North and South Twillingate Islands and the New World Island Area

Woolfrey’s Pond Campsite to Dildo Run Provincial Park

Tuesday, August 14, 2018

Our food supply is at a record low.  Last night we ate some instant soup with dehydrated vegetables and finished off the last handful of crackers.  We don’t want to face oatmeal again for breakfast so we get out of camp early and begin the search for a grocery store.  We need to get enough food for the next few days because it doesn’t look like there is much available up on the peninsula where we are headed.  

Today is sunny and beautiful and it’s a perfect day for a bike ride.  Once we have some groceries, we set off on the relatively quiet Route 340 which will lead us to the Twillingate-New World Island area.  Along the way there is a great farm market. This seems to be a rare thing here with the short growing season and I am practically dancing when I am able to buy a fresh zucchini that I can add to the pasta tonight.  

I do think that heaven will look like this.

Our lunch stop involves gorging on sun-warmed wild blueberries.  The ground in little Birchy Bay (population 618) is literally carpeted with them and every berry is at peak ripeness.  

We are so relieved and happy to be at the coast again and every time we come around another turn there is a view of a bay.  Sayonara Trans-Canada Highway!

The afternoon is hot and we decide to stop in Summerford and stay cool in the library while working on the blog.  We stay there about an hour and a half and no one else comes in. The librarian is very pleasant and welcoming - I can understand why.  

The campground is a Provincial Park with just a couple of sites left.  After almost 50 miles, I am happy to see the clean showers and do some laundry in the $1.50 washing machine.   

Loop tour to Twillingate and back to Dildo Run

Wednesday, August 15, 2018

We are leaving our gear at the campsite and day-tripping out to Twillingate and beyond to Crow Head and Long Point lighthouse.  Today is another sparkling clear blue sky day. I feel like I am flying riding my Surly Long Haul Trucker without any gear. Why have we never done this before?      

These islands are not flat at all.  Steep hills are all along the route and the causeways we cross are very windy.  Make sure you look at the map profile below. It is a relaxing ride and we explore some coves and harbours.  Little Harbour is beautiful with a view out to the Atlantic across the Main Tickle (yes, that’s the name) This is a little community fully dependent on the sea and we see a few wooden fishing boats and a handful of homes.  There are 13 families living here. Every home has a root cellar in a protected hill and at least one outbuilding near the sea. Here is where the boats would be built, restored and repaired, and stored in winter. It looks like the community is locked in a past century and content to be so.  

Looking towards the Main Tickle

There is a tent platform here with a great view.

Beautiful wooden boats are resting in Little Harbour.

When we reach Twillingate we make a stop for coffees and homemade blueberry streusel pie.  Then, it is on to Back Harbour, Wild Cove, Crow Head and finally the very end of the land where Long Point Lighthouse stands.  We spend a lot of time hanging around the old lighthouse and bravely approaching the edge of the cliffs for better and better views.   We see just one whale spout off shore. It is a windy and breathtakingly beautiful and peaceful place.

1876 lighthouse

The brave plants growing here are low and clinging to the rocky ground.  There are blueberries, partridgeberries and lots of Canada Mayflower.

We get the gist of this warning.  This is one of many signs in this condition.  

We watch for whales offshore.  

After leaving this scenic spot we head back down the same route and stop in tiny Hillgrade at the recommendation of some folks we met at the campground.  It is time to try some seafood chowder and see if it’s better than my own homemade seafood chowder or my brother, Martin’s. I am doubtful.

The chowder is delicious, but I can’t make a comparison to Maryland style chowder because this is so different.  The wine is local and pretty good. We order red, but the waitress brings two bottles of pinkish/white wine. One is made with rhubarb and wild blueberries.  The other is strawberry-partridgeberry. The labels are cool and we are not exactly wine connoisseurs.

The blue building holds the lobster cooking burners and the white building is the restaurant.  The fish cam is in the water here.  

Tom has snow crab for the first time and I go with the fishcakes made with dried cod and potato and onion.  It is a good basic honest food and doesn’t disappoint. After two hours of dining we head outside to retrieve our bikes and the owner follows us out to chat.  She tells us the history of her business. This is the #7 best restaurant in all Newfoundland and she and her husband have built it up from a business which started out just selling live lobster on the wharf. After a while, they added a picnic table and would cook the lobster.  She says she used to run up the hill to her home to melt the butter on the stove whenever someone ordered a cooked lobster. Her husband still steams every lobster himself and cooks the snow crab too. This is in a little town of maybe 100 houses off the “main road” and out on a wharf.  The only decor inside is a “fish cam” which shows fish swimming by right outside off the dock. The food is so good and with four watiresses and only eight tables they are making a decent living and are certainly a hidden treasure in Newfoundland.
I guess our lack of groceries is not a big deal.

Lewisporte to Dildo Run Provincial Park

That high point at mile 20 is the lighthouse.  The causeways between islands are at the zero points.