Newfoundland - found many times before, but new to me and Drew

We got to bed on the Marine Atlantic Ferry MV Blue Puttees at 10.30 p.m. and the next I knew there was an announcement at 4.30 a.m. (5.00 Newfoundland time) that we were an hour away from port. I don't know when I slept for 6 hours without at least a toilet break - clearly the ferry had little motion as it crossed the Cabot Strait, as the last time I tried sleeping in a boat (on a cruise) I was only managing 2 hours a night!! This was a lovely night's sleep. After showering, we dressed and packed and were down at the car by 6.00 (NFT) and disembarking at 6.20.

The first impression of Newfoundland is of large mountains and lots of water, lakes on the right and sea on the left beautiful. Our old friend the TransCanada highway, here also known as Highway 1, is our route again, and the roads are of a similar standard as elsewhere during the trip. Single carriageway with passing lanes on hills and occasional dual carriageway (divided highway) around larger towns.
We wondered whether we should stop for breakfast straight off the ferry or travel for a while, we opted for the latter. A while became quite a while as we didn't see many stopping places, but an hour and a half on we came to Steele Mountain Petrol and Restaurant Stop, a small family run location. I had the 'hearty breakfast' - bacon, ham and sausage with three eggs (over hard), toast, a large orange juice and a coffee. Drew had bacon, two eggs (sunny side up), toast and coffee. We also bought some coke/diet coke for the journey, this was in 710 ml bottles, an unusual size, but perhaps reminiscent of the long road without many junctions that is the highway 1 in Newfoundland.


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The route we took today was designed for us to take in this westerly part of Newfoundland.
At Deer Lake we turned left to head on to the Viking Way (430) which heads up through Gros Morn National Park and on to other national monuments. We decided that as it was still only 10.30 we would head through the park, we are staying there for two nights, and head up North to the national historic site of Port Au Choix. We were so glad we did, the road (430) hugs the coast and provides some spectacular views, with the weather now fine and the temperature getting into the upper 60's it was a pleasant drive. Perhaps most spectacular was the miles and miles of sea you could see. Not easy to photograph as the absolute openness and emptiness of it isn't caught in a flat picture, but astoundingly good anyway. Still, as you will see if you look at Flickr we did try to take lots of sea photos. We spotted some Moose along the road, there a dire warnings about them on the roads (there were 20 humans killed in Moose/car accidents in Gros Morne this year to date). But these ones were far enough away not to notice.

Hot Pork Chop with chips and gravy

We stopped for lunch along the road at Bennetts Lodge (don't think they are any relation Llinos!!). This was like a blast from the past for me. I opted for the Hot Pork Chop Sandwich with Mashed Potatoes and Gravy. Apparently they were out of mashed potatoes (??) so I opted to have chips as instead. Well the chips came with the gravy on. I must admit I'd not had chips with gravy since my childhood, back then as a special treat we would be taken to Asteys Cafe in Swansea (was it Union Street or Dilwyn Street - Janet perhaps you could ask Dad) and have Pie with Chips and gravy. So I was sitting in Newfoundland reliving my childhood. Drew had a hot dog and chips.

We arrived at Port Au Choix and visited the site of the graveyard of people who had buried their dead on the island (as it was then) 4,000 years ago.
We then visited the Historical Site Visitors Centre which provided an interpretation of the lives and times of the various people who had lived in the region. The interpretation was done by images, artefacts found at the sites around the area and a 15 minute video. I named today's post, found many times before, because the centre tells the story of people coming to Newfoundland and finding it anew through thousands and thousands of years. The first coming from Labrador across to Newfoundland in at least four waves over millennium. First the Maritime Archaic Indians, among the first human group to cross the Siberian/Alaskan land bridge, then the Groswater Palaeoeskimos coming down from the Arctic and the Dorset Palaeoeskimos coming the same route, these were followed by the 'recent Indians' who subsequently became known as the Beothuks and lived here until becoming extinct in 1829. Of course the next set of newcomers/newfinders were the Vikings in the 10th Century (985) and then the Basques in the 1600s and 1700s (incidentally the town name Port Au Choix is derived frrom the BAsque - Portuchoa) and the English, Scots and Irish in the 300 years that followed. All of this history is compacted into a few small miles in Port Au Choix, how lovely to be able to walk the land where people have been living for longer than they have in my homeland.

Neddies Harbour

We returned from Port au Choix to Gros Morne park and to our hotel, Neddies Harbour at Norris Point arriving at 6.00 p.m. A really enjoyable, interesting and educative day.