Newfoundland/Labrador Day 9: I Found a New Land

My first view of Newfoundland from the 7th deck of the ferry.

After eight days on the road, I finally rode my bike off the ferry this morning at 7 a.m. onto Newfoundland, where I expect to spend 16 glorious days exploring this new found land.  The ferry ride was uneventful; it departed on time and arrived on time.  But their wifi didn’t work, so it was a good thing I posted the blog a little early yesterday.

The ferry had three decks for vehicles and probably room for about 700 people though I heard one of the crew members say there were about 375 passengers on board.  Lots of commercial trucks and campers and five other bikes besides mine.  By the time I got loaded, tied the bike down, found my reclining chair and settled down it was after midnight.  Then at five I woke up to the sound of the ship’s foghorn being sounded about every 3-4 minutes as we neared the coast of Newfoundland in a fog.

Several guys were wetting a line in a brook.

I had a destination for  today already picked out and a room at a B&B reserved in Cow Head on the western coast, but I didn’t have a specific route mapped out so I made a 3 hour detour off the main road (the Trans Canada Highway) on the way here to see more of the Newfoundland coast out at Cape St. George.  The roads were pretty good and the scenery was, at times, striking.  I’m going to add a couple pictures to this post (don’t forget to double click on them to make them bigger) but when I tried to load pictures to Flickr, they wouldn’t go.  I think I’m going to have a weak wifi connection at all the small bed and breakfasts that will limit or even prevent loading large-file images, but I’ll let try to get pictures on Flickr and make a link to them when I can.  But not tonight.

This was near Cape St. George on the detour I took.

It’s going to be a shame if I can’t post as many pictures on Flickr as I want because I have a feeling I’m going to see some great sights and take some pretty good pictures during the next two weeks.

Since there aren’t many roads in Newfoundland, I didn’t have need of the GPS, so I turned it off, loaded my new CD by “Men of the Deeps,” put my feet up, and listened to songs of working men while I enjoyed spectacular scenery passing by on both sides.  Sometimes, maybe too often, I’d stop and linger, wander around and take a longer look before snapping a few pictures.  I think that’s how I turn a two-hour ride off the main road into a three-hour ride.

A creek flows to the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

One of the reasons I chose Cow Head (besides the really great name) is that the Gros Morne Theatre Festival here that lasts all summer.  Tonight (it’s now 11:30 p.m.) I took in a play about a nurse in western Newfoundland who was a legend in her own time and who was awarded various medals of merit from the British Crown and the Canadian government. The play, “Tempting Providence,” was written shortly after her death at age 100 in 1994 and has been traveling throughout Canada for the past 20+ years.  Very well done and the four players in the cast were all professionals.  A nice change of pace from all the gorgeous scenery.

I’m not sure where I’m going tomorrow, but I will probably either head four hours up the West Coast to St. Anthony and a UNESCO World Historic Site where the Vikings landed about 900 years ago or I’ll stick around here and explore some of Gros Morne National Park.  In either event, I’ll be back at this same B&B.

I think lovely sunsets are in my future for the next couple days.

After five hours of sleep in a recliner not nearly as comfortable as the one I sleep in at home, then eight hours on the road to get here, plus two hours at the theater, I’m beat.  I must be getting old.  I can’t seem to handle 18-hour days like I used to.  So I’ll sign off and leave you with a picture of the 10:30 sunset I enjoyed from the porch just off my room at the Bay View B&B following the play.

Tired?  Yes.  But:  “I Can’t Wait to Get on the Road Again.”