June, 2018
If we haven’t mentioned it, the ferry trip from North Sydney to Port au Basques on the southwest tip of The Rock takes 6 hours; the return ferry trip from Agentia to North Sydney takes 17 hours give or take. We were scheduled to leave at 5pm with disembarkation around 10am. The ocean-going vessel is really a mini-cruise ship with parking for up to 200 vehicles, 150 “staterooms” and seating for an additional 400 passengers; a full restaurant, snack bar and bar, a lounge with live entertainment, a game room, movie theater and souvenir shop.
As with our trip over to The Rock, we queued up, drove onto the ferry and parked our car in the belly of the beast; dropped our bags in our stateroom, and found a place in the lounge to sit down and eat the picnic dinner we had brought on board. After eating we had about and hour or so to use the game room and play Scrabble before it was movie time (cheesy remake of Footloose). We sat next to a couple playing gin rummy and struck up a conversation with 2 delightful artists from…wait for it….the Scranton area.
Peter and Barbara had been to Newfoundland in search of icebergs. Incredibly, when they arrived at the house they had rented, there in the bay in front of their rental was an enormous iceberg. Peter took lots of pictures and will transform them onto canvas. Barbara works in clay, and she hand builds terrific re-imaginations of characters from children’s fairy tales. We loved looking at pictures of her whimsical recreations of The Three Little Pigs and Goldilocks and the Three Bears. We really do forget how small the world really is and how ironic that we traveled so many 1000s of miles to bump into folks from just about our old back yard.
As we were chatting, Brian spotted a couple of whales. We loved watching them frolic in the big waters of the Atlantic. Life just doesn’t get any better than that…or so we thought.
Coming back to the main passenger deck after the movie we happened to see many of our fellow passengers on the promenade. Looking out we could see the beginnings of a magnificent sunset and, after running back to our stateroom for the camera, joined the crowd in the worship of one of nature’s most spectacular colorful displays. Let us know which picture is your favorite…please.
One more story from our ferry ride back to North Sydney. After the sunset we decided to have a nightcap in the lounge, listening to Elvis and Johnny Cash music played by two old guys who had probably played better venues in their heyday. Wouldn’t you know that a happy drunk Newfoundlander and founder of the Sea Dawgs Motor Cycle Club (8 members) told a joke, and seeing that Brian laughed, he became Brian’s new bff! He spoke so quickly it was nearly impossible to understand half of what he was saying, but for some reason he kept apologizing to Barbara. He told us all about his father who had died recently, his business, his opinion of our present government and leader, and his planned ride across about half of Canada. Excusing ourselves we headed back to our stateroom, but decided to stop on the promenade to look for stars. Guess who we bumped into smoking a cigarette? After dropping his drawers to show Brian the tattoo on his right thigh that he had done in honor of his father it was most certainly time to call it a night.
The next morning we were awake in plenty of time to pack-up, have a nice breakfast on board and watch the ferry come into port.
Barbara and Brian
Aimless Wanderings 