#37 Kings Point

#37  Kings Point

Wednesday July 31

The traveling time from Flatwater Pond to King’s Point covered only 56 miles.  We figured about an hour plus. Of the folks we talked to, no one mentioned road construction.

 Not just any construction, but major ROAD CONSTRUCTION!  The entire road for four-five miles had been graded and was being prepared for asphalt.

The RVs did not like the washboard surface!  So we traveled at 3-5 mph. Yuk! Although coming out we sped up and that helped.

Moose tracks in the mud!   Did we see some…NO again.

King’s Point RV turned out to be worth it.

We parked right above the bay and faced the water

 When we arrived an iceberg sat right out our front window.  Other campers said a Humpback  whale was frolicking in the bay right in front!

A neighbor said boat tours to the iceberg were available. 

We hurried right down to the dock.  While waiting for our turn, Lynn and I explored the Pottery Studio (beautiful art of all kinds) and the souvenir shop.

Captain Barry takes out 6-8 people each trip in his 18 foot boat.  Angela, Barry’s wife, sell tickets for each tour. We enjoyed talking with her.

 The two icebergs in the bay were just one last week, but have broken apart.  Barry took us out to see both icebergs and positioned the boat for photos.  Iceberg season usually ends in June, so seeing them on July 31^st was definitely a gift.

A Newfoundland family from a southern peninsula and their grandma from Springdale, NL joined us.  I kept them in some photos for perspective, or when cutting them out, also cut out too much the iceberg.

This is us with Iceberg #1

Here we are with Iceberg #2

Hopefully this other boat will help with perspective.

The icebergs glisten in the sun.  Water melting off the top runs down into the bay.  The green color is caused by the shallow water on top of the submerged berg.   Roughly 10% of the iceberg is visible above the water surface, with 90% below.  The first iceberg went down at least 70 feet to the bottom of the bay. It is stuck there until it melts some and frees itself from the bottom.

Icebergs calve or break off of 10,000 to 20,000 year old ice sheets in Greenland.   It can take one to two years to arrive here in King’s Point.

The joy of skimming across the bay in an open boat, with wind and spray and sun made my heart sing!   Being close to the icebergs, we experienced feelings of awe and wonder.  The whole little, 45 minute tour was exhilarating!

A side event was watching Lynn and I get on and off the bouncing boat. Kudos to Lynn for even going! Motion sickness can limit her options, especially in a small open craft.

Still riding high from our tour we continued on to Rattling Brook Falls.

 We hiked a combination of stairs and boardwalks to reach the viewing platform.  Many of the Newfoundland trails include climbing stairs!  The trail went through the woods along the brook.

The trail ended at a view tower, where we could catch a glimpse of the falls.

After our trip to the end of the road, Derrille pulled into this driveway where a man was building a deck.  He asked the man why so many houses have front doors with no way to use it.  The man laughed and said he didn’t know, maybe the people were lazy.  He also asked Angela at the boat tour. She laughed and said they are doors to throw out the mother-in-law.  Derrille checked google and it told of keeping costs down for a door not being used.

We chose to take several people’s suggestion to eat at this award winning restaurant.  We went. We were not impressed. The food was good, but nothing special.

  

While in King’s Point the guys walked the Alexander Murray Trail.  Lots of trail stairs in these here parts!

Several communities support these garden patches.  The one in King’s Point looked very healthy.

August 1, 2019       Hello August!

The first thing we noticed this morning is that the iceberg out our front window had disappeared.  As you can see in the photo with the RV, the iceberg is not there. Apparently  it melted enough to move to a different part of the bay.

Today’s agenda included a return trip, car only, over the horrible road to explore Springdale.  Springfield turned out to be a bust!  The museum looked closed and uninviting. We couldn’t even find the other things mentioned in the tour book.  AND Tim Hortons was out of donuts!  Lynn did get to use a bank, and we found a Foodland for a loaf of bread.

The next peninsula is home to Robert’s Arm.  They had this cute welcome sign.

Even using the map, we could not distinguish where islands started or stopped since the roads were so intertwined. Apparently bridges and causeways link everyone.

 However the lady at the Pilley’s Island Heritage Museum assured me we were on an island.  My goal in all these little museums now is to see how many items a familiar from my youth, or early marriage years.  The items here were presented in neat, orderly ways.

 Sally, Dick and Jane were present as were desks from the school that is now a museum.  Also present was a kitchen table and chairs.  Our set was blue.  Newfoundland had its own currency before becoming a province.  The Wall of Fame included this lady’s mom who was prominent in the community. This was a very tidy museum.

The United Church across the street was built over 120 years ago. It was a Methodist church, but like so many other places, several denominations joined together to become a “United” church.

The inside displayed items from over the years.  This building is used for special events, like weddings or family celebrations.

