A whirlwind tour of Newfoundland
Jul. 13th, 2008 09:40 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dagibbsOr, our adventures in driving and other fun stuff...
Yes, this will probably get long, so I'm I'll lj-cut it for you...
Saturday July 5th, somewhere between 2 and 3pm, gabriel_le and I finish packing up the car and head east. We follow the trans-Canada to Montreal, divert to try and dodge 40 east at the 15 hoping to make better time as it was stop-and-go, and merge back up east of Montreal. Divided highway up to just past Riviere-du-loup in Quebec, then it dropped down to most 2-lane with occasional passing lanes. gabriel_le goes to sleep around 10pm, but I soldier onwards. She wakes up around midnight, then asleep again within 15 minutes or so. About 1:40am, I'm getting tired enough I don't want to continue and hand over control to gabriel_le. She takes us on through Newbrunswick and into Nova Scotia while I try to sleep, but drop into only the lightest of dozes, if I sleep at all. Around 5:20am, gabriel_le hands control back over to me and I get us to Fort Louisbourg for about 8am. We find it doesn't open until 9am, so we go and get breakfast in the town of Louisbourg.
We spend Sunday at the Fortress, walking around, having a loaf of bread that is cooked there and a meal. It is quite an interesting monument, the recreation aspect is quite enjoyable -- it is a lot more interesting to ask people questions about their roles and stuff than to just read placards. (Though, there are displays and placards as well.) We also visit the lighthouse across the bay on the way out, because gabriel_le likes lighthouses.
Then, on to North Sydney to wait for our ferry. It is running late, probably about 1.5 hours, and doesn't get us in to Port aux Basques until about 3am. We did get a few games played, and a bit of napping done, on the ferry. I drove to Stephenville, which is the closest place with a hotel I can stay at for free. (We spent most of our nights in hotels where I could get free rooms using hotel points, they're like air miles, but for hotels. It really helps the budget, and makes the decision to take a hotel for 6 hours of sleep from 5am-11am (or so) a lot easier to make if the hotel is, essentially, free.) We have a little trouble finding the hotel -- my GPS navigation system takes me to the right address, but the hotel isn't there. We go to a nearby Timmy's and they send us to the hotel... apparently the hotel is associated (address wise) with the mall that was at the address, but you have to go in off a different street. And, it didn't really look like a hotel. We slept from about 6am to noon.
Monday we were supposed to go to Gros Morne national park and do some hikes, then on to the B&B we'd reserved in Hawke's Bay. Then Tuesday we'd go to Port au Choix and maybe Anse au Medows and then back to the B&B in Hawke's Bay. But, we decided that we were too tired to do the drive to Hawke's Bay (about 4 hours) plus any hiking in Gros Morne, so we took the day "off", booked a moose dinner at our B&B and recovered a bit from our previous days. We played a few more games at the B&B after dinner, too. We also chatted with a couple hikers who were staying at the B&B -- they were working on hiking the "International AT", which starts in Newfoundland before running down into Maine and the traditional AT.
On Tuesday, we went hiking in Gros Morne national park. We attempted the Gros Morne trail, labelled as "strenuous" -- it was about a 16km length ascending about 800m to the top of the highest peak in the park. After doing the approach trail (about 4km and 350m of ascent) I decided I didn't think I could safely and reasonably complete the trail, and we turned back. By the time we got down, we were both hurting a bit. We stopped and looked at a couple other things in the park including another lighthouse where we decoded some flags and also stopped by Arches provincial park. This park had some arches carved by the sea in a beach area. I got to boulder on a few of them, mostly very easy, though I think one had a couple moves around a V0 level of difficulty. (Bouldering problems, in North America, uses a different difficulty rating system from climbing routes.) After dinner, we played a few games and chatted with some of the other people at the B&B.
Wednesday was the first day we saw any rain, or anything other than nice warm sunny weather. This wasn't a problem, though, as we were headed for St John's. The weather cleared 3 hours in, when we turned left and headed east across Newfoundland. Again, I did most of the driving except during the afternoon when I felt like a break. gabriel_le took this chance to try and kill us -- she decided to make a left out of the gas station across the path of an oncoming rig without shifting down from 2nd to 1st gear. That was definitely frightening. Found the hotel with no problem, showered & then headed downtown to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The streets of St John's are a bunch of twisty little passages that (almost all) look alike. Ok, not quite that bad... but there were often 3-5 streets meeting at any which angle, making navigation even with the GPS a challenge. After dinner we wandered around downtown for a while, looking at some historical plaques about the harbour and just getting a bit of a feel for the town. We did walk along George Street and waved hello for corbet.
