August 12 (Day 29) Corner Brook to Port aux Basques

We knew we had a short day's driving, so didn't leave until almost 10 am.  We started going up #450 towards Mount Mariah.  We always like to take smaller highways if we can, and I noticed a small pink line running almost parallel to the Trans Canada near Mount Mariah, so we thought we would check it out. We were not successful in finding it, so we stopped at a small "Cash and Go" to see if they could help.  The clerk didn't think that road would go all the way to Stephenville, so ended up phoning her husband. He said the road went right through, but about 20 km down the road, if the van can't get through the rail bed, there was a road that would take us back to the highway.  He explained how to find the road and we started out.

We followed his instructions, but somehow missed the turn.  We stopped and asked a local and he explained where to turn.  He assured us the road was well travelled and maintained. BUT.. he gave us the same advice about the rail bed.  This did not instill a lot of confidence in me, and in fact, I had a bad feeling about this road.

But we set out on it anyway.  The road leads to Georges lake and apparently there are many cabins along the way.  The road is anything but maintained, with huge potholes and rough road.  There were many times Bob could only go about 5 or 6 km/hr.  I think the highest he got was 34kph, but that was for a very short while.

The road was very pretty though.  We passed by Little Cooks Pond, and the Big Cooks Pond.  A river ran by the road, and there were lakes dotted along the way.  At one point, we found a direction sign, only the number of km to go was left blank.  The direction ot Mount Mariah was straight up!

After about 20 km, we came on the "larger" road, so decided maybe we would head back to the highway.  The road went back in the direction we had come.  There was a sign on the road that it was decommissioned at 7 km, so to use extreme caution.  Bob took it anyway.  It was actually a better road than we had been on, wider and with fewer potholes, although it still had it's challenges.

We finally arrived back on the Trans Canada, maybe 10km further on than when we started this morning.  All in all, it was a really fun side adventure (I can say that now that we were back on the #1).

Further along the #1, we took another side road to Black Duck. We turned left to the #460 towards Stephenville Crossing.  We passed a memorial pond, and stopped to take a walk around the pond.  It had been done very well, especially for a pond that used to be a sewage lagoon.

Just past Stephenville Crossing, we turned onto #461 to Mattis point.  We passed a young man teaching his son how to kayak.  We followed the road until it ended, past residential development, to an old cemetery, that was dotted with many unmarked white crosses.  Not sure who they were for.

We then turned left on $490 past some sand dunes that are obviously used a lot by 4x4s judging from the paths.

We continued down the raod over Bracios Bridge at the edge of St. Georges where we visited an old abandoned bridge.

We stopped at a small restaurant on the top of a hill near Doyle for a coffee and the hugest piece of coconut cream pie that I have ever seen.  But very, very good!!

We carried on to Port aux Basques and checked into a local hotel, just minutes from the ferry we will be taking tomorrow.  After a Caesar in the lounge, we are not relaxing in our room.

This has been mostly a driving day, but has been very interesting with a varied scenery.

Hotel: Hotel at Port aux Basques
Temp:  Sunny and warm - windy in places
Distance: 271 km
Mileage: 9.1 L/100 km

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