As a side note, we have noticed that the cemeteries are often designated by churches. Plastic bouquets decorate the tops of almost every grave stone.   I don’t know where they bury people no church affiliation.  United churches, Pentecostal Churches, and Trinity churches seem most prevalent.  On this peninsula large Salvation Army churches and schools have been seen. 

The road continued on to the town of Triton. 

In the Triton Sperm Whale Pavilion, a 40 foot Sperm Whale skeleton hangs from the ceiling.  This looks like a fairly modern building.  The whale on the outside door is eating a Giant Squid, its main diet.

 Exhibit information covered the walls, but Terry the docent was an ever flowing fountain of information.  A prior teacher, Terry talked for at least an hour.  Boy, do I know a lot about the Sperm Whale. This whale is the largest living toothed animal. The life span is calculated to about 70 years.

The Sperm Whale also has the largest brain for mammals. Their main diet is the Giant Squid.  I hope I calculated correctly.  The Squid is 10 meters in length (32.5 feet) and weighs about 450 KG or 990 lbs. Check out its size compared to a man.

Sperm Whale can dive to almost 3000 feet down, much further than a human could survive.  As he dives unnecessary body function slow down.  Oxygen moves to its blood and muscles. The rib cage folds and collapses the lungs.  He can move along at this depth for quite a while. He finds the squid in the dark through echo location.  He possesses powerful sonar that with one click can locate something 100 miles away, and sends out a sound equal in decibels to a 747 on take-off.  That one click can stun the squid and the squid is swallowed whole.

We spent about 1.5 hours with Barry and the whale, before we headed for the end of the road.  Our current touring pattern seems to be always going to the end of the road.  First we drove through the town of Triton. These houses sit on one of the inlets.

Triton is also home to the Ocean Choice Shrimp plant that is the same shrimp company we saw in Port aux Chois.

We continue to be amazed but the huge homes in these tiny communities.

The rain showered off and on for a while as we drove toward Brighton, at the end of the road.

Brightly colored little houses made a rather new neighborhood next to the bay.

Good size islands appear in the bay.  One had a rather large yacht moored at a dock. However we could not see a house anywhere. Maybe they live on the boat and own the island?????

The playground in this town shouted FUN, with its brightly colored fencing.

The one photo blurred, but this is a fish farm for Atlantic salmon.  The buoys filled several bays in this area. We have seen other kinds of farms with big black pens.  Big business up here.

It was past dinner time, so we returned to Springdale and tried the chain restaurant Wing’n It.  It has TVs on each wall showing sports.  The menu choices made it difficult to choose.  All of our food was great.  So now we have another familiar restaurant to choose from.

Friday Aug. 2, 2019

Our last day in King’s Point, we checked out the Humpback Whale Exhibit.  This female whale and her calf were caught in fishing net.  They were able to save the baby, but mom didn’t make it.  The story of how her skeleton came to be here took lots of time, patience and dedication.

The Humpback Whale is known worldwide and easily distinguished by their markings. An estimated 11,600 whales live in the North Atlantic, and another 6-8000 in the North Pacific.  The adults attain a length of about 55 feet and weigh about 40 tons.  They have a lifespan of about 50+ years.

This pavilion had some baleen still clumped together and a photo of how it looks on the whale. The photo above shows the baleen hanging from the top jaw. They have huge mouths and jaws that unhinge to maximize each gulp, a series of 12-30 pleats below the jaw allow the mouth to expand to 3 times its normal girth. In a single swallow, the whale takes in thousands of liters of water and up to 55 pounds of fish.

This mosaic was created by the local school children. We enjoyed looking at the individual tiles.

Our ticket to the Humpback Pavilion also let us into the King’s Point Heritage House. A young man worked this site.  All of the young people manning the attractions seem to be entering their senior year of high school, or just graduated and getting ready to attend college.  We saw the usual turn of the century things. The young man was surprised that we knew the bedspread was chenille, and what they used for a pencil holder was a glass frog meant to hold flowers in a vase.

This is the street signs in King’s Point.

This day ended with a drive down the other side of the bay.  We wanted to see the iceberg now.  Angela, Barry the captain’s wife said both icebergs had flipped over today. 

As usual we continued to the end of the road. We passed through Silverdale (there are only so many names in the world), Jackson’s Cove and Harry’s Harbor. 

    

       

 

 Way out at the end of road, we found Harry’s Harbor to be a fairly well populated area.  Lots of houses….no stores or commercial businesses!  Way out here it is a bedroom community to King's Point?

Check out the street signs.  I only got a glimpse of the mailboxes, but you can see there are quite a few.

We headed home hoping that a Humpback would visit the bay with high tide.  They are often seen here, but not during our visit.

As it turns out, King's Point was one of the favorite places we visited.

Tomorrow we head for Bishop Falls.