Telegraph Office, 1866-1880
Multiplex Distributor Table
Repeaters, even back then
After taking a good long look around the Cable Station, we continued north on our peninsula drive. The terrain grew more barren and the scenery more interesting, and when we arrived at the town of Old Perlican, we steered off the highway and onto an old gravel road, wanting to continue a little longer along the edge of the coast. The sometimes water-filled rough gravel road eventually brought us to the northern most settlement on the peninsula - Grates Cove.
courtesy JInnes
Rock Walls of Grates Cove
Apart from being a scenic, windswept town on the barren coast, Grates Cove is notable: it is one of the few places in Newfoundland where one can still see hand-built rock walls, running up and down the hillsides, dividing parcels of land. The other notable thing about Grates Cove is that this is where legend says that the famous John Cabot first landed in North America in 1497, and took possession of 'the new found land'.
courtesy JInnes
Old Cemetery, Grates Cove
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
After taking in the stark beauty of Grates Cove, we started our way down the eastern side of the peninsula. The weather continued to be unsettled, but as we made our way down highway 70 (which hugs the eastern shoreline of the peninsula we are on), we got brief periods of sunshine, illuminating very pretty coastal towns and their brightly colored houses.
courtesy JInnes
courtesy JInnes
Our peninsula drive had been most interesting and quite scenic, but it had cost us a lot of time. It was now approaching 7pm, and we still hadn't made it back to the Trans-Canada. Although we had nearly completed our coastal circuit of the peninsula, we chose to take a short side-road inland to where we could access a high-speed bypass that quickly brought us back to highway 1. It was now time to make good time - to St. John's.
courtesy JInnes