The Road to the Isles

The road to the Isles takes you into the scenic reaches and islands of Notre Dame Bay. The Visitor Information Centre at Notre Dame Junction is a good place to start. You can pick up information on the ferries to Fogo Island and Change Island, plus find out where the icebergs are. On Route 1 just east of the intersection of Route 340 is Notre Dame Provincial Park. It is a good spot for a picnic with two children's playgrounds and water sports available. The park is situated in a grove of birch and aspen and is a pleasant daytime or overnight stop.

Lewisporte is 11 kilometres from Route 1, it is a service centre where you can catch a ferry or coastal boat to Labrador. The town is very suburban despite its location on the shores of Notre Dame Bay. Both Lewisporte and Millertown are named for an enter prising Scot, Lewis Miller, who operated a logging company in central Newfoundland.

The Women's Institute runs the Museum By The Bay and craft shop. The museum's artifacts reflect life in earlier times and include Beothuk arrowheads. Among its most interesting displays are naval architecture plans from the 1805 era, including drawings for a yacht built for the Prince of Denmark and King George III's yacht,Royal Sovereign.

The craft shop, which has a year round Christmas display, is one of five stops on an All Around the Circle craft tour, with the title taken from a line in a Newfoundland folk song. The other stops are in Twillingate, New World Island and Gander.

Just down the street is a train park with the biggest snowplow you will ever see. It was attached to the front of the train for trips through expose areas of the interior that were infamous for their snowdrifts.

The town's first settlers are also commemorated on Main Street. Robert and Elizabeth Woolfrey moved here from Moreton's Harbour in 1876 to establish a church and school. They both died within two years of their arrival.

The town has a marina and a municipal park, and hosts the Mussel Bed Soiree on the first weekend in July.

At the end of Route 341 is the community of Laurenceton. During World War II it was a key point in the coastal defense chain, but today it is a quiet place with the sweetest air.

While driving through this area you will notice the firewood stacked near the road. On closer inspection, you will find unique patterns to the stacks that reflect their owners personalities, and identify ownership.

North of Lewisporte, Route 342 leads through Embree and Mason's Cove to Little Burnt Bay where you can buy fresh lobster in season.

Back on Route 340, head east through Cambellton and along the coast of Indian Arm. There is a lookout at Indian Cove Neck where you can relax on a sandy beach or hunt the waters for mussels. This is a beautiful area in the fall with the leaves turning red, orange and yellow.

Route 343 takes you up a little peninsula to the farming community of Comfort Cove, which also has a small bird sanctuary.

Returning to Route 340, you will soon arrive at Boyd's Cove and the first of four causeways that connect Chapel Island, New World Island and Twillingate Island to the mainland of Notre Dame Bay. This was the site of a major Beothuk encampment and is being excavated and developed into an interpretation centre.

Dildo Run Provincial Park on Route340 contains the remains of an old tramway system that once carried passengers to Virgin Arm where vessels then carried the people to Twillingate. For many years this was the centre of the Labrador and inshore fisheries. The Twillingate area is where the Slades, Nobles, Earles and Duders, merchants from Poole, England established trade in the mid 1700s. Once the hub of the lucrative fishery in Notre Dame Bay it even had its own paper, "The Twillingate Sun," and a championship cricket team.

The town's most famous resident was opera singer Georgina Sterling. In the late 1800s, Miss Sterling, who was known professionally as Marie Toulinguet, won acclaim for her performances at the Paris Opera and La Scala, in Milan. Unfortunately her concert career was cut short due to voice failure and she returned home to live out her days and is buried in St. Peter's Cemetery.

Her story and that of the town is told in the community museum in the former Anglican Rectory. Parts of this fine home have been restored to illustrate an upper class residence at the turn of the century. One of the museum's exhibits is a remarkably preserved 120-year-old children's tea set. there is also a sealing display and a collection of Maritime Archaic Indian artifacts.

Whale Watching 1994, Watercolour, Sold By: Terri Leonard

Twillingate is also the site of the Fish, Fun and Folk Festival which highlights some of the best West Country English dance, song, recitation and music. Held every July, the festival also features crafts, baked goods, picnics and a lively party spirit. The nearby Long Point Lighthouse, built in 1876, is one of the best places in Newfoundland to see icebergs. Built on a bluff, it overlooks the outer reaches of Notre Dame Bay. You may also catch a glimpse of the huge whales that spend their summers feeding along the coast.

A much-photographed community nearby is Durrell. this fishing village seems frozen in time with narrow lanes winding close to rough spruce wharves. There's a community museum in the former Church Lad's Brigade building.

And speaking of lanes, you'll probably see street signs with names like Pride's Drong. Also pronounced drung and drang, this word has survived in English for over a thousand years, although its meaning has changed from crowd (throng) to narrow lane.

The Twillingate area is a wonderful place to explore on foot. the town has an interesting collection of old buildings, including the Sons of United Fishermen (SUF) and Orange Association halls. If you are going hiking along the base of the cliffs try to hire a guide.

Heading back toward the mainland, take a detour to Moretons' harbour on Route 345 and the community museum there. Once a thriving commercial centre, it's now a quiet village. High, forested hills tower over the town. Inside the museum are relics from thetown's heyday as a fish shipping centre. There are stencils of the names of the markets and the products, such as mackerel fillets.

The town's connection with the sea is still alive. It's marina has shower and laundry facilities for those who arrive by boat.

Return to the mainland by way of the causeways. Branch off Route 340 onto Route 335, which takes you to Farewell where you can catch separate ferries to Change Islands (25 minutes) or Fogo Island (50 minutes).

Change Islands has one incorporated community built along a narrow tickle and the causeway that joins two of the largest islands. The people have been here since the latter half of the eighteenth century when the Labrador fishery rose to prominence. By the beginning of the twentieth century this was a prosperous settlement with a population of over 1,000 residents who fished in the northern waters or worked in the huge merchant premises that lined the shores. Now the numbers have declined to only 500 and the fishery is mainly from trapboats and longliners.

In Change Islands little has changed since the last century, there have only been motor vehicles since 1965! White painted narrow clapboarded homes sit in tidy green gardens. Fishing stages and stores, painted in the traditional red ochre hug the shore. Small boats chug in and out of the harbours and tickles.

Fogo Island is 25 km long and 14 km wide and was first settled in the 1680s by fishermen who sought refuge from the French raiders who terrorized the east coast and the Beothuks who harassed the Europeans in Notre Dame Bay.

The original settlement took place in the 1700s and the area has remained isolated well into the 20th century traces of the Elizabethan dialect can still be heard on the island today. Many old folk customs are maintained on the island, while they are disappearing on the mainland.

It is probably named by the Portuguese after the word "fuego" or fires, which were the signs on the Beothuk encampments seen by the settlers.

As you return along Routes 335 and 331 you can visit Dog Bay Pond Provincial Park, which is a small picnic park. You can head to Gander on Route 330 or continue along the shoreline of Hamilton Sound to the Gander Loop.

On the way to Gander is Jonathan's Pond Provincial Park. nestled in a stand of white birch, the park has great waterskiing and salmon fishing. it also is a good place to see the White Admiral and Atlantis Fritilary butterflies.

To Scenic Tours: Central Region