Day 1 Route Description

Our trip to Newfoundland and Labrador started early on the morning of June 15, 2017, getting ourselves ready and loading up the car with all of our "stuff" for a departure from the house by 7 am. First off was the drive to the Goodhands Dog Kennel where Maggie was staying for the duration of our trip. She had stayed there during the visit by Devin and Kerry when we drove to Boston to pick them up and then tour them around. She recognized the kennel and wasn't too happy about staying again!

From the kennel it was the quick trip to the Marine Atlantic ferry terminal to check in for the ride over to Port aux Basque, Newfoundland. We had reserved our ferry ride much earlier, the rules are be there at least 1 hour before departure or you lose your reservation so we wanted to be there close to 2 hours before just to ensure everything went well. No problems, we checked in and parked our car in the line for the ferry, many had arrived even before us! We spent some time in the terminal reading, then walked around the car line up area for a bit, meeting a wonderful Golden Lab dog who reminded us so much of our dog, Moose. Time seemed to drag like it does in that situation but soon it was loading time. We watched the loading of the big trucks first then it was our turn to drive up the ramp and onto the ferry, as soon as we hit the ferry ramp Karen had to leave the car, all the external mirrors turned in and I drove up against the outer edge of the ferry, it was clear that the passenger doors wouldn't open once I was parked! Grabbed the stuff I was taking on the ferry for the seven hour ride, met up with Karen at the bottom of the stairs and up we went to our reserved seats. We had a great view out of the windows during our journey. Lunch was had on board during the trip which was held on a bright, sunny day and was very smooth with verty little ship movement.

We watched the northern pensinsula of Cape Breton Island go past on the port side as we sailed over the Gulf of St. Lawrence to Newfoundland. It was the first time for both of us to be out on the ocean with no land in sigth for hours. Wide open spaces like never before! Since I can't stand sitting for along time I did get up and walk around and explore a bit talking to fellow passengers and just wandering. Soon Newfoundland started to appear on the horizon, one of the fist impressions was snow on the hills ahead of us!

Entry to the harbour at Port aux Basque is tricky, there is an island in the middle of the tight harbour and the ferry had a few tight turns to make then a very tight 180 turn to get into the dock where we could drive off the ferry. It was impressive how the ferry could basically turn in its own length to accomplish the docking. Soon it was our turn to drive off the ferry and head to our hotel in Port aux Basque. We could almost see our hotel from the exit of the ship but it was a tricky drive to get to where we could get into town proper. We made it thanks to our GPS and reached the hotel which had a view out over the harbour. Supper and a short walk outside finished off our first day on our trip.