Days 17-19, Friday-Sunday

We awoke to cloudy and threatening skies on Friday, but we took our time having breakfast and enjoying the incredible view as long as possible.

We had no campground reservations or definitive itinerary from here.  Our only timeline was that we had to be home Sunday night, since we our washing machine repairman was scheduled  to come on Monday.  We had three days to make it home.

The ride out of Meat Cove was a slow one, 8 km of pot holed gravel.  Our van has very little clearance due to the propane tank, so we really have to crawl over bumpy roads.  Eventually we  made it back to the Cabot Trail and the National Park.  Rain and fog were very heavy so our pace was slow and photo ops were minimal.  Despite the weather the scenery was still spectacular.  We stopped at a campground along the west coast of the park where the campsites our right on the cliff.  We stayed at this campground 40 years ago, but the weather really made it not worth it, especially after the fantastic views of the previous night.  So we continued along the Cabot Trail as it weaves along the coastal highlands, taking a few photos that were just impossible to resist.

Leaving the park, we had a great lunch in Cheticamp, whose residents still have a great allegiance to France, displaying the French flag everywhere and speaking in French for the most part.   Leaving Cheticamp, we drove until 6 pm, arriving at a private campsite on coast of the Northumberland Straits which separate Nova Scotia from Prince Edward Island.  The campground was filled with big RV's but they had a very nice section for tents that were well spaced and private.

We got up early on Saturday morning, leaving the campground at 8 pm.  Our destination, Acadia National Park in Maine, 455 miles away.  As we approached the New Brunswick border we stopped at a Nova Scotia Visitor Center to answer a call of nature.  The visitor center is beautifully located at the head of the Bay of Fundy, providing expansive views of the coastal plains.  Enjoying this view as we returned to our van we could hear bag pipes playing.  I assumed they were playing a CD over their PA system, but we eventually came upon a piper in full kilt.  We both thought it was a very appropriate farewell to this beautiful province.

We arrived at Acadia around 3:30 PM, and very luckily got the only available campsite in the park at the Seawall Campground.  After setting up our gear, I went for a ten mile bike ride, completing the full loop around the peninsula that includes Southwest Harbor.  We then headed out for lobster, finding a restaurant, The Upper Deck, close to the campground, and right on Southwest Harbor.  We sat outside, and thoroughly enjoyed our meal.

We got up early on Sunday, packed up our gear and took off at 9 am for driving tour of the national park.  Although we have camped there at least two other times, it may have been ten years or more that we were last there, so most of the scenery was only vaguely familiar.  Our 41 mile drive, clearly stimulated our desire to return.  I would describe Acadia as a cyclists and kayaker's paradise.

Our drive across Maine was uneventful and we arrived in Littleton at 5 pm, stopping at the COOP for some grocers before heading home.

All in all, we put over 3600 miles on our car and couldn't be happier with our trip.  Newfoundland was amazing; it exceeded all our expectations and we encourage anyone that loves spectacular natural scenery to go there.  Life is good!

Day 15-16, Wednesdy-Thurday

So last night, our ferry arrived right on time at 6 pm in North Sydney.  It was a six hour sail under beautiful skies.  Got some beautiful shots of Port Aux Basques as we pulled out.  This town looks much better from the water.

We could not resist returning to the Black Spoon Bistrot where we had lunch on day 3, just before boarding the ferry to Newfoundland.  Another amazing meal. Joni had pan fried scallops for an appetizer and pan mango haddock for her main dish.  I started with seafood chowder, and  added Cajun seafood on bow tie pasta.  All of our dishes were incredible.

We left the restaurant around 7 pm, and headed for the Cabot Trail and the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.  We didn't have a reservation anywhere, so we were rolling the dice.  We arrived at the first campground, near Ingonish Beach, but it was full, so we drove another 10 k north to Broad Cove campground, still in the National Park, and scored a sight.  It was 9:45 pm.  Along the way we relied on our Garmin GPS to guide us.  All of a sudden, Michelle, the voice of Garmin, said, "board ferry now".  We had no idea that was on our route, but we had no alternative.  So in the dark, we took a 5 minute ferry ride across St. Ann's bay.  Very exciting, but a little unnerving too.