Thursday we got to sleep in, then drive down to Cape Broyle for some sea kayaking to see whales, icebergs, puffins, sea caves, and anything else of interest. When we'd mentioned seeing icebergs at the B&B, they'd said we wouldn't likely see any, that it was too late in the season and we would be too far south. We got lucky, though, as we drove up we noticed there was an iceberg sitting near the head of the bay we would be kayaking in. So, we did get to see the iceberg, and it actually split while we were out kayaking, so we got to pick up some iceberg fragments, taste ice that was 15000 or so years old, and listen to it sizzle as the melting released the compressed air trapped in it. We also saw a minke while (though no humpbacks), puffins, and kayaked into one sea cave, then through another one. We also got bits of biology, ecology, and local history from out guide. It was a lot of fun, though quite tiring -- 4 hours of kayaking when you're not in practice are a lot of work. After getting back to the hotel, we collapsed. We had thought to go out for live music and pub food at a place called O'Reilly on George street, but we bailed on that to the hotel restaurant. We also did encounter our first tension of the trip -- trying to share one computer this morning, when we both had stuff we wanted to check, and both were used to having a computer to ourselves. 12+ hours straight in a car -- no problem. One computer, two internet-starved people -- problem.
Friday it was up early for a 7am departure, then back accross Newfoundland to catch our ferry back to Nova Scotia at Port aux Basques. Again, our long drive started with some rain, but it cleared up within a couple hours. We got to Port aux Basques early, so grabbed some dinner, then waited for the ferry. This time it was running on time, though -- no extra lateness, though we still didn't land until 2am or so. And, yet again, we got some gaming done on the ferry. gabriel_le also curled up and got some sleep on the ferry. I hadn't been able to get us a hotel closer to the Ferry than Moncton (there were possible hotels in both Truro and Stellarton, but both were booked up), so off to Moncton we headed. gabriel_le zonked out almost immediately, and let me deal with the crowd of traffic that came off the ferry ahead of us as we cross Cape Breton island. After we made it across the causeway to the mainland, I hand the controls over to gabriel_le and tried to nap myself -- I actually managed to catch some Zs. We got in to our hotel in Moncton around 6am, and quickly conked out. It was the most comfortable bed of the trip, though. The joys of being a gold member got us a 2pm (late) checkout, too.
Saturday, we were up and out of the hotel shortly before 2pm. Another gorgeous day, so we went into Moncton for some breakfast. Then, on the road again. I drove until sunset, with gabriel_le knitting busily away, trying to finish her 15th afghan square of the trip, and the last one for the entire afghan. She finished a little after sundown, though before it got too dark, then we stopped for dinner. Finally, about 2 hours east of Montreal, I once again handed the controls over to gabriel_le who did the finally stretch home, encountering rain (at times torrential) from the eastern edge of Montreal on to Ottawa.
We got home just before 2am Sunday.
We had covered a little over 6000 km in total (according to my car's odometer) in just over 7days -- averaging about 800km/day. We had excellent weather -- sunny and warm almost all the time, and only getting any rain when we were in the car driving from somewhere to somewhere else. We got along well the whole time, including making compromises and changes in plans along the way.
But, if I was going to do this again, I'd make sure to have more time spent in places and less time spent driving. Maybe fly out and back. Maybe take a couple weeks instead of one. Maybe take the ferry back from St John's, rather than driving back across Newfoundland. (Though, that wouldn't save time -- just driving energy.) And, yes, we'd both like to go back to Newfoundland. We want to spend more time in Gros Morne among other things. I am glad we did the trip, though.
A few pictures may follow in a later post, but I have to clear them with gabriel_le first.
Yes, this will probably get long, so I'm I'll lj-cut it for you...
