Kaleidoscope Travel & Cruise

Article Published: November 21st, 2007

An excited and happy group left Calgary on September 19, 2007 bound for NEWFOUNDLAND, we were going to spend ten days travelling from east to west across ‘the rock’. We flew into St. John’s where we were met at the airport by a motor coach, and transported to our hotel overlooking the harbor. We rested on our first evening in preparation for the fabulous day that awaited us! Our explorations of St John’s, one of the oldest cities in North America, included Signal Hill, The Rooms (an amazing museum), a city tour and of course that evening we all got “Screeched”, a ceremony which includes a drink of the infamous Newfoundland Screech Rum and kissing the posterior of a puffin and repeating a semi-dialect, slightly risqué recitation. Now we are all ‘Honorary Newfoundlanders’. The following morning we spent time at the oldest surviving lighthouse in Newfoundland and Labrador, which is located at the most easterly point of land in Canada, Cape Spear. We carried on to the town of Bay Bulls and after lunch we boarded a catamaran for a marine wildlife tour to the Witless Bay Ecological Reserve where we enjoyed watching the puffins as they dove for fish. That evening we were superbly entertained by a local ‘legend’, ‘Stompin’ Darrin Steele’ – a most enjoyable evening included a traditional meal of local ‘fare’. The next day we continued on Gander through Terra Nova National Park. We visited the site of the memorial to the crash on December 11, 1985, of Arrow Air flight MF128– with a loss of all 248 passengers – members of the 101st Airborne Division. We spent time at the North Atlantic Aviation Museum before checking in to our hotel. The following day we spent on Twillingate Island where we enjoyed the museum – climbed to the top of a lighthouse and laughed and learned of the fishing industry at the local fisheries museum. – everyone agreed it was such a fun stop.

Entry Filed under: Canada