Day 12 Hiking at Sandbanks Park



More sights on our walk

May 31, 2013


Woke up to no rain but quite foggy.  The sun came out, fog moved in, sun came out again…Newfoundland weather.


We are the only motorhome here except for someone we think is a host.

 

Looking out upon the sea

Marion delivered our bread and cinnamon pretzels…both were very goodJ

 



The beach we walked in the distance

Today we hiked the rest of the trails we wanted to do and walked a few beaches.  Most of the trails are short and interconnect…boardwalks are plentiful due to the damp/wet ground (gets you above the sogginess).  GREAT views as seen in the photos.  Made use of the free wifi (which is only obtainable at the check in office).

 

 

Panorama

 



The eagle

I will let the pictures speak for me….

 

 

 

What can I say?

 



The campground in the trees and road into Sandbanks

After dinner we took a walk up to the overlook and took in the 360 degree AWESOME view.  As we arrived back at the road I noticed an animal trotting towards us.  I stepped back trying to decide what it was and  David snapped a pix or two of it.  I was betting fox and he thought coyote…it was a fox as per the ranger.  She apparently has kits just up the hill.

More beach

Fox was wary as she passed with a bird in her mouth.   A few minutes later as we were talking to the ranger, we saw another one pass…smaller and again on the road…obviously hunting.  There are some pretty sizeable rabbits around here and lots of them….



View from the overlook



The eagle has landed



Bird's eye view of the campground from the overlook

 

DAY 11 Stephenville to Burgeo

Panoramic view of the off shore islands from Sandbanks Prov Park

Walking the trails of Sandbanks

May 30, 2013


Driving our rv from Stephenville to Burgeo via route 480.  It took us about 3 hours to drive there…slow going (moose watch, lots of fog, some potholes).  Picturesque ride and Sandbanks Provincial Park is pretty awesome…and it was pretty cold when we arrived there 45 degrees and windy.  This park has no electric but the sites are very nice…well spaced and evergreens galore AND wifi/free near the office as well as LAUNDRY/fee (nice perks) for $15.  The washrooms are well heated…toasty warm and the shower water is warm enough.  Doesn’t take much to make this girl happy!  Electric would have been good though we just charged up our computers in the laundry room.



Awe inspiring beachs

 

Like its name says there are sand dunes, great views and a few ruggedly awesome beaches to wander and comb.  You can wander near and far here in peace and solitude of you go in the shoulder season!

 

 

 

I'm and artist so you also get pictures like this.

 

MARION!! A woman knocked on our door and welcomed us to Burgeo, we talked about the weather for a bit and then she announced she is Mary the Baker!  She said she delivers baked goods to the campers (which for now is only us!) and she would be making german pretzels (she is from Germany) would we like some.  Sure we would and we also ordered some multigrain bread. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pano of one of the many beaches

I love Sandbanks Provincial Park

Kazaam, she is just the supreme entrepreneur….who can say no to food items!  She made my day for her inventiveness and entrepreneurial skills!  She will deliver the goodies tomorrow morning….wunderbar!  So if you ever make the trip to Sandbanks Provincial Park  ($15 gets you a site plus the entry fee/daily of $5 or buy the all parks pass for $20) and I highly recommend it, ring up Marion the baker or email her (709 800-0250  marionsbakery@gmail.com) to support her entrepreneurial spirit and fill your larders with delicious baked goods.

 



Check out what the wind did to this tree

We took a nice longish walk on the trails which all seemed to connect to different beaches.  I love beaches!  It was cold and it was windy but it felt good to get a decent walk in.  The wind was rather  brutal and made that 45 degrees feel way colder.

 

 

 




More beach views

 

 

 

 

Out walking

 

 

The rest of the day we relaxed nestled in the warmth of our rv, did laundry, and read…even kicked on the HEAT.  I am thinking we will be staying here another day…Oh, and it rained and rained…glad we got the walk in and some pictures.  I highly recommend this park and we will come back and stay longer here. 

 

Can you tell we really liked this park?



Our Campsite in Sandbanks Provincial Park



Overlook of one of the beaches

DAY 10 Doyles, NF to Stephenville to Cape St. George (Acadian Community)



Rush hour in Newfoundland

May 29, 2013
Awoke to a crisp 35 degrees outside and 55 degrees inside with the little electric heater running nonstop on low all night.  Slept great.

 



The Cliffs at St. George

Soon after we got on the Trans Canada Highway we both noticed a mini van on the opposite side that had a big bullseye smash in its driver’s window.  We both said, “moose” at the same time.  Then, I said, yeah, and there he is dead on the road maybe 100 feet before the car.  Our first sighting unfortunately.





