Day 8 of 30 on our 2017 Canadian Maritime Caravan with Yankee RV Tour

On Monday June 12, 2017, we left the Arm of Gold Campground in Little Bras d’Or and traveled to the eastern terminus of Highway 105, the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal in North Sydney. Where we planned to travel on and continue to Newfoundland.

On our way to the Ferry, we passed a restaurant … Lick-a-Chick and an ice cream stand … Lick-a-Treat … I’ll let you ponder that for a while!

Once at the Ferry Terminal, our coaches were measured again. When we were measured in the parking lot, we were 33 feet from bumper to hitch. The Ferry Terminal personnel, a lady in a pink hard hat, measured us at 30 feet …. Woot, woot … a refund! We parked in the marshalling line we were directed to and now, we waited. The purpose of getting there early is to ensure that we are manifested early enough to get all 20 coaches on the same ferry. Ambulances and a few other vehicle types have priority, no matter what time they arrive. Rod told us, the caravan was only separated once in 30 years of leading this caravan.

The new terminal building is open and it is modern and efficient. It offers amenities such as a complimentary Wi-Fi, ticket and security offices, public washrooms, lounge waiting area with satellite TV, gift shop, children’s play area, information center, baggage area and atrium. The second level is home to the commercial drivers’ lounge and quiet area, staff lounge, upper atrium with skylight, administration and staff offices as well as public access to the viewing terrace. This $20 million facility is the final project of the Government of Canada's 5-year funding commitment to the port. Marine Atlantic works with their downtown business partners to offer a wide selection of food services steps away from the terminal, we chose Tim Hortons. Since numerous hot and cold meal options are available in the downtown area, Marine Atlantic only provide vending machines in the terminal. When we were alerted of the pending loading, we all returned to our vehicles. But, not before we could take a group picture and make some new friends!

When it was our turn, we drove onto our ferry, the MV Highlanders. The ship was named the MV Highlanders, in recognition of the distinguished military service of the Highland regiments throughout Nova Scotia - now made up of the Nova Scotia Highlanders and the Cape Breton Highlanders. The men and women of these two units continue to provide humanitarian assistance and peacekeeping services that are recognized throughout the world.

A little bit about this ship. The MV Highlanders joined the fleet just six years ago, along with her sister ship, the MV Blue Puttees, docked next to our ship. At almost 650 feet in length, this vessel features comfortable seating areas, 96 spacious cabins (featuring 2 and 4 berths), approximately 500 reclining seats, a gift shop, personal headphone jacks, USB charging stations, deck access with panoramic views   and three dining options – the Riva Café, the MET Restaurant and the Barista Café. This vessel helped increase their capacity by 25 percent with 2,840 lane meters on the vehicle decks. These two ships were designed to make our journey a relaxing one.  These ships are a modern fleet, traveling a historic route and offering passengers a vital connection between Newfoundland and Nova Scotia.

Our journey on the ferry is what is considered Route 1. It ferries passengers and vehicles between North Sydney, Nova Scotia and Port aux Basques, Newfoundland. It is an approximately 7 hour ride across the Cabot Straight. Ferries have been operating across the strait since 1898 and a submarine telegraph cable was laid in 1856 as part of the transatlantic telegraph cable project.

The Cabot Strait is approximately 70 miles wide between Cape Ray, Newfoundland and Cape North, Cape Breton Island. It is the widest of the three outlets for the Gulf of Saint Lawrence into the Atlantic Ocean, the others being the Strait of Belle Isle and Strait of Canso. It is named for the Genoese explorer Giovanni Caboto. A strategically important waterway throughout Canadian and Newfoundland history, the strait is also an important international shipping route, being the primary waterway linking the Atlantic with inland ports on the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Seaway. An infamous location in the strait for shipwrecks, was St Paul's Island. It came to be known as the "Graveyard of the Gulf" of St Lawrence. In October 1942, German U-boat U-69 torpedoed and sank the unlit Newfoundland ferry SS Caribou, killing 137 people. Then on 25 November 1944 HMCS Shawinigan was torpedoed and sunk with all hands on board (91 crew) by U-1228.

