Day Ninety One
Today is our last day in Newfoundland and the weather decided to give its best farewell. The day started with wind blowing around thirty five km/h with the odd gust pushing around forty five km/h. Just shortly after our departure from Deer Lake Campground, the rain set in and stayed with us for the entire trip to Port aux Basques. The drive was slow and Lori had to assist on prying my hands off the steering wheel when we finally arrived. I will tip my hats to the design of the Trans Canada Highway in Newfoundland, the passing lanes are pretty much alternated, no one had to drive longer than two kilometers to get around us 🤪.
We arrived in Port aux Basque’ around four o’clock and stopped in the town above the port. During our first trip over on the ferry, we discovered the prices for food and drinks on the boat were expensive. We decided to be a little more prepared for this trip and picked up a few breakfast drinks and snacks. We had just over eight hours until the ferry departed, normally, I would like to think that we would have disconnected the truck and explored the the area, much to my exhaustion of driving through all the wind and rain to get here, I was content to check-in, park the RV in its allocated lane and sit back with my book for the evening.
Shake down on the high seas!
The Marine Atlantic Ferry is well organized and left no question on where, and what you had to do. Unfortunately, they now have your RV as a hostage, and if you want to get off the island you may need to pay a little extra! This was such a movie script heist, when we left Nova Scotia a worker took a meter wheel down our RV and measured the length at 50.4 feet, (this was under the 52 feet length we booked the RV when I purchased the tickets in February) everything was good. When we pulled up to the entrance booth in Newfoundland a lady came out, clearly visible she was not happy to be in the rain and quickly counted her steps down our RV, she reported back the the booth saying we are between 52 and 53 feet. I explained that the first port took a meter wheel to the RV and it was 50 feet. I was told they do not work with those “wheel things” and their method is correct. Now, at this time I had forgotten about my original booking length and payed the extra $78.90 to allow the RV through. It wasn’t until we boarded the boat that I thought of looking on the original booking form. I visited the reception desk on the ship concerning this, but was asked to contact the port office as they could not help me.
Around eleven o’clock we finally boarded the boat and put the pups into their pens nestled neatly on our bed at the back of the RV, before heading to our room on the boat. When we travelled the ferry to Newfoundland, we had booked the reserved seating and found it not bad, if you were travelling the ferry during the day. For the overnight ferry we strongly recommend the rooms 😴.