Saturday July 5th, somewhere between 2 and 3pm, gabriel_le and I finish packing up the car and head east. We follow the trans-Canada to Montreal, divert to try and dodge 40 east at the 15 hoping to make better time as it was stop-and-go, and merge back up east of Montreal. Divided highway up to just past Riviere-du-loup in Quebec, then it dropped down to most 2-lane with occasional passing lanes. gabriel_le goes to sleep around 10pm, but I soldier onwards. She wakes up around midnight, then asleep again within 15 minutes or so. About 1:40am, I'm getting tired enough I don't want to continue and hand over control to gabriel_le. She takes us on through Newbrunswick and into Nova Scotia while I try to sleep, but drop into only the lightest of dozes, if I sleep at all. Around 5:20am, gabriel_le hands control back over to me and I get us to Fort Louisbourg for about 8am. We find it doesn't open until 9am, so we go and get breakfast in the town of Louisbourg.
We spend Sunday at the Fortress, walking around, having a loaf of bread that is cooked there and a meal. It is quite an interesting monument, the recreation aspect is quite enjoyable -- it is a lot more interesting to ask people questions about their roles and stuff than to just read placards. (Though, there are displays and placards as well.) We also visit the lighthouse across the bay on the way out, because gabriel_le likes lighthouses.
Then, on to North Sydney to wait for our ferry. It is running late, probably about 1.5 hours, and doesn't get us in to Port aux Basques until about 3am. We did get a few games played, and a bit of napping done, on the ferry. I drove to Stephenville, which is the closest place with a hotel I can stay at for free. (We spent most of our nights in hotels where I could get free rooms using hotel points, they're like air miles, but for hotels. It really helps the budget, and makes the decision to take a hotel for 6 hours of sleep from 5am-11am (or so) a lot easier to make if the hotel is, essentially, free.) We have a little trouble finding the hotel -- my GPS navigation system takes me to the right address, but the hotel isn't there. We go to a nearby Timmy's and they send us to the hotel... apparently the hotel is associated (address wise) with the mall that was at the address, but you have to go in off a different street. And, it didn't really look like a hotel. We slept from about 6am to noon.
Monday we were supposed to go to Gros Morne national park and do some hikes, then on to the B&B we'd reserved in Hawke's Bay. Then Tuesday we'd go to Port au Choix and maybe Anse au Medows and then back to the B&B in Hawke's Bay. But, we decided that we were too tired to do the drive to Hawke's Bay (about 4 hours) plus any hiking in Gros Morne, so we took the day "off", booked a moose dinner at our B&B and recovered a bit from our previous days. We played a few more games at the B&B after dinner, too. We also chatted with a couple hikers who were staying at the B&B -- they were working on hiking the "International AT", which starts in Newfoundland before running down into Maine and the traditional AT.
On Tuesday, we went hiking in Gros Morne national park. We attempted the Gros Morne trail, labelled as "strenuous" -- it was about a 16km length ascending about 800m to the top of the highest peak in the park. After doing the approach trail (about 4km and 350m of ascent) I decided I didn't think I could safely and reasonably complete the trail, and we turned back. By the time we got down, we were both hurting a bit. We stopped and looked at a couple other things in the park including another lighthouse where we decoded some flags and also stopped by Arches provincial park. This park had some arches carved by the sea in a beach area. I got to boulder on a few of them, mostly very easy, though I think one had a couple moves around a V0 level of difficulty. (Bouldering problems, in North America, uses a different difficulty rating system from climbing routes.) After dinner, we played a few games and chatted with some of the other people at the B&B.
Wednesday was the first day we saw any rain, or anything other than nice warm sunny weather. This wasn't a problem, though, as we were headed for St John's. The weather cleared 3 hours in, when we turned left and headed east across Newfoundland. Again, I did most of the driving except during the afternoon when I felt like a break. gabriel_le took this chance to try and kill us -- she decided to make a left out of the gas station across the path of an oncoming rig without shifting down from 2nd to 1st gear. That was definitely frightening. Found the hotel with no problem, showered & then headed downtown to an Indian restaurant for dinner. The streets of St John's are a bunch of twisty little passages that (almost all) look alike. Ok, not quite that bad... but there were often 3-5 streets meeting at any which angle, making navigation even with the GPS a challenge. After dinner we wandered around downtown for a while, looking at some historical plaques about the harbour and just getting a bit of a feel for the town. We did walk along George Street and waved hello for corbet.
