Raleigh, NL

During our nightly social, the six of us decided to check out the area, beginning with some icebergs, then the fishing village of Raleigh, and finally Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve.

Finding icebergs around her is not hard; you just have to look out to sea. This year is one of the best years for viewing them in recent history.

Many, many icebergs in the harbours

Arctic icebergs come from Greenland and flow past northern Labrador to the Grand Banks, this is referred to as iceberg alley.

Map of iceberg flow

How are icebergs formed you ask! Simply put, when the glacier that covers Greenland moves to the edge of land and extends over the edge, pieces break off and fall into the ocean. This process is called “calving”.

Glacier "calving"

Not far from our camping area is the small village of Raleigh with its rich history of fishing. The original name of this village was Ha Ha Bay.  The French gave it this name when they claimed the Old French Shore as part of their migratory cod fishery. The French never settled in Ha Ha Bay but by the mid-1800s English settlements started popping up. By 1921, 33 families called this place home. Wishing to rename the community one suggested Raleigh after his short visit to North Carolina.

Town of Raleigh

Old fishing huts

The uniqueness about Raleigh that drew us here is the opportunity to participate as part of a traditional fishing village. You live in bunkhouses, fish from a trap skiff, set a cod trap, then clean and salt your catch. How cool is that. Unfortunately the season has not started yet so we were out of luck. The town still showed us some uniqueness.

Laundry day

A seagull chasing a young eagle...silly bird

Beautiful carving done by a local

All of us had decided to bring along a picnic lunch hoping to find a nice place with a view. Raleigh is adjacent to Cape Burnt Ecological Reserve which has over 300 species of plants and of those 30 are rare plants. We ventured over to the Cape for lunch. Thank goodness our vehicles were 4X4s. What a fantastic find.

How pristine is that

Wildflowers of Cape Burnt

Whether it’s looking out to sea, exploring the rock formations, or simply finding different plants and flowers it will instill in all of us the beauty of this country we call home. If it’s your first time or if you have been here before, it will take your breath away each and every time.

 Fast Facts: Icebergs
* the frozen water that makes an iceberg is fresh water

* as many as 1,600 icebergs or more can drift southward past St John’s each year

* the drift of icebergs from their origin on the west coast of Greenland to the coast of Newfoundland is about 1,800 nautical miles and takes an average of 2 to 3 years

* Arctic icebergs have reached as far south as the island of Bermuda, a journey of 2,500 miles and an Antarctic iceberg has reached almost as far north as Rio de Janeiro a journey of 3,440 miles

* the temperature inside is believed to be -15 C, at the surface the temperature is about 0 C

* the age of the ice that makes up an iceberg is believed to at least 12,000 years old

* the biggest iceberg ever recorded was 208 miles long and 60 miles wide, a total of 12,000 square miles…bigger than Belgium. The tallest ever recorded was 550 feet which is just over half of the Eiffel Tower

* the international ice patrol which tracks movement of all icebergs and sea ice was formed as a result of the Titanic sinking in 1912.