Day Trip to English Harbour West and Harbour Breton

We went to both stores in Hermitage today.

This church is near Joanne and Bert's house.

Next stop the post office.

After that we took a drive to the other side of the cove.
It would be hard to say which town is which after the fact. They all look quite alike.

In the afternoon we drove over to English Harbour West to look around. We pulled up on the dock to the business of J. Petite and Sons who run a grocery and supply store on the wharf. They also have a free museum of local articles and a history of their shipping business.

This boat was docked at the wharf.

A natural cave on the shore.
Here is another house for sale.
Beautiful rock at the harbour opening.

From English Harbour West we drove a short way to Breton Harbour. Breton Harbour is the largest town in the area and has more facilities than Hermitage.

We had supper here at a fish n chips/hamburger/pizza place and then went and looked at the town a bit on our way to a local theater production.

Harbour Breton is a series of coves with a handful of houses tossed into each.

Joanne reading about the landslide which occurred at this site.

You can see a house in the water pictured on the sign.


The show we saw was called The Talk of the Town. It depicted the activities and misadventures of an Englishman who came to Harbour Breton to work for the Newman Company. The Newman company imported wine and sold fish.

Here is the company in their final bow.

I must show you the jar of Pickled Wieners I bought today. They are a favorite treat here especially at Christmas.

Day trip to Gaultois August 4th

The ferry we took left Hermitage at 11:15AM and arrived in Gaultois half an hour later.

She is the Terra Nova from Ottawa and costs a mere $1:00 per trip for seniors.

We rode outside as you can't see much from the cabin.

We stayed in Hermitage Bay with land nearby the whole trip.


Looking back at Hermitage.

A rock covered with gulls along the way.

Pulling in to Gaultois.

Gaultois has a few very bad roads and most people use these all-terrain vehicles.

Workers are preparing to off-load the cargo here.

The boardwalk from the harbour to one side of town. We are walking over to the Hotel to get lunch.

We passed this fishing shack at the other end of the board walk.

We decided to explore the town and soon found ourselves heading onto a walking trail with lots of beautiful small lakes.

Joanne got this picture of a pitcher plant.

Here is a larger one but without a flower. You can see the pitcher shape of the leaves.

The path was worn enough that we could always see it and it was dotted with a few benches and some signs with names of lakes or viewpoints.

It was a nice partly overcast day, comfortable for hiking.

Lots of water lilies.

There were wood paths over the boggy bits

We passed Halfway Hill with plenty of time left so decided to walk the whole trail.

Then everything changed.

The path became a little less travelled.

A dead tree lay across the road but we could see that we were nearing the bay again.

We decided to continue but the trail was becoming more difficult. At one point we had to scamper down rocks with a tiny stream running through them. There was still the odd bench or wooden walkway so we felt we were still on the trail even though it didn't seem like it.

Sometimes the peat moss was wet and we slid. We all fell at least once but were continuing because we were so near the end.

We came out onto a marshy area full of reeds and peat where there was no evidence of a path.

There was a deep stream we couldn't cross without getting wet so we decided to turn back and walk out the way we came.

Joanne took a picture as we were contemplating the path saying "This may we the last picture anyone ever sees of you two!"

Without stopping to smell the flowers it took only an hour and a half to walk out the way we came.

At some point Joanne noticed that she was missing one of her gold ear rings, probably caught by a branch or something.

Later we discovered it laying along the gravel road we had come down from the town where she stopped and took off her sweater on the way in.

We all enjoyed the hike except for the last bit.

Gaultois is known for its beautiful trails and people come to Gaultois just for the purpose of walking the trails which meander through the hills beside the little lakes.

We enjoyed our lunch at the hotel restaurant and would do the same again too.

We made it back for the early ferry home with 7 minuits to spare.

Home to Hermitage Aug 3rd

We left Clarinville in the morning and drove as far as Gander by lunch. We did manage to find another gift shop in Gander too. Then we headed off for the four hour drive to Hermitage.

Just outside of Hermitage is a huge eagle's nest that you can see in the clearing between the trees. There was a baby bird inside calling for its mother.



Just some greenery along the road.




I'm loving the wild flowers.

We had driven for hours through areas filled with trees. Once getting close to Hermitage the view opened up and you could see a lot more.

More wild flowers.

There are many lakes in amongst the trees.

Some aqua-culture pens for baby fish.

Finally, we got to see the Rose's recently acquired home in Hermitage. Apparently I am rather slow at getting the pictures taken, but it is surprisingly adequate and more than comfortable for a summer home.

We unpacked the car, went for groceries, cooked supper and relaxed for the evening.

Hermitage has a population of 500-600 people and has 2 groceries plus doctor clinic, hair dresser, liquor store, B&B, restaurant, convenience store, gas, hardware, building contractor and many other everyday essentials.

Larger towns are not too far away but the bigger centers are 3 or 4 hours drive.

The main industry here is fishing and aqua culture.

August 2nd Back to Fortune

We had some nice sun first thing this morning but soon the rain and fog rolled in. We did some shopping and were getting frustrated because each store keeps different hours and the museums are even worse. We were getting to know the people in the coffee shop.

Here is another street view. The buildings look quite old.

Looking out on the bay about an hour later. We were thankful for the beautiful day we had yesterday.

Here the girls are waiting by the pier for the ferry to load for the 2:30 trip back to Canada.



It was very foggy most of the way over but when we got into Fortune it was sunny again. Here you see the front of the place we stayed on the way over. I had booked their suite some time ago and it turned out to be very nice and quite large. It was right across the street from the ferry terminal too.

We headed out and drove as far as Clarenville before we stopped for the night.

August 1 in St. Pierre.

Three of us on the ferry to St. Pierre, were all bundled up as it was quite cold and windy. The weather was good though and we saw the coast along the way over.

They switched to the French flag when we entered French waters.

A view of St Pierre from the water.

This town huddled by the edge of the bay was also cute and filled with bright colored buildings.

The white boat in the back was our ferry. We arrived around 9:00 AM and spent the night.

Mostly we walked around town and shopped. Of course the licence plates are French.

The island has a population of 6000 people and most of them reside within the town. The streets were amazingly empty at times, especially during the noon hour when everything closes for lunch. Stores seem to be able to decide their own hours and days of operation.

The streets are quite narrow with one way traffic. There are lots of cars.

The bright colors help alleviate the dreariness of the grey foggy days, especially in the winter.

The largest and probably oldest church.

City Hall I think.

Detour in English.

For my door collection.

We thought we might visit this historical island in the morning but it was foggy and rainy so we decided to skip it. It is not far off shore from St Pierre.

These people were learning to sail in the harbour.

The breakwater with a light house. Wow the sky is blue today.

Susan looking back towards town.

Door of the lighthouse.

It was hard to get a picture of this flower, it was so weird.

One of the oldest houses in town.

We took a bus tour around the island in the afternoon. It is amazing how quickly the fog can roll in.


Fog on the rocks looks like a moonscape.

Another coastal view.

This is the passenger terminal area of the airport. They have only one small jet plane but they must also receive flights of other airlines.

This is the new hospital building.

A view as we were coming back to town.

The graveyard had some old stones. They require the families of the deceased to maintain the stones and plots in good condition. If there are no family left to do that they will remove the grave and place what is left of the remains in a building designed for that purpose.

They speak mostly French but most shops speak enough English that we had no trouble. We didn't try to go to the other French Islands and felt that 24 hours is plenty of time to see what is here if the weather co-operates.