More of the Awesome Cliffs at St. George

After we had driven a few miles. I thought to myself…oh, no!  there was too much moisture from within that car…we should have stopped to check if anyone was still inside.  David tried to convince me that no one was still in it or someone coming upon them from that side would handle it.  Okay.  But maybe ½ hour later an ambulance comes streaming by us.  Yeah, I am thinking that someone was in there.  The windows were very fogged up…like someone had slept in it all night.  Hmmmm.

 



Park in St. George

We saw touring cyclists today.  In Newfoundland that is a cold, probably wet proposition with any kind of services few and far between.  Kudos for their sense of adventure.

 



Cliffside park in St. George

The maximum speed is 60 mph…I am guessing because of the moose?  The roads are somewhat windy but not that bad that 60 would be max.

 



This is area where we saw the WHALES

Our motorhome route today took us from Doyles, NL to Stephenville to Cape St. George (Acadian Community) where we walked around the small park with interpretive panels/history.  It was a cliffside park with trails to walk (they weren’t too close to the edge)  and very pretty since it was a super fine day with temps in the 60’s and SUNNY.  The bread crumb trail.  The signage said that fin and minke whales could be spotted down below in these crystal clear waters.  Sure enough, I heard a blow and whipped around to see a whale and watched again to see if I would see him again…sure enough.  David saw one also.  That was special to see them so close to shore something you don’t see in USA.  The ocean waters here are SO clear…crystal clear…pure.  On another trip here we will spend the night.

 



Pristine Waters

After Cape St. George, NL we returned to Stephenville where we found a grocery store with a nice selection of vegetables that were priced slightly more than our local market (and in some cases the same).  Veggies make me happy! And fresh strawberries.   The night’s lodgings are at the beach in Stephenville which is behind the airport.   We heard no noise from the airport….thankfully.   We took a nice LONG walk on the rock beach (maybe 4 miles and kind of hard to walk on the rocks (think rocks rounded by the water action).


Free camping in Newfoundland is the way to go for us and opportunities abound.



Flora



The beach in Stephenville/overnight

 

DAY 9 Ferry from North Sydney

Waiting at the ferry dock
 

May 28, 2013


Breakfast, showers and off to the ferry with our grab bag of stuff to do on ferry from North Sydney to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland.  I can vouch it gets light at about 4:30 am…we are ahead of NY time by an hour now and once we set foot on Newfoundland soil it will be 1.5 hours.  The light begins to fade around 9 pm.

 

It was cold this a.m.  I woke up to 48 degrees in the living area but with a heater boost we got the temperature up to a balmy 72 degrees in the living area quickly.  We have a quilt clipped up to hang from the overhead bunk to block out light, keep heat in the living part…don’t want to heat the cab.  So the temp in the driving area was 58 degrees while we enjoyed 72 degrees.  I highly recommend this cheap "mod/modification" when you are travelling in colder weather.

 

First look at The Rock/Newfoundland

We probably waited a couple of hours to move our motorhome into the bowels of the ferry but you have to check in early and do your wait in line. It was kind of interesting to watch the goings on of loading the ferry  up.  Lots of tractor trailer trucks with and without the cab part.  We met some nice folks while waiting in line…the only other travelers at that time.  One or two more rv’s were to show up later.)  They were from British Columbia so we had a nice chat with them in line and on the boat.

 

For maybe half of the six hour ferry ride the sun shined on us…the other half was kind of foggy.  Welcome to Newfoundland!  The ride wasn’t too choppy but a bit when you got up to walk around.  We elected to eat a nice dinner on board rather than carry on snacks.  $38.00 got us a nice meal.  Newfoundland kind of reminds me of Ireland or parts of Scotland in some ways the terrain is similar and rocky like Ireland although more trees here.  Free wifi on the boatJ

 

Grand Codroy RV Park/snow on the mountains

We were going to overnight for free somewhere but the overnight temps were going to be as low as 37 degrees and at the time I didn’t know what the temps were going to be the next morning/day…a trucker had mentioned snow too.  I wanted options if we got any snow as we are not set up for snow and we are new to this rv.  We didn't know how well it would perform in colder weather...how warm it would be inside..would it freeze easily? So we are nestled in the Grand Codroy Rv Camping Park…not far into Newfoundland.  $30 got us a full hook up.  We had to find some place to stay before anything close to dark…mooseland!  The heater is cranking, the shower rooms are actually HEATED…love it thank you.


I can see some leftover snow off in the distance...aren't rv adventures grand!  So far travelling in Newfoundland in our motorhome is proving to be fabulous.

