A WARM, SUNNY DAY.
TRAVEL DAY
From: La Manche Provincial Park, near Burnt Cove, NL.
To: The Wilds Resort & RV Park, off of Route 90/Salmonier Line, NL.
Day 87 – We will miss our twanging frogs. This morning we leisurely got ready to travel to a new destination. It was sunny, breezy, and warm out when we got up, 66 degrees. It would’ve been a wonderful day for a whale watching trip out on the water.
We departed the campground at 10:40 a.m., after dumping tanks. We took Route 10 north past Bay Bulls and O’Brien’s – it’s not too late to hop on another boat tour! Nah, the girls are all settled in and we’re on the road. When we get to our new campground, maybe we will drive south to St. Vincent’s and watch for whales from the land!
At Route 13 we headed west on that bumpy road we took to get to La Manche Provincial Park, and once again, the girls were not pleased. It was either the bumpy road or take the alternative route which would have taken us more than 3 hours to travel vs. a one-hour trip. But how do you explain that to a cat?! Next was the TCH-1 for a short distance, then we headed back south on Route 90.
Our destination for 3 nights was a golfing resort called ‘TheWilds’. We’d never stayed here before. The Resort is located in a pretty setting high up in the hills. In addition to being well known for golfing, it’s also a popular wedding venue, there’s a restaurant, a large conference facility, a hotel, cottages, cabins, condos, and a small campground. It seemed like a good place for a shorter stopover between two longer stays. And it was 45 minutes north of St. Vincent’s, known as ‘A Whale’s Playground’, where Humpback Whales come in close to the beach to catch Capelin and Northern Gannets fly overhead & dive straight down to also catch Capelin. We visited St. Vincent’s from a previous campground and the drive was over an hour. We did see Humpback Whales very close to shore at that time.
We arrived at The Wilds Resort at 11:40 a.m. It was 78 degrees (much warmer because we were no longer close to the Ocean), sunny and breezy. We had reservations, we checked in, were given a list with several campsite numbers, and told to just pick a site out of those numbers offered to us. We drove through the campground, which was located on a hill away from the fancy facilities. The campground had seen better days and was obviously an afterthought, compared to the other buildings and services. A deserted portable office building made from a shipping container was parked in several of the campsites. The sites were in a field and the site numbers had long since worn off the poles where they once were located. Rob had to walk the campground to figure out how their numbering system worked. That’s okay; there were only 4 other camper vehicles parked in the campground. He picked a site (#8) away from the playground. All the campsites in the field were overgrown and not obviously divided from the neighboring campsites. We parked in long grass, weeds, and wild flowers. BUT, we did have full hook-ups, including sewer. And we have a decent connection here and can get the blogs out finally.
After setting up camp and filling the tanks with fresh drinking water that did NOT have to be boiled, we had lunch and the girls settled in.
Rob and I drove down to St. Vincent’s to take advantage of the clear, sunny weather. As we approached the beach, we could see dense fog in the distance. Luckily it never fogged in where we were looking for whales, but some of the surrounding headlands were covered with fog shortly after we arrived. The beach at St. Vincent’s was wonderful. It was sunny and the Seabirds were diving in the water for Capelin. The tide was coming in and the waves were crashing on the shore. We looked for whales and saw some in the distance. If we had stuck around for a couple of hours, they probably would’ve made their way closer to shore. We could see them splashing around in the water. You have to be in the right place at the right time. Meanwhile, we enjoyed the drive and the time by the Ocean, watching the waves, the birds, and the dog playing with the waves as they crashed in and went out again. We will go back again tomorrow or Monday!
