NEWFOUNDLAND – NOTRE DAME PROVINCIAL PARK TO BUCHANS JUNCTION.
Day 93 – It was 67 degrees and humid this morning when we got up. We checked out the weather situation for the next ten days & decided NOT to leave tomorrow for Leading Tickles & the town park in Point Leamington. If we went south instead of north, the temperatures would be about 20 degrees cooler.
The drive south to Harbour Breton is a long distance with almost no towns along the way. We had not scouted the two campgrounds in the area since it was so far to go & then turn around and come back in one day just to look at a campground. We decided to take our chances. We had read that the Harbour Breton area was beautiful & we’re looking forward to visiting this area & staying possibly about a week.
The drive we needed to do today involved running some errands in the “big city” and also scouting out campgrounds to stay at about halfway between Harbour Breton, our next stop, and the Triton peninsula, our stop following Harbour Breton. Because of the distance between the ends of the two peninsulas, we’d need to stop in between, rather than driving straight through. Today we drove to a campground which would fit that bill, if they had open campsites in about a week, and if we liked the area.
We left Notre Dame Provincial Park about the time the noise & activity was beginning to pick up for another busy day there. We drove about an hour and a half west to Buchan’s Junction, a remote area which would be about halfway between Harbour Breton and Triton. It was about noon when we arrived, mid 80’s, cloudy & humid. The park was an independent campground in a heavily forested area by a lake, and it was called Mary March Wilderness Park. The name had sounded intriguing to us after being in a popular campground near the TCH not too far from two fairly large cities.
The owners allowed us to drive through and check it out after assuring us that we should be able to get a good campsite in about a week – they were not completely booked. The narrow gravel campground road wound through the trees and ended up with sites bordering the lake. They offered everything from no hook-ups to water + electric hook-ups. Most sites were either too close together or not big enough for us (RV, tow car, & screened tent), and three that were big enough were located by playgrounds or the busy boat launch/swimming area. However, we did find a couple worth investigating for the future. Our favorite was currently available; we left our name & phone number and promised to call them as soon as we knew the exact dates we’d be there. No need to scout further, we headed east, back towards the campground.
We stopped at Grand Falls-Windsor for our errands. First up was lunch at Subway, then grocery shopping, and lastly a trip to the bank to get more Canadian cash. By the time we got back to the RV & put up the groceries, it was almost 4 p.m. We went out to the screened tent, read our books, and listened to the families at the swimming hole. It was 85 degrees & humid, but the sun wasn’t out & there was a breeze, so it didn’t feel quite as bad as yesterday. Tomorrow we leave for Harbour Breton and cooler temperatures.
Notre Dame Provincial Park: Just off the Trans-Canada Highway, 1 km east of Notre Dame Junction at exit 23, located about halfway between Gander & Grand Falls-Windsor; (709) 535-2379 or (709) 637-2040; e-mail nlcamping@gov.nl.ca; website www.nlcamping.ca. Open mid-May to mid-September. There are 100 campsites located in the woods by a lake just off the Trans-Canada Highway. This is a very popular campground & during the peak of the summer season, the noise & activity levels were high. The campsites were nice for the most part & were separated by trees. Off-season, it would really be excellent EXCEPT for the traffic noise from the TCH. Otherwise, it’s a lovely park. Only about a fifth of the campsites had hook-ups & those sites were fully booked, also less private & closer together than the sites without hook-ups. We had site #7, a really good campsite except for looking out over the swimming area. We would stay here again off-season for sure.