On the way to the Ferry

There is so much to see and do in Newfoundland, you just can’t see it all in two weeks. This is especially true when you have to cross all the way back to take the Ferry from Channel-Port aux Basque. (This is the main one, but a ferry does also cross from Argentia to North Sydney – it’s a 16 hour ride vs a 6 hour crossing. Yeah, not a good idea for seasick prone me.) 

We had a couple days to get there, so here’s a couple of the highlights of our return trip.

The Bonavista Peninsula: We had originally intended to go to Twillingate, but an hour out of St. John’s we changed our plans and went to the Peninsula (which sits just south of Terra Nova National Park). It was a great decision.

We walked around Trinity, a town steeped in history. The province, and the Historical Society have preserved and rebuilt many of the original buildings. Due to the history of the town and architectural controls on new buildings, the entire town looks like it is plucked straight from the past. The kids weren't interested in the history or buildings, but did have fun playing on the old style tire swing at the playground.

A walk along the fog shrouded Skerwink Trail. This trail is supposed to be one of the 35 best in North America and Europe (according to someone).  The trail follows the coastal cliffs, and usually provides spectacular vistas of the cliffs and ocean beyond. The fog (that rolled in and out) prevented us from seeing out to the ocean (and often down, which isn't such a bad thing!), but it did make for an interesting walk. The walk is 5.3 km long, and everyone did great – until Lily tripped on the second last step of the entire trail, and skinned her knees bloody. Even then, she was a trooper (after she got the blood-curdling screams out of her system – someday I really hope she will outgrow those!).

Visiting the puffin colony in Elliston. Some days the puffins fly over from their island to do some people watching (they come within a couple feet, if you're quiet), but they were too busy fishing to come for a visit while we were there. It was still really neat to see them so close. (We also saw our last iceberg of the trip.)

Eagles on the left, whale blows in the center

Happening upon humpbacks out in one of the bays south of Bonavista, while two bald eagles circled over the water. Wondering why the car coming down the hill toward us was going so slow I glanced out to the ocean and saw and enormous tail. Bob's quick reflexes got us safely stopped and off the highway at a perfect spot. There were at least four whales, maybe five. I pulled out the binoculars and watched them play. Knowing that we wouldn’t be near the ocean again (except on the ferry), it was a fitting goodbye.

              
      And perhaps, most surreal of all the things I've seen on our travels, the highway of frogs on the drive back to the campground in the pouring rain. The road was dark, the rain was pounding down ferociously, and the road was covered in frogs. I can only assume they were attracted onto the road by the heat being released from the wet pavement, but it was weird. (Poor froggies. They didn’t have a chance with our big dually tires.)

An overnight at Catamaran RV Park

                In the middle of not really anywhere, this place is a hotbed of activity. We arrived just in time for me to join Bingo night (a bit of silly entertainment – would have been nice to win some money too, but that was not to be). The kids thought the skate park was a fabulous addition to a campground, and spent much of the evening playing there. (Apparently the way to get them willingly off their electronics is to offer them a skate park. I will have to remember this!)

Fun times at Marble Mountain, near Corner Brook

The ski hill is (of course) closed for the season, but Marble Zip Tours runs both a zip line course and rope course during the summer months. (We had found this place on the day we entered NL, but the timing didn’t work that day, and so we promised the kids we would stop on the way back to the ferry. They looked forward to it the whole time we were on the island.) Bob traversed the 9 zip lines while Morgan ran the rope course (repeatedly). Lily turned out to be just a bit too short to join in. She was thoroughly unimpressed with that, and went off to sulk for a while (it’s no fun when you can’t do the same thing as your big brother), but then came back to cheer him on.   

After driving over 3400 km around Newfoundland, it was time to head back to the mainland. We overnighted at JT Cheeseman Provincial Park, near Channel-Port aux Basque for the night before boarding our ferry back to North Sydney, NS in the morning.