Aug 27 - And off home.....

Trip recap and some observations…..

In 17 days/16 nights, we stayed in 6 places:

St. John’s for 5 nights; Trinity for 3 nights; Twillingate for 2 nights; Rocky Harbour for 3 nights; St. Anthony for 2 nights; Deer Lake for one night. It’s always tough to estimate how long to allocate in each spot. These timings worked out very well for us, given the activities and sights that I found during my research that I felt would be interesting.

A big thank you goes out to our friend, Gary Benson, a native Newfoundlander, who helped me to finalize the route and timings.

We didn’t go to Fogo Island (boat ride required). The musical “Come for Away” is a huge draw to Gander, but we saw the show in Toronto several years ago. Tickets sell out in Gander months ahead, so if you’re interested in coming to Newfoundland and want to see the show, book early.

We stayed in 3 AirBnBs, and 3 inns (each room had a little sitting room and kitchenette as well as a bathroom and bedroom). Our favourite setting was the AirBnB in Champney’s West overlooking the harbour. Our favourite AirBnB was the one in Rocky Harbour – big and airy and modern and well-equipped. It had laundry, night lights and a flashlight. The latter turned out to be very handy during the blackout.

We drove about 3,000 kms in 3 different rental cars (ditched one due to a wheel bearing that was going and the other due to bad brakes). Switching cars only cost us about 1.5 hours in total. Doug’s keen ear and knowledge of cars probably saved us hours and hours of aggravation. Gas here is about 20-23 cents per litre higher than in Ontario. HST is 15% and hotels then add a 3% tourism tax. Food prices are a bit higher than at home, but not outrageous. It’s nice traveling in Canada and not having to worry about currency conversion!

Great swaths of Newfoundland have very weak cell phone service and there are lots of long stretches of road with no service at all. Navigating can be a bit challenging, so we ran two phones in tandem and supplemented with a paper map to get to where we wanted to go. Yes, we did have to make “tourist uees” to get back on track a few times. Signage, in general, we found to be adequate, but not great. There would be one sign to tell you of an attraction, and then no additional signs to guide you in off the main road. Trails, especially, were poorly signed.

Newfoundland has a reputation for its potholed roads, so we were a little leery about our chances of returning our rental car in good shape. To our great pleasure, we found most of the roads to be very good, with very few real potholes. (We did see and heed the several “Potholes Ahead” signs that we saw.) The only really challenging roads were the ones into and out of Trinity and Champney’s West. They were just plain awful, and really nasty to drive at night.

We saw and did everything on my list. Seeing a whale and an iceberg and caribou would have been bonuses. Too bad we missed the Anchors Aweigh show in Rocky Harbour, but the 3.5-hour power blackout scuttled a lot of people’s hopes that night!

Neither of us got sick or injured which is great. We’ve had a couple of really low moments while traveling that we didn’t want to repeat. I was especially careful about not tripping after breaking my wrist in an innocent stumble on some stairs last May in Africa. “Hold the handrail!” has become my new mantra.

In the past 2.5 weeks, we have learned so much about Newfoundland – its proud history, politics, economics, military accomplishments, geography, geology, plants, flowers, animals, culture, music, food and colourful architecture. We just barely scratched the surface on each one. We’ll remember the glorious views – the beaches, ponds/lakes, streams, waterfalls, rugged mountains, plains, forests, the Gulf of St. Lawrence and the Atlantic Ocean. We’ll remember the lively plays and the musical shows that we saw and a night of fireworks in Trinity. We’ll remember the hikes and walks that we did, both for exercise and for communing with nature. Each day brought new sights and sounds and fun experiences.

But most of all, we’ll remember the people. Newfoundlanders are prouder of their province than any other province in Canada. They are funny, helpful, genuine, resilient, hard-working and so thrilled that people have made the effort to come to their island. We’ll never forget Maisie and Flo took our picture at the John Cabot statue then talked and talked and talked; Marilyn who told Doug he looked like her Uncle Jack after staring at him like he was a stud muffin; Melissa who told us that if our third rental car broke down then we must be just plain cursed; Brian Williams who explained the 9-11 memorial in Gander; and the two young men who guided us through Myra Bennett’s house in Daniel’s Harbour. They are all now part of our treasure trove of special travel memories.

I hope that you have enjoyed being along for the ride as we explored Newfoundland. It’s been a pleasure trying to give you a flavour of this dynamic, enchanting, scenic island. Words and photos can only do so much. You’ll just have to come and see for yourself!

Thank you for all your wonderful comments. I read all of them and got some good chuckles!

So, until the next trip, I'm signing off.Read more