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.

3rd September – St Johns – Deer Lake - Gros Morne National Park, NF

Up early to catch another flight. We dropped off the car and we did over 1,000km, that a lot of the Avalon Peninsula explored. This time we were flying west towards Deer Lake – a flight over just over an hour. We cleared customs, and I wasn’t too impressed that customs seized the vegemite which had traveled across the world. Sorry about that Dan! A prop plane, Dash-8 (I hate small planes, prop ones in particular), greeted us on the tarmac. We boarded and we were off actually early. The flight was incredibly smooth and the view of the land as we traveled west very clear and gorgeous as we were only flying at 10,000 feet. We landed at Deer Lake, with only four of us disembarking the plane which was onwards to Goose Bay and Voiseys Bay (the place of a large Nickel deposit). The luggage came out with no waiting and we collected our hire car and we were off! Dan did the driving and I snoozed in the car, tired from no sleep the night before. Moose signs where everywhere warning of the dangers of them running across the road and colliding with the car, so we took it easy First up we stopped by the Canada Parks visitor’s centre where we purchased our park pass, which we needed in order to use or visit any of the facilities in the many parks. We then stopped at the Lobster Cove Lighthouse and climbed up some rocks to admire the coastal view. The skies were pretty grey and the wind was blowing fiercely. Deciding we should organize some accommodation that morning, we drove into the Gros Morne cabins, which are lovely one bedroom self contained cabins right on the ocean edge. It looked like a winner and we booked in for two nights.

We made some lunch (since when did cheese become orange – you can’t tell me that is natural????) and drove out to the Western Brook Pond to do the Western Brook Pond Boat Tour (note pond is the equivalent to lake in Australia). A 3km walk out to the boats dock was easy, we queued in the cold biting wind and we were off to see the Gros Morne National Park (granted UNESCO world heritage status in 1997 and means another UNESCO site is ticked off our list in our quest to see all of them in the world) and its beautiful fjord. We made it out of the rough waters (I managed not to get sea sick this time) with freezing winds. We sat safely tucked inside out of the cold until we reached the protection of the fjord. Apparently this place is a geologists dream. Personally, not being a geo, I just thought it was beautiful. To explain in non geo terms, it was like going along a lake on a boat with two 700 metre cliffs either side of a valley with vegetation and waterfalls. Stunning. This is what we had come to Newfoundland for and we were not disappointed. The boat cruised to the end of the waterway and then returned back – around 2.5 hours in all. For a geologist, it is a classic glaciated terrain with U-shaped valleys! We got back to the dock and started the 3km walk back to the car. On the way back, just metres off the path, Dan spotted a moose. She looked up and kept eating whilst we took lots of photos and were surprised that she wasn’t concerned with us being there. We are still yet to see a bull (male) moose, but the females are certainly impressive in their size. Think horse and make it bigger. The wind picked up on the walk back as did the rain, and I bought out the trusty “cheap and nasty” umbrella. Ha, and they said it wouldn’t last the distance. We were a bit fearful it wouldn’t last until the end of the 3km walk, but it’s still going strong and I’m now on a mission to make it last the distance of a Canadian winter. I can’t say I like my chances. We then hopped back in the car and drove around north of our cabin when I spotted a moose eating on the side of the road! We kept driving stopping at a number of coastal lookouts including the S.S. Effie which was a shipwreck that was washed ashore in the early 1900’s. We stopped out the moose location on the way back, and it was a calf (baby moose) and hadn't really moved much in the last 30 minutes. These animals are smart, as it ran off when it heard a truck. Whilst it may survive hitting a car, it doesn’t stand a chance with a truck! Back at our unit we saw a sign that said “Beach”. We walked down to the black sand and shale. I wouldn’t be pulling up a towel here and bathing anytime soon – plus the water would be freezing! We had a nice night in, cooking (gasp) and drinking our wine from Toronto.

As an aside, we apologise if we have not responded to your emails. Whilst we can receive, we can’t send from our bigpond account. We haven’t sorted it yet, but once we do, we’ll email you back! Gros Morne doesn’t have wi-fi either.