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Day 7... Next morning we set out to the Ferry. It's the short one to Port Aux Basques. Maybe we'll take the longer overnight one on the way back.

Near the ferry terminal we meet a friendly biker named Norman from Princeton British Columbia who is cycling long distances. He's also headed onto the Rock, and we'll see him again during the ferry ride.

We arrived early (6:30 p.m) at Port aux Basques, and were disembarked by 7:30. As it turned out later, we could've made it to Cheeseman campground if we'd tried, but decided to take a room at St. Christopher's Hotel in town- it was very comfortable and the chowder at Port aux Basques Hotel was good too.

Day 8… Our first detour of the day was to Cape Ray, where there's an excellent historic site of the paleoeskimo's settlement, a big foghorn, and a working lighthouse.

Continuing to hug the shore as much as possible, we made our eventual way to the Picadilly Head Regional campground at 7:30.

There's no road that keeps to the shoreline, so it's trial and error with the map atlas and GPS whether some small dirt roads actually connect with one another. A bit of backtracking is often needed.

We make our way towards Cape Anguille, its Lighthouse and outbuildings.

At the little campground, the lady in charge gave us a gorgeous spot right on the beach, pretty much to ourselves until a secong motorhome arrived down the beach a bit later.

We had a great salmon BBQ dinner and a fire, then a quiet night with just a little rain.

Day 9… (July 22) Getting a lazy start at 11 a.m. we explored the coastal roads and tracks, by way of eventually heading for Blow me Down State Park, and again hugged the shore when manageable and not too uncertain.

Along one of these roads we met Tony, The Stone Man, who has rescued many interesting large boulders from his seashore land and presented them on display for passersby. What a collection!

Because Jackie and I love interesting stones and rocks, Tony kindly presented Jackie with a slab or sedimentary rock embedding hundreds of micro-fossil seashells. It 'll find a good place in our Ottawa garden!

Continuing onward, we made it walking to Long point after the van reached impassable sandy wallows at the shoreline, and later that day we visited Broad Cove where it was very very windy.

A local along one of the small trackw we explored recommended a good camping spot along Loreta Lane in cape St. George, about 5km further along next to a brook. Perhps next time we'll try for that.

Wanting to get to Gros Morne the next day, we decided to keep going to Blow Me Down and arrived late at 9. Just enough time for a fire, lentils, wine and bed.

Blow Me Down campsites are not at all what we expected…visions of ocean vistas and winds, much like Half Moon Bay beach in California.

Instead, imagine a campground cut (roads and all) into a very thick spruce forest, tress cheek by jowl close so you couldn't walk ten feet in it. Each campsite is a cute little cubby cut out (ours was site #8), with the tiniest of fire ring and just enough to fit right in and walk around a car. Not what our imaginations led us into dreaming about. Any wind there would blow nothing down, if you even heard or felt it. The best site seems to be site #3 on that first loop.

Day 10… Rather than spending another night at Blow Me Down, we decided to head out the next morning after climbing the Governor's Staircase which hugs the rock face and ascends a chimney overhanging the shoreline at the waterside rec area and beach on the York Harbor side. It's pretty cool, and you'll need to jettison your hiking boots to get through the knee high water at the bottom of the chimney.

Luckily we were able (By phone, which is spotty in places) to get the last campsite at Trout River, just inside Gros Morne National Park. We made our way and arrived in later afternoon under sunny skies.