Newfoundland at last

 

We’re at the furthest point of this journey, and it feels like a very long way from home (5,205 miles)!  The overnight ferry ⛴️ to get here was smooth sailing; our van was tucked in next to a million giant trucks while we dozed upstairs.  

Drove to Gros Morne national park, walking on the Tablelands ( ancient rock formations ) and camping in the park.  Things are just starting to open, with some possibly open or not.  We’ve learned to keep expectations fluid & delighted when a restroom is open.  Simple gifts.

We stayed in the parking lot of the Gander aviation museum.  Wonderful history of this community response when 7,000 air passengers suddenly were diverted on 9/11 when US airspace was closed.  Glenn found a favorite plane as well.

As many of you know, one of our goals for this trip was to see the nesting Puffin colonies, one of the largest in the world.  Our scheduled boat trip was today;  this was not in the cards - and the boats were cancelled due to high waves and swells.  Our next bet on puffins was to try later in the week, without guarantees.  So in the spirit of chasing birds, we drove down to St Mary’s ecological reserve to see thousands of northern gannets.  Success!  And a wondrous experience on the cliffs covered with nesting birds.

We celebrated our furthest east destination at a local pub in St John’s.  Now to plot our way back to the ferry, then the journey back begins 🍻

PS. The red chairs are a thing in the Canada national parks - there are 400 scattered across country.  The 2 chairs above are in Terra Nova park.

Nova Scotia eastbound

We leave on the night ferry tomorrow from North Sydney to Newfoundland.  Nova Scotia has been a bit colder than we expected, but we still caught some hikes, sights and music along the way.  It’s steeped in Celtic/Scottish history with a French tradition as well.  Although indigenous groups are acknowledged in the information road signs, the place names are Anglo with Gaelic interpretation.  

Some sights along the way:  it’s free to get on Prince Edward Island , but either by bridge or ferry, it will cost you to get off!

Driving along the Northumberland Shore, we stumbled across a large locked gate to the Culloden Cairn, with a grassy path out to the ocean.  It seems that after the battle of Culloden, where Scots were slaughtered, some survivors made their way to Nova Scotia in the late 1700’s.   Their descendants built a giant cairn and get together every year for music and party at the cairn.  It’s the kind of roadside attraction we love.

And the unique names of places…

We camped along the Cabot Trail in the Cape Breton Highlands national park; and we’re incredibly lucky to hike the Skyline Trail and the Middle Head Trail.

At the Celtic Music Interpretive Center we got in on some Cape Breton fiddling at a Caelidh (Kay lee) - 

Today we wound up our time in Nova Scotia with a tour at the Mining Museum, complete with donning hard hats and going down into a mine, crouching lower and lower.  A hard way of life, with tragedies over time.

Hoping to see moose 🫎 in Newfoundland, and puffin colonies too.  Ciao!

On wildlife spotting on our drive

by GB

Much of our drive across country is focused on just getting to the Canadian Maritime Provinces and back. When possible we also hit museums, do city tours, and look for familiar and new wildlife.

Sometimes that has us getting off the road for a few hours 

When we arrive at our camp for the night we usually whip out our Merlin Bird Song app and listen in.  When Merlin suggests a new bird to our list we try to scope it out with binocs. Northern Parula and Blue headed vireo were fun to id the first time.

The wildlife highlight will be May 27, when we go out on a Puffin/whale watching/IceBerg boat tour from Bay Bull, Newfoundland.  Wish us luck!



Many miles to the Maritimes

 

We said Au revoir to Ontario and took a back road through the countryside of Quebec, where we found a fromagerie.  And it was open.  So we had lunch in the back of the building using the delicious cheeses.  We’re in French-speaking Quebec now, where French is the official language, so there are rarely bilingual signs or speakers outside of tourist shops.

In the pursuit of learning more about the French/English history here, we camped across the river from Old Quebec City and ferried across the St Lawrence river.  A beautiful town with European charms, like food and wine.

From Quebec we drove over to New Brunswick to find the Bay of Fundy, staying at a couple of farms and orchards along the way.  So many places are still closed for the long winter up here, staying at harvest hosts is the better bet.  But we did find the infamous Bay of Fundy, just like the mapping program said we would!

The tides are pretty impressive, but the tidal bore in the town of Moncton is sort of unbelievable.

Now we’re on Prince Edward Island with plans to visit the Anne of Green Gables heritage site and eat lobster like the locals do.  It feels like we’ve driven 3,800 miles!

Ciao!

Crossing into Canada 🍁

 We’ve made it to Ottawa with cold weather, occasional snow flakes but largely dry roads.  

We paid a toll to cross the bridge at Saule St Marie, and voila!  After a glance at our passports we drove to the information center to load up on maps, etc we learned that 99% of campgrounds (including provincial parks) are closed until May 15.  Which explains why we parked overnight at a roadside truck stop on our first night in CAN

But I’ve jumped ahead! Before we entered Canada, we made our way through N Dakota, enjoying a famous attraction:

Found an open campground in northern Minnesota at Cass Lake.  The next night we stayed in the parking lot at a small bar & grill on the banks of Lake Superior in Wisconsin.  A smallish snow storm tried to stop us from further exploration of the south shore of that giant lake, but we drove on to stay near the Pictured Rocks national lakeshore.  In Michigan‘s upper peninsula.  Needless to say, I have to pause to remember where we are!

We look forward to a couple nights near Quebec before we head for the Maritime provinces next week.  Au revoir!