Newfoundland~We’ve Arrived and Discovering Adventure!

Thursday July 18th

Our Ferry to Newfoundland

Yesterday, we crossed at St Ann Harbour using a ferry that could handle one tractor trailer and cars on both sides of it. Today we crossed the Gulf of St Laurence on a ferry that held 21 tractors end to end and many rows wide. This ferry was eight lanes wide. It also has four of it’s nine decks of parked vehicles. It is a giant and I’m told that it is a fairly new vessel. It was a long voyage over to Newfoundland. The six hours would be long enough, but we had to be in line on the dock at four am. We slept in the camper. That was a lot better than all of the people who only had their cars. This story should have ended here, but we forgot that the incoming

Inside ferry 8 lanes wide

ferry had to unload. This started at midnight and than they loaded all of the tractor trailers starting around 1:30 am. To top off the noisy neighborhood there was a humongous down poor around, well lets say between 10:30 pm and walkup call over the loud speaker at 4 am. Did I mention that Helen set her phone alarm for 3:00 am just to make sure they didn’t leave without us!
Once we were underway, we tried to sleep in the lounge at the rear of the ship. That didn’t work exactly as planned. It was a little to cool with the A/C. We moved up to the internet lounge  and things were fine from than on. Helen and I struck up a conversation with a couple from Rimouski. Pierre and Claire Sirois made the time go by quickly for us and them. He is retired, runs a maple sugaring operation (family style business) and also cuts 50 cords of fire wood  on his wood lots. They gave us a lot of info on Newfoundland. This is their third time for visiting this Island.
We landed in Channel Port aux Basques at around 12:55 pm. The time changed again. First there was an hour difference, but oddly here enough we added an extra half hour. First stop… at the visitor center for more maps and suggestions on places to visit close by. Second stop was in the back of the camper for lunch. We just about flipped a coin on deciding if we should stay the rest of the day here or move further up TCH (Trans Canada Highway). All of those tourist on the ferry headed north. Monkey see monkey do. Tonight we are in West Bay at a small Provincial campground called Piccadilly Campground. It is quiet, peaceful and I’m nearly asleep
That is what we did and saw!

Cape Breton NP ~ Awesome!

This morning was time to wind down and do some physical activities. Our campground had a hiking trail to MacIntosh Falls just about

Narrow and tite!

45 minutes away from our site. The temperature this morning was 49 degrees, cool, but not bad for hiking. The higher elevation made the difference in the temperature. It was good to walk and get the old body moving again. Our little jaunt up the path to discovery was over and now time to hit the National Park and its offerings. Spectacular views around every corner... there were pullouts everywhere. We stopped at many that caught our interest. At one little town just outside the National Park, we stopped at an information center/museum. Kendall, the young lady, at the service desk was helpful. Another couple of local guys gave us some opportunities to explore a little off the beaten path. That was our calling! They said, "if you want to see some nice country, go up to the end of the road to Meat Cove". Up the road we came to little hamlets like Aspy Bay, Halibut Head. At St Margaret Village, we by passed the turn to Meat Cove and stopped for coffee at the local restaurant. The locals are always wonderful to listen to. Just across from the local hangout was a beautiful view of the bay with fishing boats. In a short time, we were parked next to the boats and watched as they w

My only regret is that I don't have my dump truck to
load all these beautiful rocks for home!

ere unloading crate after crate of crabs. A whole tractor trailer was being loaded with kids shoveling ice onto every crate. I wonder how long before the crabs make it to market or restaurants? The weather was getting warmer by the minute. The sky was blue, but one could see and smell smoke from the forest fires nearly 800 miles away in Quebec and Labrador. Forest Fire that keep us from going to Labrador I think I was able to attach the link to the forest fire.
Back at St Margaret, we took the side road Capstick and onto Meat Cove. WOW! What a paradise! There is a campground with ocean views, cliffs, a beach and birds nesting high above in the over hanging rock outcrops. I drove the truck down this very steep narrow road and across a narrow bridge. We had lunch, talked to some people from Manchester, NH and walked the beach. I had Helen go up the steep road and take a series of pictures as I maneuvered over the bridge and up the hill.
Off to North Sydney Harbour for an overnight wait for our 5 am departure to Newfoundland. They told us that they would start loading a 3:30 am. Well... they'll start by loading all of the tractor trailers. So far, I counted 21 tractor trailers and I don’t know how many trailers they load without the tractors. It is a huge ship. It's 10 pm now and I'm beat!
That is what we did and saw! 

