We planned our trip around this ferry ride from North Sydney Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques Newfoundland back in March. We heard this was a very popular trip and were lucky we listened to that advise, because we met travelers that didn’t get to go over or had to wait in long lines for days to get off the island. The loaders of the ferry are organizational engineers squeezing 18 wheelers, RVs, 5th wheels, travel trailers, motorcycles, and all sizes of cars and trucks into those tight bay spaces. There was barely enough room to walk in between the vehicles. We got on and off with absolutely no problems or damage.
Newfoundland is pronounced with the accent on LAND, like the word understand. We learned this quickly and made sure we listened very closely to the locals when they talked, with their Irishy dialects and accents. We met amazingly sweet and kind people on “The Rock”. The food was very different: toutons and molasses, lots of Cheez whiz offered at every meal, cod offered every way you can possibly imagine including cod cheeks, cod tongues, moose stew and burgers, bake-apple and partridgeberry jams and desserts.
We started out staying in Rocky Harbor where there were no grocery stores, 3 restaurants, a poutine truck and a fishing village/harbor. We were there during homecoming week for families. There was a mussel steaming bonfire, a church carnival and a mummers parade ending in a street dance. It was nice to see the community come together welcoming home family members that have moved away.
Gross Morne National Park is famous for The Tablelands, which is an example of the process of continental drift, where deep ocean crust and the rocks of the earth’s mantle was exposed and formed 1.2 billion years ago. An interesting and completely different type of topography that we’ve ever experienced.
The Western Brook Pond was a beautiful boat ride on the fresh water fjord that was carved out by glaciers about 25,000 years ago. The water is extremely pure and is assigned the highest purity rating available for natural bodies of water.
We think this was the point where Sue fell in love with all the different harbors and fishing villages. Besides coastlines, this had become one of her most favorite places for picture taking.
Along the route North To St. Anthony we stopped at Arches Provincial Park, beautiful water carved arches on the beach.
We drove up hoping to see icebergs and whales and the first Viking establishment in North America. We were able to see everything we came for. “The Rock” came through!
Our next National Park was Terra Nova near the town of Eastport. Little did we know, this was home to many beaches and islands located on the eastern side of “The Rock”. We loved the neighboring towns of Happy Adventure and the coastal views in Salvage. We hiked the Sandy Pond loop where we had lunch and spent time sitting by the lake for some quiet nature time. We also took a couple of overnight trips to see more of the island. We stayed in Bonavista Bay and went to the small town of Elliston to see the puffins and a beautiful bay called Dungeons Provincial Park. We lucked out and spent a few minutes with some horses and cows left out to pasture. They were sweet and actually didn’t mind the human visitors. Our next overnighter was to Twillingate, a fishing community with lovely people. The views from the lighthouse were phenomenal!
Our last week on “The Rock” was spent in the Capital of Newfoundland, St. John’s, where we stayed at Pippy Park Campground. We played city tourists and saw Signal Hill, the George Street Bars, the famous Jelly Bean houses and the Quidi Vidi brewery where they brew a beer that is made from water from the icebergs off of Newfoundland.
We took a day trip out to Cape Spear, the most Eastern point where the sun rises first in North America. We did not however, make it there to be the first on this continent to see it! No getting up early for us!!!
The ferry ride from Nova Scotia to Newfoundland was 6 hours. The return ferry from Argentia on the other side of “The Rock”, back to North Sydney NS, was an overnight lasting 16 hours. We had a private deluxe cabin and truly enjoyed the trip.
We absolutely loved our time on “The Rock”, meeting new friends, eating some interesting and wonderful food, seeing and walking on the oldest parts of the earth, visiting all the fishing villages and harbors and loving the different beautiful coastal views around the whole island.
You ladies are looking great. Thanks once again for sharing your adventures. I love looking at the amazing places you go.
Hi Treese… good to hear from you. We are loving our travels. Hope all is well with you and your family! Miss you…