Doyles to Corner Brook, New Foundland – 6 July 2023

We moved from Doyles to Corner Brook and a lovely campsite near the Humber River, and close to some really beautiful mountains. The Weather had not been very warm in Doyles, so when the sun at last came out, we were keen to do some exploring.

We drove down to a small Marina and took a short walk from there to the Bartletts Point Park. It was a lovely day and the Humber River looked amazing, with several sailing boats. After the walk we were quite hungry but after phoning a few places from the car it appeared that Corner Brooke did not have any dog friendly restaurants. So we returned to the campsite to feed and drop off Jax and then made our way to the DeMarcus Restobar. We were very fortunate as they had Friday night live music. As the evening progressed we ended up being the only customers in the restaurant (apparently because of the warm weather the community preferred to BBQ!) Our entertainer came over and chatted to us on his break and despite some stuff being lost in translation between the south african and newfie accents, he then took each of our musical preferences and played to them for the rest of the evening. This was to loud encouragement of whoops, cheers, singing and table drumming from our side (especially Derek). Every so often he would say something to us from the front, and all three of us would nod in agreement not understanding a word of what he said. Great guy with exceptional talent. Was able to play anything thrown at him from Hall and Oates to Eric Clapton to Chris Stapleton to local songs even Dire Straits.

The following day was a down day, which meant getting ahead of work that was piling up for all of us. The park had several trails through forested areas alongside the river, so I took Jax for a nice walk which ended up through a field of wildflowers ending up on a beach on the side of the river with views in every direction. The weather wasn’t that great so it was ok to stay inside and nice to get on top of everything.

The following day we visited the James Cook memorial in Corner Brook at the top of a hill with tremendous views of the whole of the Corner Brook valley. I had only ever thought of James Cook as an explorer and learned some interesting facts. Cook was sent on behalf of Britain to survey the Newfoundland coastline after the seven year war between Britain and France. Britain wanted to carefully delineate areas where the French could fish. The survey took him five years and he mapped almost every inch of the Newfoundland coastline. During that time he was a well known figure at many of the ports in Newfoundland. Cook studied cartography from various sources but one particular encounter had a big influence on his learning. While he was visiting a beach in Newfoundland he met an Engineer called Samuel Holland who taught how to use a Plane table for Cartography. With a Plane table, observations and plotting are done simultaneously, hence there is no risk of omitting necessary details. Cook ended up being a master surveyor and his charts so precise and detailed that they are comparable with those produced today using sophisticated software. It was only after he completed his Newfoundland stint that he went on to discover the South Pacific.

On our final day in Corner brook so we decided to hike the Ginger trail which was accessed via the Margaret Bowater Park. Being the weekend and nice and hot, the park was very busy with families, making use of the lovely weather and swimming and rafting in the river. It was very humid in the forest but the trail was undulating instead of just uphill, so it was great. On the way back to the car we took a shortcut and crossed under the road through a metal corrugated tunnel, which made for a very pretty photo. As it was our last day in Corner Brook it was important to stock up on groceries as we had no idea how much fresh produce and meat we would get as we ventured into more remote areas in the north. Lucy looked after Jax and Derek and I headed for Walmart. It turned out to be a Walmart Express with only a few potatoes and onions, so I bought as much as I could and then we headed to the competitor Dominion for the rest. We are getting used to limited fresh produce at very high prices. We were quite shocked at our grocery bill. Going to be tough keeping this up for the whole summer.