Cape Breton Highlands and The Cabot Trail (10~11th day)

On the 17th the day was a traveling day.

The Road Views!

We covered a lot of shore line driving, but it wasn’t as spectacular as other parts of New Brunswick and the Gaspésie. Our gold was to reach Cape Breton Highlands National Park. We did do that, but at the expense of being grouchy towards the end of the day. Their was a lot of winding road getting into the park. Finally the MacIntosh  Campground was before us. A self registration and a drop into the steel money box and the place was ours along with only a couple of RVs and two tent campers. The campground had flush toilets, hot water, electricity and a large closed-in function room with a wood stove. I poked the ashes and got the fire going. Neat! They even had fire wood for us to use.

We met the artist who did this petroglyph (Kevin Sudeith)

I plugged in my laptop and worked on my blogs. The other campers came in and we had a good fire side chat. They were from Germany and one of them spoke English fairly well. Time to say night, night!
That is what we saw and did!

BYE BYE New Brunswick Hello Nova Scotia (9th day)

One thing I must say about New Brunswick is the fact that the gas prices are .40 cents lower than Quebec Province. Now that’s .40 cents lower per gallon. Bravo for keeping the gas tax down!
Before leaving New Brunswick, we wanted so badly to claim a couple of geocaches and get an online souvenir added to our places that we’ve geocached.

Can you believe 112 F in the sun!

The problem here was that I had down loaded caches along the route. The caches were there, but not safe enough to stop along the busy roadway. This morning I decided to travel a country road not so well travelled, it worked and we had a couple of country caches to claim as found.
In just 30 miles, we crossed into Nova Scotia and stopped at the first info center for maps, campgrounds, ferry info and anything else I could think of asking. I had done some home work, but I always learn a little more facts when I talk to the pleasant girls at the information centers.


A perfect evening!

The noticeable things here are the names of places. Names like Pugwash Junction, Tidnish, Pictou Harbour. Of course, there are the First Nation names like Tatamagouche, Chignecto Bay. Sometimes I, our we, spend minutes trying to pronounce these names. Of course when we stop and hear a local say the pronunciations we think we have it down pat until we see the next sign and start wondering all over again.
We pulled into Seafoam campground and set up for the night. It was unbelievably hot this afternoon. The thermometer on the backside of the camper (in direct sun) read 112 degrees F and that’s not Celsius! Slipping into our bathing suits, we cooled off in the comfortable waters of Northumberland Straights. This is the body of water between Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island. It was a perfect night. Later the barbecue was in order. The steaks were perfect!
That is what we did and saw! 

Perce to Campbellton ~ A Whole in A Rock! (7th day)




Perce...A hole in a Rock

A Pretty Cool Place!

This was only the second time that we stayed at an “official” campground. It was worth it for the scenery, the campground managers and especially the two other RV campers couples that we convoyed over to Tete de d’Indien (Indian Head) campground. The sun rose very early, well before I got out of bed to get that sunrise digitized. I spent a good part of the morning writing my blogs and relaxing. Helen got caught up on emails.  We said goodbye to our fellow camping buddies and drove off towards Perce. The French word perce means piercing which relates to this mountain size rock that sits just off shore from the town. The mountain has a hole at the water line. It is very unique and the town of Perce has capitalized on this for a tourist attraction. Going back one or two steps before

Geocaching at its Best!

we arrived in Perce, I had downloaded some geocaches and we found one high up on this mountain with an awesome view on the bay and cliffs. I always say “Geocaching brings you to places you normally won’t see”. While approaching the cache site, we talked to this older lady at the picnic table. We got a little local history included with this cache. In Perce, with spent two to three hours walking around and playing tourist. It got really hot and humid later in the afternoon and that was the time to leave and head for Campbellton, New Brunswick another 154 miles away. Tonight we are staying in back of a nice restaurant. The dinner meal was nice and they were even nicer to let us stay in the rear of the restaurant.

