NL Caravan 2016

[honda03842]

First, one member of the Caravan driving to Port aux Basques had a trailer trip flip over just a couple of minutes in front of him due to strong side winds. Winds can be strong in Newfoundland, we stayed in an ocean front campground where they have had picnic tables scatter around the campground from the winds in the winter.

Second, we're in Notre Dame Provincial Park, camped on the water. We have never had a phone signal here. With T-Mobile we have four bars. Three of our electric devices are tethered off T-mobile and at the same time we're watching ESPN2 live from the states on my phone. A very impressive performance.

Norm

[kapat]

We just returned to Newfoundland after a 4 day trip to Labrador. It was more rugged and remote than Newfoundland.... beautiful and undeveloped. We saw a lot of large icebergs, beautiful rivers, and one black bear on the return trip from Mary's Harbour. If you visit Red Bay, order the fish and chips at the Whaler's Station restaurant...delicious! The one issue would be the roads....full of potholes....with the gravel roads better than the paved ones. We enjoyed this spectacular countryside so much that we are planning a return trip to drive the trans-Labrador hwy.

[honda03842]

Lunch with Scouter Dave.
For those of you have asked about David Shaw, we had lunch with him at Scouter Dave at Rosie's in Gander. He was his usual engaging self. He's picking up a used Bigfoot this June to continue his travels.

He took us to Rosie's in Gander for lunch, great food. I had the Mess, homemade fries covered in fresh turkey, stuffing, grilled onions and Gravy.

Things are still great. Tonight in Notre Dame Provincial Park, camped beside a lake for $17 cnd a night. We:re heading north to Twillingate and Fogo Island. Next step Dido Run Provincial Park.

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[Alf S.]

Originally Posted by honda03842

Lunch with Scouter Dave.
For those of you have asked about David Shaw, we had lunch with him at Scouter Dave at Rosie's in Gander. He was his usual engaging self. He's picking up a used Bigfoot this June to continue his travels.

He took us to Rosie's in Gander for lunch, great food. I had the Mess, homemade fries covered in fresh turkey, stuffing, grilled onions and Gravy.

Things are still great. Tonight in Notre Dame Provincial Park, camped beside a lake for $17 cnd a night. We:re heading north to Twillingate and Fogo Island. Next step Dido Run Provincial Park.

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Hi: honda03842... After a lunch like that I'd expect hardening of the arteries to set in soon. Add a heap of cheese curds and you'd have Poutine!!!
Great place to eat in Wildwood Fl. Miz Kathi's Cotillion and Sweetery.Miz Kathi´s Cotillion Southern Café - Where all food is served A.S.A.P, As Southern As Possible I had The Train Wreck. Here's a pic
Alf S. North shore of Lake Erie

[honda03842]

Alf, It did come with cheese but I opted out on the cheese. I was barely able to eat what I had. Typically Ginny and I would split one, she had cod. Thanks for the tip. I keep a list.

[swanie]

We did this trip last year (end of August) Great weather. Went from West Coast ferry across province. Incredible journey. Love reading your posts.
My sister-in-law's property with Trillium on it is still for sale if anyone interested. This is in Cappahaden, NF. This way you can have a permanent spot overlooking N Atlantic and picking berries, seeing whales and icebergs!

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by swanie

We did this trip last year (end of August) Great weather. Went from West Coast ferry across province. Incredible journey. Love reading your posts.
My sister-in-law's property with Trillium on it is still for sale if anyone interested. This is in Cappahaden, NF. This way you can have a permanent spot overlooking N Atlantic and picking berries, seeing whales and icebergs!

Swanie,

Send me a PM with info on the property in Cappahayden. At least one member of the Caravan may be interested.

[honda03842]

1. It was fun to share our love for Newfoundland with 10 Newbies.

2. It was easy. I suspect there are many on the site that could run a short or long Caravan around their special part of North America.

3. The Loose Nature of the Caravan was successful at least from my perspective. In a sense it feedback to the group possibilities.

4. I learned a lot from this trip and could refine it.

5. 2 of the 6 rigs had significant problems, One had two tires replaced (hard to find tires) and lost a wheel bearing and subsequently broke a brake drum.
Another had brake issues requiring replacement of brake lines and a master cylinder distribution block as well as spark plug and distributor cap. issues. All problems were resolved with help from 'we didn't know any of them' friendly Newfoundlanders.

6. Simple things can be difficult. One member was going to rush out and get an oil change like in the States, after four service center tries and four hours he got a simple oil change. Here it's expected you'll make an appointment.

7. All in all, after a couple of weeks people were comfortable with Newfoundland and fully capable of bounding about by themselves, each particularly pleased with the friendliness of the people of Newfoundland.

11155

[Cathi]

Was so glad to follow your caravan and see all of the photos. A wonderful adventure in a wonderful place.

Hope we will hear from some of the other people who went, and see some more photos.

Some of the rest of us will surely make this trip.

[honda03842]

Originally Posted by Cathi

Was so glad to follow your caravan and see all of the photos. A wonderful adventure in a wonderful place.

Hope we will hear from some of the other people who went, and see some more photos.

Some of the rest of us will surely make this trip.

I suspect you'll see more posts when people return to their homes. Most don't have the Internet access that I do. The T=mobile phone has worked very well. Here I sit in Notre Dame Provincial park with total access.

They all certainly took tons of pictures and some are even 'smuggling' bergy bits home with them in their freezers.

This year has been the coolest and rainiest Ginny and I have experienced in NL. The last couple of days Ginny and I went to look at a beautiful piece of property on the east coast, on a cliff overlooking the Atlantic, if I were only younger. The best part was meeting the neighbors, just the nicest couple, almost enough to cause me to buy the property. The most common comment from the group is "the people are wonderful".

