Thursday 6 September 2007

4th September – Rocky Harbour – Trout River, NF

The wood cabin we are staying is, well, woody. Wood floors, wood roof, wooden walls - you've got the picture but it is really good.

After traveling and seeing so many things in a short space of time, today was about taking it easy. We had a lazy breakfast of lingenberry (like raspberry) jam on toast. We drove down to another fishing village close by, Norris Point. After quick perusal, we powered off to the other side of the harbour, 5km on the other side and over an hour’s drive away. We stopped off along the way at some of the look outs including one where we picked wild raspberries covered in slug shine but still tasted okay. Just out of Shoal Brook we watched a boat pull its nets in but we didn’t wait to see his bounty. The drive along the road in the southern part of the Gros Morne National Park was really interesting. You can't hunt for moose in the National Park and there are signs displaying this. More U shaped valleys and variable rocks with pine trees to little to no vegetation. Patches of snow from the winter dotted the north-eastern valleys.Caribou, the most southern in the world, hang out around these during the summer. We arrived in Trout River at about 1:30pm and went to the Beachside Restaurant where we feasted on scallops and fish.

This charming little town was full of happy people walking their kids along the boardwalk, chatting with each other and one old bloke was stacking wood in his basement ready for winter. Fisherman were coming into port, some were leaving too! The water running out of the Trout River was full of tannins and a clear brown tea in colour and was fast flowing. Afterwards we drove to the Trout River Pond. We didn’t spend much time there as the wind was blowing again.
We ended up at the Discovery Centre and read all about the Canadian UNESCO sites, the wildlife, glaciation, and the geology of the park. I should’ve have done a bit more reading but this area has the best preserved slab of oceanic crust (ophiolite sequence) thrust up over the continent. Basalts, gabbros and peridotites over shales, limestones and gneiss.
On the way home, we saw strong winds, some showers, and sunny patches. Seems a bit like Victoria. We decided to walk along the track to Gros Morne, Newfoundland’s second highest mountain. It is a long track but I just wanted to check out some of the bush. I was quite lucky as Tan missed the highly visible sign stating that there was bears in the area. I wanted to do the walk and this slight overlook meant we were off. (She only realised this afterwards when she was looking through the photos!!)All different types of pine trees and birch (some large) of variable thickness were all around. The river here was impressive with some great rapids. I thought I saw a beaver dam but it was only a fallen tree (this one is for you Brendo). A sun shower come through on the way back and the rainbow was fantastic as it was a double version. No moose today!! In Rocky Harbour, I wanted to buy some beers. The liquor store only sells Bud Light by the can everything else was as 6 or 24 packs. Oh well, Bud Light it is. The sunset was full of golden rays and quite picturesque (just like everything else in the park). We chowed down in the cabin on a “Canadian style” pizza and had another relaxing night in the cabin updating the blog.

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