On the extended ride, we played games, ventured out onto the deck for pictures or fresh air, watched TV, read, worked on your Blog, some ate at the café or restaurant. We were given notice to return to our vehicles from the comfortable reclining chairs we had in the TV lounge. Once in our vehicles, we exited the Ferry in the same orderly fashion we boarded it. We followed the signs for TCH #1. We all rallied at a planned rest stop on a side road. It was a chance for everyone to turn back on their propane, pee their dogs and regroup for the push north, to the campground. It is about 130 miles, so it will be dusk, when we arrive!

Newfoundland has a long and colorful history, some might say there isn't a rock, cliff, tree or cave around here without a legend attached to it.

The complex human history of this province can be traced to about 9,000 years ago when the first groups of a marine-oriented people moved into southeastern Labrador. Those first groups developed into what is now called the Maritime Archaic Indians. They buried a child in what is the oldest known funeral mound in North America. Their descendants moved into Newfoundland. A separate and distinct culture arrived in northern Labrador, later. These arctic-adapted people are now called Paleoeskimos and spread to the Island of Newfoundland. Some 3,600 years ago a new culture showed up in the Labrador archaeological record. They are known as the Intermediate Indians and moved into central Labrador, and shortly after that the Maritime Archaic Indians vanished. Then, about 2,000 years ago, the ancestors of the Innu and the Beothuk are recognized in Labrador. These people were more land-adapted than some of the earlier groups. The most recent aboriginal group to arrive was the Thule people who migrated across the northern part of the continent from the Bering Strait to Labrador, their descendants of the Thule are today’s Inuit.

The oldest known European contact was made here a few thousand years later when Leif Eriksson and his crew of Vikings landed on the Northern Peninsula in 1000 AD. Although they didn't settle permanently, they left their mark on this part of the world at L'Anse aux Meadows – now a National Historic Site and UNESCO World Heritage Site. Fast forward hundreds of years to 1497, when Italian-born Giovanni Caboto – more commonly known as John Cabot – dropped anchor in Bonavista and "discovered" the New found land. During the 16th and 17th centuries, fishermen from France, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and eventually England arrived to feed on the fish of Newfoundland and Labrador. Most of the early permanent settlers came from southwest England and southeast Ireland, with the majority emigrating between 1750 and 1850 prior to the Great Irish Famine. Although Newfoundland was England's oldest overseas colony, France played an important part in helping shape their history. French explorer, Jacques Cartier, arrived in 1534 and eventually the French established a colony in Placentia in 1662. By then, tiny settlements popped up around Placentia Bay, the islands of St. Pierre and Miquelon – still a colony of France today. During the 17th century, Newfoundland was more French than it was English. Oddly enough, by the middle of the next century, French settlement disappeared, mostly due to military success elsewhere.

Before 1949, Newfoundland had a history as a British colony, Britain’s "Grand Cod Fishery of the Universe", eventually becoming equal to Canada, Australia, and New Zealand as a full Dominion of the British Empire. Newfoundland and Labrador joined Canada on 31 March 1949 and the next day, the leader of the Confederation campaigns, Joseph R. Smallwood, became the new province’s first Premier. Today, even though they are the youngest province in Canada, they are considered one of the fastest growing in the country with booming oil and gas, mineral exploration, and marine industries. On the cultural side, the eastern edge, St. John's is brimming with musicians, artists, writers, dancers, and craftspeople. However, many of us are drawn to Newfoundland’s western edge for the inspiring natural beauty.

Just ahead north on the Trans-Canada Highway from Port aux Basques. The first thing you will notice are the Twin Hills aka Mae West by the locals. The symmetry is amazing. Oddly enough if you are coming from the north, heading south, you do not see them.

As we started our drive on the west coast of Newfoundland, we traversed alongside of the Long Range Mountains. They form the northernmost section of the Appalachian Mountain chain. The International Appalachian Trail extends through the Long Range Mountains. We found snow on these mountains!

