Newfoundland.
It's not so much Canada as it is New Found Land. It's very much part of Canada, but it's the land like no other in my eyes, and the people are so fantastic to visitors!
I like Newfoundland because there's just SO much open space! And it's not too modern. You don't see a McDonald's or Tim Horton's every 10 minutes or so, there are no traffic jams, it's so quiet and every little town has it's own character. Our favourite was Woody Point because the spot we camped at was incredible, and the town was so cute, and really crafty. People have shops there, but it's only seasonal, and many live elsewhere during winter months. There isn't much for winter tourism, but I would imagine snowmobiling around there would be so amazing! There are lots of ponds and lakes that would be fun to fish, but you need a license to do so, so we never got around to it. And SO MANY MOOSE! They don't hang out around people much, so we didn't see them until the last day we were there, but it was often hard to avoid moose stool in places we went! One night, while we were in the tent, a moose sniffed our tent! At that time, I'd been within 2 feet of a moose, but I'd never seen one! As always though, everything turned out and we saw a few young moose on the last day of our visit in Woody Point on the drive (closer to Rocky Harbour.)
We got there on the ferry from North Sydney to Port-aux-Basques, which has some really inconvenient timings for most people. Hitch hiking in Cape Breton was fairly smooth, and the last guy that drove us took us right to the ferry, then to the camping place we thought we were going to stay at. Well, the ferry was to leave at 6AM and you're supposed to get there 2 hours early, so we would've had to leave at 3AM so we decided to take the ferry that night at 11PM, getting to Newfoundland at 1AM (6-hour ferry, plus unloading time.) The ferry was expensive for us- $40/person, while our daily budget was $30 including food, stay, things to do ect. Anyway, we met someone on the shuttle bus that said they would take us to the tourist centre to camp or to Cornerbrook, and we chose to camp because we were tired. Then, she offered a place to stay near Cornerbrook! We hadn't slept, since on the boat there was live music- Jody Hale. We really enjoyed it, so we bought his CD and had him send it to us in Winnipeg (otherwise, we would have broken it in our packs!)
The first place we stopped in Newfoundland was Codroy Valley because Sam noticed a trail that was on the coast on our back roads map. We were surprised that hitch hiking in Newfoundland wasn't an easy thing to do. We waited for about an hour (while our average before that was probably about 20 minutes) and we thought we'd never get a ride. Then, a great local couple picked us up and took us right to the trail we wanted to walk! They were headed to Codroy for some strawberry picking and to get chickens, so we picked some strawberries with them and they gave us a quart :) On the trail in the mountain just past cape anguilles, we found a wonderful brook with water we could drink and a fantastic view of the ocean at the bottom. Sam wanted to try fishing, but the drop to the ocean was about 150 feet! We couldn't see the bottom of the fall, but the vastness of the ocean can always take one's breath away!
It was lucky we had Sam's cellphone because my phone being with Rogers, didn't get any service in Newfoundland except at the top of some mountains in Cornerbrook. :S We managed to get a hold of my friend Chris who was my Katimavik Leader in Chisasibi, and hung out with him all week! Actually, as it turned out, Chris was in Ottawa when we were in Ottawa, he was in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu when we were there (stayed there with one of our rides) and then, the one week we happened to be in Cornerbrook, he was there. (I think it was meant to be!) After the first night in Cornerbrook where we camped not far from the bulk barn and the first real grocery store we found in Newfoundland, we stayed 3 nights where Chris was staying at his friend Tasha's. Well Tasha is a part owner of the most delicious coffee-making place I've ever been to which was awesome! We went there frequently (despite being so frugal about everything else) and, actually I think it paid off in the end. We also got to hang out with another one of Chris' good friends from his adventure tourism class, which was really great because we had two guides take us caving and rafting :) I was impressed by their "safety first" attitudes and it was great to see parts of Cornerbrook few would see unless they paid a lot of money to get someone to show it to them :P. Plus, we didn't have the disadvantage of waiting for other people and such. The last night in Cornerbrook, we stayed at Chris' adventure guide friend's place and we got to try Newfoundland screech (not home made) and touton! Touton is really fluffy, fairly salty fried dough, which is often a breakfast food. So good! It was funny because we had to ask a friend of Chris' friend's how they usually cooked the dough when we ate it.
Then we hitch hiked to Woody Point. We got a ride right into town and the first place we stopped was the café because a man we met on the ferry to Port-aux-Basques told us to go to the café and speak to Jennifer. Luckily we didn't ask for Jennifer there, because it was the wrong place. (Good thing, because the coffee wasn't very good.)