Up around 7:30 AM, a relaxing bacon, eggs, and toast breakfast and eventually hit the road by 10:30 AM, looking for a laundromat as he headed north along the Cabot Trail in the national park.  The scenery is spectacular and it' been hard not to stop at every viewing point along the route.

Our first lighthouse of the day, did the trick, so we pulled over in Neil's Harbour just in time to watch a Zodiac leave the dock with a bunch of eager whale watchers aboard.  Hope they don't too close to a whale; one flip of a fin would send them all into the Atlantic.

Found our laundry just north of the lighthouse.  This will be our last stop at one of these establishments before returning to Sugar Hill.

We had lunch, fresh crab sandwich for me and scallops for Joni, at the Chowder House in Neil's Harbour.  Delicious!

We then drove directly to Meat Cove which was only about 40 k away.  We arrived around 3 pm,  and were immediately overwhelmed by the spectacular setting.

Never been to a better campground in that respect.  Our actually site was a little treacherous, not exactly flat, and there were incredible winds, so it was hard not to imagine either just letting gravity or the wind push us right off the cliff.  Would have been a great place to die.

Took lots of pictures, had yummy take out fish and chips from the campground's small restaurant, and talked to lots of our neighboring campers who were all very nice.  Two young men, with whom we chatted with at the laundromat, men invited us to share their campfire and some Jack Daniels with them.  We declined and opted for Scrabble.

Sleeping was a little rough, mostly short spurts of one hour; the winds kept shaking the van, but we survived.  Breakfast was simple:  coffee and Wheatabix as we enjoyed the view and avoided the wind and heavy mist.  We kept looking for whales, the campground owner says they see them daily, but we struck out.

Without doubt a campsite we'll remember forever!  Thank you Nat and Terry Bull for insisting we come here.

Day 14 and 15, Tuesday and Wednesday

We left Gros Morne National Park yesterday morning.  Sad to leave; it's an incredible place.  Had to
stop at our favorite cafe in Norris Point.  Picture taking was minimal since it was foggy and raining, but I managed a few.  Twist my arm.

We drove 216 rain soaked miles drive to our campground, in the JT Cheeseman Provisional Park, just north of Port Aux Basques, where we will take the mid day ferry to Nova So cotia.  This will be a much shorter ferry ride, 6-8 hours depending on the wind and the seas.

On our way here, we stopped at Marble Mountain where Alex went snowboarding with his UVM trip, and then we had lunch in Cornerbrook, Newfoundland's second largest city.  Great sushi!

This is a paper mill, the woodpile is amazing!  Fortunately the wind was taking the smell away from us.

Despite the rain we also visited a statue of Captain James Cook, whose statue we also visited in his hometown of Whitby in North Yorkshire, two summers ago.  Cook mapped the west coast of Newfoundland for the Bristish navy in the late 1700's and apparently his accuracy was incredible.

We arrived at our campground around 6:30 PM.  Luckily, the rain stopped, the sun came out, but the winds were howling at 25+ mph so we ate inside our Eurovan.  Closed the night with a competitive game of scrabble.

Left the campground at 8:05 AM, this morning, headed for Tim Hortons, and a market where we can buy some Iceberg.

The beer purchased caused us to arrive 15 minutes later than we were supposed to for the ferry line up.  Never known Joni to be willing to be late for anything.  She really likes Iceberg, so I bought a 12 pack.  Don't know if it will last 'til we get home.

Our ferry, the Grand Puttees.  Puttees are the gaiters that soldiers in WWI wore.  The Nefoundland regiment's Puttees were blue in color, so Newfie soldiers were referred to as the Puttees.  Aren't you glad I explained that!

