Aug 3-home at last....

Up early again, Saturday morning, glad it is the weekend so the traffic is a bit lighter going through Montreal.  The broken window latch caused a few stops on the side of the road to figure out how to keep the window from tearing off the frame as it flapped in the wind going down the highway.  Pretty scary for awhile.  I ended up wrapping a mound of duct tape around the latch to hold it in place.  So glad we had made a tool box for the trip, used a few tools during the month.  We stopped in Cornwall for breakfast and a trip to the RV store fixed the window easily enough, Rob had it done in 10 minutes.  Rob drove awhile today, I am so tired, and when he got tired, I took over again after a quick snooze.  We were home by 4 pm, so relieved, until we discovered our well pump had died while we were away, and so we had no water in the house.  So....we had to unpack the urgent stuff, then repacked some towels and such and all the dirty dishes from the trailer and off to Pickering to Grandma's house to get cleaned up.  Finally home and in bed by 10 pm, and waiting for the well guys to come in the morning.  (570 kms) 

Back home, watching the well guys pulling up the broken pump!

 Generally, it was an amazing trip.  We traveled a total of 10,044 kms. If I had to redo this summer, I would do the trip again, no doubt, but would have made a few adjustments.  Anyone who gets the opportunity to go east, take it, it is beautiful just about everywhere we went.  If we get a chance to go again, I will return to Gros Morne for another long visit, and stay at Terra Nova too, and spend less time in between now that we have seen a fair bit of the Rock.  The trip to L'Anse aux Meadows was so amazing I'm glad we did it, for not only the history, but the icebergs and whales were amazing there.  We would stay longer and do a boat tour next time.  Hope you enjoyed the blog!

Aug 2-New Brunswick to Quebec

Did a quick regroup from the hellish day yesterday, washed up dishes from cooking in the parking lot, and got on the road as soon as we could for another long drive.  Rob had to drive a fair bit today as I have been pretty much awake for the better part of the last 3 days.  We arrived at Camping Alouette near Montreal by 5 pm, dying for a swim, but there was lightning in the area so they had closed the pool.  The showers were pay as you go, pretty awful when the site was $45 a night, and that did not include WiFi, that was an extra $5.  We are definitely not on the island any more!  We did not unhook the truck from the trailer again tonight so we could make a quick departure in the morning, and had to make do for our supper as our planned food had gone bad from the extra night of travel and not cooking.  We ate hot dogs, crackers, tuna and birthday pie.  Will never stay here again, it was an open field with terrible services a good 1/2 hour from Montreal perimeter, don't know what the attraction would be to all the other campers, but it was pretty full.  When we opened one of the beds, we found mud inside it.  Oh great, something must be leaking......and Rob broke the window latch.  Will be good to get home tomorrow.  (770 kms)

Aug 1-still at the ferry docks, eventually to New Brunswick

We woke up at 5 am in the parking lot.  We were not sure if there was going to be any meals provided (complimentary that was) to us stranded passengers, and there was nothing.  Luckily we had the stove, and I cooked us a can of chili and we ate some bread, a weird breakfast, but hot and filling.  Cup of coffee and hot chocolate to wash it down, trip to the bathroom in the parking lot, and folded up the bed and got ready to board the ferry.  We left the dock by 9:30 in the thick fog, instead of 8 pm the night before.  My worry was being able to make it to our next campsite, and wanting to get there as we had booked both nights for the trip home, and didn't want to be delayed getting home.  So, we had 675 kms to travel when we disembarked at 3 pm in North Sydney.  We called ahead to Mactaquac park to let them know we would be very late, and drove and drove, stopping only for bathroom and fuel and very quick meals.  Security at the park drove us into our spot when we arrived as it was 11:30 at night, and we had a quick shower and crawled into bed by 1 am.  (675 kms, most of which were not fun)

All the crew wanted to see the damage as we passed the grounded Blue Puttees

You could just see the rocks and dirt on the bow of the Puttees where she crashed into shore

If you can make it out in the fog, there is a crooked blue fishing shack that got pushed over by the Puttees

 

July 31-to the ferry

We woke to a rainstorm again, which petered out before noon.  Breakfast in town, then on our way south to get on the ferry by 6 pm.  We had lots of time, so we decided to detour into Stephenville again and try to find the 300 million year old tree fossil that we couldn't locate on the first leg of the trip.  We finally found it marked on the side of the highway, and parked the trailer nearby to hike along the river to the fossil site.  It was pretty cool, a very big fossil section, about 12 inches in diameter, about 5 feet long, surrounded by rock, just laying in the stream.  
 

