With the joy of our stay in Bonavista fresh in our hearts, the realization that our ferry reservations would take us away from Newfoundland in just a few days meant we needed to head toward the ferry dock in Argentia. We wanted to arrive there a few days early to take care of a few road necessities like long hot showers, laundry, cleaning the waste tanks, washing the rig, paying bills, updating the blog, why not another round of long hot showers, yadayada. We’d just head on over and maybe see a few sights along the way. We even agreed to a no photo rule, so we wouldn’t have to spend time sorting and processing – just do the drive and take it all in as it came. Yeah right…
The direct route took us to within minutes of Dildo, NL. How could we not visit?! Although we didn’t spend much time in town, we found a beautiful beach at Anderson Cove that was open to overnight RV stays. Googling the town, we found a most hilarious article about how the comedian Jimmy Kimmel ‘found’ Dildo and put it on the map. Yes, the local townspeople seem to enjoy the notoriety of the name. Considering the number of Dildo Brewing Company t-shirts we saw all over Newfoundland, the tourists like it too! We were willing to break the no photo rule to grab a photo of the sign, but we couldn’t find a suitable vantage point without renting a boat (so the photo above is borrowed).
We thought the Cape St Mary’s Ecological Preserve would be a nice place to stop for lunch. Enroute, we saw a sign for Cataract Provincial Park, 4 km/2.5 miles up a side road, so we turned. After crossing an unremarkable, single-lane bridge, we saw the sign and parking lot. And it turns out that the William J Ellis Memorial Bridge, an Art Deco-style arch bridge built in 1926, is really quite spectacular when viewed from anyplace other than driving over it. It the only one of its kind in Newfoundland. It crosses a deep gorge (we couldn’t find a name for the gorge, but it is the Cataract River that goes through it) where 2 long, thin waterfalls (we coudn’t find names for them, either) dropped into the gorge. No photos? Phht. Anyway, we enjoyed lunch and then a short hike down to and back up from the gorge.
The sun was shining as we made our way west towards Cape St Mary’s. As we turned south onto the long drive into the preserve, we ran into some fog. As we approached the parking lot, we were glad the lighthouse had a light turning, else we would likely have run into it, the fog was so dense! We chatted with the staff who encouraged us to hike out to Bird Rock nonetheless, as the Northern Gannet were still nesting and would be visible even through the mist because the island is very close. Indeed, they were easy to see. And hear. All 200,000 of them! Good thing we’d already broken the no photo rule…
Pulling into Placentia, the last town with services before the ferry dock in Argentia, we tried to stop for fuel. We didn’t find the diesel right away, but we did see a sign for an exhibit called Voices of Placentia. I googled it and learned it was a museum of traditional Newfoundland music with multi-media presentation, including lists and recordings of traditional music. OK, we’ve got time for that. This museum was a gem! It told the story of music through the different settlers from different countries, the role of music in their lives and in the culture of the small towns, the role in religion, and the songwriting spurred on by the cod moratorium (so many songs about going away and wanting to come back…).
Argentia was the site of a US Navy base established in 1941 in the Dominion of Newfoundland (before Newfoundland became part of Canada), also incorporating US Artillery and US Air Force operations, active during WWII and the Cold War. The base was operated by the US military until 1972, then jointly with Canada until 1975 when ownership was transferred to Canada, and eventually closed entirely in 1994. Especially in the early years, the base left its impression on music in this part of Newfoundland as the military radio stations introduced jazz, swing, and country to the folks living in the region.
With the base now closed, and no permanent residents, Argentia is reinventing itself as a commercial seaport and industry service center. We saw evidence of this in the docked, ginormous ship carrying 1 piece of cargo the size of a city skyscraper on its side. As we wandered along the shore, we saw 3 other similar small-city-sized cargo pieces lined up along the old airport. We ran into a local who told us that an American company was shipping wind turbine parts to Argentia to be stored on the old airfield landing strips until they’re ready for assembly and installation somewhere off the coast of New England.
Just a bit further along the shore, we saw what appeared to be a giant concrete structure surrounded with scaffolding, an outside elevator, and topped by a crane, under construction. We googled it and found it to be a billion dollar wellhead platform being constructed in a specially built drydock for an offshore oil field. Hmmm… Huge wind turbine parts being unloaded and stored right beside a huge oil drilling project – interesting juxtaposition.
We found a set of hiking trails along the edge of the former military base. Starting along the harbor, the trail wound up a hillside past 2 silver mines and several bunkers to a few lookout points with views back at the seaport and harbor, and out across the bay to Fox Harbour.
The no photo rule was a complete failure. However, we enjoyed our last couple of days in Newfoundland.
For anyone who’s interested, more Dildo, Cataract Provincial Park, Cape St Mary’s, and Argentia pix…