Change of plans. Michele was hoping she just had allergies from all the hiking amongst plants and trees, but has not been feeling well. She has a fever and is very congested. Our next portion of the trip will be in Cape Breton where we plan on doing four days of hiking. She is unsure if she will improve in two days and we're on the last day to cancel our future reservations without penalty. Michele wanted Rob to go hiking and she'd just stay in the room if she felt bad, but he didn't think it would be a fun option for either of us. Besides, if she isn't feeling well, it is possible he may get sick also. So, we decided to cut the trip short and head home.
We cancelled all of our future hotel reservations that took us through August 29, and made two hotel reservations for our return trip: one in Moncton, New Brunswick and the other in Franconia, NH. We'd be home this Thursday.
We woke at 6am, packed and were on the road at 7am. Michele was feeling better since the night before, but still had congestion today. The morning temps were in the low 60’s and the low clouds were still around though there were more breaks in the cover and we could see pockets of blue sky. We headed south out of St. John’s on highway 10. Today we would drive the scenic Irish Loop, the longer drive following the coastline over to our ferry destination, in the Avalon peninsula.
We woke at 6am, packed and were on the road at 7am. Michele was feeling better since the night before, but still had congestion today. The morning temps were in the low 60’s and the low clouds were still around though there were more breaks in the cover and we could see pockets of blue sky. We headed south out of St. John’s on highway 10. Today we would drive the scenic Irish Loop, the longer drive following the coastline over to our ferry destination, in the Avalon peninsula.
The coastline of eastern Newfoundland is covered with high cliffs, some of which jut out into the sea in skinny peninsulas. We could see the cliffs and crashing waves this morning though the sky was cloudy and gray for a good portion of the day.
At St. Vincent’s we crossed a narrow causeway and stopped to look at the rocky beach. The wind was blowing and signs cautioned visitors against going in the water due to strong underwater currents. The waves were pretty intense as they crashed against the beach.
We stopped for a break to walk the beach and look at the waves. The sand of this beach was similar to stone dust versus the fine sand we are accustomed to seeing in the U.S. It was a little windy (or maybe there are other side effects Michele is feeling from being under the weather?).
It was 10am and we were about halfway to our destination. We turned north and followed highway 90 north first along the bank of Holyrood Pond and then along the coast of St. Mary’s Bay. Just short of town of St. Mary’s, we turned off the highway to investigate the Gulch. At the end of Gulch Road we found a small park that overlooked St. Mary’s Bay. The wind was blowing at a constant speed of about 20mph but the temps were comfortable in the upper 60’s. There were a few picnic tables and a modern fully automated "lighthouse". We say lighthouse in quotes because it was a trellis structure with a modern optical lens at the top of the structure. So it was really more of a lightstand than a house.
We drove a few miles north to St. Mary’s to visit the St. Mary’s Battery. This battery was used to protect the harbour and ultimately the fertile fishing grounds of this area. The British wanted it all for themselves.
There was a charming Kindness Garden nearby.
It was only 11am at this point. We were running an hour ahead of schedule and it was a bit early for lunch so we decided to add a detour down towards Cape St. Mary’s. This would take us an additional hour so we were good on time and we would get in more scenic driving.
We turned off onto Highway 91 and then south on Highway 92. This road had a mix of coastline views and high flat plains. At Branch we turned onto highway 100 and headed west and then north along the Placentia bay coast towards Placentia. The road on this 50-mile detour was some of the roughest we had experienced while on the island. Fortunately the roads were dry and we only had to dodge extensive broken pavement and potholes, instead of standing water that collects in the road ruts.
If this road was in good condition, as well as all the other coastal roads in Newfoundland, this place would be an epic motorcycling destination. Sadly, the roads are so bad it really isn’t a good place to ride. The roads are also bad enough that taking an RV would not be advisable. The TransCanadian Highway is in good condition but that only connects Port Aux Basque to St. John's. Once you get off that, road conditions are a bit of a gamble.
We thought there would be scenic overlooks or pull offs where we could stop for a lunch picnic but there weren't any since leaving St. Mary’s. We should have had our lunch at the Kindness Garden! Michele declared she had to eat soon, so we found a gravel pull off near Cape St. Mary’s and had a quick lunch in the car. It was far too windy to setup the table and chairs to eat outside. It was about 1:15pm.
After lunch, we drove the remaining 30 miles to the ferry in Placentia-Argentia, Newfoundland. These bikers were going in the same direction.
We talked about how much of Newfoundland we saw, driving on parts of every coastline: south, west, north, and east. This is an island in a world of its own, with weather extremes and intense beauty. The people are very friendly and form strong communities. As we drove through small villages, people would wave hello to us. Michele always wanted to come to this wild place since reading The Shipping News, one of her favorite books. Newfoundland charmed us and exceeded our expectations.
Our mileage to the ferry today was 240 miles. We arrived at the ferry and were parked in line by 2:15pm. They started boarding the ferry at 4pm. Large trucks, buses, and RVs went first into the lower decks and then the cars. We lucked out and were among the first cars to go in.
We grabbed out bags (we had combined the items we would need for just a single night into one bag to reduce luggage we needed to carry onboard) and walked up to deck 8 to find our room. We were on board and in our room by 4:30pm.
We settled into our 4 berth unit (basically a two person room with bunk beds) and headed down to deck 7 for dinner. Michele was a bit tired to stand in line at the buffet, and the sit-down restaurant looked comfortable and appealing. Flowers was the name of the restaurant and they did not open until 5:30pm. We had been advised by Amber and Matt (the British couple in the canoe from Keji National Park) to go early and get in line. Great advice! We arrived at the restaurant and got in line at 4:45pm. The restaurant only immediately sits the first six tables and then you go on a waitlist. They stagger sittings every 30 or so minutes so as not to overwhelm the kitchen. We got the fourth of the first six tables. If we had waited until 5:30pm we would not have been seated until 7pm.
Dinner was very good, a maple chicken with potatoes and vegetables with ceasar salad. When we finished we went back to our hidey-hole room for the remainder of the voyage. Rob named it the hidey-hole because it was an interior room with mirrors in place of an outside window.
Perhaps we should have called in advance to request an outside room? We don't know if it works that way since the online reservation didn't indicate. It was very cozy but we were thankful to have a mostly comfortable room with beds, fluffy pillows and our own bathroom with a real shower.
Our room had no TV though the TV programming we saw on the passage over to Newfoundland was limited, so no big loss there. We planned for this possibility and had loaded shows and movies on our iPads for entertainment. This ship passage did not offer WiFi in the rooms. We watched our respective shows until bedtime.
Tomorrow morning we will arrive back in Nova Scotia.
