Newfoundland!

Sept 01,2019

Boy does time fly!  Today we are headed for Newfoundland.  We had reserved the ferry from Blanc Sablon to St. Barbe, on the tip of the northern peninsula.  We dismantled the camp and headed for Blanc Sablon.  Debbie and I had a lively discussion about the actual time that we should be at the ferry dock.  Because we were still on the mainland, we were still on Eastern Standard time but the ferry was operating on Newfoundland time, ½ hour ahead.  We stopped in at the terminal again just to confirm this and buy the ticket.  We had some time before we needed to be back so we drove south of Blanc Sablon along the coast.  

We were now back in Quebec!  This is also a spectacular drive.  This area is quite rocky with huge headlands overlooking the Gulf of St. Lawrence.  We passed through Baie-de-Bradore, and stopped at a lookout to see if we could get a glimpse of puffins at the Perroquets Island.  This island is a nesting sanctuary for puffins however, we are too late in the season.  We are hoping to see them in Newfoundland. We continued on along the coast, and wound our way towards Middle Bay and then turned around to get back to the ferry on time. We enjoyed this short trip very much and it was a great way to end our time on the mainland. 

We joined the other ferry riders in the parking lot and waited for the ferry. The parking attendant told us that the trip last night had been cancelled due to high winds.  The winds were still strong today but the ferry was working and so far our trip was not cancelled. 

The ferry arrived about 20 minutes late but the loading was quite short as the ferry was less than half full for our trip.  The trip across is one hour and 45 minutes and the boat was rocking the whole trip.  The rolling waves were at least 4-5 feet high, but we chugged across safely. 

Our destination is to go to Pistolet Bay Provincial Park however, because we arrived late in St. Barbe we decided to stay at a commercial campground in St. Barbe and head north tomorrow.  It is not recommended to drive at night in Newfoundland because of the high incidents of crashing into moose. The campground manager confirmed this rumor. We had eaten a greasy meal onboard the ferry late in the afternoon so we passed on supper.  Debbie did some laundry and I blogged until it was time for bed.  We are now in Newfoundland and plan to be here for about a month.