Friday 12 June. St Johns

After another Dennys breakfast we set off for Bay Bulls, which is a small fishing port a little south of St Johns. From the 1660s on it seemed to be raided by or involved in lots of wars with the Dutch, French and English. Hard to imagine on a peaceful sunny day like today.

Only a few kilometres on was Witless Bay where the water was deep blue and the seagulls were feasting on scraps from a fishing boat. It’s seems an unfortunate name but there was a Captain Whittles from Dorset who lived there with his family. After he died the family moved back to England so it was Whittles-less. This gradually became witless. We had a cuppa with a view at the Irish Loop Coffee House there.

Called in to the Avalon Shopping Centre again this afternoon and Smith found Skechers on special. Then back to our hotel to do Wordle and Waffle before heading out for dinner. Tonight we ate ribs at Montana’s BBQ & Bar and they were very sticky and very good! 

Thursday 11 June. St Johns

After a good night’s sleep in our nice Gander hotel, Lorraine was incensed when she came down to a breakfast with plastic cups and margarine instead of butter (just like the horrible b&b). I didn’t see it but there was an incident with porridge in the microwave and then make-your-own waffles that had too long a queue. On top of all that her apple juice was so watered down you couldn’t tell it was apple juice and her real apple had a big bruise. 

We were both relieved to be on our way. The morning was drizzly once again but fortunately no heavy rain on our long drive south. There was some roadwork but nothing like yesterday’s endless work. They have to do as much as they can to repair the ravages of winter during spring and summer - an endless task. No wonder the roads are so bad.

One thing we have noticed is that none of the signs show the distance to the places they are indicating so if you take the turnoff to Come By Chance it could be 5 km or 50. Another problem is that there are no places to pull off the road for a rest. I came to the conclusion that you are expected to rest at the petrol station/roadhouses. These are few and far between. When I needed a break today we turned off into a town and went to Robin’s donuts and later I just turned off the Highway on some road and found a gravelly area where we could stop and stretch our legs.

For the last part of our journey we were travelling on the same road we started on. We were back to a bleaker landscape with smaller trees but this time the leaves on the birch trees had grown and they were a lovely fresh green.

We checked back in to the Sandman Hotel around 2.30 and lazed the afternoon away. Then it was back to Moxies, downstairs, for dinner. The same waiter we had last time greeted us like old friends. I ordered pork belly ramen but there was no pork in it and Lorraine’s steak was very tough. The waiter offered to bring me some pork after the meal was taken away but it was a bit late then, so he didn’t charge us for dessert to make up for it. 

I didn’t take any photos today so I’m including 3 from yesterday that Lorraine shared with me and a couple from dinner tonight.

Lorraine took a lot of photos of the road today.

Wednesday 10 June. Gander

We were very happy to say goodbye to our awful b&b this morning and hit the road for the start of our return to St Johns. About an hour along the way we turned off to Rattling Brook. “Iceberg finder” had shown me an iceberg there a few days ago but the weather was too foul to even consider going there. Then the lady in the Visitor Centre suggested we stop off on our return trip, so stop we did.

This iceberg was a good size and really close to the shore so once again we went a bit silly with photos. There are currently 106 icebergs around the shores of Newfoundland. A couple of kilometres down the road is the settlement of King’s Point and a little cafe on the shore where we had a snack. As we were leaving we caught another glimpse of the iceberg and stopped for more photos.

Then it was back to the Trans Canada Highway for about 200 more kilometres, many of which were done at 40 kph through kilometre after kilometre of roadworks. Fortunately we only had drizzling rain today, mostly in the morning.

After checking into our hotel we drove to the Gander Airport to see where the planes landed after 9/11. There was an excellent display about that and also the history of the airport. A lot of Communist aircraft refuelled there en route to Cuba because they couldn’t land in the USA and quite a number of people defected. We had a drink and a snack in the restaurant and chatted to a woman who was on her way home to Labrador. She told us about a time a few years ago when the temperature went down to -100 degrees for a couple of days.

It turned out to be an interesting day and almost certainly our last iceberg.

Tuesday 9 June. Deer Lake

Lovely weather and a most enjoyable day today. We decided to go to Corner Brook, where we would complete our coast to coast journey. 