Keep your eyes on the thread, I'm sure there will be more pictures, or better yet come for yourself.

[honda03842]

This is Newfoundland.
A person from Frv told me about this property, see it in an earlier post, a nice piece of property, so one foggy rainy day Ginny and I broke the rules and drove over 200 miles to see it.

It's an acre on the edge of a cliff in Cappahayden, NL. Cappahayden is a town of 60 people, we now know to of them.

The property has a non- road worthy Trillium with a small patio and a shed. Formerally people grew potatoes. It is presently the end of the East Coast trail that runs from North of St. John's.

I'll attach a few pictures. The pole with the marker defines the trail, a true walking path. Below the cliff in front of the property it is rocky, but to the immediate South it's sandy.

The property is located right behind the post office attached to a nice white house. Two wonderful people live here. The invited us in for tea and biscuits and we chatted for an hour or so. He told us about hunting eider ducks and catching cod.

These people would not starve if the world went upside down. They were almost enough reason to buy it.

Here's the pictures. The ground looks rough because it was used to plant potatoes.



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[OhTom]

I sure am enjoying this post. It's somewhere I have always been curious about, but just don't think I will ever get to see it in person. So, for now, I am content to live vicariously through you, Norm and Ginny. I have a nephew that travels their once a year for business and he has said the same thing about how wonderful the people are.

[honda03842]

Tom, The people are very nice in Newfoundland...of course Ginny tells me that people are nice everywhere and most are. It amazes me when people we don't know go out of their way for us or members of the caravan. Of course I'm a little biased when it comes to Newfoundland.

We head out to Fogo Island in the morning with good weather in the forecast. In Newfoundland a sign of good weather here is the Caplin coming in to breed. In some measure coming to Newfoundland is a reminder of how life used to be and in the knowledge of that past visitor's lives are also extended.

[WDavidG]

We’re just back in Vermont from Norm and Ginny’s and Scouter Dave’s fiberglass caravan to Newfoundland (we returned after five weeks, many of the participants are still there exploring). If you’ve been reading Norm’s posts over the past year you know he promised a lot in the way of a wonderful place and we’re pleased to report that Newfoundland exceeded his promises in every way. We experienced extraordinarily beautiful scenery, wonderful people, and great music. The icebergs appeared in abundance and our visit to the L’Anse aux Meadows Viking site happened to coincide with the day that the recreated Viking ship Draken made its first north American landing after sailing from Norway. Norm and Ginny were, as you would guess, the perfect hosts supporting and encouraging us while, in the spirit of the “loose” caravan, letting all of us wander about as the spirit moved us. Here are a few photos – I’m sure others will be posting some as well.

[honda03842]

Nice pictures David and Susan, glad you had a great time and return trip to VT. We're on Fogo Island at Brimstone Head parked in the Lions Club Campground. The picture is what you see out the front window of our Scamp. We'll see it all week because it's grounded, imagine 9 times as much ice below the water line.

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[honda03842]

It's clearing, a better shot of Our iceberg for the week.

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[Mike Magee]

Originally Posted by honda03842

This is Newfoundland.
A person from Frv told me about this property, see it in an earlier post, a nice piece of property, so one foggy rainy day Ginny and I broke the rules and drove over 200 miles to see it.

It's an acre on the edge of a cliff in Cappahayden, NL. Cappahayden is a town of 60 people, we now know to of them.

The property has a non- road worthy Trillium with a small patio and a shed. Formerally people grew potatoes. It is presently the end of the East Coast trail that runs from North of St. John's.

I'll attach a few pictures. The pole with the marker defines the trail, a true walking path. Below the cliff in front of the property it is rocky, but to the immediate South it's sandy.

The property is located right behind the post office attached to a nice white house. Two wonderful people live here. The invited us in for tea and biscuits and we chatted for an hour or so. He told us about hunting eider ducks and catching cod.

These people would not starve if the world went upside down. They were almost enough reason to buy it.

Here's the pictures. The ground looks rough because it was used to plant potatoes.

Norm, how much are they asking for that property?

[honda03842]

Mike, $18,000,it's been for sale for a couple of years.

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[honda03842]

Winter in Tilting by Robert Mellin

This is a wonderful book that will add to your view of the world. It goes along way to explaining the Newfoundland culture, of growing an understanding of what made/makes NL special.

I am only a little way into the book, I'm typically a rocket reader, but this one makes me stop and question, it well be a slow read, just like a visit to Newfoundland.

I'm naturally a slow traveler, Newfoundland deserves slow travel, it deserves taking time to see what's here. 'See' I've come to realize is simply not grasping an image, but a more deeper view and understanding what makes up the image.

It's like going to Mt. Rushmore and seeing the result, seeing the result without understanding the process,without imagining the effort, the creativity misses the images you should have.

This book will make you think differently.

I admittedly love NL, of course I love the stunning views, the hikes, the food, but most of all the people, their way, their culture. This is not found in a drive by...

[honda03842]

Hike and shorts day.
Yesterday was our first shorts day so we took a hike out to the Lions Den trail. It's not super long, the main trail is 5.4 km, though there are numerous side trails, but it's truly up and down, rocky hilly country.

There used to be four small communities out here eking out a living between farming and fishing. Everywhere you look there are fields of berries, my favorite is Partridge berry, a tart Cranberry like berry, I've eaten 3-4 jars since we arrived.

We were tired by the end. It was beautiful, you could have stopped aby where for the day, or maybe even a lifetime. We met a few other hikers, we met one lady who walks it every day. Newfoundlanders are real walkers, you can be no where and find a Newfoundland Walker, and the walking is never on flat ground, and often they're walking alone.

I wish I were a young boy here, I've be all over the place, climbing every Hill, walking every value. Looking about just makes you feel good. Fogo island is special, but it's true of the whole island.

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