Back to the blogging, this has taken some time to get up for various reasons. But the following is an account of a trip I had from May 9th to May 21st.

WOW,what a great two week trip I had. I was very fortunate to get invited on a road trip with good friends Bill and Jeanette Avery. Bill and Jeanette were travelling from Ottawa to Corner Brook, Newfoundland, for their daughter's university graduation. Jeanette was then to fly back to Ottawa from St John's airport in Newfoundland to report for work and Bill's plan was to travel on to Labrador and drive a newly constructed road that now connects Happy Valley-Goose Bay on the central east coast of Labrador to Churchill Falls in central Labrador and thus allowing road traffic to access Labrador City from the east coast.

May 9th 2011

Day one had Bill and Jeanette picking me up at approximately 6.30am on Monday 9th May. The plan was to get to Hope Town near Paspebiac in Eastern Quebec. Bill's cousin, Anne, runs a B&B there with husband Gordon. It had been some time since Bill had seen Anne so he took the opportunity to visit while we were passing nearby. The day had started out fine and sunny and we were not to know that it would be the last fine weather we would see for some days. We arrived at the B&B at about 8.00pm that night to a warm welcome from Anne and husband Gordon.

The next day dawned gloomy and overcast. We crossed the Riviera Matapedia, the Provincial border between Quebec and New Brunswick, at Matapedia and drove along the east coast of New Brunswick through Bathurst, Chatham and Moncton. New Brunswick is a bi-lingual Province where the official languages are French and English. The drive through New Brunswick was a wet affair with occasional showers chasing us all the way, however, by the time we crossed into Nova Scotia it was bucketing down and the possibility of sight seeing was all but impossible. It was time to decide whether we try to make the 9.30pm deadline for the ferry to Newfoundland out of North Sydney or stay the night in Halifax and make the crossing the next night. Our GPS unit was telling us we would make the ferry terminal at 9.25pm with 5 minutes to spare, that was if everything went according to script. So with little hesitation we headed to Halifax. We spent the night with Jeanette's sister and brother-in-law and the next day toured Halifax.

Halifax, a city of approximately 360,000, has a long history. The local First Nations people knew present day Halifax as a great harbour and the British took full advantage of this feature. Established in 1749 the settlement quickly expanded. Most Nova Scotians trace their ancestry to Scotland and I thought I could detect a slight Scottish inflection in their distinctive accent. Three ships set off from Halifax on 14th April, 1912, in response to a distress call from the new and mighty "unsinkable" Titanic. Halifax is still an important harbour to this day. The Citadel National Historic Site was first established as a defensive position in 1749 and still fires a 12 noon cannon over the city. Pier 21 is to Canada what Ellis Island is to the USA or Station Pier in Melbourne. Between 1928 and 1971 over a million immigrants entered Canada through Pier 21. Halifax is also home to Alexander Keith's Brewery, and, in my humble opinion, a fine drop it is.

Leaving Halifax and working our way toward Sydney on Cape Breton Island we again travelled in rainy conditions. We crossed onto Cape Breton Island at Port Hastings and resisted the temptation to savour the "Worlds Best Hamburgers" at the Lick-A-Chick (!) diner. Due to the weather conditions and also tight time schedule we didn't get the chance to travel the Cabot Trail through the Cape Breton Highlands. It is meant to be one of the world's most striking driving experiences. Instead we made our way to North Sydney to connect with the North Sydney/Port aux-Basques ferry that would carry us to the island of Newfoundland (Nu'fin-lund). The ferry leaves North Sydney twice a day, 11.30am and 11.30pm. We decided to take the 11.30pm option and sleep on the ferry as there was nothing to see on the crossing anyway. It was fairly windy and a bit rough meaning the ferry was nearly an hour late docking in Port aux-Basques but after breakfast on the ferry we were on our way by about 8.30am. We were all a little tired due to lack of sleep. We all found it hard to get a good night's sleep sitting in reclining lounge chairs and there was an outside door somewhere that banged all night long in the windy rough conditions.

Our Newfoundland target destination for the day was Corner Brook. This is where Bill and Jeanette's daughter, Amanda, was living and attending University. On route we stopped for a look at Stephenville, a big USA air force base during WWII. All the runways are still there as are all the barracks, administration buildings and maintenance buildings. The buildings now serve as rental accommodation, office accommodation and storage etc. Canadian Coast guard appear to have an air base there also. Why anyone would want to live there now was an unresolved question we asked ourselves. The defence of the west and east coast of the North American continent must have been quite a concern during WWII and this was proved to be a valid concern on 7 December 1941 at Pearl Harbour.

We arrived at Corner Brook, checked into our hotel, met up with Amanda and her house mates and went on a discovery tour of the town. It was here that, with some surprise, I discovered Captain James Cook had such an influence on Canadian history. In 1758 Cook arrived in Canada as a Sailing Master aboard the vessel Pembroke. The British at the time were embroiled in the Seven Years War with France. Cook took part in the blockade of the French stronghold at Louisburg (very important and famous event in Canadian history) and it was there that a remarkable event took place that transformed Cook's destiny in history. Cook observed an army surveyor-engineer, Samuel Holland, using a strange and ancient piece of equipment on the beach. Holland was later to teach Cook how to use this equipment (a plane table) and this knowledge transformed Cook from Sailing Master to renowned cartographer and surveyor.

In 1759 the British sailed up the St Lawrence River in an attempt to capture the French town of Quebec. Holland and Cook were given the difficult and dangerous task of charting the St Lawrence River in advance of the campaign. The British were successful in capturing Quebec. Cook spent from 1763 to 1767 in an offensive against the French at Halifax and honing his surveying skills around Newfoundland including charting Humber Bay where Corner Brook is situated. The collection of charts produced remained the standard for a century. It was due to this success in Newfoundland that Cook was chosen to carry out the Pacific exploration voyage in 1768.

The next day was Amanda's graduation and subsequent celebrations. As most people would appreciate the graduation ceremony is a family affair but the ensuing celebrations were open to all and sundry. The informal dinner was a very enjoyable and convivial event. All the new visitors to Newfoundland were made honorary Newfoundlanders with a traditional "screeching in" ceremony. These ceremonies can take many forms including standing in ice water wearing a sou'wester but basically it involves reciting a few meaningful (!) lines, taking a shot of Screech (local rum) and kissing a cod fish. Our ceremony was quite civilised we recited our lines, took our shot of Screech and kissed some cod fish. This lead seamlessly into the after party.

It seems university students are university students no matter where in the world they choose to study and one of the commonalities seems to be that they all excel in Party 101, so they certainly know how to party. Not only that, but they made sure everyone there was involved and enjoying themselves. Without going into detail, a very good time was had by all. The next day saw us rising from short slumbers, a bit sluggish but heading for St John's, the Newfoundland capital. For once it wasn't raining. No, it snowed overnight instead!