NEWFOUNDLAND – ROBERT’S ARM TO LA SCIE.
Day 107 – We weren’t the only ones traveling today; people were moving out earlier than us this morning. That’s weekends for you, party hard on Friday & Saturday, leave on Sunday to prepare for another week. Retirement is so good!
104 miles, (2:05), 41645-41749
We were up at 7:45 a.m. It was 64 degrees, humid out & hazy sunshine. We are headed to La Scie, on the Ocean & 10 to 20 degrees cooler most of the time. Lakes are great, but Oceans are better in our opinion. We departed Robert’s Arm at 10:50 a.m. after dumping tanks. It was 69 degrees & sunny. Part of our drive was on rough roads & Gracie read us the riot act. We kept shouting “Sorry, Gracie”, but it didn’t help. When we reached the Trans-Canada Highway, the road smoothed to a major highway & it got quiet in the bedroom again.
After awhile on the TCH we turned north on Route 410. It was a long drive on very rough road and Gracie wasn’t the only one that wasn’t happy. Since we were inland we quickly reached our day’s high of 77 degrees; that was around noon. We then turned northeast on Route 414. The road was somewhat better for the final 53 km. We encountered very little traffic, this is a fairly isolated area, but about halfway along the 414 we heard a very loud noise just above us. We were buzzed by an air tanker (aerial fire-fighting plane). It let loose a ton of water over the area of heavy forests near the road. We’re like, what the $#*@ was that?! Then shortly thereafter, we came upon forest service vehicles with flashing lights on both sides of the narrow road. Rob asked what was going on, and should we be concerned……The ranger said no concern, just a little forest fire. And we drove on. We later found out from the campground host that there had been a lightning strike & it had caused a fire. Funny how things can make you go hmmm…… but this made us stop and think – there are so many of these tiny communities on this island where there is only the one small road in & out. What if the woods around the road catch on fire & it spirals out of control? How do people get out if their one point of egress is blocked due to a fire? Does a big boat come and evacuate them from the ocean side of the town? These roads can be many, many miles long. How would they get out? These are things we find ourselves thinking about instead of Trump, Trump, Trump 24/7.
That’s an understatement! NF-410 heading toward La Scie, NF
NF-414 heading toward La Scie, NF
We arrived at our destination at 12:55 p.m. We were driving up & down the hills and suddenly we were headed sharply downhill to an incredible view of a small town on the Ocean, La Scie. In French, La Scie means “The Saw”, which French settlers called this place because coming in from the Ocean, the hills on either side of the Bay looked liked the blades of a saw. Our campground was at the end of the road on the top of a cliff overlooking the Bay and the Ocean and the town. We’d previously made reservations for 8 nights at Island Cove Park, site #7. Outstanding view. It was 75 degrees, sunny with some clouds, and some wind gusts. We hoped we would have a signal so we could post.
Island Cove Park was a small town park in beautiful La Scie. We had our lunch, then set up camp and the screened tent. We had a panoramic view, one of the two best views in the Park. On one side of us, there was no one camping; on the other side we had a very quiet couple. Further down was a bit rowdy bunch but we figured we’d out-stay them, LOL. We spent wonderful time in the tent with our books and our Vodka/Partridgeberry drinks. Then the sky got darker & darker and the cellphone went off about a big thunderstorm warning. Yes, it appears we do have a signal. It cooled off dramatically, the wind gusts increased, and when the rain started, we went inside. The group down the way at the campground were having a family reunion (noisy), but no complaints here. Later there was a beautiful sunset.
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