DAY 8: Waiting for our spot on the ferry to Newfoundland

Our Ferry

May 27, 2013
Our drive in our motorhome today was short…to the ferry terminal to get us to Newfoundland.  Our reservation was for May 31^st but we decided to glide in and see if they could take us…45 minutes before departure.  Of course, that was a no so we changed it to be the next morning.  The nice lady didn’t charge us a change fee.  She also warned us about the Moose in Newfoundland.  They are big, dumb, and numerous and hard to see in the dark so don’t drive in the dark if you can help it (we weren’t planning on it).  There are about 125,000 Moose in Newfoundland and about 520,000 people; they have moose hunts three times per year to try and thin the numbers.  I would like to see one but not run into one a close range.

As you can see the ferry is a huge ship designed to carry motorhomes, other rvs, and HUGE trucks and construction equipment for the journey to Newfoundland.  Each vehicle is chained down to the
ship.... Taking our 24 foot motorhome over on the ferry to Newfoundland cost us about $250 one way.  We will be rving in Labrador so we only want one way.

There were two restaurants that were well rated in North Sydney (The Lobster Pound and Black Spoon Bistro) but both were closed (one renovating and one maybe just not opened for the season).  So we had a delicious lunch at the Waterside restaurant right on the water in North Sydney (commercial street).  I had fish and chips and a fabulous fish soup (the fish and chips was a once in a trip event, I swear it).    Hang out in the public parking area right by the Waterside for hours…catching up on blog, notes, walk the harbor walk.  Sleep in parking lot of Tourist Info Center/Waterfront Restaurant/public parking area.  We decided that since we could hear clanging and noise coming from the Ferry area (very close by) that this would be quieter and it was…although we could hear some noise coming from that area….good decision.

 

North Sydney Waterfront

Today we also did a good vacuum job on the motorhome and then installed carpet protector.  It behaved like sticky cling wrap and was a pain to install but will keep the carpets looking new (but ugly with the plastic on them).  I dislike having any carpets in an rv…linoleum is so much easier to clean.  The dirty, beaten down carpet look is nasty...and so is the plastic wrap cover...hahah!  That was our second project to do on the road. (The first was Reflectix for the bedroom windows).

This is our first time having an rv with a generator and I have to say that “Jenny” is wonderful.  Although we haven’t used it that much, it is REALLY nice to have.   I can nuke up hot packs for my back, nuke up a quick cup of tea, nuke up a premade dinner meal from the freezer.   Our rv adventure to Newfoundland is going well.

Day 7 Green Cove to KOA Seal Island

May 26, 2013

Falls at Black Rock

Nice, peaceful night…it rained and it is really foggy and a cool 56 degrees.  I think I heard a coyote in the morning.  Took a short walk to check out the falls.


Today our Rv took us from Green Cove to the KOA in Seal Island, NS.

 



Our digs for the night

Really neat rock with striations of orange/granite

Stopped at Green Cove to take some photos of the foggy cove and funky rocks (grey is Kneiss and the orange is pink and white granite).  Took a look at Broad Cove campground in the park and saw one van checking out the place but no one was camping. We thought about staying there but wanted to go a little further today and didn’t need to spend the $25 for unserviced site. 


The park entrance fee is $7.80 per adult and for that we got entrance until the following day at 4 pm.  There are also “towns” outside of the park (like Pleasant Bay, Cape North, South Harbor, Dingwall, Neils Harbor, Ingonish) that if you can find a space to tuck into and assuming you are not a huge unit you could possibly overnight there and still be on the entry fee only.



Panoramic of our overnight spot/Respite from the hills from hell.

Three sided shelter with wood stove...nice touch!

 

David hiked up Broad Mountain and I elected to sit this one out….a short hike.  I caught up on blog.

Broad Mountain...from the summit - David's hike


 

Lichen Land...I liken this one!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 



more lichen



Middlehead Hike

We both hiked Middlehead near Keltic Lodge in Cape Breton Island National Park.   Despite seeing scat From coyotes, moose…off we went.  CREEPY!  Each hike comes with a stick at the start of the hike…think hiking stick that people leave there.  The stick is to ward off coyotes that might give you problems…more creepy!  Moose you are supposed to give a wide berth too….not sure how you do that when they say a football field’s worth and you could come across them around a bend driving or walking on a trail.

 

Hiked another trail for a bit…seeing scat from coyote, BEAR, and moose….creepy!

 

 

More Green Cove with fabulous rock markings

Since the weather was fine, the SUN was actually shining (as opposed to FOG/rain) , and the last campground was closed (the visitor center in Cheticamp also neglected to tell us that),  we elected to  exit the park (Cape Breton Island National Park).  Sometime during the past hours while looking at the map and reading my notes, I realized there was another white knuckle event coming up....big time stress that I tried hard to knock back.  


