Mention Newfoundland to anyone who is from there, or has visited there, or knows someone who knows someone who has talked to someone who may or may not be have been there one time, say the phrase ‘road trip’ in conversation, and I guarantee you, the next next thing said will be:

“Has anyone warned you about the moose?”

There are thousands of moose in Newfoundland. (No snakes, in case you were wondering.) Numerous collisions with moose happen every year, and the moose almost always walk away them but of course, the humans, not so much. “Never drive at twilight“, “Watch out for moose“, and our favourite phrase “Keep your moose eyes on” were said to us constantly. There were also signs posted everywhere with updated numbers of collisions in 2016. So you can understand both our worry and also curiosity about seeing moose on our travels. 

But I will start at the beginning.
It was early Wednesday evening when we arrived at North Sydney where the ferry would take us to Port-Aux-Basques (along the west coast), and I had butterflies like I do before a big flight because in truth, we would end up on the ship for almost 10 hours overnight and awake in Newfoundland!!

So the ferry is pretty cool. 🙂

If you don’t want to pay extra for reserved seats or a room on the ship, you get your pick of a reclining chair on the same level of the ship that has a bar/restaurant, gift shop, and 24 hour snack bar. There are TVs if you want to watch something, but on the night ferry it seems most people bring their sleeping bags or blankets and pillows, and sleep in their chairs- or on the floor!

(Okay, so even I ended up sleeping on the floor, which is a lot like camping (but warmer),  and woke up to the “one-hour to arrival” announcement and a view of: you guessed it. Fog.) 
We drove to Steady Brook and our accomodation at our first Airbnb, close to Marble Mountain and the Humber River. Our host Yvan was super welcoming, and we soon met his roommates Brittany and Adam, then a friend who stopped by for an afternoon beer, and our new buddy John, who was planning on showing us the local (west coast of the Rock) sites and local adventures. We took a quick hike up to see the Steady Brook waterfall, which a remarkably easy effort for the incredible reward of a view of a giant waterfall that looks like espresso tumbling over rocks.

 We also got to watch a group of zip liners crisis-crossing the vast valley over the waterfall, which immediately sold me on wanting to join in, and simultaneously terrified Tara-Lee.

Our plan to spend a couple days in  St John’s meant that we had to drive all the way across the province, but not before stopping into Deer Lake to go up to the navigation tower at the Deer Lake airport to see John’s “office”! We brought him a coffee, and we got to watch him work through two planes taking off, and he showed us some of the tools and techniques he used to check weather, pass on info to pilots, and communicate with other airports. 

It was extremely fascinating! (And with the speedy technical radio chatter, it was almost like listening to another language!)

We arrived in St John’s to rain and low fog, and the drive across Newfoundland kind of made us feel at home with rolling foothills and lakes, and lots of highway construction. Dozens of kilometers of highway construction, to be exact. 

We stayed at a cute little house walking distance of George Street, the famous downtown strip where numerous pubs and restaurants (and music venues) are found all in one place. There are some fun stores to window-shop or find some great souvenirs – a lot of local artists are showcased- and we also stopped into The Rocket for a homemade lemon tart and hot tea.

We actually bar-hopped Thursday night to check out three spots. Our St John’s 3-bar-crawl, if you like. 

We started at the Duke of Duckworth (where they film Republic Of Doyle) for fish and chips, and ended up sitting next to a couple of lighting designers just finishing up a contract for an event coming up for Canada Day. 
We then got to O’Riley’s Pub and caught a local band with a trio of guitar, fiddle and bass, a great dance floor and second level packed with people. It was a lively crowd and great local tunes, so we enjoyed one set before venturing to our third venue, Shamrock City, for the band we had been recommended to see: Middle Tickle.

Aside from having a pretty bad sound mix (and no actual sound person in sight), the band was top notch and were a powerful quintet of fiddle, mandolin, guitar, bass, and drums. We had a great time and seemed to be the only out-of-towners, as it felt like absolutely everyone knew absolutely everyone else there!

