NEWFOUNDLAND – PORT AUX BASQUES & VICIINITY.
Day 27 – The sun was glaringly bright in the RV this morning, almost could have gotten a sunburn. Rob was up at 7:20, 37 degrees, sun & wind. He took a hike and got some great shots with the camera. It had clouded up some by 9:30, still windy, we don’t know what the weather is going to do without the phone/internet.
Click any picture below to see a slideshow.
We left around 10:30 to better check out the city of Port aux Basques & maybe take a few other roads not too far from the campground that we hadn’t seen yet. It was partly cloudy and warmer than it has been. We also wanted to find a phone signal so that we could check the weather & make sure we could leave tomorrow. The forecast was for heavier wind gusts this afternoon, then the wind finally decreasing during the night. YAAAA!
We first drove on a road near the campground called, Edna’s Road. There were maybe four houses on the road and they had lovely views of the mountains and of the bay. There was a For Sale sign on one of the houses, and I was curious what it was going for, but we had no internet connection. (Sometimes the internet does come in handy!) So far there haven’t been many homes for sale that we’ve seen. Turning around at the end of the road, we continued east on the TCH. The next road we took was the road to Grand Bay. Beautiful views! Indeed it’s a grand bay! Arriving soon thereafter at Port aux Basques, we drove up and down many of the coastal streets. A very nice community, almost San Francisco-like in the way the streets went up and down hills with homes perched everywhere, we enjoyed the drive thru. We came across the beautiful St. James Anglican church which we’d taken a picture of from Grand Bay. We’d seen it from a distance when arriving on the ferry Monday. Speaking of the ferry, it was getting ready to depart from the terminal for its trip back to Nova Scotia.
Grand Bay, Port aux Basques, NF
Port aux Basques, NF and St. James Anglican Church
Port aux Basques, NF-North Sydney, NS ferry getting ready to depart
We drove out of Port aux Basques and soon got on the road that went to Margaree & Fox Roost. We passed by another set of mail boxes outside for people that lived in Margaree. And then again a set of mail boxes for Fox Roost later. I think when it’s a smaller village, everyone just comes and picks up their mail in town. It appears that nothing is delivered to the houses; there are no mail boxes out front. Margaree & Fox Roost were charming, small fishing towns, and like all the others we’ve seen, they are located in a beautiful setting. We were hungry so we turned around and headed back to the RV for lunch.
After lunch we went back out and drove west a short distance to Cape Ray. On the map we’d seen a small road leading from Cape Ray to a place called Red Rocks. Intrigued, we thought we’d try to find the road (we didn’t see it when we were at Cape Ray yesterday). We did find the dirt road but shortly after turning off on the road, we determined it was impassable with big pot holes and mud puddles. Oh well, another time maybe. When we were getting gas in the Honda yesterday, the woman at the gas station told Rob about a dirt road you could take near Cape Ray that would take you all the way up to the top of the Table Mountains for an incredible view. We found that road and started up it, but it definitely wasn’t a road we wanted to continue on with big rocks and big pot holes.
We tried to drive this dirt road to the top of the Table Mountains, but kept scraping against rocks. Dang! Cape Ray, NF
The wind was certainly picking up again and back at the RV, it was blowing trash cans & recycle containers down the campground roads. We’ll be glad when it finally dies down, although today was a nice day with decent sunlight and a high of 53 degrees. Tomorrow we’ll begin our trek north towards the top of the Northern Peninsula, Gros Morne National Park, the ferry to Labrador, and icebergs. Since we ended up spending more time at this one location than we’d planned, we’ll be spending more time driving the next couple of days than we like to do.
J. T. Cheeseman Provincial Park: Off Route 1 (Trans-Canada Highway east), 10 km west of Port aux Basques; (709) 695-7222 or 1-877-214-2267; e-mail nlcamping@gov.nl.ca; website www.nlcamping.ca. A fantastic location for those arriving or departing from the Channel-Port aux Basques Newfoundland/Nova Scotia ferry terminal. There are 92 campsites; most of them have no hook-ups. Around 15 sites offer electrical hook-ups. There is a dump station and water at the campground. There are great hiking trails and a wonderful beach. Many of the campsites have lots of room around them, and some are private with trees between the sites, while others are right on the River. The scenery is gorgeous. We had site #73 and it was great. The cost was $20 for no hook-ups & $30.90 with electricity, per night, plus 15% tax, Canadian currency. This was our first Canadian Provincial Park camping. We’d definitely come back here again.