Our visit "Back Home" to Ontario -- Part one

As many of you know, we moved two years ago from Ontario to live in Newfoundland. We had not been back since leaving, so thought a visit back was long overdue. We love travelling, driving, seeing the beautiful country and were excited to be visiting family, friends and our 'old stomping grounds' again.

With the van loaded up, we headed out in the early morning hours. First stop was for breakfast....a tradition that was started by my Dad and step-mom when we lived in Ontario and would leave for holidays. They'd take us out for a full breakfast before heading out. It wasn't quite the same being just us....but it was breakfast just the same.

Jake decided he would keep a journal of this trip and here is his first entry that sums up our leaving:

"It's 6:38 a.m. and we are leaving our drivway to go to McDonild's for brekfist then off to Ontario. It's now 7:49 a.m. and we just finished brekfist 20 minutes ago. So far we are having an exilent time." *grin*

It's about 900 kms across the island of Newfoundland. We live on the east coast..the ferry comes to the west coast....so it was a full day of driving. As far as landscape goes, our province is so varied. Here are some pics I took along the way. They're not very good quality as I took them through the windshield, while we were moving....but it still gives an idea of the landscape.

It always amazes us at the lack of traffic going across. A beautiful highway, lots of beautiful, natural scenery and hardly any traffic to get in the way. It doesn't get much better than that!





Lot of beautiful lakes (although here in Newfoundland, they're referred to as Ponds). Many of them have no inhabitants or it appears so anyway as the sandy beach goes all the way around and not a dock or a house in sight.





This is in central Newfoundland....notice the patches of snow still on the mountains.



Finally we arrived at Port Aux Basques (where the ferry comes in). These are taken at the Shark Cove Suites. It's actually apartments....this unit had 3 bedrooms, a living room, eating area and kitchen. We always stay here on our trip across.

(Here is Jake's journal entry for the end of the day:

We've been on the road for 12 hours and we can't believe it. We are approaching Porto-Bask (ummm that's actually spelled Port Aux Basques but he spelled it as it sounds lol) and that's where Shark Cove Hotel is. Thank Goodness. It's 8:55 p.m and we are going to bed." )





The next day, in line waiting for the Ferry.



On the ferry...making the trip across the Cabot Strait. This is the 'short' ferry crossing....which takes between 5-7 hours..depending on the weather conditions, the size of the ferry etc. The short crossing is not to be confused with the 'long' crossing....which takes around 14 - 17 hours (but comes in closer to the east side of Newfoundland)


Down below on the car deck, waiting to disembark from the ferry. Sorry for the poor quality...It was dark and dingy down there and I should have removed the napkins from the dash board first.




(I'll post more about our trip in the coming days.)