August 9 – Badger to Port-aux-Basques

Not too long of a drive today, but we were retracing our steps from just a few days ago, which made it seem tough in places. It’s always harder to drive over familiar terrain than something brand new. There was one notable hight point, though, as we were driving along, I spotted a cyclist coming towards us, and soon realized that it was Ryan, who I have met now 3 times on the road! He is biking across Canada, and did both the Cabot trrail and is now biking across Newfoundland. We wheeled the van around and met up with him. I think he was as surprised to see us as we were to see him. He is gunning it across Newfoundland, trying to make it in 5 days, I believe.

We finished up our tour of Newfoundland by arriving at the ferry around 6, with nearly 6 hours to kill in Port-aux-Basques before the ferry left. We cooked dinner in the ferry terminal and lamented the fact that we couldn’t just stay in the van on the ferry, once again! After dinner, we wandered around the town a bit. It was quite full of people this time, unlike the last time we were here (due to us leaving rather than coming no doubt). Although it was quite warm when we were driving today, as we sat in line a thick fog rolled in and it eventually became quite cool. Definitely what I expected from Newfoundland!

We have sleeping berths on the ferry tonight, no cabins, so we should get some sleep. But still, the crossing is just 5 hours so it will be a long day tomorrow.