The elusive sign we were looking for

The dark grey streak is the tree fossil

Devon was thrilled to be able to hold this piece, and carefully put it right back in it's place

After checking this out, we carried on west to explore a bit more of the peninsula, but the fog rolled in and we lost the view and decided to turn back and have some lunch in town.  Once we left town, Rob got an email from Marine Atlantic, at about 2 pm, saying our ferry was cancelled.  By this point, we were about 2 hours away.  They gave us an 800 number, Rob called and was told to phone back at 6 pm, they didn't know anything yet.  Turns out the ferry Blue Puttees that we were supposed to take that evening had run aground that morning leaving Port aux Basques, stranding all occupants aboard.  They worked all day to get the ferry off the spit of land and re-docked so they could unload all those passengers, then they reboarded them on the other ferry, filled it to capacity, and left the dock by about 9 pm, leaving us behind for the night.  We were one of the few who were to have left at 8 pm that didn't make it on, because we had a trailer to sleep in.  It was understandable, but not fun spending the night in a parking lot where all night long people were driving in, talking right outside the trailer.  Hardly slept. (310 kms)

July 30-Corner Brook

Last full day scheduled on the island.  We had booked into Sandbanks Provincial Park, but from talking to quite a few people, it seemed too far from the main road for the last night before the ferry in case there were any mechanical troubles that might delay us.  (Boy we had no idea what we were in store for!) We decided to try and find something closer to the TCH, and discovered a park near Corner Brook that would do well enough.  It was beside the buildings for Marble mountain, and had only about 8 campsites and a few cabins.  The campsites had to share a single bathroom and shower for men, and another for women.  Luckily there was only one other family staying that night, so it worked out well.  We went into town to shop for a few items that had been lost or damaged, and ended up staying in town for the evening to watch another movie as it was raining like crazy again today.  We toured the mall in Corner Brook before watching Despicable Me 2, a great kids movie.  (230 kms)

July 29-Happy Birthday Devon and hiking the monster trail

Started the day by placing banners all around the trailer hoping someone would wish Devon a happy birthday, but no takers.  I feel a bit guilty about having us away most years on his birthday, but we usually manage to do something special on the day, so he does fine.  We had given him his birthday gift a couple of weeks early, a new digital camera of his own, as he has been using mine for awhile and is getting quite good at taking pictures.  I made some sandwiches for the day as we have planned to hike the Alexander Murray hiking trail today, a very ambitious plan for me with my ankle and knee always a bit of a concern on hills and steps.  When we arrived at the trailhead building, the staff warned us the trail was 8 kms, but included over 2000 steps.  OMG.  We decided to go down the road and check out the Rattling Brook Falls as I had originally just wanted to see that, but thought you needed to hike on the big trail to get there. In fact, the waterfall trail was pretty high up itself, it was about 300 steps to the top.  By the time we got to the top, our jackets were off and Rob pulled his sweater off too, despite the cool air.    The view was spectacular.
 

Rattling brook falls

Beautiful trails to the falls

View from the top of the Rattling brook falls climb-it was gorgeous.

Once we had seen that trail, we decided to at least explore part of the Alex Murray one, so drove back to the trail head.  Another guy was in there, and he said many people just go as far as Corner brook falls, and then come back, and he said -well, there's just 3 sets of steps to get there, so it's pretty easy.  Well, we could see steps climbing all the way up the mountain side from the road from about 5 kms away, and knew we were never going all the way up there, so decided to try for the falls.  We almost made it to them, but in fact the whole trail was thick with sets of steps, 10-20 at a time, and his three sets were close to 100 steps in each block.  We stopped short of the falls after seeing about 100 steps going down a cliff, knowing we would have to climb right back up them.  We were on the trail about 3 hours altogether.  We went back to the campground, and cooled off our hot bodies in the lake (which was freezing cold), then had a nice birthday dinner for Devon.  (100 km and about 700 steps)
 

We did Corner Brook falls and back, about 6 kms and LOTS of steps

Sign at the trailhead building

Map of the trail

One of the big sets of stairs

It wasn't very hot, but the shirt came off early!

