Ferry bound TO Newfoundland

(Note from Melissa:  Because the internet connections were either P-A-I-N-F-U-L-L-Y S-L-O-W or very expen$ive in Newfoundland (if I used my smartphone), I waited until we were back in the States to start updating our blog.  We were in Newfoundland from July 9th through July 25th.  It was a wonderful trip.  Hope you enjoy reading about it!)

Kurt and Joanna came by to tell us good-bye and wish us well on our trip to Newfoundland.  Joanna gave us a copy of their itinerary to help us in selecting campgrounds and ideas for places to go see which has been VERY helpful.  Thank you, Kurt and Joanna!

We got “unhooked” from the services at the campground and the car “hooked” up to the motorhome.  (I  used “hooked” and “unhooked” to describe two different things because Chuck and I had a hard time understanding one another when we were talking about “unhooking” today.)  :)

Anyways, we left the campground for the ferry terminal around 11:30. 

We were required to be there no later than 12:30 for a 2:30 sailing so we headed on over.   While waiting to check in, a guy came by and measured our length which is how the price of the ferry ticket is set.  He measured 61’ and we had bought tickets based on 65’ so we were good. 

While waiting to board in the parking lot, we were behind this motorhome:

Chuck talked to the guy driving the motorhome while we were waiting in the parking lot and found out he was from Ontario and that he goes to about 16-17 NASCAR races a year.  Apparently, they know how to “git ‘er done” in Ontario too!  :)

They told us that as soon as they announced they would start loading the ship, we had to turn off the propane.  This wasn’t a problem because the refrigerator was the only thing running on propane and we knew so long as it was kept closed, all the food would be fine.  The ferry ride was only about 6 hours long.

It didn’t seem like we had to wait all that long until they started loading the ship. 

All types of vehicles rode the ferry.  Cars, motorhomes, trucks and fifth-wheels or travel trailers, tractor trailers, tour buses… you name it, they rode on it. 

We waited our turn to drive on the ship.

And they packed us in very carefully. 

We had cars and tractor trailers all around us.

After getting parked, we had to go up to the passenger level to ride across.  You cannot remain with your vehicle while the ferry is in transit.  I took my laptop because I thought there would be internet access but there internet was down.  So I ended up getting caught up on writing the blog instead (I just could not upload it). 

We first went to the 7^th floor of the ship.  We took turns doing some exploring and I discovered that the 8^th floor was also available for general (not reserved) seating and was a lot quieter so we moved up there. 

The ferry had a full service restaurant, a snack bar, an ice cream bar, a gift shop, and vending machines.  There were TVs in all the passenger seating areas.  The seats were big and comfortable with fold down trays…kind of like an airplane but bigger. 

The ship even had an heliport on the top deck.

The ferry backed out of the dock and pulled away from North Sydney.

I took this picture of another lighthouse and some windmills in the background as we pulled out of the harbor.

Chuck saw a seal and a whale but we weren’t able to get pictures (sorry – I didn’t see them either). 

The ride was comfortable.  You could feel the ship moving on the waves but it was not bad for either of us. 

Because I was working on the blog, the time went by fast and seemed like no time at all until we were arriving at Newfoundland. 

Chuck had gone up on deck and saw us approaching Newfoundland first.  (Good picture, Chuck!)

And then I went up and took some pictures as we were pulling into the harbor in Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland:

As soon as they announced that our vehicle level could return to their cars, we gathered all our stuff and headed back to the motorhome.  Everything was fine; it was just challenging to get there because of all the cars and tractor trailers parked around us.

While Chuck went inside the motorhome, I went back to the Honda and ran it through the gears so we would be ready to pull off as soon as they told us to disembark. 

Chuck drove off the ferry and then pulled to the side to let the cars and trucks who were needing to go on a little faster go past us.  It also gave us time to get the directions from the GPS for the campground we were staying in tonight:  Grand Codroy RV Park in Doyles, Newfoundland.

Because it was in the late evening, the sun was smack-dab right in our eyes as we headed west on Hwy 408.

But the view was already beautiful.  This is a picture of Twin Mountains -- appropriately named, don't you think?

I had read on the directions to the campground that you take the 2^nd road (not the first road) to go to the campground.  Kurt had told us this too.  I should have listened to the GPS instead of looking at the map on my phone because not only did we miss the first road, we missed the 2^nd road too.  There is one thing about Newfoundland:  places to turn around are very few and far between. 

So we were thinking:  “How far are we going to have to drive before we can turn around?”  Fortunately, Chuck spotted an old parking lot ahead and was able to get pulled in there and turned around.  I made sure we didn’t miss the road on the way back!

It was about 9:30 Newfoundland time when we arrived at the campground and was just starting to get dusky dark.  We got backed into our site and only let the rear slides out because we knew we would be heading out in the morning to drive to Rocky Harbor about 5 hours away.

The next morning when we got up we realized what a nice park Grand Codroy was.  And although our site didn’t have sewer, the view was beautiful.  I told Chuck I would like to try to stay here longer on our way back.