Not long after we set out we came to roadworks and a queue of traffic that stretched at least a kilometre in either direction. They had cut a huge chunk out of the road at least 3 metres deep, which had to be refilled. Each direction took turns to go through the one lane that was left.  There were more roadworks and a similar chunk cut out further on. Fortunately we’re on holidays and not in a hurry, but we did decide not to go beyond Corner Brook in case we were seriously held up on the way home.

The closer we got to our destination the more spectacular the scenery and Lorraine took some great photos which she has shared with me. It was quite mountainous with deep, lake-filled valleys and a ski run off to our left. The rocky mountain-sides were awesome. Over a huge hill where it looked like the road would send us sailing into the sky and then down to the town of Corner Brook, nestled in the Bay of Islands. It is the largest town on the west coast. 

Our lovely GPS took us up another large hill to the Captain Cook Memorial, which has a brilliant view over the bay and a lot of information about Cook’s time in Newfoundland,  charting and surveying the coast over a period of about 5 years.

I had done a little research and after all our cafe failures we found a great one today on the edge of the harbour, with tables and chairs on a deck overlooking the water. It was actually warm enough to sit outside too. We had a long and interesting chat with an ex Canadian Army soldier who explained a lot about Newfoundland’s role in the world wars. It did not become a part of Canada till 1949, so well after the war.

Before we headed home we made a little stop at Walmart to satisfy Lorraine’s need for the Fruit of the Loom. Then it was back onto the Trans Canada Highway and through that gorgeous scenery. We were really lucky with the roadworks as there were way fewer cars on the road at that time of day and we made good time.

This evening we dined at “Off the Hook”, the place to go for fresh fish. I had the scallop meal and Lorraine had cod bites. Dessert was a soft serve cone at the local ice cream shop, which was doing a roaring trade on this summery evening.

Neither of us are hungry now!

Monday 8 June. Deer Lake

 The rain had pretty much stopped when we got up this morning so we were able to go down the track to the falls by our chalet. Beside the falls is a fish ladder for the salmon to climb in order to spawn. The mixture of pine and birches with their new leaves is what we have been seeing all along the roads.

Our journey today was only about 100 km so we took a side road to a tiny village called  The Beaches. It was about 3 degrees, windy and drizzly, so not the most appealing of beaches. For most of the drive the highway was in much better condition than yesterday’s trip, so despite constant drizzle it was a happier experience. 

We didn’t have a definite check in time for the Bird’s Nest B&B but when we pulled up to have a look Gordon, the owner, arrived at the same time and showed us to our room.

I had a lot of trouble finding accommodation here when I was doing the bookings late last year. Lots of places weren’t responding and I suspect they may have been closed for the winter. In the end I had to phone Gordon to secure this place, which is not quite in the league of last night’s luxury.

After bringing in our luggage we headed off for lunch at The Big Truck Stop, Gordon’s recommendation because we didn’t want one of the chain eateries. Had a nice roast beef lunch featuring jus plus gravy. Gravy is definitely a Newfoundland thing.

We then went to the only bank in town to get some cash, as Gordon doesn’t take cards. Unfortunately the bank didn’t like any of our cards despite much help from the nice bank lady who promised to retrieve our cards if the machine swallowed them. Next we went to the supermarket but their atm was kaputt. The bank lady had suggested getting gift cards to the value needed but we weren’t too sure about that. The lovely girl at the cash register was going to give us cash out if we bought something but her machine didn’t like us either. When we reported our problem to Gordon he suggested the atm at the truck stop.

After a little visit to the Deer Lake beach we returned to the Big Truck Stop and, lo and behold, the atm was happy to supply cash, despite coming from the same bank that had refused us earlier. So we can pay Gordon for our stay tomorrow at breakfast.

By lunchtime the weather had improved greatly so our visit to the Deer Lake beach included a walk on the sand and some almost sunny photos. The long white building by the shore is a hydro electric power station that supplies energy to a big paper mill and the white stuff on the hills is snow. We had hoped to find a nice little cafe somewhere in the town but the only two possibilities were not open. One opens on Saturdays and I think the other was from Wednesdays on. We have completely given up on the whole idea of cafe culture here.

The weather forecast for tomorrow looks promising.