Day 39 & 40 – Gander and the Road to the Shore, Newfoundland

Day 39 & 40 – Gander and the Road to the Shore, Newfoundland

Day 39 - We spent our first day in Gander doing the museum tour as the weather was not great for anything outside. We first went to the Airport as Leo wanted to see if the building was still standing at which he arrived 51 years ago as an immigrant child on a KLM flight from Amsterdam, via Shannon, Ireland before flying on to Montreal. Gander was the first place he set foot on the ground in Canada. And yes, that building was still there. It has had a domestic flight extension added to it, but the original is still used for international flights. A nice mural depicts the history of the Gander airport. Afterwards we visited the Gander Aviation museum, had some lunch, did our grocery shopping and went back to our trailer to sit in the rain with, unfortunately, no on-site internet to do our blog and emails.

Day 40 – We woke up to somewhat less cloudy skies and no rain so we decided to do the Road to the Shore route. This follows the coast through a number of villages to the north of Gander. Just like in the other Maritime provinces, scenic road routes are marked on the maps but also sport special sign along the roads for tourist to follow. As we were travelling the weather got better and the sun started to show her face for most of the day. The scenery was just fantastic. We drove through forests, marshes, and bogs to end up along the coast where everything is a natural rock garden, or should I say ‘boulder garden’. We spent most of our time in the village of Greenspond, just walking through the village and talking to the local people. The last house we visited was the “Button” house, located at the end of the village near the entrance to the harbour with the most beautiful view of waves crashing over rocks which you can imagine. This is one place we will have to go back to and visit again.

On we then went as we only had done 1/3 of the route and it was already 2 o’clock in the afternoon since our departure at 9 that morning. The total route is about 350 km so we had to cover a few more kilometers before we were home again. The rest of the trip went a bit quicker as all the other places could not compare to Greenspond so we did not have to take as many pictures. As well, the rain started to come down again later in the afternoon. We got home around 7:30 that evening, had our supper and did our planning for our next day’s trip, to the capital of Newfoundland, St. John’s.

We hope that the photos will give you an idea as to how different in nature Newfoundland is. It is a rugged, wild and uninhabited country in its centre, with picturesque villages, and beautiful ocean views along the coast. Pictures of the last two days can be found here.