 We awoke to another grey and rainy day with the familiar blanket of low fog and cloud, but were absolutely looking forward to brunch at Mallard Cottage, a restaurant we were told was a MUST and so we had made a reservation for 10am. 

We arrived in the adorable neighborhood of Quidi Vidi, a colourful fishing spot down along the water. We drove right past the adorable little white and green house-turned-restaurant, and were delighted to find the front door and step inside the most charming interior of a restaurant I think I have ever been in. 

First of all, the song we heard as we walked in the door was one of my favourites (Veneer by Jose Gonzáles), and the mix of tunes they played while we ate brunch were right in the genre of our road trip soundtrack! You could say that the experience started on a high note. 😉

The cozy atmosphere and hand-written changed-daily menu on the chalkboard wall was delightful.  It’s the kind of place you’d like to stay in, if it was a B&B or some such thing. 

Apparently they have a writer-in-residence that came about like this: this writer would come by every day for breakfast or tea or dessert and spend all afternoon there. So they invited her to stay. 🙂

And not surprisingly, the food was divine. And very generous serving sizes! We regretted not checking out the dessert buffet table before ordering and eating, as we didn’t plan well and had no room to spare. 

Not only is the place a MUST, we think it’s a “MUST every time you are in St. John’s”, and we’ll be back for sure.

Next on our activities list: an iceberg boat tour. Following brunch, we made our way down to the waterfront. 
As a full boat of adults bundled up and armed with cameras, including a group of adult girl guides dressed in purple (not the “Red Hat Ladies” as we first guessed), and our crew of Matt, Sheldon, Alex, and our Captain Derek, we set out from the harbour towards Cape Spear, the furthest eastern point of North America, and out to find some icebergs.

It was windy and cold but the ocean was pretty calm, and we came upon two small icebergs relatively soon. We circled them a few times to get some photos and in hopes that a small piece might fall off as we watched, but the water was too calm and no waves crashed against the ice to encourage that. 

We meandered back towards the harbour and a few of the passengers spotted a whale as we turned around, but it was stealthy and barely its fin appeared again before wee made our way back to shore. 

The coastline looked like something out of a movie, and definitely made us think of the shores of Scotland or Ireland in the mist and fog.

We were absolutely delighted to warm up at our next Airbnb before heading out to catch the Opera’s Sweeney Todd that night.

 Our host Brian arrived at the door to greet us along with his friendly dog Bo, and invited us into the living room where he has a beautiful fire going in the wood burning stove. He served us tea and crackers with bakeapple jam. Bakeapple is a type of berry that looks sort of like a large yellow raspberry and doesn’t taste like any fruit I’ve ever had before. I liked it!

Brian is a musician, and now that he’s retired, he likes having his home open to Airbnb guests, and he clearly has a soft spot for animals as his dog and cat are both rescues. We felt right at home, like we were just visiting a neighbor or long lost uncle. He even played the piano a bit while we were ther even. It was lovely.
That night we went to see the opening night of Sweeney Todd, and really enjoyed ourselves! The leads were all exceptionally strong, and the crowd jumped to their feet at the end.  

In the morning Brian made us pancakes (though all the while proclaiming he didn’t know how to make pancakes), with fresh blueberries and locally-made (from all the neighbourhood maple trees!) maple syrup. 

Did you know to make maple syrup you boil 40 parts sap to get 1 part syrup? No wonder it’s such a pricey treat!
We took off back for Steady Brook with a tentative plan to veer off course for a quick (?!) detour up to Twillingate or some such place on our way back. The weather started off grey and ominous but actually turned out quite pleasant and we had a completely different view driving west (i.e.: we could actually see what we were driving past!). 

Our arrival in Steadybrook was easy and we already felt like we were staying with friends at Yvan’s Airbnb so it was only fitting no one was there when we arrived so we made ourselves at home and spent some time relaxing on the hammocks in the backyard.

