Most of the population of Newfoundland lives around the coast of the Avalon Peninsula, and about 50% of them live within easy reach of the provincial capital, St John’s.

I explored it on 3 occasions.

One windy weekend afternoon I visited Cape Spear, the most westerly point of North America, and only a few miles from St John’s.

This photo shows the path to the old lighthouse, built in 1836 and the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland, though it is no longer in use.

Even though it was very windy, there were lots of people about, so I had no problem finding someone to take my photo.

The new lighthouse is automated, so no need of accommodation.

St John’s was a very important place during the Battle for the Atlantic in WW2, and round the corner from the lighthouses are the remains of military installations.

And the usual large number of informative noticeboards.

Afterwards I went a little way down the coast.

This is Petty Harbour, once a fishing village, now principally a commuter village for St John’s.

My next expedition was originally intended to go right round the arm of the peninsula south of St John’s. I had not appreciated the scale of the area at all!

At one time all the settlements were fishing villages on the coast, accessible by boat or footpaths above the cliffs. There is now a road that runs parallel to the coast, but it only meets it at the larger bays. Other places have short, usually unsurfaced spur roads as access.

The East Coast Trail was created in the 1990s and runs for over 200 miles from the northernmost point north of St John’s, down the coast then up to the narrow part where it joins the eastern part of the Avalon Peninsula.  As there is no public transport, it would be impossible to walk the whole trail without backup. There is little accomodation, so wild camping would be necessary some nights.

I was intending to drive over 250 miles along roads where the speed limit is mainly 40 mph and often less. And I wanted to walk to the La Manche suspension bridge!

The path from the road end to the suspension bridge was fairly easy walking through woodland, and only 1.4 km (just under a mile).

This is where it reaches the coast. It was called La Manche as this inlet resembles a sleeve in shape, and ‘manche’ is French for ‘sleeve’. A lot of the early explorers were French.

I think the suspension bridge was built in the 1990s as access to the East Coastal Trail.

You certainly could not get across without it!

Then it was a steep climb up steps to the top of the cliffs, and then along.

There were several old concrete ruins both before the suspension bridge and along the path. I believe they were probably WW2 lookout posts and defenses. There are many many places along the coastline where submarines could have taken shelter.

After about a mile I came to a large flatter area with a good view south along the coast. There was a village here until the 1950s. As the houses were all built of wood, they have long since gone. At one time it was large enough to have a small school, older children having to walk 4 miles along the coast to the nearest larger village. When Newfoundland became part of Canada in 1950, the schooling was reviewed. It was deemed impracticable to build a road to La Manche, and without one, the school was closed. The village was abandoned.

This is the view down to Doctor’s Cove, which seems to be the only place where boats could land and be safe. It is a very steep path up to the site of the village!

After returning to my car, I continued down the coast to Ferryland, on one of the larger bays.

There is a spur of land with a lighthouse on it, and this was taken from halfway along where the road access ends.

A short walk uphill through woodland leads to the lighthouse.

Definitely rocks to be avoided.

This is looking back northwards.

In season Ferryland has a few cafes, but not much else. The population is a few hundred scattered around. It is one of the larger settlements. It has a small supermarket, but you would need to drive regularly to the St John’s area for most needs. There is no public transport once away from the centre of St John’s.

I went a little further south, then returned to St John’s by the way I had come.You don’t see much of the coast from the road. To explore this part of the Avalon peninsula thoroughly would probably take at least a week. The road is called the Irish Loop as it was an area with a predominantly Irish population from the 19th century. However there are no really Irish place names as most of the settlements date from the 17th century. Although I saw a lot of houses flying both the Maple Leaf and the Union Jack, I never saw an Irish flag.

My last weekend I decided to spend a day exploring the Bay de Verde peninsula, the other side of Conception Bay.

The road from St John’s to Holyrood was very urban, only becoming truly coastal and rural after Topsail, and then Holyrood. From then on the coast was much more populated than that south of St John’s until about two thirds of the way up the peninsula. Clearly one can commute to the towns of Conception Bay and Mount Pearl.

Originally Newfoundland had many railways, but they have all now gone. There is a remnant walking trail along the coast at Holyrood.

The beach at Holyrood. Notice the bonfire, it was just coming up to November 5th, and Guy Fawkes is celebrated in a small way in parts of Newfoundland.

This is a more touristy area and there was car parking and information boards.

Though there was not much of note to provide information about.

Continuing along the coast, I diverted to Brigus.

A former fishing village, well preserved, and no doubt expensive to live in nowadays.

In the 19th century a landowner employed a miner for several months to dig this tunnel. At the far end is a cove where he moored his boat, and he had a jetty to it. It saved him walking round the coast to reach his boat!

This is where the cove heads out to sea. It must have been a very well protected fishing harbour.

After passing quickly through the modern urban sprawl of Bay Roberts, I reached Harbour Grace.

This is the Roman Catholic church, not actually in a very good state of repair. Along the bay runs Water Street, the original town. It was undergoing extensive repair work to the road, so was not very easy to photograph, and many shops seemed to have closed. A mile uphill on the main road is a large modern shopping area and modern housing.

I headed out of town intending to walk along the cliffs. However it was another very windy day, so I abandoned that idea.

I doubt that this building was originally in such splendid isolation.

It is still active as a small port, principally nowadays repairing small ships.

Having abandoned the idea of a walk, I decide to continue to the far end of the Bay de Verde peninsula.

The road runs mostly some way inland, but at Western Bay it neared the coast. By now it is too far for commuters to live, so settlements are smaller. I parked by the church and walked up the hillock in the background.

I was rewarded by the view. I suspect many of the inhabitants are retired.

Inland there is nothing, and almost certainly never has been. Only the coast is habitable.

I continued onwards, with this as typical scenery. I think that is Baccalieu Island in the far distance. There are many ponds everywhere away from the coast. I expect it is very buggy in the summer.

It was not very exciting driving, but scarcely any other vehicles.

Eventually I reached the village of Bay de Verde. This must be where the ferry to Baccalieu Island leaves from, and is still a small fishing port. Even on a Saturday there were a few lorries about.

I think most of the properties must be holiday homes, though there are virtually no facilities.

I then turned to return by the other side of the Bay de Verde peninsula.This is Little Catalina, a scattering of houses and not much else.

An old resident by the name of Doyle walked here every day to sit and look at the view, and people came for a chat. A simple way of life.

After that it was a long drive back to base. It was late afternoon driving west into the lowering sun, so not easy, though there was little traffic. It was completely dark when I arrived back in St John’s.

Another part of the Avalon Peninsula that really needs at least a week to explore, even out of season and I never touched the arm down to Placentia and St Brides, let alone most of the rest of Newfoundland. But then I did spend many hours and days at the Maritime Archives, this was not just a sightseeing trip.

So that is the end of my visit to Newfoundland.

Still working out where to go next.