Running along the Gulf of St. Lawrence, we saw the Table Mountains section of this range, a section of the Earth's mantle exposed at the surface. Once paralleled the east coast of North America from Newfoundland to Alabama, and rivaled the present-day Rockies in their beauty. The forces of erosion, however, have taken their toll, and our Appalachians have been worn down to a gently rolling terrain, with only a few upland areas remaining to remind us of their former magnificence. The erosion of the Appalachians has revealed in Newfoundland a superb cross-section of the core of an ancient mountain belt, and made it the Mecca for earth scientists from around the world.

Just about 5 miles up the highway you will enter the area of Wreckhouse. On your right, the east side of the highway, there is a large paved parking lot. This marks the homestead site of Lochie MacDougal referred to as the Human Wind Gauge. For 30 years he would notify the railway in this area of dangerous high winds. His advice, being ignored one time, led to 22 rail cars being completely blown off the rails. Winds as high as 125 miles per hour have been recorded here. Today transport trucks put themselves at great risk if they ignore high wind warnings in this area. Across the highway from the parking lot, you will see the old railroad bed. It is part of a massive walking trail, the T-Railway Provincial Park, which stretches almost 900 km from Port aux Basques to St John's.

As you look to the east, you can watch how the winds play with the clouds as they meet the mountains. Look to the west and you can see the clear blue Gulf of St Lawrence.

 

We entered the Codroy Valley, where those wicked winds continue. It is a glacial valley formed in the Anguille Mountains, a sub-range of the Long Range Mountains which run along Newfoundland's west coast fronting the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The valley runs inland at a perpendicular angle from the coast carrying the Codroy River and its tributaries to the gulf. The area was settled families of French, Irish, Micmac, English, and Scots. The Scots were Highlanders who arrived between the 1840s and 1860s, most of them secondary migrants who had been living on Cape Breton Island. Of the roughly 171 households at Codroy Valley in the 1880s, 38% belonged to people of Scottish descent. The Scottish Gaelic language was once commonly spoken here, with some families continuing to speak Gaelic at home until the 1960s.

   

Every Brook or River has a name here, they all have signs and there are plenty!

9:08pm and the sun us still up!

We passed by Barachois Pond, too late to stop! It is the largest Provincial Park in Western Newfoundland. All 1,000 acres of the park are in the Western Newfoundland Forest ecoregion which is characterized by a balsam fir forest with an underlying of ferns and moss. The Western Newfoundland Forest is distinguished from the rest of the 19 provincial ecoregions by its vegetation and climate. These in turn limit what types of animals one would expect to find in the area.

9:44pm and we still have daylight! The best time to experience wildlife is in the morning or evening. Be quiet and aware. A moose may wander around the roadside or near streams and bogs. Herds of caribou can be found along the top of the Long Range Mountains.

As it is getting darker, we are praying that we don’t see a Moose! We passed by a sign that indicated there was Moose fencing ahead. Not sure why they are going to fence the Moose here!

Situated in the spectacular rolling terrain of Western Newfoundland, the Little Grand Lake Provisional Ecological Reserve protects extensive bogs and barrens, as well as mature boreal forest that is prime habitat for the endangered Newfoundland marten. The reserve's borders were designed to capture specific ecosystems-making it the province's first true ecosystem ecological reserve-and also provide the highest level of protection to the marten habitat at its core. Little Grand Lake Provisional Ecological Reserve is one of three protected areas surrounding Little Grand Lake. The other two are the Little Grand Lake Wildlife Reserve and the Glover Island Public Reserve. These reserves extend the area of Newfoundland marten habitat under protection, and provide buffers against the effects of any human activity that would be harmful to the marten's recovery. What is a Newfoundland Marten? It is one of only 13 native land mammals inhabiting the Island, the Newfoundland marten is in the same family as the weasel, mink, and ferret. Marten thrive in mature, closed-canopy forest, a habitat type that is disappearing from the Island portion of the province. The total Newfoundland marten population in the province is estimated to be around 300 animals. The forests within the Little Grand Lake reserve system are home to the largest remaining core population of Newfoundland marten on the Island.

10:00pm and we still have light on the horizon

10:15pm arrived at Prince Edward RV Park, a Kinsmen endeavor. The Kinsmen Club of Corner Brook have been operating this campground for over 15 years.