"Long may your big jib draw" - Newfoundland the Rock

The ferry docked at Channel-Port aux Basques, Newfoundland at 1am. We were one of the first cars off the ferry which was sweet as all we wanted to do was sleep. After driving for a little bit in the dark we found a campsite to stop at and quickly setup the bed. We set the Alarm to get up at 7:30am as we had limited time to see everything.

Day 1: 7:30am the alarm went off, it was a great 5hrs sleep but I could have done with 3 more. No one was at the campsite office still so we did not pay for the nights (5hr) stay oops. Our first stop was Gros Morne National Park about a 3 hr drive away; the drive there was really cool with loads of large mountains, trees and extremely quiet roads. We stopped at the tourist information in Deer Lake and booked in a boat ride at Western Brook Pond and an Iceberg boat tour up at St Anthony’s.
We made it to Gros Morne National Park around lunch time. The park was beautiful; Massive mountains surrounded by the ocean and little communities scattered around the edge of the bay. First stop was the visitor centre for our first hike of the day ‘Lookout’ hills. Marc made us some lunch and we took off. It was about an hours hike to the top. It was a hard hike especially after limited sleep but the weather was perfect and it was good to be out of the car. At the top after catching our breath we admired the view of the tablelands, bay and surrounding mountains. After a quick rest we made our way back down. In total it took us about 1.5hrs to complete the hike.

Next we drove to the 'Tablelands' for another hike that was only about an hour long and only a gentle incline. The tablelands where really cool a reddish rock which was actually ocean floor that was pushed up to the surface a million years ago and that it why nothing grows on it.

After the tablelands it was getting late so we made our way to ‘Cow Head’ to stop for the night. Cow Head was only just up the road from the western brook pond that we were seeing the next morning. We stayed at sea breeze B&B for the night it was a really nice spot near the ocean and had the most amazing showers (best showers of the trip). Marc cooked us up some delicious burgers for dinner and we ate them on the rocks overlooking the sea.
Day 2: An awesome night sleep at sea breeze, but up early again to go to Western Brook Pond. After a short drive we had to walk about 45min to the pond through the bog lands. The weather had cooled off a bit, but luckily we both had jumpers. The boat ride was a bit expensive but really cool. The pond was one of the last of its kind in the world. It was actually below sea level but had some of the most pure water; so pure it did not even conduct electricity. The boat tour took us to the edge of the pond through the glacier formed mountains. It really was amazing just super cold. On the tour we saw our first moose in the distance with a baby and also a black bear before it ran off into the woods.
 

After the boat ride we made our way back to the car and took off for St. Anthony, a 3.5hr drive up north. Once we left the national park the road followed the coast, there were lots of small fishing towns made up of about 20 houses and a small general store. Newfoundlanders really have an awesome sense of community with large stockpiles of wood by the side of the highways and gardens full of vegetables the community looked after together.

On the way up north we stopped off at a National Historic Site 'Port Au Choix'. We learned about the Eskimos that lived on the Island 4000 years ago, checked out some artifacts recovered from the site (stone tools, needles and whale bone carvings), and walked to Phillips Garden where the artifacts had been found along with 50 remnant houses… however as the site was overgrown I could not see the indents in the ground.

We arrived at a rainy St Anthony’s in the evening, found a shelter and Marc cooked us up some dinner. Camping is not fun in the rain :( After dinner we found a picnic area to camp for the night free! The picnic area overlooked a bay with a bunch of icebergs it was so cool. They where a really bright blue colour and we could hear them moving so awesome.

Day 3: The picnic area ended up being a mozzie breading ground and invaded our van when Marc got up for a pee at 5am. It was crazy there were about 15 mozzies buzzing around in the van we were under attack. We killed most of them but still ended up with loads of bites.

