Sept 14, 2019
It is Saturday morning in Change Island and it is quiet! We woke up and the sun is bright but there is a brisk wind blowing. We thought we could go and have a quick breakfast at a restaurant and do some sightseeing before we headed out. Kayaking is out of the question. We drove around the quiet little village, no one was stirring and both of the restaurants were closed. We both realized that in this type of village, the fishermen and the kids are sleeping in after a hard week on the water and at school. I couldn’t blame them for that! We went back to the trailer and made our own breakfast and enjoyed the early morning sun.
We hitched up and headed for the ferry. There isn’t a lot more to do on this small island, but we had wanted to check out the Newfoundland Ponies and see the village. Throughout our visits on Fogo Island and Change Island, Debbie kept remarking what a great idyllic life this would be. I tried to explain what the winters would be like here. That may have changed her mind….I’m not sure though.
Our destination, after getting off the ferry, is Terra Nova National Park and we followed the shoreline. The 160 kms is a beautiful drive, but the road condition has a lot to be desired! There are huge lumps and humps and potholes, with very little warning signage. Debbie has done a great job in securing things inside the trailer, but every time we open the trailer we find something that has shaken loose.
As we cruised the shoreline, we admired the many tiny villages and communities with their colorful houses. I told Debbie that I am still looking for that young red haired little girl who is running over the rocky shores that they advertise on those Newfoundland tourist TV commercials. We still haven’t found her….!
We stopped along the shore of Deadman’s bay and took photos. At low tide this bay is strewn with large rocks. It is such as surreal landscape We were surprised when we came into the village of Lumsden. The shoreline is about 7 kms of sandy beach and large sand dunes. We stopped on the sandy spit and rested there for a while.
We arrived at Terra Nova Park at 5:30 and checked in. This park will remain open until the Thanksgiving weekend. All of the Provincial Parks are now closing this weekend. The park attendant told us there are about 200 campers in this campground. It can accommodate up to 800 campers. Our campsite backed near the showers. It is also a WIFI hotspot so I finished up the blog posts.
We had to make some new travel decisions today. After this weekend many of the campgrounds are closed and many of the tourist services also close. Our goal is to reach St. John’s by the 16thand meet Maggie and Charlie to celebrate our 47thanniversary. We are also meeting Meg this week! We intend to see as much as we can in this region before we board the Argentia Ferry on the 21st. This ferry service shuts down after the 21stwhich means that in order to get off of the island at a later date, we would have to travel back 900 kms to take the ferry out of Port au Basque.
After barbequing a chicken breast, we watched a movie and went to bed.
Quilting in a Kayak 