Distance: about 900km
Elevation: a lot, but who cares?
The weather had changed and it was chilly, foggy, and rainy. But the good thing was that this was no longer a problem for me since I would now be a car driver.
After a coffee and a chat with Wade, I took an Uber to the nearby airport to pick up my rental car.
I had breakfast at Tim Hortons and took the TransCanada Highway 1 going West. This was the same highway I had cycled on coming from the ferry to Argentia. I was still processing my trauma of cycling 70km on this busy road.
It was Sunday, so there were hardly any trucks. And from the perspective of a car driver, this was a good road. But it was absolutely clear that cyclists should not be here.
It was time that the provincial government finished the TransCanada Trail here.
I was told that after leaving the most Southern Avalon Peninsula, the road would become a lot more quiet and safe.
This is how the TransCanada Highway 1 to Port-aux-Basques actually looks like on a Sunday.
Not sure about you but I would not want to cycle this road for 900km! I was very happy about my decision in the second week of this tour to change my ferry to Argentia and explore PEI and Nova Scotia instead.
Newfoundland (and Labrador) is different from other Canadian provinces as it actually used to be an independent country up until 1948.
After the Italian Sailor Giovanni Caboto had “discovered” the island in 1497 for England – the Vikings led by Leif Erickson had been here already around 1000 – it was used as a basis for English, Portuguese, French and Spanish fishing and whaling crews in the 15th century.
The English had converted the name of the Italian explorer to “John Cabot” later on and most people thought today that he had been an Englishman.
As of 1610, Newfoundland became officially a British colony and later in 1910, a so-called Dominion of the British Empire, just like Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
Newfoundland is a third of the size of Germany and has less than half a million inhabitants. So, how much can you actually go see in just two days?
The inland is pretty much hills with rocks, forests and lakes. It is beautiful but gets repetitive after a while.
The coastline offered more variety for me so after a coffee stop in Clarenville, I drove all the way to Salvage on the tip of the Eastport Peninsula.
It was beautiful and wild up there. But it was also a very tough and simple life.
On the way back, I stopped for an early dinner in Charlottetown in the Terra Nova National Park.
Then I took on the Bonavista Peninsula which is south of Eastport.
Here I had booked myself a wooden cabin on a campground in Princeton – and paid just 30 Dollars for it.
I was happy about having seen so much today but I did not feel as fulfilled as after a day of cycling. Also, my body did hurt way more.
But it had been worth it.