Wednesday 19 August 2026
I start this post 31 hours after we left Sydney in an Uber to Sydney International Airport. And we ain’t there yet. But only 2 hours to go now before we land. We’ve travelled on Air Canada from Sydney to Vancouver, with a 90 minute stopover and then a 4 1/2 flight to Toronto with a 4 hour stopover and now en route to St John’s, the capital of Newfoundland. This last leg is with Rouge Canada, which I think is the equivalent of Qantas Link. Now, be assured that I am the last person to sing the praises of Qantas (in the unlikely event any could be found) but I have to say that Rouge Canada makes Qantas Link look good. We’re on a plane which clearly is a vessel of the last century. We are blessed with a crew who wishes they were on duty anywhere but here. Preferably not an airline. The battle of the overhead lockers is surpassed by the late takeoff which was so alarming in its noise that Cherrie actually recorded it in case the black box didn’t. So far, though, we’re still in the air so there’s a positive. We were offered a choice for dinner – chicken parmigana or chicken parmigana. We chose the chicken parmigana. Grateful to be told what it was (thrice) because once it arrived, it was indiscernible. Whether that had anything to do with the almighty galley crash that reverberated throughout the embattled aircraft prior to service I can’t be sure. When it was served by the woman who is seemingly incapable of eye contact, we spied a bed of tepid, edge curled penne on which sat 15 half chicken nuggets. We did however eat the carrot cake, which was quite nice once the icing had been removed. No entertainment on board, save the suicidal crew, who I suspect would rather not be saved from this dreadful fate of theirs which is only made tolerable but their interminable phone scrolling (on a connection not available to their fellow travellers), no blankets, no little pillows, and the buttons at the side of the seats turn out to be non-functional props.
Ah well, we are due to land at 2am local time, which will be 34 hours post Uber.
Being the studious traveller you know us to be (not) in the past three weeks we’ve reread The Shipping News (Annie Proulx, set on Newfoundland) and Hannah Kent’s odes to Iceland Burial Rites and Always Home Always Homesick. Cherrie has also been reading The Colony of Unrequited Dreams by Wayne Johnston (also Newfoundland) and we’ve loved them. They’ve all put fire in the belly to visit these places. En route…..
We land uneventfully at 2.15am and disembark to no eye contact, or utterance of any kind from the crew. We overnight at the airport hotel.
Wednesday 19 August 2026 – Again
We collect our rental car from the airport and head off into St John’s. I drive, Cherrie navigates. We speak out at each corner “small turn” or “big turn”, so that we remember that the left turn is the big one. It’s true that they drive on the right side of the road and we on the wrong.
We navigate successfully to the hotel, where we have requested early check in. At the corner turn to the hotel the navigator is heard to say “small turn“. I obey. Wrong. I find myself in head on traffic and a pedestrian standing in the middle of the road waving at me. Ooops. Reverse. Onto the wrong side of the road. Not a single horn, toot or bad word from the many motorists involved. We sorted ourselves out and finally found the car park. We have not driven since.
Early check in done. The view from our room is quite satisfactory
Conveniently right at the front door of the hotel we spy a hop on hop off bus desk. We always find this a good introduction to a new city so we purchase two tickets. They’re out of paper so Cherrie takes a photo of the ticket on the vendor’s screen. They’re out of maps. Insufficient print run. There was a big ship in here yesterday and 8000 passengers disembarked.
The timetable for the bus is in a bit of disarray as the driver slept in this morning, so departure time uncertain. No matter to us, we stroll downtown and are introduced to this absolutely charming city. It’s welcoming, colourful and has lots of public art.
Arty
We pop into an art shop which sells local works and find ourselves chatting to the owner. She tells us that one of the American cruise ship passengers yesterday was very demanding and actually said to her “we’re going to take over your country”. Charming.
An internet search informs us of a nearby stop for the bus
and we do the loop. Why is it that tour bus drivers always suffer from verbal diarrhoea? Chad is a local. He knows this island like the back of his hand and he wants to tell us everything. He does not restrict this to just the landmarks. We learn about his family, and I mean great-grandparents down, the jobs he’s had (he’s only been at this job since June, and no it doesn’t require training since he knows it all), the house he bought, how much he paid, details about the new kitchen he put in….the talk goes on. But we enjoy getting our bearings and it informs us what we want to see tomorrow. Some interesting facts from Chad include that four moose (1M, 3F) were brought in from New Brunswick in 1904 to work the ploughs instead of horses. No one cared, they preferred their horses, so the moose were released. Today Newfoundland has the highest density of moose in North America and at last count there were 250,000. And, the polar bear. Sometimes they drift in on ice, but because they are not people friendly (perhaps Rouge Canada could recruit some) they are tranquillised and sent back. No detail of the method of return.
From the bus we see lots of colourful houses. Fishing was the big industry here These originally housed the fishermen in Victorian times and they were painted so brightly so that they could be spotted through the fog. This was important since there are 200 foggy days a year in Newfoundland
If it’s not colourful timber, its stone
The stone is not local, but came from the UK as ballast on the loads of whatever. It then stayed here. The details are scant because Chad was speaking mostly of his old school friend’s recent fishing trip.
Officially we are in the province of Newfoundland and Labrador. Here they are
We are both vigilant about our exercise regime and take every opportunity to limber up
A stroll back to the hotel via the harbour
And so endeth Day 1 in this beautiful city
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