5h 30 min, 84 km
The ferry got in early, which meant we didn’t get quite as much sleep as we would have liked. We had one night sleeping on the floor of the bar, which wasn’t too bad with earplugs and eyeshades, but not totally restful. Last night we had berths – much cheaper than a cabin, and quite comfortable, just not long enough. We did have breakfast on the ferry, so once we were off we were able to get on the road relatively quickly.
Lewisporte was a bit of culture shock, even though we’d been in Goose Bay for a few days. Not just paved roads and traffic lights, but an actual McDonalds! (We didn’t feel the need to go in though). It is nice to have paved highways again – much faster and easier than gravel.
We stopped to pick fresh strawberries and raspberries at a “u-pick”. The actual fields turned out to be a 1-2 km diversion each way (and they were not attached, so we added about 6 km to our day). The berries were wonderful, so the detour was definitely worthwhile – especially after two weeks of poor and expensive produce in Labrador. Both the strawberries and the raspberries seemed much more flavourful than the ones we normally get in Ontario, even though the strawberries were at the very end of their season.
We stopped at the Beothuk Interpretation Center … Scott slept through the film and Becky wished she could take a power nap, as a wave of exhaustion hit her at the center. I guess we both needed a little more than 6 hours sleep last night! The exhibit was centred around an archeological discovery in 1981 which gave some clues about their way of life, and was interesting, but with the last Beothuk dying in 1820, there’s very little we know about them.
We didn’t quite make it to Twillingate because we were both a little too tired to continue on. We decided to stop at the Dildo Run Provincial Park, about 25km early. Perhaps a 110km day with hills after a 6 day break wasn’t the best plan.
We do wonder who names these places… Dildo Run Park is just outside of Virgin Arm on New World Island!