kolamblog: Two weeks in Newfoundland

August 12/August 13

John taking photos from the top deck

Arrived in N. Sydney about 2:30 pm only to find out that we could not wait in the terminal area until our 1:00 am boarding time. So there we were in the parking lot of Canadian Tire two streets away. It is blazing hot and humid and we are tired from the long drive. But waiting is more tiring. I u to catch up on some work while John took a nap.

In retrospect, a 3:00 am crossing was a bad plan on my part. By the time we landed in Port aux Basque on the other side, we had been up for more than 24 hours. Even the short naps we took on board did not help very much.

sunrise over the atlantic

The cats did not enjoy the trip much either. We had to leave them in the RV which was three decks below. We were not allowed to go below

to check on them during the trip. When we got back to the RV (once we were docked) we found all three of them huddled under the sofa in their hideouts.

First glimpse of Newfoundland

We disembarked at 11 am on the 13th and drove for 4 hours to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne national park.

If you look at the map, you see just one main highway (TransCanada 1 also known as TCH 1) going from the ferry terminal at Port aux Basques directly northward to Deer Lake and then swinging east to St. Johns.

We are not sure how good the secondary roads were going to be. One option is to leave the RV in Rocky Harbour and drive the truck to St. Anthony but we are not very keen on leaving the cats behing for 2 or 3 days,

August 13 - August15

Driving on TCH 1 to Gros Morne

Rocky Harbour is a small place with small buildings nestled among the slopes of the mountain. Architecturally there was much to be desired. There were several "chalets" touted as the best place to stay and enjoy the area and these looked more like two room sheds to me. The economy is mainly dependent on tourism and cod fishing.

The Newfies (as they are called) have a very interesting accent. In some ways it is very similar to the high tiders from downeast NC but they have more of a lilt to their talk. They say Oye for I; boot for boat; but cod is caud and haddock is hoduck.

Not much to do here unless you are the hiking/trekking/mountain climbing type. It is ruggedely beautiful.
Rained two out of the three days we stayed here.

This did not bode well for a good tour

We did take a boat tour to West Brooke Pond to see the fjords. The whole trip started off very inauspiciously. We had reserved our places the day before for the 1pm tour based on weather reports. The day of the tour we went in at 11 am to pay for our tickets only to find that the lady had failed to put our names down the previous day. She then had the audacity to claim that she did not remember us from the day before and the 1 pm tour was all booked up. I was so upset with her for not just failing to write our names down but for not accepting her faux pas. Nor did she have the decency to apologize. We ended up buying tickets for the 4 pm tour knowing fully well that we had missed a good window of opportunity as far as the weather was concerned. There was a 50% chance of rain that afternoon.

did i glimpse a bit of the sun or is it wishful thiking?

We had to drive for 26 km (a little more than 15 miles, park the car and hike for 3 miles to get to the boat ramp. As we walked we tried to not get any more upset than we were - the whole place was smothered in fog. Was it even worth walking up there, we wondered.

while we waited for the boats, the sun came out, the fog cleared up and we had a most gorgeous afternoon after all.

Western Brooke pond was at one time a salt water pond that was connected to the gulf. But now it was cut off from the gulf and is a self contained body of water. It is actually bigger than a pond - more like a lake.

The cliffs on either side are awesome with lots of water falls and interesting textures to the rock surface.

At every turn I thought the scene was prettier than the previous one.

We had a great time and were very glad to have not let that incompetent lady spoil our afernoon.