Terra Nova National Park Weekend

On Saturday we headed out of town for a camping adventure with our friends, in Terra Nova National Park!

Terra Nova is the most easterly National Park in Canada, covering an area of approximately 400 square km. It’s a 2.5 to 3 hour drive from St. John’s along the Trans-Canada Highway so we set off early on Saturday morning to make the most of our weekend! …Although we couldn’t leave town without our trusty hound, Maebe, so we picked her up before heading out.

We stopped for a snack along the way and arrived at Newman Sound campground just after lunch. The sun was shining, it was warm, and Luke was sweating profusely in his jeans - the only bottoms he brought with him. Once the rest of the crew arrived (a similar group to our last camping trip in La Manche last fall) and we set up our massive 10 man tent, we were ready for some exploring! But first, we showered our friend Rebecca with birthday gifts and love. Then we hopped on the hiking trail adjacent to our site and we were off on an adventure.

The trail took us through the woods and along the coast. We even ended up detouring along the beach by accident. Unfortunately we had to keep Maebe on a leash because we were afraid of her chasing after wild animals. This proved to be a smart choice as she went crazy every time she saw a squirrel – of which there are quite a few in a National Park.

We continued on past a waterfall, all the way to the wharf. We spent some time soaking up the rays on the grassy field, just relaxing and enjoying our first real taste of summer.

Piers and Maebe - chillin' like villians

We then made our way back to the campsite the way we came. The next few hours were spent hanging around the campsite and the nearby firepit. As we cooked our sausages and hamburgers over the fire, we became acquainted with two friendly park rangers on two different occasions; one warned us about a creepy man without a car at Site 17, while the other emphasized the importance of stashing our food away in our vehicles so that it wouldn't attract the resident bears and their cubs. Our lives were turning into something from a horror movie right before our eyes! 

As we awaited our impending doom, we continued to prepare our food and didn't cook even one of the three packs of bacon we brought between us (planning fail). Continuing on the horror movie theme, our $0.50 "ceramic" grill did crack/melt slightly while over the fire so we were wondering if we would all be poisoned by the end of the night. No injuries have since been reported. And the food was oh so tasty.

We hung around outside until after the sun set, admiring the view from a picturesque viewpoint near our site; the moon was almost full and the air was calm. As has become a camping tradition, we all piled into our respective tents and were in bed before 10:30 pm. 

The next morning, we fried up bacon and eggs for breakfast sandwiches and treated ourselves to some flipper pie. We were particularly pleased that it hadn't rained as that made tent packing much simpler. Before everyone headed their separate ways, we took our classic morning after photo with the self timer. This was the best of the lot:

We were back in St. John's by mid-afternoon on Sunday, leaving ourselves just enough time to catch up on chores.

We had a fun weekend with a great bunch of people, and here are some more photos: