We had a bit of a lazy morning at the villa, and didn't leave until about 10:30 AM.
There were two large cruise ships in port for the day (and a third that was departing today) so we expected the beaches near St. John's to be crowded. We originally debated going back to Dickenson Bay Beach, but assumed it would be crowded, or maybe Runaway Beach, but some of the more-recent reviews suggested it was still recovering from hurricane erosion, so went for Fort James Beach in the end. Ironically, this page I just linked to concludes "Fort James Beach is also a popular spot for cruise ship visitors, as it’s only a 5-10 minutes drive from the cruise ship dock in St.John’s."
The road out to Fort James Beach is a bit rustic. We encountered a group of kids doing some Saturday morning donkey-riding. It wasn't entirely clear if the donkeys were willing participants, and I don't think the kids in the second photo were thrilled that I took their photo. There was a third donkey that had just bucked off a small rider, also.
Not too far after the donkeys, there was a cow wandering across the road, and also probably a dozen of them randomly lounging in a field.
I'm just noticing now that one of the cows under this tree was actually a bull, with horns and everything. Also one of them is actually a horse.
I'm not sure where the egrets fit into this mini ecosystem, but I'm guessing the answer is somewhere on the Cornell Labs "All About Birds" site.
By the time we drove around a bit to find a spot with some shade, unloaded all the gear, picked a spot on the beach, and got set up for the day, it was after 11 AM. The beach wasn't very crowded, and the sand was soft and clean.
There was barely a cloud in the sky as Rudy inspects the water. We commandeered a few lounge chairs in front of a small, rustic beach bar; we sort of got the impression there was an unspoken expectation that we would buy a beverage or two from the wooden shack (cash only), in lieu of a chair rental fee.
About two hours later, we started looking for lunch/snack options at the neighboring Treehouse Beach Club. By then, they were fully enveloped in cruise-ship patrons, some of which were easily identified by their Norwegian Cruise Line towels.
Twenty minutes later, we at least had a few cocktails. Rudy decided to try an espresso martini, at Steve's suggestion. The woman working behind the counter wrote "Sabrina/Beard" as the name on the food order slip. I knew we were in trouble when she asked the customer in front of us when she had to leave (e.g., go back to the cruise ship); for our order, it would apparently take about half an hour.
We returned to the beach, promising to come check on the food situation in 30 minutes.
Steve, Rudy, and I returned after the half hour was up, and waited around for a while. Eventually, we gave up when they offered to bring it to us, and wanted to know where we were sitting. I had to persuade them to extend their delivery range, as we weren't exactly "at" their establishment; I tossed out a plausible story (lie) about how we had to relocate due to the tide coming up, and the waitress seemed satisfied.
We probably futzed around for 10 or 15 minutes in there, but the people-watching and the accents were epic; at one point a guy asked me if I was queuing, for example.
It was around 3 PM by the time we got some fries, nachos, fish fritters, and a chicken sandwich. It was all delicious, and somehow made even better by the brutal sun.
After lunch, Steve, Rudy, and I went on an adventure; about 1/4 of a mile behind the Treehouse Beach Club, we found Fort James, or at least what's left of the 18th-century British fort.
The fort ruins are at the end of a peninsula, commanding a splendid view of St. John's harbor.
Other than the view, the stone walls, and a few ruined buildings, the most obvious attractions were the cannons arrayed around the outside wall.
We entered the... upper? area of the fort, at the extreme tip of the peninsula, where we found maybe a dozen more cannon and more collapsed buildings.
The sun was absolutely baking us, despite it being nearly 4 PM.
It was fortunate that we were here late in the afternoon; if we'd been a few hours earlier, I suspect the cannons would've been too hot for us to ride.
The only other visitor was this cat, who briefly joined our tour of the cannons.
I enjoyed lining up photos so the cannon is aimed at the ship that was anchored in the bay.
Once we returned to the beach, there was time for a final swim before packing up and heading back to the villa. We had just enough time to all shower and change before heading out to dinner.
I thought our reservation at Le Bistro was for 6 PM, but it turned out to be 6:15, so we had time to make another quick stop at the grocery store and also to get gas. (Wouldn't normally gas up the rental this early, but it wasn't full when we got it, so it'll probably be fine if it's down a bit when we return it.)
We were practically the first customers of the night, as they had just opened at 6 o'clock. Rudy forgot his eyeglasses, so had to borrow a pair from the very British manager/hostess; she even polished them, before handing them over.
Dinner was excellent, and we also opted for a few of the desserts. This required some seat changes, to facilitate better sharing.
After dinner, we followed the road back along the coast, the same way we had driven from the airport on Tuesday night. We also stopped at two small grocery/convenience stores in search of bananas, as the large grocer had been out of them (but struck out). The first of these stops was bathed in an eerie, red glow.
There's a stretch of road in Hodges Bay, near Jabberwock Beach, where they've installed red street lights to help prevent newly-hatched turtles from being confused on their trips to the ocean. Apparently the theory is that they crawl toward the moon as a navigation method, and bright/white streetlights look enough like the moon to cause them trouble, but the red lights are less prone to this.
That's the theory, anyway. I learned most of that from watching Bad Monkey, by the way. I don't know how much of it's true.
Tomorrow, we return to the US; our flight isn't until 3 PM, and checkout at the Airbnb isn't until noon, so we intend to just lounge around, poolside, for a few more hours before enduring the absurdity of airport security, economy-class seating, and immigration at Newark.
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