Newfoundland!

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Up early for a pleasant breakfast at the Harbourfront B&B. Another guest from Toronto had just arrived from Newfoundland and took the time to write down a list of suggestions for us. We drove onto the ferry at 9:45 AM and then found our seats. We paid extra to get into the nicer reserved section for the six hour cruise from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. To get into this section with the cushy seats you need a key card. We entered and discovered there were only two other couples in the entire area, one from Colorado Springs and the other from Hamilton, which is near Toronto. We six had our own entertainer, a great singer/guitar player. We spent the entire trip visiting and dining with the Toronto couple, exchanged emails and hope to meet up with them again tomorrow night. They are a fun couple that own a heating and cooling business.

Our ferry, Blue Puttees, is a nice boat. It's new, clean and the crew is funny and friendly. The ride was gentle and smooth and went very quickly, but we saw only one whale and very few birds.

We arrived in Port aux Basques at 6 PM. We are now in the Newfoundland Daylight Saving Time Zone, an hour and 1/2 later than Atlantic Time. So if it's 11 PM here in Newfoundland, it must be 6:30 PM in Arizona.

We had lovely weather for the trip over, but once we were on the road in NFLD it started raining and it was tough driving. It was dark, wet, and everyone warned us to be on the lookout for moose on the road. We decided to stop driving at Corner Brook and we are in a small but nice motel called River's End. When we called to make the reservation the lady told us nobody would be at the motel when we got there but she'd leave the door of Room 2 unlocked for us. We were the only ones here for a while then two more cars from the ferry showed up. Can't wait to wake up in the morning and see what it looks like here, we're a couple of miles out of town. We're heading into Gros Morne National Park tomorrow. Forecast is for cool but sunny weather. Hope that one is correct.

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Photos

North Sydney
Ferry plaque

North Sydney
"Homey" place, The Harbourfront B&B

Ferry Loading
North Sydney, Nova Scotia

Blue Puttees Ferry
It's a pretty boat.

Blue Puttees Ferry
So few people on board, we got a lot of attention.

North Sydney, NS
Took this from ferry, the green house is the B&B we stayed at last night.

Blue Puttees Ferry
Only six people in here.

Blue Puttees Ferry
Joe and new Hamilton, Canada friend, Brian

Blue Puttees Ferry
Pretty comfy sunny spot right up front. Actually spent very little time here, we were running around the boat so much with new friends.

Comments

[Connie]

Thanks for the map; easy to see where you started and ended. Love the ferry- I've been on several, but none as nice as that. Looking forward to seeing more pictures...

[judy mosset]

half hour later in Newfoundland!!
We listen to CBC all the time, whenever they announce some program and give the time, it always ends with "half hour later in Newfoundland"! I always chuckle at that. Enjoy "half hour later in Newfoundland"!

[Lois Settles]

Looking forward to seeing tomorrrow's pictures.
Ferry looks exceptionally nice. We have been on some that looked like they were on their last leg. We always enjoyed the B and B because of the folks we met...both owners and others staying there. When we were in Christs Church, New Zealand, we shared one with a group of guys waiting for the weather to change so they could go to Antarctica. They were to be there six months. Plumbers and electricians. Did that every year. Very interesting guys. All from the US.

[Chris Donavan]

Would you suggest hotel reservations?
Thank you for the great information and photos. My 84 year old Aunt has asked me to plan and accompany her on a 2 week trip to Newfoundland, Sept. 3-14. We are flying in and out of St. John but hoping to just drive and find hotels/inns as we go. Do you recommend this during the first two weeks? She is quite adventurous but we don't want to sleep in the car...

[J J]

Hotels
We stayed in a lovely B & B in St. John's but didn't make the reservation until a day before we got there. I really doubt that you will have trouble "winging it" in St. John's. Now, traveling from Gros Morne NP to St. John's was a different story. There are very few places to stay along the way and we ended up staying in a less than desirable motel out in the middle of nowhere.