From St. John’s we had a couple of different options as we had 2-4 days to cross Newfoundland – We had a couple of different options to get across Newfoundland:
- Twillingate – Highly recommended – best known for watching iceburgs and whales from the coast – but we were too late in the year.
- Bonavista – Northeastern most portion of Newfoundland – scenary and free camping
- East Coast Trail – Hike more on the east coast – we had only done a small portion of the trail
- Gander – Gander was where 30+ transatlantic flights diverted on 9/11….the musical “Come From Away” plays from mid-summer until; 9/11 each year.
- Deer Creek Lake – There is a 500 mile rail-trail across the country – I needed to get a 5 hour training ride in and this was a good segment.
We decided to stay in Bonavista and Twillingate, skip more east coast trail, and stop at the exhibit in Gander (skipping the show), and do a shorter bike ride in Deer Lake.
Bonavista
Bonavista sits at the northern tip of Newfoundland’s northeast coast and was the first land sighted by John Cabot in 1497. This is the farthest from home we got on the trip – A perspectrive:
- 1,350 miles as the crow flies – almost halfway to Iceland
- Actual miles driven 2,280 – same as driving to Barstow California
We went to the end of the peninsula and were looking around while scouting out the free camping sitation. Very scenic and sighs indiciate places you could definately camp in an RV, places that you could maybe camp – but had roaming cows, horses, sheep, and goats. After doing some hiking, we decided maybe not the best set up for our first night camping. We got a cabin and waked to a decent place for dinner for more fish and chips.
Twillingate
From Bonavista we drove through heavy rain to get to the fishing village of Twillingate. Right as we got into town, the sun started to peak through. We checked into the AirBNB and were assgined “The Maxwell Suite” (which is my mom’s maiden name) and headed out for a hike. The guy checking us in pointed us in a different direction for a hike towards a lighthouse – was awesome with dramatic cliffs and great sunlight.
[Travel Notes
Newfoundland runs on its own time zone — Newfoundland Standard Time, + 1:30 from East Coast — a half-hour offset that catches most visitors off guard at least once. The island is large: driving from St. John’s to Twillingate is roughly 340 kilometres and takes 4–5 hours; to Gros Morne another 3–4 hours beyond that. Cell coverage on the Trans-Canada is reasonable but drops off quickly on the peninsula routes to Bonavista and Twillingate. Fuel up whenever you see a station on the peninsulas — the gaps are longer than they look on the map.]
Pictures from Twillingate
Gander/Deer Creek
The day starting raining again and we stopped in Gander. The North Atlantic Avainion Muesum had a nice exhibit on the 9/11 passengers stranded for over a week when the planes in flight were forced to land. Over 7.000 people showed up with nowhere to stay and the townspeople took them in and took care of them.
Long before 9/11, Gander was the worlds largest airport – initially for transition for military places in WW2 and then as a refueling stop for transatlatic flights up until the 1970s
By the time we got to Deer Creek, it was still pouring and we drove straight through to Gros Morne.
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