Driving to St. John's

The drive from St. Anthony to St. John's is roughly 1050km and 11 hours without stops. Who in their right mind would take on that trek especially after having gotten up early on drive day to take an iceberg tour? Well certainly not us, even we aren't that crazy despite some of the lengthy drives we've had on this trip. We broke the drive up with two stops in between. We did end up driving back on the Viking Trail because there is no other road on the east side of the peninsula where St. Anthony is located that brings you to St. John's. St. John's is on the most easterly side of Newfoundland. Seemed a little strange but if you see how remote and rugged the trrrain is between most of the towns, it's understandable that the fastest route was to double back. This gave us the opportunity to be on the coastline side as we drove through all the small fishing villages and through Gros Morne National Park. 

Our first stop was in Springdale; still a long 6 hour drive from St. Anthony. Because our tour had been delayed it did get us on the road a little later than we originally planned so we didn't have time to stop in the park to do any hiking. We pretty much just drove straight through. With such long driving time swapping drivers is key to ensuring one doesn't get too tired potentially putting both of us in danger. It all worked out and I figured out that I'm best at driving in the morning than in the afternoon.the Viking Trail, or route 430 brought us to Hwy 1, or TCH as they seem to sign it in Newfoundland, in The community of Deer Lake. From there we continued on to Springdale, our stop for the night. Along this journey we once again saw a moose, this time on the side of the TCH. This one had the full antlers and ended up running back into the forest after being scared off from the traffic noise. I was driving at this point and could see him a ways down the road. He was very pronounced and not difficult to see; quite the large creature. 

In Springdale we stayed at a fairly new inn nestled along the Indian River. This was a great little stay even if it was for only one night. We had a river view from our room and in the morning we went for a nice walk on a trail beside the river. We saw a couple local men wading out of the river with their morning salmon catch. Guess what they might have been having for dinner that night. There river also spared to be a great place for bird watching. After our morning walk we set out to keep on schedule to get to St. John's. from Springdale to St. John's is another 5.5 hour direct drive. But we of course decided that taking the long way around and detouring ourselves completely out of the way to Bonavista would be the way to go. So instead of that 5.5 hour drive we drove just shy of 5 hours to Bonavista. This drive took us through Terra Nova National Park. Throughout our entire travels we had no issues outside of missing half of the Cabot Trail due to a motor vehicle accident. Our luck changed in Terra Nova National Park through no fault of ours. We were driving along when a truck travelling in the opposite direction threw a rock in the air which struck our windshield and caused a sizeable ding. So unfortunate because now we would have to deal with this upon returning the vehicle. 

We arrived in Bonavista early afternoon which gave us plenty of time to see the sights. We stayed at the Harbour Quarters Inn, a heritage inn built in circa 1920 and restored in 2004. Each room is furnished with locally made furniture and the inn is located right in the harbour. Looking from the property to the North Atlantic, we could again see an iceberg floating by. Our first sightseeing stop was the Ryan Premises, a national historic site. The significance of this site was learning about the local fishery which influenced settlement, culture and economic development on the east coast for more than 500 years. The site consists of 5 separate building, each showcasing different exhibits pertaining to the fishery and life as both a fisherman and a fish merchant. 

Bonavista is thought to be where John Cabot first spied land in the New World during his 1497 voyage from Britain. It's his report of abundant cod stocks that enticed centuries of English and Irish settlers to fish there in the summer months. On the road to the town's lighthouse, you can find a large statue of John Cabot on a hill overlooking the sea. Cape Bonavista lighthouse was first lit in 1843. The life of a lighthouse keeper was a difficult, yet extremely important, one with gruelling long hours. From the lighthouse we followed the main road to The Dungeon. This is a massive collapsed sea cave formed by the restless pounding of the North Atlantic waves against this rock formation. You can get some good views of the dungeon up close, but be vary of the signs that indicate that should you fall in it is difficult to get out. 

From there we venture to our last sightseeing spot. Z said he wasn't leaving Newfoundland until he saw a puffin and he was serious. We ventured out to a somewhat remote area about 20 minutes away where he read that he was guaranteed to see puffins. Fingers crossed his intel was correct because we only had a few hours of daylight left and the next morning we needed to move on to St. John's. We arrived and had to walk a few hundred metres before we came to the edge of the coastline and just another few hundred metres across the sea on a large rocky formation were the puffins. A whole lot of puffins, along with their seagull friends. Puffins are a small little bird. They have a cute face with a. Lack and red beak. The Atlantic puffin also known as the common puffin population has declined significantly and they are now rated as vulnerable by the IUCN. It was interesting watching these little puffins as they took off to fly and dive into the ocean to feed. We both thought they had a funny landing and looked somewhat like a helicopter landing; though maybe not as steady as a helicopter. There was a large number of puffins hanging out in this area and it satisfied someone's need so we could safely move on with our trip the next day. 

The next day we had another 3.5 hour drive ahead of us to get us to our final destination, St. John's. All along we were very fortunate to have had good weather and not much rain. The most rain we experienced until this day was one afternoon while we were driving and so it really didn't matter. Our luck ran out that morning. The rain started and was rather heavy at times. The great part about it was that we were in the vehicle and by now the vehicle was absolutely filthy with dead bugs stuck all over the front grill and hood. The rain washed all that away and we didn't feel guilty about returning a dirty vehicle. The drive was pretty noneventful and as I started to dose, which I easily can do on long road trips, Z yells moose. We saw another moose at the side of the TCH. Because I was dosing I wasn't camera ready and so Z did try to circle back because the moose stayed by the side of the road for awhile, but just as we were approaching several other cars came around the bend and scared the poor moose back into the woods. 

We arrived at St. John's airport to return the vehicle and thankfully didn't have too much trouble with the car rental agent given the windshield ding. After filing the incident report we were on our way to catch a taxi to our hotel.