We woke up to a gigantic breakfast at the B&B and rolled out of Gander, NL thoroughly stuffed. We stopped by the shore of Gander Lake for a photo op. At 27 miles long and nearly 1,000 feet deep, it’s hard not to miss when entering town! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gander_Lake
Fun fact: Gander played a big role in helping out on September 11, providing a safe haven for nearly 6,000 passengers that were stranded after the terrorist attack when the FAA grounded all inbound commercial aviation traffic. Our hats off to our friendly neighbors to the North! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Yellow_Ribbon
The drive up to Twillingate was scenic – the sun was shining, the water was a beautiful shade of blue, we passed over several bridges, traveling island to island. Unfortunately, there were no pull-offs to snap a picture.
Our first stop was the Long Point Lighthouse to hike the Lower Head Trail. Just as we arrived, we noticed rain in the distance and decided it best not to start the hike knowing we’d get wet. We did meet some friendly Bernese Mountain Dogs in the parking lot that just wanted to be petted. Too cute!
We decided that a visit to the Auk Island Winery would be a good way to pass the rainstorm. We sampled several of their fruit wines, (they make them with locally sourced berries), but had to take turns since Autumn wanted to walk all over the gift shop and pull every stuffed animal out of its bin.
The rain looked like it was letting up, so we headed over to the B&B (waterfront!) to drop some bags off then made our way back up to the lighthouse at Crow’s Head to restart our hike. The skies were still gray, but we did see some glimmers of sunshine as we hiked the trail. Our eyes have been spoiled lately – this hike was beautiful, but didn’t have quite as much of the wow factor that the Skerwink Trail had. We did have the place to ourselves, which is always nice in contributing to the feeling that we are literally at the edge of the world and “getting away from it all”.
We finished up around 6pm and were considering going to the Split Peas concert (http://www.twillingate.com/events/split-peas/) , but noticing we were the only ones under age 85 in the waiting area and sensing that Autumn had had enough for the day, we figured we’d share the crowd Autumn’s version of “singing” (aka velociraptor screeching at the top of her lungs. We grabbed some fresh fish n chips and headed back to the B&B.
Onwards tomorrow to Gros Morne Nat’l Park. Fingers crossed for safe travels and some good weather!
