Island.  This was once a farm with all the old wooden fences, I absolutely loved it.  I sat for a few minutes and just enjoyed the serenity. There were a couple of long hefty hills that I could not make it up, so I got a walk in as well.  But you know what goes up must come down, my poor brakes sure took a work out.  I really wasn't seeking a thrill of going 50 kms an hour down a windy hill with no shoulders.  Biking is such a good way to explore, you can see so much and really take it all in.  I did make it back all in one piece, my legs a little more wobbly than when I started.  When I got back to camp Doug was relaxing, he had been fishing in the pond at our camp. Some pictures from my bike ride.

After resting my wobbly legs for an hour I suggested we take a drive up to Brigus and Port de Grave two small communities a fellow camper told us about.  What a treat that was.  Brigus was a wonderful little community, originally settled in 1612.  A very old town, with stone fences around many of the properties.  It was lovely just strolling around this quaint little community. Brigus was the home of Captain Bartlett who commanded Admiral Robert Peary's ship during the first expedition to the North Pole in 1909.  In 1860 a tunnel was carved out of the rock in front of Captain Bartlett's house to provide deep water access to his sailing ships. Quite a feat for that time period.

We then moseyed onto Port de Grave which took us totally by surprise, it was probably the largest fishing port we have  seen in our travels.  We watched them unload tons of caplin from a boat into huge bins with dry ice and then into a tractor trailer. 

We finally arrive back to camp around 7:30 and enjoy a nice refreshment with Terry and Nancy as we talk about our day.  We did not get a chance to cook our hamburgers, Gerard who is camped 3 sites down arrives and asked if we wanted some fresh snow crab, sure why not.  Terry and Doug go down and bring back 13 snow crab, we could not believe it. What a great evening, good company and nice a supper of cheese, crackers and snow crab accompanied by a nice glass of wine.

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