Week ending June 28

We arrived just out of Truro, NS on Tuesday to camp at Hidden Hilltop Campground, a nice campground with lovely level sites, so we didn't have to unhook to level the trailer, a real bonus when you are just stopping for the night.

The next morning we headed for Sydney, planning to catch the ferry to Newfoundland the next day. As we drove along, the sun actually broke through the clouds and shone for almost an hour.  We know that sounds mundane, but given the weather we have had, seeing the sun was quite exciting. We got a campsite at Arm of Gold campground, only 6 km from the ferry. The fellow who runs the campground has sisters living in Calgary and has spent a lot of time in Alberta. The campground has been in his family for 45 years.  We unhooked and drove down to the ferry terminal to get tickets.  Despite everyone warning us we needed reservations we had no problem getting booked on the 10:00 A.M. ferry. The lady selling us the tickets called someone over (who was in a security area that was out of bounds to us) to provide us with travel information about Newfoundland.  After a quick shopping trip to a local mall to pick up a pair of hiking boots for John, we headed back to the ferry dock area to have dinner at a seaside restuarant. The seafood was pefect, the scallops as tender and delicious as I remember from 28 years ago, when we were last in Nova Scotia.  They had the picture of the ship 'Joan' below on one of the placemats.

Thursday dawned sunny and almost warm. As we were hitching up the trailer, we knocked it off the blocks we had under the front legs, because Joan took the gizmo braking the trailer wheels off before we hitched up.  The front of the trailer came to rest on the back of the truck and we couldn't raise the front legs enough to get it off the truck. The man who worked at the campground came to help us with his hydraulic Jack and extra blocks.  It took us a few minutes to get the trailer raised so we could hitch it and head for the ferry. The crossing was wonderful, a calm, clear day. We had a mid-morning nap, a bit of lunch, played computer games and surfed the net looking for a campground close to Gross Morne for our stay there. We got off the ferry, camped at Little Paradise campground at Port aux Basques. We hosted happy hour in our trailer with some people we had met in Ottawa and ran into on the ferry, as well as some neighbours from last night's campground who had tried to help us get the trailer back on the truck, to discuss our plans for the next while, compare notes, etc as to what we planned to see and do in
Newfoundland.

On Friday, we stopped in Deer Lake at a service station called Deer Lake Truck and Tire, before heading into Gros Morne,  for an oil change.  We hadn't booked this, but within an hour we where on our way, oil changed and brakes checked to be sure they were still okay after the problems we had going into Ottawa.  The weather so far is holding out. If someone had told me Newfoundland would be an Emerald Isle, I would not have believed them. The area so far is beautiful, lots of up and down, green trees. We were surprised that there was even some snow still on the hills.

Saturday we did a short, but strenuous hike to Lookout hills, 5 km return, elevation of 640 m. The sun shone all day - a real treat.

Headed out Sunday to do an easy coastal hike of 6 km return, with an elevation change of 10 whole meters.  We picnicked at Lobster Cove Lighthouse and then walked around the site to a few viewpoints.
Monday morning we went on a mini-vacation. We left our home at the campground and headed up the northwest coast to L'Anse aux Meadows, a National Historic Site, where a replica has been made of the first Viking settlement in North America 1000 AD. We went through the viking village, talked to one of the interpretors that was working on making a fishing boat in the tradional viking way. 

We also saw an iceberg in the harbour, which was one our must-sees in Newfoundland. We had found a web site that told us there were ice bergs in the St. Anthony area and we found one in the exact location promised. We were lucky to be able to see it from the historic site. 

After we were done there, we stayed in a nice little hotel in St. Anthony's, and had a good dinner in their restaurant.

Returning home (back to the trailer) on Tuesday, we stopped at Port aux Choix historic site.  There are archaelogical digs there of pre-historic Indian and Eskimo sites. 

The trip was interesting we saw several moose, a caribou and a bald eagle.  When we were talking to one of the rangers at the Viking place, we discovered that Moose is not native to Newfoundland, nor are coyotes, but the caribou is.  The moose are prolific enough, that they are planning a cull by issuing hunting licenses for five hundred this fall.