Driving Day

We awoke this morning to the sound of familiar birds… chickadees.  We took this as a good omen and broke camp, eager to begin our exploration of Newfoundland.  Our plan is to visit as much of the island as we can.  

Newfoundland is a much larger island than Nova Scotia, about 400 miles from stem to stern.  It is also much less populated.  Only about 500,000 folks live on the entire island, with nearly a fifth living in St. John's metropolitan area.  We were happy to be back in wilderness again.

A gentleman that David had spoken with suggested that we travel along the Little Grand Lake  Provisional Ecological Preserve to see moose.  So we detoured from the Trans Canadian Highway (TCH) to Hwy. 480.

We drove for an hour or more along the edge of the refuge, even taking a gravel road deep into the area.  We saw nothing but a few trucks along the side of the road... most likely hunters.  In fact, we saw no animals... period.  It felt odd to be in such wilderness without so much as a squirrel darting across the road.

We arrived at the Notre Dame Provincial Park early in the evening.  Tired from the day's drive, we were surprised that the rangers chose our campsite for us rather than letting us determine one best for us.  Unfortunately, they parked us near a rig using their generator.

We decided Roxanne needed a stretch, so we walked up to the entry station to check the generator operation policy.  While most campgrounds allow limited use of generators, we were shocked to learn that the provincial parks in Newfoundland allow generators to run from early morning until midnight.  We went into a fitful sleep to the drone of generators, determined to leave first thing in the morning.