I was half-expecting to find myself on the old “Caribou” again seeing as how we were sailing from Cape Breton Island to Newfoundland. Not the old, old Caribou because that was sunk by a U-boat in 1943 but its replacement, which was out here still when I passed by in 2010.

However, Marine Atlantic has been spending your (or, rather, the Canadian Government’s taxpayers’ money) on some new ships, such as the Highlanders, which brought us over here to Newfoundland.

But don’t be misled, because it might be new to here, but it’s not “new” by any means”. IT is in fact the old Stena Traveller, built in Russia and which formerly did the run between Hoek van Holland and Killingholme in the United Kingdom until it was retired.

She’s now had 40 feet cut out of her middle, been rewelded, and is now sailing across here on one of the roughest ferry crossings in the world.

Once I’d sorted myself out I set off up the coast, passing one of the most famous sites in Newfoundland.

These are the Twin Hills, and remind me of something out of a Leslie Nielsen film. And may a Newfoundland schoolboy has doubled up in laughter at seeing them, which just goes to show that it isn’t only me with a Juvenile mind.

From here I went on to Cape Ray lighthouse.

The lighthouse itself is of no real significance (it’s the third on the site, the other two having burnt down) except that it guards the entrance to the Strait of Belle Isle, but it’s here that the first submaring telegraph cable was laid between Newfoundland and the North American mainland, as far back as 1856.

There have also been archaeological excavations here that revealed a fairly complex Dorset-Inuit settlement, a camp for hunting harp seal.

Carrying on northwards we encounter some typical Newfoundland scenery. Mountains, rivers, lakes, islands, flat plain and trees.

And not to mention the heavy rainclouds because Newfoundland is noted for its somewhat excessive number of rainy days per year – about 300 or something like that.

But considering that this is at sea level or thereabouts, you can see that the climate has changed dramatically since we crossed the Gulf of St Lawrence.

This is the Boutte de Cap St George – the head of the peninsula that sticks out to guard the entrance to the bay, the name of which I can’t remember, upon which the town of Stephenville is situated.

Beautiful weather isn’t it, but you’ll see across the bay the storm that is raging. And five minutes after taking this photo I got the lot right upon my head.

Newfoundlanders are noted for their … well … eccentricity, so I feel quite at home here. And I would do too in a garden such as this. This is one of two in the small town of Mainland that have been imaginatively decorated, so hats off to the owners.

But as you might expect, I’m probably the only vehicle to drive down here for the last 6 months or something, yet when I stopped to take a photo here, half of the town turned out in their vehicles to create an almighty traffic jam.

It always happens to me.

Tonight I’ve found a small campsite just outside Corner Brook. It’s been a good few days since I’ve had a shower and a shave so that’s the reason that I’m not dossing in a layby. A good shower will do me the world of good.