NEWFOUNDLAND – ST. ANTHONY TO RODDICKTON/BIDE ARM.
Day 34 – It was 37 degrees at 7 a.m. and very cloudy. We departed Triple Falls RV Park at 11:15 a.m. after dumping tanks, and it was 36 degrees with a little wind. We drove west on Route 430, then southwest on Route 432, and then south on Route 433. This was the same route we took day before yesterday when we explored two campgrounds south of St. Anthony. The route goes inland away from the coves and icebergs, but we’ll be curving back around towards new coves & hopefully some more icebergs.
78 miles, (2:05), 39516-39594
The drive took us back into more forested areas with higher mountains again. It remained very cloudy & sprinkled a little bit of rain. This area is more remote than the north and east where we’ve been the past several days. Remember, here it’s known as “The Moose Capital of the World”? And sure enough, we did see a big, beautiful male Moose. AND seven more Caribou.
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
At Roddickton, we stopped for gas in the RV. We also needed propane but we were told that the guy who dispenses the propane wouldn’t be in until after 3 p.m. We passed by the building for the Royal Canadian Mounted Police – do they ride Moose or Caribou? LOL. We stopped at the Town Building located at the Green Moose Interpretive Center and registered for four nights at the Town Park, Armistice RV Park. We hadn’t had lunch yet, so enough of these errands! We arrived at the campground at 1:20 p.m.; it was 45 degrees & cloudy. We chose site #2. We were the only people camping there.
After devouring our lunch, we unpacked & set up camp. The girls immediately went to their blankets on the dashboard. But they did all get up and go to the screened door when Rob went out to prepare for us to go into Bide Arm to get water. All four of them meowing, each has a different voice; heaven forbid he leave their little world for 5 minutes. So cute, lined up in a row calling for him. And when he comes back to the door to re-enter the RV, you can tell it just tickles him, no end.
This campground is quite small and lacks the amenities normally provided at the independent campgrounds, somewhat like County Parks or Town Parks we’ve stayed at in the U.S. (this one is run by the town). There are only 11 campsites. Eight of them offer electrical hook-ups but it’s only 20 AMP. No water, no sewer. Water and a dump station are located in Bide Arm, less than 10 minutes from the campground. We’d checked out the route to and from the water access at our scouting trip. We decided to park the RV at the campground and get our water with the car, using a 40-gallon flexible water container (it looks like a miniature water bed), which we put on the top of the Honda to transport it to & from the water to the RV. We headed out to Bide Arm for water, and stopped afterwards to get propane at the gas station. This was turning out to be an all-day journey from one campground to another, but now we have all we need for at least a couple of days.
Roddickton-Bide Arm, NF
We returned to the RV, transferred the water to the RV, and finally sat down to relax. And we got excited when we saw sunlight for a change, shining down briefly at the campground. We toasted our beer & wine to the rare beams of sunlight. Tomorrow we hope, weather permitting, to go exploring the various roads that lead down to the little fishing villages and coves.