The final steps snaked right up the side of the cliff-we didn't get that far-maybe next trip?

 

July 28-Baie Verte peninsula

The rain finally stopped early this morning, so we could open up the tent flaps and dry everything out.  After a few hours everything was better, so we packed up and went to explore Baie Verte peninsula.  I was hoping for another chance at whales and icebergs before we spent the rest of the time more inland.  We explored most of the available roads in the area, and even hiked on this really neat little trail of mainly boardwalks out to the ocean in Fleur-de-Lys, but no more icebergs showed themselves.  We did see a few humpbacks playing around which was very neat.  Back to the trailer for the night. (400 km)

Hiking trail over marshy bog

We walked on rocks or wood here, not much else!

Thought these were pretty

This raptor screamed at us so much, I was able to find her in the trees

Devon loved the hiking trails

 

July 27-Terra Nova, Gander and Springdale

We left the campground in the rain again, it rained most of the day today.  We drove through Terra Nova again, and had hoped to stop and hike on one of the trails, but the rain was so heavy we changed our mind and kept on going.  We stopped and had lunch in Gander, and enjoyed the playland and a coffee later in the McDonalds.  By the time we got to Grand Falls Windsor it was raining so hard we had to sit in the car and wait for a pause in the storm to go in and get some groceries.  Devon went out to the truck with Rob, leaving me alone to buy some stuff for his birthday on the 29th.  We checked into Kona Campground, and enjoyed a long hot shower to try and warm up from all the rain, then tucked in for the night.  Nothing to photograph besides rain and fog. (340 kms)

July 26-on the road again, back to Bonavista

We actually had the air conditioning on all night, it was so muggy.  Soon we were packed up and on our way back along the TCH to slowly work our way back for the ferry ride home.  It feels different heading back, it feels like we are somehow done our vacation already, even though we have another 5 days on the island.  We decided that we had liked Bonavista so much, we would return there for the night, and check out another nearby town that we had heard about called Elliston where you could see puffins up close and personal.  We camped again at Cabot RV park as it was somewhere familiar, and Devon enjoyed a swim in the water with other kids.  The water was a bit too cold for me, and way too cold for Rob, but I ended up in anyhow as Devon's sandal got lost in the muddy bottom of the river, and I had to slop around and get it back.  We both had long hot showers after that, we were caked in mud and freezing cold from searching for the sandal.  We went back up to Bonavista area, to Elliston, a town known as the root cellar capital of Canada (if I remember correctly).  They had a cellar dug into the hillside open for visitors to have a look.  Pretty amazing what people have done to store their food, it would be hard work to dig one of these out, they were about 6 by 6 by 6 feet on the inside.  Gardens in Newfoundland grew root crops for the most part, nothing else seems possible.  The gardens would be on the side of the road, surrounded by big fences, and not seemingly near any houses. 

 

 

 

Checking out the root cellar

  We walked along this short path to the edge of the cliff, and over a small rocky bridge, and ended up on a small rocky outcropping right beside a puffin colony.  There were quite a few people around, but apparently when the conditions are right, the puffins will fly and land right beside people.

Puffins by their nesting burrows

They had to land with mouths full of fish while avoiding the gulls that were trying to steal their catch

Heading back to the truck along the path

 After walking on the cold and windy path, we were keen to have dinner and warm up.  We ended up in Nan's kitchen, recommended by a few people, where Rob got brave and had fish and brewis.  Should have taken a picture, it looked strange.  I enjoyed a bowl of chowder and warmed right up, then shared my crab dinner. (420 kms)

July 25-St John's

A hot and humid day, the guys wanted to go to the Johnson's Geo Centre, I decided to stay behind and cook a more complex meal today as it was our last day here.  Did some tidying up and preparing to leave tomorrow.  The guys were not impressed with the centre, so I was glad we didn't waste more money and time having all 3 of us go.  As it was so hot, we decided to head to the mall and watched a movie, a nice break from all the traveling activities.  Ate way too much popcorn as they gave free refills......(30 km)