This one was a 20% grade uphill and  downhilll for one mile…I am OKAY with up…down…not at all.   David is a supreme driver and he put it in low gear and applied brakes the whole way down.  I lived through it and actually thought this one was a bit easier than the 4km/2.4 miles crawl down the mountain.
Beer for everyone in celebration.


We nosed around for places to overnight (for free) but settled on a KOA seal Island. For $37. 00 we got laundry ($5.) NICE hot water showers and electric…whooohooo. We looked along the way for flat places that didn't say "no camping" and they were hard to find so a campground worked for us this time.

We thought our refrigerator was on the fritz but after taking a bunch of stuff apart, David miraculously fixed it.  It is really nice having Mr. Fix it on board!  Kind of makes up for the fact that he can’t cook…even burned ramen once!  (Please note the ramen was only a one time experiment.)
Another successful day in our motorhome travels.

 

 

 

 

Day 6: Cheticamp to Neil’s Harbor

May 25, 2013



Looking back at Cabot Trail

Spent part of morning in Cheticamp doing some errands (yes we hit the bakery/Boulangerie)…and getting a bolt for the muffler (bouncing around not good).  It was raining pretty hard so we decided to drive to our hiking area instead of doing nothing.    The Cabot Trail is very picturesque even in the rain…not ideal conditions to drive in the rain and fog!  I am not a big fan of “exposure” so we drove it in a clockwise route which put me further from the 
drop off...greatttttttt!  Okay! 




More of Cabot Trail looking down Pleasant Bay

We come to a red light…what is a traffic light doing on the Cabot trail you ask?

Construction and the lady in the Visitor center in Cheticamp didn’t mention it.  Welllllllllll, we get to the construction area.  The  southbound lane (next to the drop off or side closest to the guard rail) apparently had winter difficulties and it was gone, pfffft, gone…in its place while they are constructing a new lane out of nothing is a cement divider meant to keep us from dropping off the side of the mountain.  Sweat city!!! 





Nova Scotia has some nice colored rocks:)

Couldn’t drive past fast enough.  Kept telling David to just gun it! We met a tractor trailer coming the other way later on and I was really wondering why he was even up there!  The section before Pleasant Bay had some pretty serious switchbacks and 12% grade over a long distance (thanks whomever warned me of that so I could let hubby know he had better listen to the signs this time!).  At this point, I only thought there was ONE steep grade section with switchbacks....   





Pleasant Bay where we spent a pleasant afternoon

Did I mention there was hardly a sole on the Cabot Trail?  We spent some time in Pleasant Bay walking the beach and relaxing (after that drive I needed it).  It seemed that MANY people came down this road to the bay and it seemed they came down to check us out…no real reason but far too many cars were coming down and leaving….hahah!

 



Harbor at Pleasant Bay

So after Pleasant Bay (which was very pleasant) off we went in search of a place to make dinner and overnight.  WELL...I immediately realized there was another steep section... if the 12% grade was bad the next section was a white knuckler (for me not David) at 13% over a 4km period…first going up and then going down.  The going down part was the hardest for me to deal with as you can see the road and see it turning and I am hoping those breaks are as good as David says they are. 





Just us...

We are in first gear.  Going up the Chevy engine was beginning to heat up.  I was REALLY happy when we hit rolling hills again.  That said, What a ruggedly beautiful land Nova Scotia is…along with New Brunswick (that is my list so far). This is what we learned from a conversation with a friendly Acadian man in Cheticamp.  Acadian French is not at all similar to French or Quebec French.  Acadians cannot understand Quebec for the most part. 



Harborside

Acadian has many English words in it…which we noticed when we went into the bakery and some women were chatting.  Acadians are friendly people.  He pointed out what we had noticed…they are METICULOUS with the care of their property.  AND we found out the reasons why their yards are so neat (no junk)…apparently the area has some really high winds at times (I thought the 50mph gust of yesterday  were bad…over 100 mph can happen) and things cannot be laying around the yard to fly around.  

Neil's Harbor/Lobster holding tubs

Their yards are also well manicured.  The roads are another story.   We also learned that the lobster/crab fisherman are not fishing right now because the BUYER won’t give them a decent price.   Tim Horton’s is a place to gossip.  That is what we learned:) In our travels today, we missed the turn off for Dingwall (a road run/race was going on and I saw more people in a couple of miles than I have since I left home we were not sure where they all came from!) so we decided to carry on. 



Neil's Harbor...again just us!

Stopped in Neil’s Harbor for Chowder but they were closed (probably not yet open) but talked with a fishing family and they pointed us at a potential place to overnight.  I am not going to say where  it is in the park and we weren’t supposed to overnight there but we were told at this time of year they aren’t policing the park that well. 

 

 

Lobster Boats

We are finding our motorhome very easy to travel in...very convenient.  Rv in Nova Scotia is pure pleasure!

Black Rock Beach