East Coasting

Christos' company had a little discovery in Newfoundland so off we flew to Deer Lake on a Sunday night for a trip to Newfoundland!

We arrived late at night, picked up our rental car and drove to Aare's for a late dinner before bed.

The next morning we awoke to a fresh Newfoundland day and breakfasted on fare we had brought from the St. Lawrence farmer's market.

We noted that Aare had stocked up on firewood, soda water and coffee in anticipation of our arrival. Even so, we still required a quick trip into town to stock up on beer and wine ....

Later that afternoon it was off for an "easy" hike on the Bottle Cove trail, one of the OBIEC trails we had hiked before.

The hike started innocuously enough with an open sunny sky and wonderful ocean views over ground we had been on before.

We passed a sign indicating a four kilometre loop hike and kept going.

At some point we may have diverged from the easy trail as we soon found ourselves well past four kilometres and the trail still going forward.

Then the ascent began and it just kept going.

Higher and steeper on a trail that was still marked but became thinner and thinner!


So we followed it and soon found ourselves in ever steeper terrain but with wonderful views as compensation (not to mention a good sweat on our bodies!).

We finally reached the end of the trail where it looped around at the top of a hill, offering more amazing views, before descending back down the way we ascended.

On the way back down we suddenly started noticing patches of chanterelle mushrooms and began gathering them up as we had steak dinner (Belgian Blue!) planned for dinner.

All told we must have found at least a half dozen patches of chanterelles and perhaps 350g in total of the fresh fungi (which sell in Toronto for around $80 a kilo) found their way into our possession and ultimately our bellies before the end of the night!

After our wonderful steak and mushroom sauce dinner it was time to partake of our other favourite Newfoundland activity, sitting by the firepit!

As the fire raged we drank beer and wine until the wee hours, indulging in scintillating conversation (or so it seemed at the time) until we were incapable of doing so any more. Then sleep.

The next day the weather was a bit cloudier, as were our consciousnesses, so we opted for a more relaxed day of board games and downtime before dinner and another round of late night festivities around the firepit, although this one more tempered by the knowledge that we were off to Buchans the next day.

The next morning it was a quick goodbye to Aare before we piled into the rental car for the three and a half hour drive to Buchans. After a stop at the lovely "Eddy's Restaurant" for breakfast and socks, we arrived in Millertown before noon and checked in at the Lakeshore Inn before Christos met Bob at the coreshack at 1PM.

Christos and Bob went out to visit the trenches Canstar had recently completed and returned to Millertown in time for dinner for the three of us at the Lakeshore Inn.

After dinner, the three of us went over to visit Charlie and Dianne (two prospectors who work on occasion for Canstar), where we all socialized for a few hours, with much conversation on the Buchans Camp and its history, before we made it back to our lodgings sometime in the wee hours.

The next morning we grabbed coffee and a light bite at the Lakeshore Inn before heading off on the road back to Deer Lake and the flight home.

Around noon we grabbed a full breakfast at Eddy's, and with the weather looking good and our flight not until 7pm, we decided that we had enough time to stop at the Alexander Murray trail for the first hike we have ever had in Newfoundland without Aare!

We cleared the eight kilometre hike in good time, including a visit to the amazing waterfall we had skipped the first time when we hiked the trail with Aare in June, and made it to the Deer Lake airport for our flight back to Toronto.

Elora Gorgeous!

A friend of Christos' was very generous and gave us a gift certificate for an evening at the Elora Mill and Spa which included a picnic hike in the Elora gorge and a beer tasting at the nearby Elora brewery! So we borrowed Alex&Sal's car and drove out on a Thursday morning to Elora, arriving around noon just as the clouds settled in!

The Mill is a lovely restored building that sits on top of a gorgeous waterfall (the Elora gorge) and provides good food and excellent service.

After checking in, we grabbed the fully packed picnic backpack they provided, adding a bottle of white wine on our own initiative, and set off for the footpath around the Gorge.

A few minutes into our hike, the rain started and we settled in to the shade of a mighty tree as most of the other hikers scampered away. Only a couple of university students remained, ensconced across the river from us in a small cave.

With the rain coming down, we decided to open the wine and realized that while we had an opener, we had no glasses!

So the university students were treated to the view of us passing a bottle of Pinot Grigio back and forth to pass the time while the rains kept us in place.

Finally the rain broke (and our bottle of wine was empty) so we headed back to the Mill for a bit of relaxation before it was off for 4PM beer tasting.

The beer was decent but nothing special but the shirts were nice so we bought them (including one for Aare in Newfoundland).

With a few brews in us we did a little shopping, Lisa bought a lovely dress and Christos bought some gift cards made of seed paper.


Next it was time for dinner, which was good but not outstanding, while watching the sun set over the gorge.


After dinner we shared some wine on our room's terrace overlooking the gorge and watched a little TV before heading off for a good night's sleep!

The next day it was lovely out and we grabbed coffee but not breakfast at the Mill before heading out for another stroll which resulted in more shopping (lavender goodies from NEOB) before we made it back to the spa for our afternoon pedicures!

With our feet refreshed it was time to head back to Toronto on a Friday afternoon for the weekend!