Day 6 of our Newfoundland Vacation

 Day 6 Newfoundland Vacation 

August 27, 2021

Our day started   travelling South on the East side  of Bonavista Peninsula  from Elliston down to Champney West by Highway 230.

Although the day was overcast and had a light mist and some rain, we were able to get some good pictures. Here is wood stacked to dry before cutting and the common native Newfoundland plant, the Garden Lupin on either sides of it..

Champney West is a harbour of interest because after coming off the highway into the community, you pass over a causeway with a bay on each side of it. Once you cross over the causeway you continue onto the peninsula to find more residences, a church and other buildings. The two sides make up one community but give the impression they are two separate communities.

This picture shows  the view  from the causeway down to the mouth of one bay .

More wood waiting to be prepared for winter and the every popular quad waiting for its driver.  I think everyone has one.

This picture and the one below are showing

 views overlooking the harbour.

These are the docking facilities at the causeway. I bet it would be interesting to hear the story on the damaged guardrail at the bottom of the photo.

These Garden Lupins  were  at the end of their season, I can imagine the colour of the countryside when they are at their peak. They are everywhere, in yards of homes, ditches and fields.

Someone is going to have to dig potatoes soon,

the plants and their blossoms look hardy.

Port Rexton above and below.

 

The Port Rexton Brewing Co. was closed so we were not able to get a few pints of their craft been for the evening.

Another wind shelter.

Then on to Come By Chance. The names of communities and harbours are so different than we are accustomed to. 

A name given by Captain Cook, I wonder.

This was the last stop on our  full road trip, we decided not to go into the community but followed our car's navigationally system instead, it took us to the location of the oil refinery.

This picture and the one above shows the port where ships came in with crude oil collected from the offshore oil well drill sites to be processed at the Come By Chance refinery.

This operation was not cost effective in the long run, so the refinery was closed and all crude was and still is, being shipped to other locations world wide for refining. It is cheaper to transport the crude to the buyer directly from the well and they in turn refine the oil at their location.

The closing of the refinery at Come By Chance meant the workers were now unemployed.

In the early 1970s with the building of a 16,000 cubic meter per day oil refinery. The $120-million petroleum complex included two 95 000 m3 crude-oil storage tanks, a railway spur track, a deep-water oil terminal, and the refinery itself, which produced its first oil in December 1973. It was permanently closed in October of 2020.

The refinery has recently been bought by United States-based private equity firm "Cresta Fund Management" with the purpose of  converting the refinery to make renewable aviation fuel and diesel from used cooking oil, corn oil and animal fat.

The new facility is expected to produce 14,000 barrels of renewable fuel per day by mid-2022 and  more than 200 people will work at the repurposed refinery initially, and more could find work through further phases, as the refinery has potential to grow.

Pictures above and below are the last 

of the wind shelters we saw on our road trip.

 Although it is not brightly coloured, 

I think this is the nicest one of them all.

It was off to St. John's to complete our road trip via the Trans Canada Highway and check in at the Double Tree Hotel.

After we were settled into our room we took a walk on Water Street and found a nice pub where we could eat dinner outside and ordered what else? Yes COD!

Allan loves his deep fried fish and fries,

me not so much. I like pan fried fish and mashed potatoes.

This night shot is of the old Court House on Water Street,

and this is a portion of Water Street. It looks deserted but only because there was a music festival directly behind on George Street, the party street of St. John's.

The end of another informative and much enjoyed day. My next blog post will include both Saturday and Sunday in the one post.