NEWFOUNDLAND – ST. BRIDE’S TO TORS COVE.
Day 49 – Rob was up at 6:30 a.m. If we leave the window shades open at night when we go to bed, the girls get us up earlier because it gets light here so early this time of year. They’ll let us sleep a good hour more if we close the shades – that’s their tummy’s speaking. It was sunny out & 44 degrees. I got up a little before 7 a.m., anxious to get on the road.
104 miles, (2:35), 40220-40324
After packing up & dumping tanks, we departed Bird Island Resort at 9:55 a.m. It had become cloudy and it was 46 degrees. We drove south then east on Route 100, passing familiar places such as Cape St. Mary’s Ecological Reserve, Point Lance, and Branch, all experiences we hated to leave behind. Continuing northeast on Route 92, we were familiar with this area because we did this trip several days ago to scope out the condition of the roads. The roads weren’t great, but they were much better at this point than Route 100 when we were coming south to St. Bride’s. Eventually we turned east on Route 91 and entered territory that was new to us. The roads got worse, lots of deep potholes, and the girls were unhappy. However, the views of the Avalon Peninsula, and the lovely forests and lakes helped to make the journey better, for us at least.
What had been forests almost solely of Spruce trees, became an area of dense Hackmatack trees (aka Tamarak trees). Very pretty. The water in the lakes was a deep blue, and when the sun did peek out from behind the clouds, it was beautiful. Rolling hills and deep green valleys; there weren’t many towns along the way at this point. I wondered who owns all this land. We turned onto Route 90 north and the road improved a little. We passed by a couple of small resort towns with golf courses and camps in the woods. Here the homes got fairly new & fancy and we’re assuming it’s a weekend/summer cottage area for the St. John’s folks who want to spend some down time in the woods or on a golf course.
We ended up back on the Trans-Canada Highway briefly and the bumpy road improved. Then we turned onto Route 13 east, and we were again back on a fairly rough road. The terrain changed once again. The soil became sandier again; the hills barren and the shrubbery was tundra-like. We finally got off that bumpy road when it ended at Route 10 and we turned south, driving by the Atlantic Ocean. The hills became tree’d green mountains that went clear down to the Ocean; small town roads began to wind around the hills as people built homes that offered a sea view on the terraced mountains. We assumed some of these people commuted to St. John’s for work. We were passing many signs for Boat Tours for whale watching, puffin watching, and iceberg watching out of towns like Bay Bulls & Witless Bay. And we saw a fairly large Iceberg floating in a pretty cove. This peninsula is called the “Irish Loop” and it is the eastern-most peninsula in Newfoundland, running along the eastern side by the Atlantic Ocean. Even though it’s more populated here than in other areas in NF, there are still some areas here that are quite remote, We’ll be driving to see those areas, too, in the next several days. (Back on the Northern Peninsula, I had noticed that people didn’t have mail boxes at their houses, and I mentioned that everyone’s mail was delivered to boxes located by the road in the middle of each town. I finally got a picture of one of these post office box installations.)
Click on any picture below to see a slideshow.
It wasn’t long before we reached La Manche Provincial Park, our camping destination. We arrived at 12:30 p.m.; it was 53 degrees and partly cloudy. The Ranger let us drive through and pick a campsite: 18 out of 82 sites were available, the rest were booked, and all electrical hook-up sites were filled. We found a wonderful, waterfront site and grabbed it. It was in a campground loop that offered no hook-ups, the shower facilities were a long distance from it, and the sites near the playground and activities for children were also a distance away, darnit. Site #7 was perfect for us, just a few steps from the water with our own perfect kayak launch site, we were right on La Manche Pond with trees blocking us on both sides of the site and a great water view. No complaints here.
We unpacked, had lunch, and settled in. Rob put up the screened tent. There were a fair amount of biting black flies. So glad we have the tent! The high today was 54 degrees. Tonight it’s supposed to get down to the upper 30’s. Since we have no electricity, we’ll be relying on propane gas for heat. The water is not drinkable, so after it goes through the reverse osmosis filtering process in the RV, we’ll need to boil it for at least 5 minutes. For power, we’ll be relying on batteries and the generator. We have no internet and no phone connection. It feels like we’re Boondocking, except the campsite was not free. Almost though, it only cost $13.10 per night after the senior discount Canadian currency (a little less than $10 per night, U.S. dollars). Not too shabby.