Seaview Trail in Norman's Cove

Today is our last day in Bellevue Beach, Newfoundland.  Normally, on pre-move day, we are not too ambitious in our excursions, because we have things to do to get ready to move on to the next campground.  However, in order to see all of the places in Newfoundland we have not yet seen, we have had to trim our stays down to an average of three or four nights.  It can get frustrating at times, to have so little time in any one place.  But, in the words of that eminent poet, Steve Miller, we live the life we love and we love the life we live.  So on with the show.

Norman's Cove is a pretty little outport.  It doesn't have too many residents, nor any retail establishments to speak of; but it does have a bustling commercial shrimping and fishing harbor, boasting mechanization in some respects.  Its setting is gorgeous: 

 

 

Just as we arrived, a number of boats were hustling back into the harbor.  From the look of this one, it is probably a shrimping boat.  The shrimp are offloaded with huge vacuum hoses and dumped into large containers with ice and water, to await shipment -- presumably by truck -- to a shipping port or airport for quick delivery to market.

 

 

We would have liked to stay and watch the fishing hullabaloo, but we had a mountain to climb!

 

 

The Seaview Trail starts right on the edge of a neighborhood in town, next to two cemeteries, and climbs quickly through a mossy spruce forest:

 

 

After climbing a small ridge, it descends again to the far side of the harbor, where a beautiful, crescent-shape beach beckoned Kathy to try her luck looking for sea glass.  However, that was destined to be a disappointing mission, because this beach doesn't get the waves that we believe a beach needs in order to receive its fair share of sea glass.  Nevertheless, Kathy was ever optimistic:

 

 

From the beach, the trail led onward through a wetland meadow and across a quaint wooden bridge that spanned a pretty stream.  David relaxed streamside:

 

 

The trail then climbed steeply up the sideslope of the head across from town, winding in and out of spruce copses and across hillside meadows, until we came to a pretty gazebo with a sweeping view of the town and harbor.  Kathy paused a while to watch the little cod fishing boats ply the waters in search of that famous Newfie fish:

 

 

Onward we climbed, up the side of the head, until we reached a shelf where we were struck with a dramatic view of red iron-stained slate-like rocks covered in orange lichen.  The orange lichen gleamed in the sun:

 

 

After spending 10 or 15 minutes exploring the orange-red rocks and trying to understand the lichen and their brilliant color, we continued our climb, now passing many small wonders waiting to please us in the trailside vegetation -- such as these delicately colored leaves peeping up through a hedge of spruce --

 

 

-- and bright yellow fungi such as this sun-capped fellow: 

 

 

Not to be outdone, the primrose offered their best performances for us, too!

 

 

Fauna made the scene as well, but more rarely.  We spotted a short-tailed squirrel, and Kathy found this brilliant-blue-and-black feather, possibly from a jay, which she claimed as her own and added to decorate her hat:

 

 

Continuing our climb along the cliffs, there were places where we lost our breath gazing at the teals and tans and pastel blues showing off under the crystal clear Newfoundland waters near the cliff:

 

 

We reached the top of the head, where we had an unobstructed view on both side.  Kathy reveled in the sun and breeze and blue waters and sky:

We finished the last half of the hike and decided to cap it off with a visit to the Norman's Cove beach, where we were much more successful in finding sea glass than we had been earlier in the hike.  We only quit because it was past time for lunch, and we had a half hour drive back to our campground.

Oh, and the lobster lady had her little lobster pound open in Thornlea.  We stopped to pick up what might have been our last two lobsters of this season, and at the time I write this, Kathy is cooking and preparing a lobster feast for dinner.

Yum!