Day 14 Clarenville to St. John's Area

Our trip is on one of it's last legs today, on to St. John's to see the sites. Planned to see many sites on this day but plans seem to always be led astray! Weather was misty and cool, not the best for site seeing! Then we reached St. John's to find the roads a mess with construction blocking us everywhere we went. We managed a drive through Quidi Vidi to begin with, but found no place to park to get out and experience the place. That was disappointment number one. Seems like a wonderful place to spend some time though. The streets in St. John's are confusing as all get out, never knew if we were actually going where we wanted!

Quidi Vidi to Johnson Geo Centre

Became disoriented in Quid Vidi and ended up taking a longer route to the Geo Centre, even longer when we were hit with a detour due to construction. The route I show above is only an apporximation, not really sure how we made it! But we did, and another disappointment both the Geo Centre and Signal Hill were closed as there was no water supply due to mains replacement. So we walked around the grounds of the Geo Museum for a bit, talked back at the care and because of the wet and foggy weather decided that we would just explore a bit on the way to our B%B for the night. Weather was getting worse through the day.

Johnson Geo Centre to Witless Bay

We drove to Witless Bay from the Geo Centre and our B&B but, my mistake, I hadn't booked the one we went to and hadn't changed our schedule to the correct one. We also got lost in trying to find the B&B, but soon found it. The owner was of the B&B went and checked her records and, yes, I handn't confirmed this one (it was more expensive than the one I did book but didn't change the schedule) but we were in luck, she still had a room available. So we took it as I didn't know I had booked a different one. I contacted the other place and we didn't get charged for it thank goodness. The B&B was wonderful with a huge sitting room, snacks put out for all the visitors who all decided that the day was only meant for sitting in a warm, dry, comfy room. Went for supper at a small restaurant in town, staff were a lot of fun and the food was good at a nice price. So the mistake, the embarrasment on my part, all worked out great for our last night on the Rock!

Witless Bay to Home

After breakfast at the B&B we were off for our last day on the Rock. We were taking the "Irish Loop" around the Avalon Peninsula planning stops in Ferryland a very early British settlement, Trepassey at the south end of the peninsula and then to our ferry home. Again the clock determined how many and how long our stops were as we had to be at the ferry by 3 pm to ensure we didn't lose our reservation and cabin. We actually reached Placentia a bit early but that was ok as as the day went on the fog came in and we couldn't see anything anyways, basically our last stop was in Ferryland, after that it was slow going in the fog. Looks like a great area to visit from what we could see.

We checked in for the ferry and lined up to load. All went quickly and we found our cabin where we had a window looking outside which as nice, the cabins are well laid out and comfy if a little tight in space. The ride was overnight so we would be sleeping in the cabin. For supper instead of going to the buffet area we used the more expensive restaurant and had a good meal with great service. That made a nice ending to our time in Newfoundland.

The next morning we arrived in Sydney River on schedule, docking the ferry there was a tricky, slow manouver and then unloading took a bit. We had to reload our luggage as we required room for Maggie as we were picking her up on the way home from the ferry. To say she was excited would be an understatement! She ran back and forth between us, not figuring out who should give her attention first. She was anxious to get in the car and leave the kennel! We then drove home where our cat let us know she wasn't happy with us, for two days all she did was "talk" to us letting us know.

Our trip to Newfoundland was well worth it, even with the weather's ups and downs. We enjoyed the whole trip, at total of 4037 km of driving plus ferry time. I would love to go back in the future only this time have more time. Maybe some day we will. Longer stays in some areas would be great, Gros Morne N.P., L'Anse aux Meadows area, Twillingate, Fogo Island and Terra Nova N.P. would be some areas I would like to stay for a few days each. And to get back to St. John's and spend time there when things are open would be great, stay downtown and not have to try to drive around town would be wonderful!