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 With
one moose for every person you will see plenty of
wildlife!
This past summer we
had the pleasure to lead not one, but two RV caravans
across Newfoundland and Labrador. For 22 days we traveled
the highways of Newfoundland, from Channel-Port aux
Basques to Corner Brook, up the Viking Trail to St.
Anthony, across the Strait of Bell Isle to Red Bay
in Labrador, back down the Viking Trail to Rocky Harbor,
across to Botwood, on to Eastport and finally, to
St. John's.
 We
visited many small villages in coves that at one time
you could only get to by boat. We met the people of
Newfoundland, we ate their food and we enjoyed their
company and their entertainment. We learned many things
about Newfoundland, one being a new spelling - NewFUNland.
When we visited L'Anse aux Meadows, where the Vikings
first came ashore and built their village 500 years
before Christopher Columbus even left the dock back
in Spain, I sat along the shoreline and tried to imagine
what it was like back then. What made them stop here
and why build a settlement? How cold was it that first
winter and why were there no graves to be seen anywhere?
We traveled by bus and ferry to Red Bay in Labrador.
Talk about a hardy people! While enjoying lunch in
Red Bay, our server showed us pictures of her home,
after a winter storm. At first, I couldn't see it
in the picture. Then I recognized why Ð the building
was so completely buried in snow the family could
only leave through a special hatch in the roof. It
gave a whole new meaning to shoveling the driveway.
Our caravan stopped in many places in Newfoundland,
one being the picturesque community of Botwood. Here
we camped on an old sea base, right in town. Camping
here was very different from what we are used to,
but our Newfoundland caravan was an RV Adventure and
on this RV Adventure, we came to see the real Newfoundland.
The only way to do this was to go were the Newfoundlanders
live.
Botwood has a bus company, appropriately named The
Bumpy Bus Lines. Riding in the back of the bus, we
found ourselves airborne on several occasions. Our
tours traveled across very bumpy and narrow roads,
but we saw places that most people visiting Newfoundland
would never see. We discovered an ice cream store
in the basement of a house, and they have the best
sundaes and ice cream cones in Newfoundland. The store
was only a two-minute walk from the sea base.
 St.
John's is the oldest city in North America. This was
the last stop for our first caravan and the first
stop for our second. In between, we had three days
to do as we wished. We went shopping in downtown St.
John's, working our way along Water Street to the
harbor. We wondered who might have walked these streets
before, and of ships that have docked here. British
war ships, French war ships, pirates, who knows. Here
you can let your imagination run away with you, for
this is where it all began.
It's a great province to visit. With approximately
one moose for every human, you will see lots of wildlife.
We saw moose up to seven feet tall, and whales as
big as a transport trailer. We also saw all kinds
of birds, including puffins, Newfoundland's provincial
bird (no, the provincial bird is not the mosquito).
And of course, there were the icebergs, which came
in all sizes. Our favorite one was naturally carved
to look just like a Viking ship. One of our rally
guests thought someone had made it out of Styrofoam.
Our Newfoundland caravans were a lot of fun. Enjoy
traveling North America in your RV. There is so much
to see and do, and there's no better way to experience
it all than from the comfort of your own RV.
Take care & happy RVing
M.B. & Karen Wilson
Wagon Masters
rvtours@interlog.com
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