WELCOME HOME, GAIL!! We are sure Keely is doing the happy-doggy dance today!
NEWFOUNDLAND – ROAD TO THE SHORE.
Day 77 – We were up by 8 a.m. after lots of crazy antics from the girls. It was 47 degrees & partly cloudy & NOT raining or foggy. We left at 10:25 a.m. for a drive, a new peninsula we’d hadn’t explored before. It was SUNNY and 60 degrees.
We drove the loop from our campground (15 km above Gander) north, then east on Route 330, going through small towns named Gander Bay, Ragged Harbour & Doting Cove; and the larger towns of Carmanville & Musgrave Harbor, all towns we passed through on the “Road to the Shore” loop drive. (Each peninsula and/or area in Newfoundland has its own designated name & drive, as found in the excellent book given out at the Newfoundland & Labrador Visitor’s Centers.) We also took the little side roads off of Route 330, going to the small villages of Main Point, Frederickton, Noggin Cove (charming), Aspen Cove & Ladle Cove (adorable + great scenery & rocky shores).
Click on any picture to see a slideshow.
We stopped at Banting Municipal Park, a little ways beyond Musgrave Harbor, and ate our lunch. This Park had a campground which we drove through – not the right fit for us – and an Interpretive Center where we learned all about Sir Frederick Banting, a principle inventor of Insulin, whose plane crashed February 20, 1941 near Musgrave Harbour. Wreckage of the airplane, along with a small interpretive museum are on display here to memoralize Banting for his work.
Continuing on Route 330 east, then south, we took the side road to pretty Deadman’s Bay & the Provincial Park, with the large boulders and red rocks in the bay of deep blue water. When you see these amazingly large rocks, both on the shore and inland, you really wonder about the glacial carving of so many years ago which left these rocks in some of the strangest places. We drove through Cape Freels (nice but a bit too populated & trendy for us). At this point, driving south, it became more populated & “St. John-ized” as we like to call these areas where small fishing villages once existed, and now McMansions and housing developments have changed the face of the small communities. Traces of the original color & history remain, but next door to such, you find a home that leaves a bad taste in your mouth. Just sayin’…..(we have seen much of this since leaving the St. John’s area; you do see less of this the further you go from the big city.) It makes us sad.
Route 330 became Route 320. As we headed south back towards the Trans-Canada Highway, we passed through the larger towns of Lumsden, New-Wes-Valley, Centreville, and Hare Bay. We took a couple of the smaller off-roads, but decided we’d seen enough and it was getting late – time for the beer & wine. We hooked up with the TCH at Gambo, drove north & west, got back on Route 330 and finished the loop drive at our campground. It was 5:15 & 65 degrees with sunlight, YAAA! A gorgeous day. The high was 70 degrees.