Day 13, Monday

Our last full day at Gros Morne National Park.  We started the day returning to Norris Point, and the Old Store Cafe for a coffee, muffin, and Internet access.  Leaving the cafe we revisited the harbor area and got some great shots of Bonne Bay and the Tablelands.

Tablelands as viewed from Norris Point harbor

Village of Wood Point

We then headed north along the coast hugging Viking Trail , going beyond the park all the way up to The Arches which is a series of rocks that the ocean has eroded into arches.  Much smaller scale than Hopewell Rocks along the Bay of Fundy, but still worth seeing.

On the way up to the Arches we stopped again at the Snack Shack in Sally's Cove, repeated our fish and chips take out order and drove up to the red Adirondack chairs for lunch.  Fortunately, they were vacant and throughout our lunch we just marveled how such a beautiful spot is so devoid of people.  Not a complaint.

Mr. Spicoli would say, "nearly, dude!"  These are called tucks more trees which are found up and down the coast and are constantly bent by the off shore winds.

On our return to campground, we stopped in Cow's Head for a few groceries, and a Shallow Bay, which has a sandy beach which a few sunbathers were enjoying.  I put my feet in the water and was surprised it was that cold.  No worse than Nauset or Lake Michigan.

Once we arrived at the campground, we hiked up Berry Hill, where we enjoyed incredible 360 degree views of Gros Morne, the Tablelands, and Bonne Bay.

Gros Morne, the tallest peak in Newfoundland. 

We ended our day with a fancy meal at Java Jacks; our biggest splurge dinner wise on this trip.

Birdhouses in Java Jack's garden.

For appetizers Joni had chicken noodle soup, and I had pan fried COD TONGUES, YES COD TONGUES.  They were exquisite.  The size of a scallop, but much thinner and very delicate.  Our main dishes were pan fried cod for me, and pork tenderloin for Joni.

With rain in the forecast, we returned to our campsite, packed up all our gear, and then engaged in a fierce game of scrabble as we listened to the first place Red Sox.

Day 12, Sunday

We spent the whole day touring the Tablelands peninsula.  As the crow flies the Tablelands are very close to Rocky Harbour where our campsite is located.  But, driving there is a different matter; you have to drive all the way around Bonne Bay, so we actually put 132 miles on our car.

Alex had given us the exact GPS coordinates where his UVM group started their expedition, so we wanted to find that spot, and we did.  But first we stopped at the village of Woody Point, which is an artsy village on the bay.  We did some laundry there and had lunch.  Joni had seafood chowder and I ordered cod at gratin...oh yeah and two Icebergs!  Our meals were delicious.

This photo really shows how flat the Tablelands really are.

The cars in the center of the lower part of this shot are parked at the trailhead.

We then headed to Alex's launch point, which is actually well marked and is the beginning of a 4 km hike along the base of the Tablelands.  The Tablelands is unique, somewhat reminiscent of the rocks around Mont Ventoux in France.  Nothing grows on these rocks, which originated from the Earths's middle layer, and is considered one of the best examples of the Earth's mantle. They are an orange/brown in color, not like any other rock formations in Newfoundland.

Unfortunately it was a cloudy day, and the brilliant colors were washed out by the gray clouds, so our photos don't capture how much these rocks stand out.

After our short hike we drove to the tiny fishing village of Trout River.

This village has a real "end of the line" feel to it.  There's only one road to it and that road is regularly closed in winter as a result of the snows piling up as they get funneled through the Tablelands gulch.  We visited a small museum which was staffed by a local girl who told us there are only 3 students in her grade at the Trout River school.  They had a vacancy for the principal's position; I almost applied.

Almost every home in Trout River is surrounded by stacks of lobster and crab traps.  No doubt this is a fishing village.

Returning to our campsite in Rocky Harbour, we purchased some sandwiches for dinner, made a fire, and played Scrabble 'til bedtime.

Alex must return to the Tablelands; he would love it in the summer.