We were placed in line to wait for the ferry, then went into the terminal...  it was like a small air terminal with a restaurant and lounge..    finally they called for us to "start our engines"... we got into the car and were happy to see our row move forward first... but when they got to us, they waved us to the side indicating that we were too wide and they were just taking cars right now...  so we waited a short time and they finally called to load us... we wound up at the very front of the ferry but tight to the wall on the left side, so we decided it was unlikely we would be first off...  

The ferry was much larger than we had imagined... like a small cruise ship with capacity for 1200 passengers..  they had a large restaurant and a separate lounge area...  the restaurant served breakfast until noon and then switched to lunch...  the Lounge had some musical group from Newfoundland for entertainment ...  As we pulled out of the harbor we got a good view of North Sidney behind us...   We were finally on our way to Newfoundland...

The trip only took 5 and 1/2 hours which was a pleasant surprise.... the water was calm all the way allowing for an easy trip... they showed two complete movies in a small theatre area...  we spent some time outside on top enjoying the warm sun that was shining although a heavy haze covered the horizon...  there was lots of room to move around and lots of things to occupy your time... we studied maps and read information booklets trying to determine where to go first... 

Suzanne found a brochure for Grand Codroy RV Camping Park left in the ladies room...   we read it and found that the park was only about 25 miles from the Ferry in the direction we were going... had full facilities including Internet access... was family owned and sounded very nice..   it used to be a small provicial park donated by a local family... but the government decided to privatize a number of smaller provincial parks so put it up for sale... the family bought it back and now run it...   We decided to make that our first stop.... 

We pulled into Channel-Port Aux Basques...  passing first the light house sitting on a rock (appropriate for Newfoundland... referred to as "the Rock").. then passed the city of Port Aux Basques and finally made our way to the Ferry Terminal...   they emptied the middle rows first as we had suspected, but finally our turn came and we were on Newfoundland TCH 1 headed up the coast... 

We arrived at the campground after a beautiful half hour drive... it was too overcast for photos along the way so you will just have to take our word for it... it was cooler here, and felt great...  the highway was in good shape and traffic was moving quickly... we noticed that the Ferry had a large number of Newfoundland natives returning home from vacation, and they were in a hurry to get there...  We got set up in the park and took a walk down to see the Codroy River that ran through the park....  then we got in the car and took a long drive out on the penninsula to the village of Codroy itself....  we found homes with stacks of lobster and crab traps in their back yards which pointed to the type of industry that is supporting many of them....

We returned to the main highway (TCH 1) and stopped at a local vegetable market... Suzanne bought some green and yellow beans, fresh carrots, snap peas, snow peas, kohlrabi, and a local partridge berry steamed pudding cake...  We went back and  got the microwave out of the car and she washed and steamed all the vegetables and that was a great ending to our first day in Newfoundland...