From St. John’s we had a couple of different options as
headed north and west across the island, with two stops driving toward Gros Morne National Park: Bonavista on the northeastern peninsula — where John Cabot is said to have first sighted land in 1497 — and Twillingate, the self-styled Iceberg Capital of the World, sitting out in Notre Dame Bay on a chain of islands connected by
Bonavista
Bonavista sits at the northern tip of the Bonavista Peninsula on Newfoundland’s northeast coast. The Cape was the first land sighted by John Cabot on June 24, 1497 — or so the strongest local tradition holds — and his exclamation “O Buona Vista” (“Oh Happy Sight”) is how the cape got its name. The lighthouse at the tip dates to 1843 and has been restored to its 1870s appearance, with guides in period costume leading tours up the tower where a working set of lamps and reflectors is still slowly revolved by a clockwork mechanism. Out on the rock island just off the cape, a thriving puffin colony is separated from the mainland by a narrow channel.
Twillingate
From Bonavista we drove across the island and north through a chain of causeways and bridges to Twillingate, a small fishing town of about 2,100 people spread across two islands in Notre Dame Bay. Known as the Iceberg Capital of the World, Twillingate is a prime spot for viewing giant icebergs between May and July each year — by September the icebergs had long since melted or drifted past, but the Long Point Lighthouse headland still delivered some of the best coastal scenery of the whole trip.
[Travel Notes
Newfoundland runs on its own time zone — Newfoundland Standard Time, + 1:30 from East Coast — a half-hour offset that catches most visitors off guard at least once. The island is large: driving from St. John’s to Twillingate is roughly 340 kilometres and takes 4–5 hours; to Gros Morne another 3–4 hours beyond that. Cell coverage on the Trans-Canada is reasonable but drops off quickly on the peninsula routes to Bonavista and Twillingate. Fuel up whenever you see a station on the peninsulas — the gaps are longer than they look on the map.]
Gander
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