The boat ride to see the icebergs left at 9am. There was a group of bike riders from Montreal on the boat and another couple form Kelowna who were doing basically the same trip we were. The sea was really ruff and the little boat was rocking loads. We made our way out to the open sea to see some whales. On the way out a fishing boat was on it’s way back in called ‘The Perfect Storm” (just like the movie!).
First animals we saw were 8 Atlantic dolphins that followed along with the boat for a while. You could see their white tummies as they followed along ducking and diving. Then we briefly saw 2 fin whales come up for air then disappear again, they were huge (2^nd largest whale) and even though it was just a brief moment it was really exciting. Then we saw a couple of puffin birds fly away and then the dolphins started breaching the water jumping up it was crazy, the ocean just came alive all at once then it was quiet. Before we headed back towards the shore we saw more whales in the distance but as the water was so ruff we could not go out further to see them closer. About 5 huge Icebergs were all on the horizon that would have been cool to go and see but we couldn’t go out too far because of the ruff conditions; It must have been rough as two of the tough bikies where sea sick over the side of the boat.

We were really lucky to be able to see the Icebergs in August; the guide explained that normally the iceberg season finished up at the end of June, but because of a huge Iceberg that broke off the Greenland 'Petermann Glacier' (260 sq km) the number of Icebergs was huge and this is why we could still see them this late in the season.

We headed in land to see some smaller icebergs up close and they were amazing well worth the drive. The Icebergs were grounded in about 200ft of water and we could only see 20% of them, the compact snow and ice let off a really bright blue colour and the size of them were breathtaking. While we were approaching the Icebergs the ship played the titanic them song over the speakers that got a giggle.

Next stop while we were up north was another historic site but this time Vikings. ‘L’Anse aux Meadows’ was the first/only Viking settlement in North America 1000AD. We went on a guided tour around the dig site and could see the outline of the old buildings in the ground. It was really interesting to hear about why and how they made it to ‘Vinland’ (Newfoundland), as the world was flat they were scared of falling off the edge of the world so only sailed where they could see land. First they sailed down the coast of Labrador then to Newfoundland. There was also a reconstructed village that was created to mimic the Viking village. It was awesome I got to see a nail being made by a Viking blacksmith and both of us dress up as Vikings.

That afternoon we made our way back down the coast, it was a long drive to our next destination ‘Elliston’ to see the Puffin’s. Marc started the drive while I slept and we made it 3 hours back to Gross Morn where we stopped to cook some dinner around 7pm. The picnic area that we stopped at was just near ‘Green cove’, I wondered around the stony beach while Marc cooked up some chicken stir-fry.
After dinner we wanted to try and make our way to Grand Falls-Windsor for the night. I drove while Marc slept; we only had about quarter of a tank to drive 2.5hrs but Marc said we should be right for fuel. While Marc slept I kept driving as the petrol tank got lower and lower, I was keeping an eye out for a petrol station but there were none in sight. The petrol light came on about 59km from our destination. I was quietly freaking out hoping to see a town soon, 30km later I finally arrived at a town with a petrol station but it was closed. At this stage Marc woke up and we decided to stop at the petrol station for the night instead of taking the risk.

Day 4: The night at the petrol station was really quiet (surprisingly) and we both had a really good night sleep. Marc woke up at 7:30 ready to go. I wanted to keep sleeping in but Marc was uncomfortable at the side of the road so we waited a little bit for the petrol station to open at 8am, filled Hank up and was off again. Another longish 2.5hr drive to Elliston to see the Puffins. For some reason the weather was awesome on the West coast but horrible everywhere else. Basically since we left Deer Lake (near Gross Morne National Park) last night it has been raining, overcast and just cold.

We arrived at Elliston around lunchtime and stopped to see the Puffin’s. It was extremely windy and cold but not raining. We parked the car and took the sort walk to where they nested. Oh my god they were so cool, super small with webbed feet and little white chests. They flapped their little wings so fast and zoomed around getting fish and bringing it back to the nest. We spent a little bit of time watching them, then we started to get cold so made our way back in. Afterwards we stopped for lunch and then made our way to St. John's.

The drive to St. John’s was nice but the weather was really crappy for summer, low laying cloud and rain so you could not really see much anyway. St. John’s was quite big and it was nice to be back around civilization again. There was a campsite near downtown so we booked a couple of nights at ‘Pippy Park’ or as we soon found out ‘Shitty Park’. We managed to cook up some dinner in the wind and rain then drove to the really crappy showers that were timed so the water kept turning off.