Thursday we got to sleep in, then drive down to Cape Broyle for some sea kayaking to see whales, icebergs, puffins, sea caves, and anything else of interest. When we'd mentioned seeing icebergs at the B&B, they'd said we wouldn't likely see any, that it was too late in the season and we would be too far south. We got lucky, though, as we drove up we noticed there was an iceberg sitting near the head of the bay we would be kayaking in. So, we did get to see the iceberg, and it actually split while we were out kayaking, so we got to pick up some iceberg fragments, taste ice that was 15000 or so years old, and listen to it sizzle as the melting released the compressed air trapped in it. We also saw a minke while (though no humpbacks), puffins, and kayaked into one sea cave, then through another one. We also got bits of biology, ecology, and local history from out guide. It was a lot of fun, though quite tiring -- 4 hours of kayaking when you're not in practice are a lot of work. After getting back to the hotel, we collapsed. We had thought to go out for live music and pub food at a place called O'Reilly on George street, but we bailed on that to the hotel restaurant. We also did encounter our first tension of the trip -- trying to share one computer this morning, when we both had stuff we wanted to check, and both were used to having a computer to ourselves. 12+ hours straight in a car -- no problem. One computer, two internet-starved people -- problem.
Friday it was up early for a 7am departure, then back accross Newfoundland to catch our ferry back to Nova Scotia at Port aux Basques. Again, our long drive started with some rain, but it cleared up within a couple hours. We got to Port aux Basques early, so grabbed some dinner, then waited for the ferry. This time it was running on time, though -- no extra lateness, though we still didn't land until 2am or so. And, yet again, we got some gaming done on the ferry. gabriel_le also curled up and got some sleep on the ferry. I hadn't been able to get us a hotel closer to the Ferry than Moncton (there were possible hotels in both Truro and Stellarton, but both were booked up), so off to Moncton we headed. gabriel_le zonked out almost immediately, and let me deal with the crowd of traffic that came off the ferry ahead of us as we cross Cape Breton island. After we made it across the causeway to the mainland, I hand the controls over to gabriel_le and tried to nap myself -- I actually managed to catch some Zs. We got in to our hotel in Moncton around 6am, and quickly conked out. It was the most comfortable bed of the trip, though. The joys of being a gold member got us a 2pm (late) checkout, too.
Saturday, we were up and out of the hotel shortly before 2pm. Another gorgeous day, so we went into Moncton for some breakfast. Then, on the road again. I drove until sunset, with gabriel_le knitting busily away, trying to finish her 15th afghan square of the trip, and the last one for the entire afghan. She finished a little after sundown, though before it got too dark, then we stopped for dinner. Finally, about 2 hours east of Montreal, I once again handed the controls over to gabriel_le who did the finally stretch home, encountering rain (at times torrential) from the eastern edge of Montreal on to Ottawa.
We got home just before 2am Sunday.
We had covered a little over 6000 km in total (according to my car's odometer) in just over 7days -- averaging about 800km/day. We had excellent weather -- sunny and warm almost all the time, and only getting any rain when we were in the car driving from somewhere to somewhere else. We got along well the whole time, including making compromises and changes in plans along the way.
But, if I was going to do this again, I'd make sure to have more time spent in places and less time spent driving. Maybe fly out and back. Maybe take a couple weeks instead of one. Maybe take the ferry back from St John's, rather than driving back across Newfoundland. (Though, that wouldn't save time -- just driving energy.) And, yes, we'd both like to go back to Newfoundland. We want to spend more time in Gros Morne among other things. I am glad we did the trip, though.
A few pictures may follow in a later post, but I have to clear them with gabriel_le first.
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no subject
Date: 2008-07-14 10:01 am (UTC)=D.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-14 04:37 pm (UTC)* had a good time,
* got home safely, and
* didn't get stressed out by such a whirlwind trip!
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Date: 2008-07-14 04:56 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 05:08 am (UTC)It sounds like an amazing trip.
no subject
Date: 2008-07-15 02:26 pm (UTC)I'm only missing P.E.I. (of the provinces), plus all the territories as well. Hopefully soon.