That is what we saw and did! 

Matane, Gaspésie ~ A New Enchantment! (6th day)

In the large parking lot at the ferry terminal, it was time to wash the truck camper windows, lower the jacks on the camper and reposition the camper on the truck. All of the bouncing around on the North Shore gravel road had shifted the camper in the truck box. Nothing wrong, but I just like to have the truck and camper looking

Doris' Garden !

square and right. The mission for today was to play tourist and explore the town on Matane. The center of town has the Matane River which is a major Salmon spawning ground. The salmon were coming in, but we did didn’t actually see the run. The fish ladder and the crystal clear water kept us looking for a while. A note here; on the radio, we heard that a 36 pound salmon was caught on the North Shore at the mouth of one of the many rivers.
It wasn’t even eight o’clock yet and we moved on to our next tourist attraction. “Les Jardins de Doris” (Doris’ Gardens). From the road, we could see that there was a multitude of flowering plants. Helen wanted to stop, actually, because Doris is her sister’s name also. We were not disappointed with the stop. The garden had peaceful

Beautiful Drive!

music playing in outside speakers. Talking to Doris herself, we discovered that some of the work here is done by kids that are in trouble of one form or another. She has helped over 700 of them. She said that sometimes this place is their last chance before prison. In any event the grounds were perfectly cared for.
Time to move east on route 132. The Gaspésie is noted by its scenic shore line drives and the little townships that are actuated by a towering church steeple at their center. The photographic opportunities are everywhere. The St Lawrence  Seaway is now wide enough that the distant shores are no longer visible. The paved road winds up and down the rocky cliffs between  towns. We stopped many times to grab that hopefully perfect shot.

View from our Campsite ~ Indian Head!!

The game plan was to drive all the way to the town of Gaspe some 200 miles from Matane. We did that, but we were a little disappointed that we couldn’t dry camp anywhere in town. Some towns have regulations on this. It’s usually towns that have a few campgrounds in the area. To top that off, it is some sort of holiday time and many Canadians are off for the next two weeks and many campgrounds are full. We spotted a couple of RV’s at McDonalds and talked to them about a place to stay for the night. They were headed for a campground in Perce “Tete d’Indien” (Indian Head), it was on our direction of travel and we followed. The Indian Head campground was just what we were looking for!
That is what we saw and did!

Baie-Comeau to Matane ~ The Adventure Continues! (5th day)

Just to recap the events of the last day or so before we move on to today’s activities. Yesterday morning, we were 187 miles up the road towards Labrador City.

Very Close  Quarters on the Ferry

The road was closed because of a forest fire. We waited 24 hours and left the area for a different direction to Labrador. We just heard on the radio that a convoy is scheduled to leave for Lab. City… good for them! We are going to take the ferry to Matane, Gaspe. The Gaspésie I’m told is also a scenic drive over to New Brunswick and then into Nova Scotia. Without reservations we are on standby for the 8pm ferry. It will give us a chance to get caught up on blogging and everything else. No internet WiFi spots here at the ferry terminal. I’ll have four blog post to up load next chance.
Ah! We found a WiFi hotspot at the tourist info center a quarter mile from the waiting line at the ferry terminal dock. The afternoon was spent here at the information center…on the internet. We were #2 on the standby list and the manager assured us there was a 80 to 90% chance of getting on board if we stayed in line. We made it onto the giant ferry! I’ve never seen so tightly packed vehicles. They even have ramps so that small cars are driven up onto and double stacked over each other. It was so tight that all pickup trucks are required to fold-in their mirrors.

Double Decker Ramps!

There were five tractor trailers that were so close to each other that one could barely walk along side. All passengers are required to leave their vehicles during the crossing and go upstairs to the different lounges for safety.
The 2-1/2 hour crossing was pretty uneventful. It was about 10:30 pm when we started to disembark the ferry. The terminal manager told us that there was a large parking lot that we could park at for the night. We went to sleep pretty quickly this evening.
That is what we did and saw!