E – Isle of Newfoundland – Wheelin' and Rockin' with DIanE

Its been a while since we have travelled with rig but this trip was on the bucket list.

There was a significant amount of preplanning for this trip to ensure we had as smooth a trip as possible😊. Based on information from friends and some googling it was advised to book the ferry to and from well advance. I did that and was able to get the dates we wanted and a sleeping berth both ways. Also needed to make sure we could get stays at campsites we wanted and some camps have limited spots for rigs our size, especially provincial and national parks. The parks don’t open their reservation lines at the same time so i had to watch a number of them. In the end all got booked.

We left Bennett lake Friday, June 6th and travelled to a KOA just outside Quebec City. Day 1…challenge and yikes moment 1. We got to the camp no problem, got connected and started to prep for dinner and I was hoping to catch some of the hockey game. Around 7 o’clock just after dinner….poof…out go the lights and all power is off. I look at power displays…black. Oh oh! At this point I am really confused as we have a solar setup that kicks in as soon as we don’t have shore power but that display is black as well. I go outside to where we are plugged into shore and the breaker has flipped…ok that must be it…flip it back on and go inside….still nothing working. Hmmmmm. I start looking at fuses, all seem good. I then think that the rv battery must need a boost charge to get everything started so I plug the rv truck cable into the truck and turn the truck on. Voila, all the dc stuff starts, lights, power displays etc. Now the shore power is accessible and we start using the fireplace again….poof…circuit goes again. Flip it and try again…poof. We decide for the rest of the night to run the fridge on propane and only use lights. I am now wondering do we have something faulty in our wiring and can we go on. We get up in the morning and are able to do all we need to get on the road, the test will be when we get to the next stop in New Brunswick at Parlee Beach Provincial park. We get to the park, get connected to shore power, the battery has been charging all day. We put the fridge on electric and start using the fireplace….phew! All is good. The problem was the breaker at the previous site was faulty and the first time it went we didn’t know, there is no audible signal to tell you the shore power is out(or at least I haven’t found one😊). Once the shore power breaker flipped we were using solar and Di used the Instant Pot twice, we had the fireplace going etc. That all completely drained the battery down to 0 and was why I needed a boost charge. We now were confident in going ahead.

Our last night before getting on the ferry we stayed near North Sydney, 20 minutes from the ferry. we got up and headed over around 9 and boarded around 11 for a 11:45 departure.

Once on board it was quite comfy and some cool sights.

Once we landed we headed a short way to JT Cheeseman park for an overnight stay before heading to Gros Morne.

This was right out back of our site.

Next morning we were off to Gros Morne and we got settled in and headed for our first hike…the Approach loop at Gros Morne mountain.

It was a beautiful day and the hike was 9km with a 450 metre climb.

Day 2 was off to the Table Lands, 500 million year old tectonic plates – and I thought I was getting old. There are only a few places on the planet where you can see what was once on an ocean floor. This particular plate was from the lapetus Ocean and once that ocean closed a slab of the Earth’s mantle was thrust up. It is amazing. It was a bit rainy but it didn’t hamper the views …its an alien landscape.