The Destinators – Page 12

Farewell Newfoundland

We had no expectations about traveling on the island of Newfoundland. According to google maps, the primary roads create a funky ‘H’ across the province – 1 north south road on the west side, another on the east side, and one road connecting the two across the middle. Many side roads lead to (mostly) small communities along the coast. We’d heard varying reports of the quality of the roads on ‘The Rock,’ but even the most foreboding of these led us to believe we’d seen worse. (And the roads were fine!)

Argentia, NL

Our ferry (yes, they keep getting bigger…)

With the joy of our stay in Bonavista fresh in our hearts, the realization that our ferry reservations would take us away from Newfoundland in just a few days meant we needed to head toward the ferry dock in Argentia. We wanted to arrive there a few days early to take care of a few road necessities like long hot showers, laundry, cleaning the waste tanks, washing the rig, paying bills, updating the blog, why not another round of long hot showers, yadayada. We’d just head on over and maybe see a few sights along the way. We even agreed to a no photo rule, so we wouldn’t have to spend time sorting and processing – just do the drive and take it all in as it came. Yeah right…

Bonavista Peninsula

The Bonavista Peninsula contains some of the oldest settlements on the island of Newfoundland. Though definitive proof has been elusive, Italian explorer Giovanni Caboto (aka John Cabot, while he was sailing for the king of England) is reported to have landed at Cape Bonavista in 1497, claiming this part of the New World for his sponsor. (Fortunately, we have better records of our own travels, and definitive proof of our visit in 2023 will also be presented here, though we’re claiming nothing.)

Terra Nova National Park

Terra Nova National Park is situated on the northeast coast of Newfoundland. It encompasses 238 km/150 miles of shoreline, all of it within a north to south span of 45 km/30 miles and within 5 km/3 miles of the coast. It comprises islands, sounds, points, fjords, bogs, headlands, inlets, forests, ponds, fingers (of land), arms (of water), tickles (look it up), and straits. The park’s PR people share our penchant for superlatives… Brochures boast that Terra Nova is Canada’s easternmost National Park (yes, we’ve been to Pacific Rim National Park) and Newfoundland’s oldest, established in 1957 (Gros Morne was established in 1970). As with all National Parks, Terra Nova manages access to the beautiful parklands and its primary mission is conserving and restoring ecological integrity.

If Gros Morne is about the rocks, Terra Nova is about balancing the health of the forest that supports the critters that eat the lichen that grows on the rocks, the rocks down in the valley-o (oops, Newfoundland music…).

St John’s NL

At the southeastern corner of the island of Newfoundland, St John’s is the largest city in Newfoundland and Labrador. At this moment, about 530,000 people live in NL, and 212,000 of them (40%) live in the St John’s metro area. [By contrast, just 26,650 (5%) live in all of Labrador, though Labrador accounts for 72% of the land area of the province.] Anyway, statistics aside, we were eagerly anticipating our visit to the urban St John’s for several things we would find there: music, history, hiking, sightseeing… and a Sprinter service center.

The Road to the Isles

Newfoundland and Labrador covers a pretty large area. If the province were a state in the US it would be the 4th largest, after Alaska, California and Texas based on landmass. (Based on population, it would be the 2nd smallest, right in between Vermont and Wyoming…). Similar to Alaska, it’s a big space up north with very few roads. What that means is that people touring Newfoundland in RVs often find themselves moving around in cohorts based on which of the 3 ferries they took and when they arrived, and we just keep running into each other over and over again.

As we chatted with people in our northwest Newfoundland cohort (because that’s where we arrived on July 7), they all mentioned plans to visit Fogo Island and Twillingate. Those 2 places were on our list, as well. As we crossed paths and chatted with travelers in other cohorts, heading in the reverse direction, they all said you’ve got to see Fogo Island and Twillingate. Newfoundland and Labrador Route 340, known as the Road to the Isles, heads north from Gander – and so did we.

Gander

Well rested and with the truck’s vents blowing cool and conditioned air, we moved an hour on up the road to Gander. Located on a ‘Great Circle’ route between North America and Europe, Gander was built to be an airport town for refueling trans-Atlantic flights, and for a time was the largest and busiest airport in the world. It has lately become well known for its townwide hospitality when planes were unexpectedly grounded there on September 11, 2001. On that day, North American airspace was closed and all planes were required to land. Within a few hours, 38 planes landed in this town of (then) 9,300, unloading 7,000 unexpected guest from 95 different countries for an unknown duration. It ended up being 5 days. Among locals, the stayover is now known as ‘9/12,’ and the guests are called ‘Come From Away’s (CFAs). We were interested to see this historic town. Maybe we’d have a chance to talk to some of the kind people and thank them for their generosity.

Grand Falls-Windsor and Bishop’s Falls

We headed inland from the west coast, driving along big rolling hills, almost always with a lake or river beside the road. The sign said ‘Welcome to Grand Falls-Windsor – Perfectly Centered!’ That’s a fact. GFW is in the center of Newfoundland, and it’s the largest town in the interior. It’s also away from the natural breezes that keep things cool along the coast – a feature which, during the rare heat wave that’s been afflicting Newfoundland, made for a hot town!

Gros Morne National Park

National parks in Canada are established to manage wild and natural spaces, and balance access for visitors to appreciate and enjoy while protecting and conserving their unique ecological offerings. We’ve come to especially appreciate them as beautiful places to learn more about nature and indulge in one of our favorite activities – hiking. Gros Morne checks all the boxes and more. Much more. Its global geological significance is mind blowing.

The Great Northern Peninsula

The ferry dropped us off in St Barbe, about two thirds of the way up Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula. It was late in the day and we decided to camp in nearby Flower’s Cove and head north in the morning.