BLOG 13—Crossing to Newfoundland on the Marine Atlantic Ferry!!

Friday 5/8 and the big day is here---we're going to Newfoundland today!  At 9AM we all left camp to convoy  to the Marine Atlantic Ferry that crosses over to Channel Port aux Basques at the southwest end of Newfoundland. 

  Took a while to get checked in at the gate, then we were measured end to end (23') and parked in Lane 7.  

We walked around a little and discovered in the terminal building that they were celebrating “North American Occupational Safety & Health Week 2015” week with a cake and coffee and it was delicious!  

At 10:50AM we drove onto the lower vehicle deck with a bunch of other vehicles, semis and a dangerous looking double propane tanker truck. Trucks were still boarding. 

The ferry named M/V Blue Puttees hoisted its vehicle ramp and left the dock about 11:30AM and turned around bow first and headed out. These are very big ice-rated ships and the lounge area was on Deck 7. Using an elevator, we went up to the upper lounge area where we could watch our progress out the large picture windows.  

A PA announcement was made that we were now on Newfoundland time which is ½ hour ahead of Atlantic time!  Reset watches!! Looking out, we saw a flight of gannets passing us! 

To while away the hours of the crossing, our Caravan Leaders set up 6 GAMs (Get Acquainted Meetings) that were each to last 15 minutes with 2 -4 couples at each then a little break and move on to the next GAM at a different table until everyone met everybody else! 

One memorable time we decided to step outside on the deck to see if there were any other ships or whales—nothing, and the ship was moving at 15 knots and the wind was blowing hard so we were back inside in 2 minutes and cold! We did see the stern area with trucks and the helicopter landing area.

There was an interesting onboard magazine with lots of stories and jokes to read that was entertaining.  We saw a large tanker crossing our bow a few miles ahead.  

Then, we saw Newfoundland ahead and our port.  

We entered the harbor and docked at Channel Port aux Basques at 6PM Newfie time and finally drove off at 6:25PM.after a lot of commercial trucks and semis drove out and then we were on the road to our campground.  We were happy to finally see a Welcome to Newfoundland sign!!   

 We didn't have time to see the town so we just headed north.  The most impressive feature was the high and flat Table Top Mountains part of the Appalachian mountains, that dominate the scenery above the Port. There are U-shaped valleys produced by glaciers, called “Hanging Valleys”, now still full of snow.

Hanging Valleys

It was about a 45 minute drive on the TCH (Trans Canada Highway), an excellent road to Grand Codroy Campground in Doyles and in a flash, Dennis, the campground owner, had us in a perfect site and parked.  The campground overlooks a large wide river below and there was still snow near the overlooks to see the river. 

The campground had a hiking trail, beautifully clean washrooms (as we call them in Canada!) and showers, laundry as well as a great crafts store.  We were definitely welcomed on our arrival and we were thrilled to finally be on “The Rock”—Newfoundland!     Stay tuned for much more!