On Sunday we decided to check out Gros Morne and the various views and hikes and activities it offered, as our ‘tour guide’ John had thrown out his back a couple of days before and couldn’t do much at all let alone take us out exploring. Nevertheless, the kitchen party (or Sunday Fun-day, as they also called it) was definitely the plan that night.

Gros Morne could have been a week worth of our vacation with all the places to go and various things you could do. 

We checked out the Table Lands, a couple of waterfalls, and enjoyed the drive along the shore. 

We ended up driving along the south side of the bay to Woody Point and checking out the charming coastline, ‘main street’, and some local folk art that we almost purchased.

The landscape here is gorgeous. All the sapphire blue lakes and luscious green hills, and some magical blue sky that graced us for part of the day, just made it all breathtaking.

The kitchen party was a raucous event that went into the wee hours, with friends and coworkers of our hosts showing up with more and more beer, and we even got some music by way of Adam playing accordion and later guitar. We tried Iceberg Water beer, had chocolate cake that John made that was to die for, and we even had a bonfire. It was fantastic.

The next day, our last hurrah in Newfoundland, I was adamant that I wanted to zip line on Marble Mountain. Most of the guys and some of the girls at the kitchen party worked for Marble Zip Tours and were telling Tara-Lee how incredibly safe it was and helped me convince her to do it. 

The best part was, we booked to go at a time when there were no other people so it was a private trip down with just the two of us and two guides (one of whom was at the party last night)!
What’s so scary about ziplining 2000 feet across and hundreds of feet up in the air over a waterfall and rocks 8 or 9 times?

It. Was. AWESOME. Phenomenal. thrilling. Wicked. I loved it. 

(And by the end, I think Tara-Lee didn’t hate it, either.) 

The lines got more spectacular (and longer) as we went. At one point we did a ‘trust fall’ to start one line. You stand with your heels hanging over the ramp and hold out your arms and fall back, then zip line across. It felt crazy and exhilarating. 

This was by far the best zip line course I had ever done.

(I caught a moment of Tara-Lee zooming across. Hopefully the video works!)

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At one point, the guys asked if I wanted to run off the deck of the line we had just completed and just hang out over the falls for a bit and then they’d come out and get me. (I did and it was amazing, but sadly there is no photo because I left my phone with Tara-Lee and she didn’t get a shot. Next time I think I must do a selfie. 🙂
We couldn’t really top that experience so we drove south to Port-Aux-Basques to take the ferry back to Nova Scotia, and as a bonus got to see the ‘strawberry’ moon on the drive, even before twighlight!
Now the question I’m sure you have is: did we see the oh-so-infamous moose that every single last person told us about?
The answer: no. 😀

After another night ferry (on which we felt like old pros), we drove through Sydney Nova Scotia and back to Halifax for one last evening, where we stayed at yet another amazing Airbnb and chatted with our host Paul, who had a beautiful house, brewed his own beer, and was a wealth of knowledge for not only his city but the Atlantic Provinces as well.

 Paul gave us a whirlwind tour of the harbour front, through the poshest neighborhoods and around the college and university, along the streets of local breweries, and even stopped by the Titanic Memorial in the Halifax Cemetary, before taking us to his favourite pizza place in the city, Salvatore’s. We shared their delicious “Original” pizza before spending one last night in Halifax before ending our 19-day road trip. 

It wouldn’t have been natural for us to sleep late and have a lazy morning on our last few hours before we drove to the airport so of course: at 9am we met a childhood friend of Tara-Lee at the Public Gardens, before heading to the Art Gallery to spend our last hour in the city checking out Maude Lewis’s artwork and relocated (real !) house !

And then, it was done, we returned a car with over 6000 km added (!), and off we flew, already planning our next visit to these Atlantic Provinces: this absolutely unforgettable part of the world!!