Keith and Heather Nicol

The Corner Brook-Humber Valley area of Western Newfoundland has some of the best autumn foliage in the province due the extensive stands of birch as well as colourful maples in many places. One of our favourite trails to hike is on the International Appalachian Trail from Humber Village to Barry's Lookout.

This is the iceberg season that just won't stop! The Petermann Ice Island which I wrote about in several earlier posts in mid August, 2011 is now making its appearance closer to Corner Brook. Not long after we were in St. Anthony the ice island drifted to the south and broke in half. These 2 pieces have been spawning icebergs that have now drifted into the Hampden area of White Bay.

Fogo Island is undergoing an interesting experiment spearheaded by the Shorefast Foundation, which is trying to promote the social, cultural and economic regeneration of the area. From the development of a new inn slated to open in 2012 to new artist studios dotted around the island, Fogo has suddenly been put on the radar as a place where new things are happening. So we decided to have a look at the artist studios through a tour put on by the Fogo Island Arts Corporation .

We were blessed with sunny skies as we left the Paradise Bed and Breakfast in Twillingate on Wednesday August 24 and headed for the 11:15 am ferry at Farewell enroute for Fogo Island. On Fogo we had wanted to do some hiking and also find out more about the new artists’ studios that are being built there. From our research, we knew  the community of Fogo has good hiking trails. We started with a Fogo classic- the hike to the top of Brimstone Head.

Our last visit to Twillingate and Fogo Island was in the fall of 2010 and we wanted to return to find out about the hiking trail development in Twillingate and to walk some of the many trails of Fogo Island that we had heard about. So at midday on Tuesday August 23 we headed out from Corner Brook to central Newfoundland. We also had some friends from Ontario in tow and they were very keen to revisit this area having seen it over 10 years ago on a driving tour of the province.

“Ed and Ed’s B and B — Where you are a Stranger but Once” is the third play in this series. Since we hadn’t seen any of the previous “Ed and Ed” plays we were not certain what to expect, other than that the programme billed it as a comedy. Many of the plays at Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s Gros Morne Theatre Festival deal with local themes, so this play fits right in since the Bed and Breakfast that Ed and Ed are opening is  in Cow Head.

At 7:30 am on Sunday August 13, 2011, I peered out the window at the Hotel North in St. Anthony and the fog was so thick I couldn’t see across the parking lot. “I guess our 9:00 am boat trip is going to be scrubbed,” I told my wife Heather. But a few minutes later she pulled back the curtains and said she could see across the harbour.

Who would have guessed that an event in Greenland a little over a year ago would bring tourists flooding to the St. Anthony area this summer? On August 5, 2010, a large piece of the Petermann Glacier broke off and became an “ice island” measuring 280 square km in size.  A year later it has worked its way south and is now off of St. Anthony at the tip of the Northern Peninsula. 

Fleur de Lys is located at the very northern tip of the Baie Verte Peninsula in Central Newfoundland and we were impressed with the hiking that it had to offer as well as the unique Dorset Paleoeskimo Soapstone quarry that has been discovered there.

We were finishing our pea soup and dumplings when we could hear some accordion and guitar music coming from the “kitchen” of The Outport Museum and Tea Room in La Scie. The cook and waitress, Valerie Whalen said they were going to play some music in the “kitchen” of the museum and would we like to join them. “Sounds perfect to us” we chimed in, so we joined a handful of other visitors for an impromptu kitchen party.

“Winter” is a new play for Theatre Newfoundland Labrador for the 2011 season and was written by Nell Leyshon, who has the reputation of being the first female playwright to be commissioned and produced by the Globe Theatre in London, England.

“Yesterday we had 6 women from the Corner Brook area come out for a fishing tour—they were in their 60-70’s and they had a great time. Not only did they catch a lot of cod but we saw an eagle for each person.” Darren told me over the phone on Tuesday night (August 2)

When I recently mentioned to Gaylene Buckle that we were heading to Cow Head to see some plays for the weekend, she suggested we try out the hiking trail that traverses the “Head”. As Theatre Newfoundland Labrador’s (TNL) general manager, she has spent many days in Cow Head and knows the area’s nooks and crannies.

Some plays suit a location because they mimic what is happening in real life. Cow Head, at the northern tip of Gros Morne National Park, is pretty quiet during the winter but every spring and summer they get invaded by Theatre Newfoundland Labrador (TNL) who put on plays that are often about life in Newfoundland.

Nurse Bennett was a true Newfoundland hero who was dedicated to serving the health care needs along Newfoundland’s rugged Northern Peninsula for over 50 years beginning in 1921. She was known as the “Florence Nightingale of the North”, delivered more than 700 babies and amazingly reattached logger’s foot that had been severed in an accident!

We recently had a chance to visit the excellent Conne River powwow over the July 1 long weekend in the Coast of Bays region of Newfoundland. This area is accessed by highway 360 which is near Grand Falls in Central Newfoundland. We had never been to this part of the province before so we were keen to see as much as we could in the couple of days that we had available....

We had never been to the Coast of Bays along the south coast of Newfoundland so when we heard about the Conne River Powwow we thought that we should make a point of visiting this year....

Corner Brook, Newfoundland is well located for all kinds of outdoor activities. Recently we took part in 2 that are certainly noteworthy....

The island of Newfoundland's west coast is bursting with culture of all kinds – created by both humans and nature alike. A great way to soak it all up is to visit one of the many festivals in the region, which celebrate everything from music and performance to hiking and icebergs…

Fall is at its peak in Western Newfoundland right now (from the end of September to mid-October) and there are several great reasons to make the trek in this direction from anywhere in the Atlantic region.