This photo was taken on my second East Coast Trail hike of 2024. (I walked a few sections further south about 15 years ago.) My first hike was from Pouch Cove, where I stayed, to Cape St. Francis at the north tip of the Avalon Peninsula, and back (via the road). The second was from Stiles Cove back north to Pouch Cove.

I hiked my first three days with Lea, a young woman from Montreal who is helping out at the Points East Guest House where I stayed. She was a wonderful walking mate, matched only by Buddy, this lovely dog we borrowed from Elke at the guest house.

I stayed for five fabulous nights at Elke’s Points East Guest House in Pouch Cove. Elke, now 80, was key to the East Coast Trail becoming a reality. She’s a driver and a doer. With her help, the trail was largely built by fishermen who lost their livelihood when the government shut down the cod fishery. If you walk the ECT, you’ll see how hard they worked. In addition to building all the boardwalks and stairs and cutting the trail, they made the wooden signs.

Points East is only open to backpackers. No-nonsense Elke, who is originally from Germany, doesn’t put up with any guff. We got along royally. She treated me like family. It was a sad day when I had to move on.

This is Stiles Cove. See if you can spot both waterfalls.

This where my second hike began. You can see that I was plagued by Newfoundland weather! This trail follows the coast for about 10k and was an even more beautiful hike than on my first day.

I loved it when the trail left the forest and crossed open land that made Lea (pictured here) and me feel as though we were in Scotland. There was even bracken and heather. The temperature was a lovely 20 degrees and there was a fresh breeze. Oh, and dolphins!

If you look in the distance of this photo, you can see three hikers. They give you a sense of the vastness of the landscape. This shot was from day four as I made my way on my own from Outer Cove, home to Memorial University’s Marine Centre, to Quidi Vidi in St. John’s. It drizzled, but didn’t rain with any enthusiasm until after I was safely inside the Quidi Vidi brew pub with a pint of Traditional, fish cakes and mustard pickle, a Newfoundland favourite that contains no pickles.

This photo was taken from the top of the bluff, high above Quidi Vidi before I made to the brewery.

Day Five found me on this ominously named trail on a blustery grey day. The trail skirted the coast through dense coniferous forest made up mostly of black spruce and balsam fir. In between, creeping dogwood blanketed the forest floor. Sheep laurel and blueberries, still a month away from ripening, interrupted the dogwood, as did the yet-to-bloom pink lady’s slippers.

This isn’t a great shot, but I happened across these 18-inch-high orchids. I looked them up and believe they are early purple orchids. Perhaps someone can confirm this – or not!

This is one of thousands of “rocks” that presumably gave Newfoundland its nickname.

There was a good, 200m climb up a rocky, slippery incline. While it had me dripping in sweat, it didn’t compare to the climbing I did last year on the Alpe Adria in Austria. And there was a huge reward at the top. As I “summitted,” the sun came out. Within minutes, I was walking under a cloudless blue sky along a glorious three-kilometre stretch of trail. This photo gives you a sense of the landscape. It also featured small, pristine lakes — ponds in Newfie lingo. I stopped and sat on a large rock admiring the sea, looking for whales or dolphins and drinking the last of my tea.

Before dropping down into Fort Amherst on the edge of St. John’s Harbour, I took this shot of Cabot’s Tower from the south, looking north. Built in the last days of the 19th century, it commemorates the 400th anniversary of John Cabot’s landing. It sits on Signal Hill at the Narrrows into the harbour. Close up, it’s a lovely stone castle.

I’m staying in St. John’s for five nights. I’d forgotten how much I love the architecture and the fearless use of colour. These houses are everywhere. One stretch of them is called “Jelly Bean Row.”