 Day 5: It rained all night and in the morning the weather had not gotten much better. After a slow start to the we made our way into St. John’s for a look. You could not see too much of the city as a whole but we drove through streets of brightly coloured houses that were really cute. St. John’s is the oldest city in North America, you can see the history in the architecture and crazy street layout. We found an undercover car park stopped and had some lunch. After lunch we braved the weather and made our way downtown. I really liked downtown, loads of little shops to wonder around and look at. On our way back down the street one of the shops had caught fire and there were a bunch of fire fighters stopping the blaze (something different). We stopped in at the local brew house ‘Yellowbelly brewery’ for a couple of happy hour beers, then stopped for some fries for dinner before we made our way back to the camp grounds to hang out before we could get screeched in at 11pm.

We drove back downtown to the famous ‘George’ Street (Famous for pub-crawls). We were not up for a pub-crawl so just went to ‘Christians’ to sign up for our screeching. We sat down and Marc got us some beers (really expensive ones), $8.25 for a single pint of beer. Marc nearly fell over when he questioned the price. The screeching ceremony to become an honorary Newfoundlander was loads of fun, it was about $15 per person and there was a large group of us doing it. To start off we had a guy dressed in a green fishing coat, hat and paddle talking really fast and singing some traditional songs. First we all repeat together "Long may your big jib draw", then kneeling in a circle we kissed a massive frozen cod (Marc French kissed it), next everyone had a shot of screech and the ceremony was complete. Loads of fun and very entertaining. Afterwards we received certificates as a record of our screeching.

We stayed at the bar for a few more hours and started talking to the table next to us. They were really nice, a chick from Idaho called Kate, then David and Dan from Toronto. After some conversation and drinks we decided to make our way home via subway. On the way home Kate offered for us to come over for dinner and camp in her driveway the next night. It was such a lovely offer how could we refuse.

 Day 6: Woke up to some sunshine at last, it was still a little cool but at least no more rain.After a slow start we went to check out 'Signal Hill'. We stopped off at the visitor center, watched a video about the history of the site then walked up to the look out point. It was interesting to hear how the oldest city in North America was taken over many times by the British and French. It was a nice walk to the top, we saw the cannons used to defend the harbor and a great view of St. John’s and the sea.

Next we made our way to Kate’s house for dinner. Kate answered the door it was great to see her smiling face. Kate and her husband Joel lived in downtown St. John’s in a lovely old house with 2 rescued cats Bartleby and Bluebell. Bartleby had a huge personality and cerebral palsy so his back legs were a little crazy but he could get around perfectly. Bluebell was a lot more reserved but still an awesome cat. After a grand tour of the house we just kicked back and chatted with David and Daniel. Joel came home and cooked us some Turkey burgers for dinner. It was a great night, Joel had an amazing home brewed beer selection, which we sampled all night. After some trivial pursuit that Kate killed. We moved inside to sleep for the night it was so good to be out of the car and in a house, their hospitality was amazing.

Day 7: Not too sure if it was the beer or house but we managed to sleep in until 10am. In the morning we had some breakfast thanked Kate and Joel for letting us stay then made our way to the ferry at Argenta an hour and a half away. Before we left Joel gave us a 6-beer sampler of his home brew.

It was raining again and we could not wait to get back to some sunshine. As Hank had now done another 5000km we needed another oil change so stopped off in Mt. Pearl (just outside of St. John’s) for a drive through oil change. The drive to Argenta was quick so we arrived in plenty of time for the ferry that left at 6pm. We boarded the ferry for our 15hr long ride back to Nova Scotia around 5pm. The ferry was huge and the guys we met in St. John’s (Dave and Dan) were also on the ferry.

We found some seats to sleep in then made our way to the bar/lounge to hang out. It was a long ride but actually really comfortable compared to air travel. We hung out with Dan and Dave had some dinner then went to bed around midnight. Surprisingly even though not really comfortable both Marc and I basically slept until about 8am. After we woke ate some breakfast and waited for the ship to dock so we could unload. Overall we loved Newfoundland and it was well worth the little bit of extra effort to go.