Port aux Basques

Channel-Port aux Basques is a town of 4,100 people (2016) in the southwestern corner of Newfoundland. It serves as the main point of entry for Trans-Canada Highway traffic arriving by ferry from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

Understand
Port aux Basques, a fishing and forestry community, was the western terminus of the Newfoundland railway; the narrow-gauge "Newfie Bullet" train ran from here to St. John's. The railway operated ferries from Port aux Basques to North Sydney in Canada; one of these ships, the ´Caribou', was sunk by a German U-boat during the Second World War with substantial loss of life.

The Trans-Canada Highway follows an approximately similar path to the rail line, which was removed in the 1980s and abandoned as trailway.

The main highway from Port-aux-Basques leads north through Corner Brook and Deer Lake before heading eastward across the northern portion of the island, then south to the Avalon Peninsula and St. John's.

A road eastward from Port aux Basques to Rose Blanche opened in 1961, but travel further along Newfoundland's rugged and sparsely-populated south shore is by coastal ferry. Coastline in the south, largely fjord, is not conducive to road building.

By car

 * Travel southbound on Highway (Trans-Canada Highway) from Corner Brook. The highway terminates at the Port Aux Basques ferry terminal.  Highway 105 in  in North Sydney within Nova Scotia is the continuation of the Trans-Canada Highway.

By plane
There is an airport with scheduled service in Deer Lake. The only major airport is in St. John's.

Get around
A taxi within town is at most $6.
 * Gateway Taxi (+1 709 695-3333)
 * Scott's Taxi (+1 709 695-7777)

See




Do

 * Walk the boardwalk at the beach.

Stay safe
About 25 km northwest of Port aux Basque on Highway 1, you will come across an area called Wreckhouse. Wreckhouse is known for its extremely high wind speed that can topple vehicles and blow transport trucks off the road (and even railway cars off the track when Newfoundland had railway). Be sure to check the weather forecast for any dangerous wind conditions before passing through this area.

Isle aux Morts
On Route 470 between Port aux Basques and Rose Blanche, named for the many ships wrecked at this location.

Rose Blanche
The end of the paved road, the tiny fishing village Rose Blanche on Newfoundland's south shore is named as a corruption of "roche blanche" (white stone, in reference to the local quartz). An isolated community, Rose Blanche was connected to the highway system in 1961 and to the provincial electric grid in 1965. Route 470 ends here, 45 km east of Channel-Port aux Basques; a coastal ferry eastward to La Poile no longer stops in Grand Bruit, now a silent ghost town.

There is one bed and breakfast (Lightkeeper's Inn, +1 709 956-2052) in the village.