We had some adventures finding our way to our first overnight stop in Newfoundland. It was late, we are old, we had been traveling by land and by sea and then back on land in a brand new place and the moon was small and the night was very dark. Even though there were lots of cars unloading from the ferry, we were the first car, one small truck before us that unloaded. We got ourselves on the Trans Canada and headed, yep, North, further north than we had already gone. There were so few cars, very little signage, and nothing but vast darkness all around us. Marcia who is a very good map person, was following along, the car gps was working and after about 30 or so minutes we found our turn off. After a wrong turn, sorting out this could not be the way, we backtracked and found the turn off for the Codroy Valley Cottages. We were tired, on edge and managed to be both snippy and apologetic with each. If we didn't know that this was an adventure before that point we knew then, and yet despite it all the overwhelming sense was WOW, just WOW we are here. I had to pull out my trusty MAG Lite (advice keep high power flashlight in your car) to find the correct cottage. We knew that the door would be open and we were to just go in and tuck in for the night. We managed to get things into the cottage, got the pull out couch ready, cleaned up a bit and hit the pillow. Asleep almost immediately.
The picture above is the first picture I took when I woke up a few hours later at the first daylight. Marcia, was fast sleep and I tip toed past her and walked out onto the porch - oh my those mountains connected to the Appalachian Range so very far away from my home in Patten were right there, the Gulf of the St Lawrence right there. It was perfectly quiet except for the birds. My bird app found so many birds and the number of American Robins was noticeable and fun. I just sat on that chair, on this cottage porch at 5 am in the morning with a few hours of sleep and just breathed it in the Codroy Valley, which is a glacial valley of the Anguille Mountaings and is a part of the Long Range Mountains, which is another name of the Appalachian Mountain Range.
We were not supposed to be on the west coast of Newfoundland. I knew it was beautiful but I also knew that we could not see it all, and our originally planned trip was to stay on the east coast and then move north and west along the coast with a stop in France (more about France later on) when we headed back to the Ferry. Our trip changed both on the beginning and end when our port of entry and exit changed from Argentia (on the eastern and most southern point of Newfoundland to Port Aux Basques on the western and most southern part of the island. It is anywhere from 9-11 hours to traverse the island and the driving is not what you call easy. I will share later about making changes/finding places to stay/sorting out new routes, but what I want to share now is how peaceful, how unbelievable, how good I felt just sitting on that porch - breathing it all in - being so happy that we had safely arrived at our first destination.
A few hours later and a little more rested we had drank some coffee, done more marveling that we were here. I had a good talk with Claudell and let her know that I would be so very happy to come back again and stay for longer than a few hours. It was a beautiful morning, not too sunny and just the right temperature. A good day to continue our trip north.
Marcia and I had reviewed our maps, our things loaded back into the car, the essential and always ready oxygen concentrator put in the back seat and away we went! Next stop Kings Point right on the water, at the end of Green Bay (hello Gail and Karla!) another of our unexpected places to be.
We were not very long on the Trans Canada Highway when we stopped for gas and to eat breakfast. Gas, bathrooms, food were all high priority needs and stops and even though this was our first full day on "the rock" I knew that these things were not available with the frequency that we are used to at home. So with the caution and awareness to shout out our needs way ahead of time we gladly pulled into a spot that was right on the highway.
We were experiencing our first daylight driving, the mountains and fjord like range was right there, right around us. The vista's were so very very huge. The signs warning about the moose were the biggest road signs I had ever seen. Making me all the more grateful that we had made it safely to our cottage early that morning.
It was a drive that was filled with Wows, so many Wows. Marcia should have gotten tired from all of my "Oh Wows". We were in our car traveling at 60 mph (100 Klm) and I was in a state of awe. I was also in a state of heightened awareness. This highway was NOT a USA interstate. Cars were parked on the side of the rode and people walked back and forth with their fishing poles. There were marked exits and also roads that connected and cars came on and off in unexpected places. There were places were there were passing lanes, and the passing lanes could be used as a passing place for ongoing traffic as well. There were vast stretches of no cars and all kings of things happening on the road. The constant was the mountain range, these amazing majestic mountains, and our heading north. The ocean was calling, the desire to spend more time in a small little village was pulling us north, and the promise of a really good supper at the place we were staying made us happy as well. There were stretch stops and pee stops and more oh wow stops as we continued to make our way, aware that the next stop was King's Point.
On driving days we did not take so many pictures, there will be more but here are a few from our go north drive:
Comments