The next day, we went to Galiott Studios and we asked for Jennifer and we found her! She was so lovely, gave us some advice as to where we might like to go, and we had some good conversation about our travels. Of course, we had to come back several times because the coffee was so good (turns out, she got her beans from Tasha in Cornerbrook!) and the shop was always so busy, we had to share Jennifer with other people :)
Our campsite in Woody Point was fantastic. Seriously, no other place could match up to this one and we just couldn't leave! In fact, we tried moving on 3 times before we finally could! I think we spend 4-5 night there all together! We camped out by a lovely brook that came off the Tablelands and it was only a 45 minute walk from Woody Point and it wasn't within the Gros Morne park boundaries so it was perfectly legal! Private too, well, except for the moose... They hung out around us during our campfire and nosed our tent while we were sleeping. They were there first though -it seemed almost impossible to get anywhere except the water without stepping on moose poop!
One of the first days, we walked to the Tablelands from our campsite and did the whole hiking trail. (which was weak- it's a walk to a view of a bowl in the tablelands...) At the halfway point, we decided to go much higher than the path lead, all the way up to where it all becomes one rock. There, we decided that it was just too windy and cold to get to the top, so we went back down and walked back to the campsite for dinner. Another day, we took the ferry to Norris Point, meeting the driver, Mike McDonald for the first time. He drives the ferry between Woody Point and Norris Point three times a day, but he also works on the Cat for boat tours and at night, he's a musician. "I Work like crazy for 4 months of the year, relax for 8, so I can't complain," he said to us. When we got off the ferry, we hitch hiked and he was the one to pick us up. Then we went to Gros Morne mountain to camp out and hike the next day. We found a nice brook to camp near, but the water wasn't drinkable and our camp spot wasn't ideal- right in the middle of a moose trail. Sam told me he was concerned, so that night I just couldn't sleep because I kept thinking a moose was going to step on our tent. (this was before the moose sniffed our tent at Woody Point) Then, we realized in the morning that since the water in the brook wasn't drinking water, (it was too dirty) then we didn't have water for the next morning for our hike. Unfortunately, there was no running water in the bathrooms at the entrance of the trail, and beavers in the next brook at the bottom of the mountain, so we didn't even have enough water for the day, much less to complete the whole 16 km, uphill hike. It wouldn't have been too terrible for us to walk 16 km (we've been walking a lot on this trip!) but we were already really thirsty and had no water left. We met someone on the way back that gave us a small water bottle, which was helpful though! "Let's just go back to Woody Point," Sam said. So we took the ferry once again, and met up with Jennifer as soon as we got there. Then, we wanted to go do the Green Gardens hiking trail the next day. It started to rain after we packed up and went to Woody Point for groceries, so we came to our packs and decided that we would just try seeing what's in Trout River and sleep there for new scenery. We didn't find a good café, so we just walked around town and ended up getting a ride back to Woody Point with the same people that took us to Trout River. Funny, there were two rides we got with tourists, and they were both in the same day, and both vehicles drove us twice in the same day! So, once again, we were back in Woody Point :P The next day, I wanted to do the green gardens trail, then head to Norris Point for an Open mic with Mike, the guy on the ferry. Well, it rained that day again, so we went to town to hang out with Jennifer, then went to Norris Point. The only problem was that we really needed to clean our laundry, and dry our stuff and shower because we were getting pretty smelly :S So we asked around for a place to stay, and Mike offered to take us to this hostel he'd stayed at before, even asking the owner if he can give us a deal. Thanks to Mike, we got a nice place to stay, with laundry, a kitchen and comfortable beds. The two rainy days waiting, the money we paid to stay and all the trouble, it was well worth it for this open mic because we had a blast! Jennifer was there with her friends, and we met friends of her friends, some people from Halifax (who we'll meet up with soon,) people from Australia and sailors on a rich guy's yacht. Anyone remember Tom Selleck from Magnum PI? It was his boat... Well, the people from Halifax bought Sam and I beer, then a sailor bought us beer, Sam bought one beer for us to share, Jennifer bought me a beer and I ended up with a floating beer (rufee free, luckily... we decided it would be okay in this tiny little town)
My goodness, what a fun night it was, and the next morning was fine! In the afternoon, however, I wasn't the cheeriest, but we had good luck getting to the ferry. Before it took three days to get to Cornerbrook, this time, it took us one day to get from Woody Point to Port-aux-Basques. (Thanks, in part to our live lobster-gettting friend, Will, Jen's boyfriend...)
Newfoundland was an adventure, one that didn't end on the ferry back to North Sydney. In fact, I really hope to return someday, because I really felt I connected with the place, and I already miss the friends we made there. Particularly Jennifer and everyone around her :) Oh yes, Congrats Jen and Olivia on getting first at the dory race since we left!
I <3 Newfoundland lots and lots!!!!!
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