VISITING NEWFOUNDLAND
June 2017
The Rendezvous Canada 150 Brigade was over and we had thirteen days until the St. John River Wolastoq Brigade began. Meeting an old friend in Gatineau and visiting the grave sites of David Thompson and Charlotte Small in Montreal were musts. After that, it was head to Newfoundland. The length of our stay was determined by how long it would take us to get to Florenceville-Bristol, NB on June 14.
Reservations were made for the noon ferry on June 7 to Newfoundland and the midnight ferry on June 12th back to North Sidney, NS. We visited with Gilles, an old friend from the Monkey Royal Internet cribbage league, and his wife Marie in Gatineau and then headed to Montreal to visit the grave sites of David Thompson and Charlotte Small in Mount Royal cemetery. It was a special moment. We have read much about them, canoed nearly 100 days in two north canoe brigades commemorating their travels and explorations and were married along the Blayberry River (called Portage Creek by Thompson) which they descended in 1807.
We enjoyed the St. Lawrence River area and camped at Camping du Fort de la Martiniere. It was next to the ruins of an old fort of the same name that protected Canada against enemy ships attempting to go up the St. Lawrence. We visited the fort and found a couple geocaches on the grounds before heading north in what would be a relatively long day driving.
After camping at a pull-off to the site of an old ranger cabin along Hwy 108, we made the 'dash to the ferry'. Stopped at Kouchibouguac National Park, took pictures of us in the National Park's red chairs, hiked to the beach and found a geocache before continuing down the road.
We camped at Mira River Provincial Park so as to have a relatively short drive to the ferry the next day. This concluded a four-day, 1060 mile jaunt giving us a glimpse of Quebec and the Maritime provinces.
We spent five days in Newfoundland and just scratched the surface of things to see...Gros Morne National Park, L'Anse aux Meadows, icebergs at St. Anthony, Western Brook Pond and a short paddle on the Humber River. We could have spent five weeks. Now that the road through Quebec to Labrador is open, we may just have to go back by a different route. We saw so much...more pictures...but not nearly enough.
Not a whole lot to say about this leg of the trip. Boarded the ferry about ten in the evening in Port aux Basque, arrived in North Sydney around seven the next morning, had breakfast, got the oil changed in North Sydney, drove to Fredericton where we got a motel and then drove to Florenceville-Bristol on the 14th. 'Bout it.