Wheelin' and Rockin' with DIanE

Back to a city. It was really surprising to see how much the landscape changed moving across the province. One thing that didn’t change? The wind! Our first day in St. John’s was a blustery 63 km/hr wind in the city, and much stronger at the top of Signal Hill.

This is a fun place with great dining (particularly The St. John’s Kitchen Fish Exchange and Wet Bar), live music on George Street, Quidi Vidi village with the Iceberg Brewery, and cool music artwork at the Jag Hotel.

We did a little sightseeing here at Signal Hill and Cape Spear. The Signal Hill tour provided quite a bit of new-to-me military history about Cape Spear.

Before heading out on this trip, most people I talked to mentioned the puffins, which were reportedly “everywhere”. Here we were, a few days from heading home, without a single puffin sighting. We corrected this by taking a boat tour out of Bull Bay. This was quite a rocky trip. While I did see puffins, I was a bit distracted trying to keep myself on solid footing and my personal belongings on my person. It’s only thanks to a very nimble tour guide that I still have my prescription glasses, rather than a memory of them sliding off into the bay.

After a few days of sightseeing, we were ready for our toughest hike yet. The Brock’s Head Pond Trail is a 10 km segment of Piccos Ridge Path on the East Coast Trail. This was a strenuous 4 hours, but well worth the effort. We had beautiful views of Portugal Cove at the top of steep climbs and deep, lush vegetation inland. At about the 4 km mark, we had a quick chat about whether to turn back as we were well beyond the time estimate given our location. We were determined to do the whole trail. The last half kilometer was on a steep decline, and I often lost sight of E in the ferns. It was pretty slow going, and every time I checked our distance we’d only gone another 0.1 km. At EXACTLY the 5 km point, we high-fived, turned around and picked our way back up and out.

Monday morning we headed back home, but with great memories, maybe a new hiking hobby, and plans to return.

Answering a Frequently Asked Question

Before I end this trip, I’ll answer the question I am most often asked: “Di, do you drive?” Answer: Hard “no”. A picture will explain. Here’s the full 54 feet from truck front to bikes on the back:

Here’s me, relative to the 54 feet of vehicle:

Once in a while, I sit in the driver’s seat while we’re taking a break, just to see if I might take over the wheel for awhile. All I have to do is look in the rearview mirror and see nothing but the front of the RV. Personally, I’m not a fan of driving 8 hours a day while pulling several tonnes of home with only side mirrors to guide me. Kudos to E, an excellent driver who has safely delivered us to each and every destination.

— Diane