Ferry to Sydney

Our sleeping quarters for the 6 hour trip and the wakeup sunrise right in the face.

Leaving the Rock

In the ferry lineup at Port aux Basques. The drive today was done in torrential rain and now we have a few hours to wait before boarding.

Road trip food

We are trying local dishes along the way and Newfoundland certainly has things neither of us has seen. Scruncheons, Toutons, eggs benny on cod cakes. Toutons are not pronounces the way you would think, as it was pointed out to me, the locals got a chuckle at my expense. What is it you ask? Deep fried bread dough, served with molasses, sometimes maple syrup. Scruncheons is a term for small pieces of pork rind or fatback fried until crispy. Didn't get to that one, but the toutons took me over the edge and now my clothes are tight, tight, off to superstore for some sweatpants.

We have left St John's

Cold today. Lordie, 10 degrees. We have begun the westward ho part of the trip. We spent the night in a place called Grand Falls-Windsor, 50km north of Gander. It is another  5-6 hour drive to Port aux Basques, where we are catching the midnight ferry back to Sydney, Nova Scotia. The trip could be done in a day, but with the moose problem on Newfoundland no driving at night. Painfully slow internet here, think it is dialup. 

The beginning or the end?

Signal Hill

This is where the first transatlantic wireless transmission was received by Guglielmo Marconi

Petty Harbour

Catch of the Cay

Bus tour of St John

No internet the last couple of days so sorry about the no updates. Had our bus tour in St John's. Who would have thunk it. What an interesting place historically, beautiful scenery and like Vancouver, you never know about the weather one hour to the next sometimes. The forecast was for rain, but it ended up being a beautiful, warm, sunny day. The tour was for 3 hours or so, the guide was funny as I expect a Newfie to be. Learnt lots and lots of stuff. But I will  just bore you with the pictures. First stop was Cape Spear. The most easterly point in North America.

Downtown St John's

We are back from St Pierre and hope to stay 2-3 days to rest up before heading out. Our room is good, looking over the harbour of St John, which is way smaller than I expected, particularly the entrance. 

Back in St John's

oooh, pretty

More things to wonder about

Funny room we had, at first look seemed okay but then found out tv didn't work, no internet and the water in the toilet was boiling hot. 

St Pierre

Saint Pierre and Miquelon is the only remnant of the former colonial empire of New France that remains under French control.

St Pierre and Miquelon

We see Canada

We see France

We see.....somebody's underpants

Not quite sure how to finish that. 

We are in France for the night. A one hour ferry ride from Fortune there are two little islands that belong to France. They are not obligated to speak English, even though the do. Had to get Euros and have our passport, went through customs, got our passport stamped. Due to the fact that we are flying by the seat of our pants we are only spending the night. We didn't realize that on a Sunday everything, and I mean everything is closed and the restaurants don't open for dinner till 7. No TV, no internet so I guess early to bed. We are catching the ferry back to Newfoundland at 1.30pm, there is only one sailing per day. Should have stayed a couple of days. Most things closed Mondays and what is open closes from 12pm to 1.30pm for lunch. We didn't see much except the post office, a bakery and the tourist office. We took a tour of the island which is very small and  there are 6000 people living here. If we had stayed longer we could have taken a look at the other island, but oh well.

Where are we going?

Ferry service in Fortune, NL

Customs office in Fortune, NL

Now you see em, now you don't

Big moose problem in Newfoundland, not that we have see any. You can imagine my disappointment.  They are not native to the island, having been brought over for their meat around 1904. I just read that the population of  120,000 is descended from just 4. Hmmph, makes you wonder, but they have hundreds of serious accidents every year and are always looking for a solution. There are some test sections along the highway that uses infrared scanners and flashing lights to warn about moose on the road and fencing sections, but they seem to be struggling to find the answer. 

Newfoundland looks like this

Things that make you go brrrr

Left St John's early to catch a ferry in Fortune, NL. Weather was charming. Cold, man. Like 10 degrees cold.

St John's

Didn't expect the colours, all the houses are different. A lot of the tourist trinkets use this motif. We are only spending the night as we are off again first thing so not much to say.

St John's

After a 16 hour ferry on the Atlantic Ocean and a four hour drive from Argentia, we have made St Johns. Rained most of the crossing but calm, no big seas.