July 24-St John's and Heart's Content

The forecasted bad weather came right on schedule, it was pretty wild today.  We stayed close to the trailer, watched a bit of TV on the one channel we could get, used the WiFi in the campground, and read.  Got bored by noon, and decided to go for a drive north to Heart's Content to see the location of the first transatlantic cable station.  The drive was pretty rough in the bad weather, cannot imagine being out here in the winter on these high open hills in bad storms.  We got to the museum, looked at all the displays, and watched a movie they had available.  Saw the remnants of the actual cable by the side of the road, really amazing thinking of what a feat that was for it's time. Forgot the camera to take a picture. 

Finished off our visit by stopping by a McDonalds in Carbonear and having a McLobster, not too impressive.   I like my lobster hot and buttery, not cold and mixed with mayo and stuff.  Back to the trailer in the continuing bad weather. (250 km) 

July 23-St John's

We took it a bit easy today.  The weather was glorious again, so we did some laundry and even hung some stuff up to dry by the trailer.  We cleaned the truck, the trailer, and Devon spent some time riding his bike around the campground with some kids he met, while we visited with their parents.  A perfect morning.  Later on in the day, we took a drive to Cape Spear, and hiked up the hill to enjoy the view and see the buildings.  Cape Spear is the most easterly point of land in North America, so we had to go as far east as the fencing would allow, and saw a few whales and birds for good measure. 

Underground bunkers sealed off for safety-from WWII

Another beautiful path to explore

The trappings of a lighthouse keeper-kids had to help haul water.

 We toured around town, driving on the most windey bendy roads I have ever seen.  St John's has a reason for being known as one of the least navigable cities ever in existence! (50 km)
 

July 22-Irish loop and Cape Shore loops

Another beautiful sunny day today so we decided to make the best of it and do the southern loops of the peninsula.  We started out by planning to see Trepassey Bay first, but spoke to a guide who didn't think we could do both loops in one day, so we ended up heading to Cape St Mary's first as it was top of my list to see.  We did a quick visit to Castle Hill National Historic Site on the way, strolled the grounds and did a scavenger hunt among the displays to earn Devon a note pad.  
 

Castle Hill view

A long drive around a desolate spit of land, then drive south on a 1 1/2 car width roadway for 13 kms through the largest stretch of nothingness I have ever seen.  At the end was a beautiful modern building, with displays and gift shops and a path leading off across the field of nothing to the most amazing spot you can imagine.  Birds and birds and more birds, loud screeching, honking, screaming all blending into one big stinky noisy scene.  The path out was long and desolate, with a few benches on the way, then climbing down a gentle rocky cliff to where the nesting colony of these Gannets were, along with Kittiwakes and Murres, I think.  It was amazing. 

Vistor's Centre, Cape St. Mary's

Same building from the end of the trail near the birds

The pathway to the birds

Some of the nesting sites

Part of the nesting sites that you can sit near

Rob loved watching the birds soaring overhead in the crazy winds

Rob's feet over the edge-NOT MINE!

Gannets

After viewing the birds for quite a while, we went back to the centre and chatted with a naturalist who said we should be fine to drive around the other loop before it got dark, so off we went, to check out a spot where he said the whales were often close to shore.  We didn't see any, so kept on going, enjoying the sunset and the moon rise over the bay.  Back to the trailer in the dark, off to bed. (590 kms today)

