St Anthony

This is what we did on August 19th…

It’s another rainy day—but also another travel so it’s OK to have gloomy weather for driving. We left Rocky Harbor for a 210 mile drive along the St Lawrence gulf coast to St. Anthony. We left bright and early because we had been warned that the road was very rough in spots and had lots of frost heaves.

Well, the road was pretty variable. There were some sections of brand new pavement. When the road was good, it was very good, however, when it was bad, it was very, very bad. That made it interesting when we parked—you never know what will come flying out a cupboard!

The coast line was rocky, windswept and very desolate. We went though a few very small towns. They are so isolated! Most of us have decided that the residents are hardy souls who are quite self sufficient. You have heard the saying-- A great place to visit but I wouldn’t want to live there—this is what they are talking about!!

One interesting thing we saw along the roads is vegetable gardens. The gardens are literally beside the main roads. It seems that when the highways were put in that these wide areas that were cleared and filled have some of the best garden soil in the area. Most of Newfoundland is very rocky—in facts Newfoundlanders refer to their island as “the Rock”. Being resourceful they use this nice area along the highway to plant a summer vegetable garden. Potatoes, carrots and turnips are grown for winter food. Each person fences off their garden. Often flags are hung to deter birds and other wildlife from raiding the garden. The gardens are planted on an honor system—no one messes with another person’s garden.

One also sees enormous stacks of firewood along the road. Wood is gathered in the spring (by snow machine and sled) and stacked for drying over the winter. Again, the honor system is used—no one messes with someone else’s’ wood supply. Locals tell us that 8 cords can be cut every year by permit. Many of the residents in this area go 10 miles or more from the coast to get to the forests.

We arrived in St Anthony and found clearing weather. Later that evening we went out looking for moose. There are 350,000 moose in Labrador and Newfoundland; it should not be so hard to see some! We did see 3 or 4 finally.





5193 moose