Two Sore Backs

To explain – directly from their website:

The Royal St. John’s Regatta is the oldest organized sporting event in North America. It has been a part of Newfoundland history for over 200 years. The first record of an organized event was in 1816, but rowing matches were common among ships crews in St. John’s Harbour since at least the 1700’s. These days, the Regatta draws crowds of up to 50,000 people annually to the shores of Quidi Vidi Lake. It is widely known as “The Largest Garden Party in the World” because it has been about socializing as much as amateur sport. Concession stands, wheels of fortune, games of chance, and food & drink are just as much part of the Regatta’s history as the races.

So we had to check it out.

There are categories of racing – men, women, young men. There are 6 rowers in each boat. These six seat boats make this event fairly unique in the rowing world. The course is set from the west end of the lake to just past the middle, around a buoy and then back to the start. Each team has their own lane. So the race can be won or lost on the turn. We saw some awesome turns and some terrible turns from the beer garden location (great spot). There are race heats during the day with a very civilized two hour break for lunch. Finals are in the early evening. The men’s final is a longer race – about 50% longer. Did I mention that Saint John’s takes the day off for Regatta!

After quite a few races and a few beers we decided we’d walk over to the hamlet of Quidi Vidi.

Next we took the trail to Cuckhold’s Cove and then joined the Ladies Lookout Trail from Cuckhold’s Cove towards Cabot Tower at Signal Hill.

Fun fact – In 1909 the Commercial Cable Company diverted two of its transatlantic telegraph cables into Cuckhold’s Cove and laid two more cables – one to New York and the second to Canso NS. (My great grandfather worked for the Commercial Cable Company in Canso around this time.)

These are a beautiful series of trails with a few glorious lookouts. It is called the ladies lookout trail as the signal men with families were eventually housed at Quidi Vidi and the trail got the men to Signal Hill and back each day.

Then we tackled the North Head Trail. On a map it doesn’t look very long but there are many many stairs. The views are terrific!

I was happy to sit myself down at the restaurant. I’d calculated we had walked about 8km with lots of elevation changes. After a wonderful dinner at Chinched (Nfld slang meaning stuffed or full) it was only about 2km to our car (back near Quidi Vidi Lake where we had started our day).