2 RR Maritime Adventure - Fav Photos 2025

Ruby Red Maritime Adventure - continued

Iceberg in Bayview

We were back on the island of Newfoundland heading east towards Twillingate. We had been told that there was an iceberg grounded off of the town of Bayview, just down the road from Twillingate, so went to look....

...and sure enough....

...there it was!

So the kids wanted some group photos taken...

Now, icebergs can look very different depending on the angle you see them from, so Jan decided to take the trail up the nearby cliff to the lookout on the top. On the way up he passed a root cellar. In the days before electricity, people would build them into the sides of hills to keep their root vegetables in over the winter.

The iceberg as photographed from the top of the cliff....

Then while he was up there, there was a loud crack as it suddenly tipped over, and many smaller bits broke off...

proving why icebergs are very dangerous, and one should never get close to them...

Then the iceberg as seen back from the beach....looking very different than it had a few minutes earlier

Picnic In Tickle Cove

There was another iceberg stranded in Tickle Cove in the town of Twillingate. We had been to check it out the evening before, where it was drawing quite the crowd...

It was back-lit by the sun...highlighting all the turquoise hues....

Twillingate is one of the larger coastal fishing towns, and is known as the Iceberg Capital of the World. The icebergs originate in Greenland (upper right in map below) and are carried on the ocean currents west towards the coast of Labrador, and then south directly towards the Twillingate area. It takes an average of two years for them to arrive, and they are melting and breaking up all along the way. Environment Canada releases satellite reports daily to keep ships informed.

The iceberg in Tickle Cove had been stranded there for almost a month already, and was originally over 300' tall - and that's just the tip of the iceberg, seen above the water. We were excited to go see it again, and were surprised to see that it had rolled over in the night....

and there were pieces of ice floating all over the harbour....

Bella, Sara and Alex though it was such a nice day it would be the perfect spot to have lunch...

with a view of the iceberg, which looked quite different from their picnic table...

then after lunch, we went through town....

..to check out the lighthouse at Long Point...

high on a cliff overlooking the ocean.

At some point while we were away sight-seeing in another part of town, the iceberg at Tickle Point had rolled over...

and broken up - again - with large pieces of ice floating everywhere...

Proving once again why icebergs, while beautiful, are so dangerous to get close to, as they are completely unpredictable and can break up or roll over at any time.

Then before leaving the area and moving on, we went to see the Bayview iceberg one last time. There were two iceberg tour boats circling at a safe distance...

The following photos were taken using my tele-photo lens, making it look like the boats were a lot closer than they actually were. But it certainly showed how big the iceberg really was...something which is almost impossible to judge from a photo of just the iceberg alone..

Puffins

Two days later we were at Cape Bonavista. It was a clear, sunny morning, with far less wind than the day before, yet still very chilly. The kids were dressed warmly because they wanted to go out and see the puffins....

...and they were not disappointed....but they were a bit far away...

Sara wanted to take some photos of them..."I see two over there on the rocks."

Sara was busy taking photos of the two in front of her....

..while Bella continued looking around....

"I see some more over there.."

So they headed out over the rocks...

...passing clumps of irises....

Then, at the edge of the cliff, directly below them, there was a puffin....

...nice and close enough for some great photos....

Whales

On Sunday June 29 we arrived at St. Vincent on the south coast of the Avalon peninsula in the hopes of seeing whales. It's one of the very best places in all of Newfoundland to see whales from shore. There's a two kilometre long gravel bar across the mouth of a river, where the beach drops steeply into the ocean, and the whales like to come and scrape their barnacles on the gravel, and feast on the Caplin when they arrive.
The last time we were there in 2019 there was hardly anyone there, but it had clearly become extremely popular since then, because the place was packed. Both tiny parking lots were overflowing and cars were parked end to end along both sides of the two kilometre stretch of the road along the bar. So we waited until evening after most of the crowds had left.

Bella was very excited, as she'd never seen whales before...

There was a family of whales swimming from one end of the bay to the other.

The gravel bar drops steeply into the ocean, so the whales often come very close to shore....

and they would pass right in front of us...

Then Bella spotted another single whale arriving....

It was the most amazing sight as it breached up out of the water...several times...

St. John's

No visit to Newfoundland is complete without a visit to the capital of St. John's. We headed through the city to Signal Hill with the intent to visit the Cabot Tower, but it was mid afternoon and there were no parking spaces left, so we went down to the harbour across from the foot of the hill, near Fort Amherst where all the fishing boats are...

Sara and Alex went out on the dock to take a closer look around....

Across the harbour they could see all the colourful houses at the base of Signal Hill...

...and the city of St. John's....

It was very windy....

...and starting to rain, so it was time for one last look before getting back into the RV....

Canada Day

The next day was July 1st, Canada Day, and it was time to start heading back westward towards the ferry. Now, there's only the one main road, the Trans Canada Hwy, across the 900 kilometres of wilderness between St. John's and the ferry in Port Aux Basques, so for a break from the endless driving we decided to make the side trip to Twillingate again to check on the icebergs.
It was evening when we arrived, and we headed to the nearby town of Durrell to take some photos at their museum to celebrate the day...

The museum is situated high on a cliff overlooking the town....

Happy Canada Day!

Then we headed over to Bayview, anxious to see what was left of the iceberg there...

Not much. It had broken up into several smaller pieces...

Lunch in Burgeo

A few days later, we made the side trip to Burgeo. It's a small, isolated town on the south coast, and only accessible by boat, or by the single 150 km road through the wilderness...

Burgeo is a fishing village....

which is shrouded in fog on most days...

There's also a Provincial Park with one of the best beaches in all of Newfoundland...

The kids were on the main wharf when it was lunch time....

Alex had picked up a bucket of Mary Brown's chicken...

while Sara had a bucket of KFC...

But Bella wanted to try a freshly cooked local lobster...

Neither Sara nor Alex were brave enough to try one...

But Bella wanted to give it a try...

Bon Appétit everyone!

Heading Home

The Ruby Red kids were also on their way home. It was rainy all the way across Cape Breton Island and the rest of Nova Scotia....

But the next day was sunny and hot, as we made our way to Fundy National Park, and stopped to make breakfast at Weldon Park in New Brunswick, with its extensive collection of rusty antique rail and farm equipment..

Later that afternoon we stopped in at King's Landing. We'd passed it many times in the past as we travelled on the Trans-Canada Hwy through New Brunswick, and decided to finally check it out.

It is a living history museum with original buildings from the period of 1820-1920. it was created around buildings that were saved and moved to make way for the headband for the Mactaquac Dam. The provincial government provided the land to create the museum with buildings that would otherwise have been lost. There are over 70 historic buildings on 300 acres land, with more buildings being added every year. The place is huge, so visitors can hitch a ride on horse drawn buggies (with modern rubber tires for more comfort on the rough dirt roads) to get from place to place....

Kings Landing is first and foremost a living museum. They offer a camp program where children are immersed in 19th century life for an entire week. Campers get to dress up in period costume and get in on as many activities as possible...