Moon rise over Witless Bay on our way back to St John's

July 21-Bonavista to St John's

Another rainy night and morning, packed up quick and off we went.  Our next campsite was in St John's, and we weren't sure how long it would take.  The TCH in this area is like the 401 at home with on and off ramps and multiple lanes, so the driving was really good.  When driving between Clarenville and the Avalon peninsula however, there is a fairly narrow spit of land connecting the two larger land masses, and the road is fairly high elevation.  The fog was horrendous there (as it was on the way home too).  We saw other cars and road signs and not much else.  Was relieved to get through that.  We had booked 5 nights at Pippy Park, which is right in the middle of St John's so it would be easy to get around from a central spot.  The price was a bit higher for the night, at $40, compared to some which were only about $20 in more remote spots, but you were paying for convenience.  Unfortunately I did not have one proper hot shower in all the nights we stayed there, despite asking the staff to try and fix the problem.  
It was a great spot to stay and see the city.  Once we were set up, we popped in a load of laundry and hung it on a line to dry as the weather turned beautiful again in the afternoon.  While it was drying, we drove up to Signal Hill and Cabot Tower, checked out the amateur radio station and the information on Marconi, and Devon and I hiked down the hill to the barracks and visitor's centre while Rob went and brought the truck down.  Devon got a real soaker, and we had to wash mud from his shoes and feet before I would take him into the building.  We explored the visitor's centre, watched a film, and went to the local grocery store and home to cook a nice meal. (3 1/2 hrs driving, 260 kms)

Cabot Tower at the top of Signal Hill-note the antennas!

We were up so high and it was so open that kids were almost getting knocked over by the wind!

Rob was behind the ham station in no time!

Cabot Tower

View from the tower to Fort Amherst on the other side of the harbour

St John's famous colourful buildings

July 20-Heading to Bonavista

Woke to more rain, packed up and off we go.  We have no site booked for tonight, as we were unsure of how much time we wanted to spend in the next area, so had left it open.  We left Dildo Run and worked our way down340 to meet up with the 330, but instead of heading south to the TCH, we decided to travel north and east to see the shore through Musgrave Harbour and Lumsden, missing Gander entirely.  The weather was grey and drizzly all morning, which probably didn't help, but we found the drive around 330 and 320 not worth the effort, until we got to a small town called Dover.  It's claim to fame is geology, and we had to go and see the Dover fault, which is where you can clearly see the line where 2 continental plates met.  They had a beautiful trail up the hill to a viewing platform, which was perfect after many hours sitting in the truck.  Lots of signage and information, which we all enjoyed.  

Back along the TCH, we traveled south east, heading into Terra Nova National Park.  We had not looked too intensely at this park as we were focusing more on Gros Morne, and we were mainly looking to camp in hydro sites as it was easier for us with so much time on the road each day.  We stopped at the visitor's centre to see what was in the park, and discovered an amazing touch tank full of marine life, and we were encouraged to pick up the various creatures and look at them.  Devon loved being able to touch anemones, sea cucumbers, scallops, crabs, mussels and starfish, and then look through an underwater camera that you could maneuver yourself and see the very same animals in the wild that were in the tank, along with lots of fish swimming about.  

Touch tank

Underwater shot of touch tank inhabitants

The weather had vastly improved by then, so we sat outside and ate ice cream while watching boats in the bay.  It was a perfect stop.  We discovered there are tons of hiking and biking trails in the park, but felt we needed to move on as we had only one night available to see Bonavista, which was one of my mom's favourite places when she had visited years ago, and didn't want to miss it.  Back onto the TCH and carried on to Bonavista peninsula.  We called around to a few nearby campgrounds and found one with room for the night, Cabot RV park .  The sites were clumped together again in a gravel lot, but we were getting used to the idea by then, so didn't mind so much.  We dropped the trailer, plugged in, and back on the road to head north east to Cape Bonavista.  We have become so accustomed to traveling with the trailer, that when we leave it behind, the truck seems to fly along the roads.  We checked out Dungeon Provincial Park with it's sea cave, very nice spot, traveled over a few cattle gates here as there were some horses on the property. 
 

Dungeon Provincial Park

 We saw Puffins, Guillemots, Whales and all kinds of other birds at the cape by the lighthouse, what a great evening.  We ate dinner at a nice spot in Bonavista at the harbour, with lots of amazing seafood on the menu.  By the time we left, it was dark, so traveled back to the trailer slowly (relatively speaking) as the roads were twisting and up and down, and we were not too keen to meet a moose.  It was a long day and I was so tired that we had to keep talking to each other to stay awake.  (7 1/2 hours driving, 530 kms) 

Cape Bonavista Lighthouse

 

John Cabot's landing spot at Bonavista in 1497

Devon hanging with John

Cool birds, these puffins, so bright they don't look real!