Touring The South Coast of Newfoundland involves a few Ferries!

I sat down today and worked out our touring schedule for Newfoundland. This is the last portion of our trip and will involve no fewer than five ferries. The first, the Marine Atlantic Ferry, will take us from North Sydney, Nova Scotia to Port Aux Basques, Newfoundland. The next four ferries will take us east along Newfoundland’s rugged south coast visiting small fishing villages that depend on its service for their supplies. The last ferry we take reconnects us with Newfoundland’s road system for the final 270km ride into St. John’s.

View Larger Map

To make all the ferry connections we have to be in North Sydney Thursday, the 14^th of August to take one of Friday’s sailings. I’m thinking Friday’s midnight sailing is the logical choice and sleep the six plus hour crossing and start the 300km, two and a half day ride, to Burgeo in the morning. The day we catch a ferry from Burgeo is critical to make all the connections along the south coast. Miss one ferry and we would be stuck for a week! We will travel from Burgeo to Grey River on a Tuesday sailing. Grey River to Francois (the locals pronounce it “Fransway”) on a Wednesday sailing. It’s the Thursday sailing from Francois to Hermitage we cannot miss because it runs only once a week. From Hermitage it’s a short 52km bicycle ride to Pool’s Cove and catch Friday’s ferry to Bay L’Argent where we can make it to St. John’s riding our bikes.

View Larger Map

Time wise, this puts us on the Rock for twelve travel days and one rest day in St. John’s before we catch a flight back to Vancouver. We can shorten our time in Newfoundland if we take the ferry from North Sydney to Argentia (14 hour crossing) with only 134km to ride to St. John’s. We would use this option only if we are running out of time. I would be disappointed to miss Newfoundland’s South coast communities.

The third option is to take the ferry to Port Aux Basques and cross Newfoundland on the Trans Canada highway through the interior. Most touring cyclists who enter Newfoundland at Port Aux Basques take this route with 900km to travel to St. John’s which is a easy nine day ride.

If we are to keep the South coast of Newfoundland part of our trip we have to be in North Sydney no later than Friday, August 14^th to line up the ferry schedules mentioned earlier. That gives us seventy-five days (June 1^st – August 14^th) to travel from Vancouver to North Sydney, Nova Scotia.

I say “This is doable”, with a smile on my face and fingers crossed.

For some reason Google Maps won't recognize the once a week ferry from Francois to Hermitage thus the two maps with neither showing the ferry route.