To the west and South of NFLD

Writing off line, trying to remember where I left off, there is little to no connectivity in Grand Codroy Tent and RV Park. That is the only problem with this otherwise delightful location.

Backing up a bit. We have driven the length of the Western Peninsula of Newfoundland from L’Anse aux Meadow in the north to Codroy Valley in two days. That is only 420 miles, but they are incredible miles with varied terrain and equally varied quality of road. We stopped overnight in Gros Morne at a KOA!! with the tightest site I have ever stuck the coach in. Once we opened the slides I could not walk around the coach to access any of my bays. Also, this is the first time I remember getting a site with water and no electric AND with very limited generator hours. Fortunately there was enough sky to light our solar array to keep the batteries topped up. We helped the batteries by going into Rocky Harbor for dinner and then to a Kitchen Party in the Pub. Lots of good fun until we decided to challenge the moose and get some sleep for another day of driving.

Before dinner we drove out to Norris Point and back to Lobster Cove. We just cannot get enough of roads that come to an end at the water. In Newfoundland that seems to be just about every road we get on. We have decided not to turn back, no matter how bad the road, until we get to the end. Fortunately the Jeep is the perfect vehicle for this kind of exploration. We try to keep the coach on main roads, but even those can get pretty rough and slowing to 20 mph on a highway is not uncommon to avoid opening every cabinet and dropping the clothes in the closet on the floor, again.

On our way south we noted that there was a zip line at Marble Mountain, about half way through our drive. We pulled in to their huge gravel parking lot after a few challenges finding the place. I must note here that signage is not something Newfoundlanders do well. Actually that is an understatement. As bad as the roads are, the signage could easily lead you to one of those roads that end at water. For example, the sign to Marble Zip Line pointed to the left. Naturally I turned left. I finally figured out that it meant GO STRAIGHT on the road to the left of the sign! Oh well we have always eventually ended up where we were going. (is that a tautology?) The zip line was a lot of fun, but regulation and liability concerns have taken a lot out of the excitement. There were two lines to connect to and the harness, normally a mountain climbing rig at the waist and around the legs was “enhanced” by a figure 8 upper body harness with an additional carabiner at the breast bone. This forced one into a seated or semi seated position with no way to lay out flat or upside down. For the fearful this is a wonderful setup. Carol and I felt restrained. The views as we soared across the gorge and the valley were worth it all. The 9^th line was long and steep, they estimate top speed at 65 miles per hour! They made no attempt to stop us at the bottom, instead there are springs on the line to brake the descending person. Then they roll a stage into place to climb down from the line. I must note that while getting dressed I unconsciously chose my New Zealand ZipTrek T shirt. This caused some conversation with the staff. We will get on yet another zip line in the future I am sure.

I hope I can insert a picture or two of Carol on the line. They do not seem to have uploaded yet

Today we will tour by Jeep down to the Port aux Basque area and tomorrow we will take a day tour of the Codroy Valley where we are staying. Then Thursday we will get up early to be in line for the Ferry before 9:15 AM.

Another day without a connection in the coach :( We indeed drove all the way to Rose Blanche, the very end of the road. It was a two lighthouse day because we also stopped to see Cape Ray as well. I guess I really shouldn’t be calling these lighthouses any more the Canadian Coast Guard has changed the label to Lightstation, oh well to me they are still lighthouses. The latter is located at the point closest to Nova Scotia, the southwestern extremity of Newfoundland. Here we found the cable end for the first underwater telegraph cable from Cape Ray to Baddeck NS. Also Marconi made one of his earliest long range wireless experiments from this station, before the telegraph company brought suit to stop him from setting up a commercial establishment. We got tangled up in Port aux Basque as our Garmin does not have the latest update and the roads have been reworked “recently”. It is really easy to get into the line for the ferry, the lanes are clear and even the signs are very good. NOT getting on the ferry is more difficult, especially of you want to get past Port aux Basque. TCH (that’s Trans Canadian Highway) 1 ends – or rather begins in Newfoundland – at the ferry. It ends in St Johns. Now we need to follow across to see the western terminus on Vancouver island. That is for another day.

Tomorrow we will tour the Codroy Valley following the very fine directions from the campground owner in her own publication. Carol will also take the opportunity to get her hair done, still doesn’t quite trust me with the clipper. Don;t know why, she does mine just fine. By the time you read this we will have rereunioned with the Perlmans Nova Scotia and be getting ready for the next legs Quebec City, Montreal, Ottawa, Toronto and Hamilton.  

More: We had an uneventful ferry ride back to Nova Scotia and settled back in to Arm of Gold for a couple of days. Turned into three nights but that is another story.