Halfway

Friday morning we were pleased to find that the very cold temperatures of the night had given way to a warming trend, and we didn't have to scrape the windshield of the car, as I'd feared we may have to do. We drove into L'Anse aux Meadows, where Parks Canada has made a National Historic Site at the location of an old Viking Settlement. Four moose (two bulls, two cows) were munching on the grass nearby as we drove into the site. Inside, we viewed a diarama, exhibits on artifacts, and a film, before going with a very knowledgeable and humourous guide to the location of the settlement, and then to a recreation of part of the settlement, occupied by several Norse. Then entire presentation was extremely engaging and we thought it was one of the more interesting sites (National Historic) we'd visited on this trip.



Bjorn the Beautiful greets us





















Weaving sailcloth, the old way










We ended up spending over three hours there, and it was after noon by the time we left. We found a picnic spot near the waterfront, and ate our lunch, viewing a couple of small bergs in the water.







A roadside garden bed, with
Newfie Scarecrow








A load of wood alongside
the highway....note the sled
used to haul it.









Then it was southbound for us, but instead of following the same road along the West side of the Peninsula, we took a loop highway across and Southeast, passing some of the most densely populated (by moose) part of Newfoundland. In this area are approximately 3 moose per square kilometre......but we only saw one of them, rushing into the bush along the highway.



Moose in the Tuckamore




We did spot a sign pointing off to an underground salmon pool - so, intrigued, we followed a dirt road to a parking area and hiked in a short way on a well-marked system of trails, to find a stream running into a cave. There were, indeed, some salmon swimming up the river and into the cavern. About 300 metres futher in the upstream direction, the stream was swirling into the cavern from the other side. This proved to be both interesting and a very good way to stretch our legs from the driving. So far we'd spent only $32.00on gas, (the Viking presentation was covered by our National Sites Pass) so we drove into the town of Roddickton, and treated ourselves to an ice cream cone before continuing on our loop over to the main road on the West side. Then we were retracing our route, southbound toward Gros Morne again. By 1700 it was time to find a place for the night, and pulled into a campsite at River of Ponds. It turned out to be one of our best deals yet, for a camping spot, at only $12.50 for the night. So we blew the extra on some beer in the store, and set up for the night under warm, sunny skies.
Saturday was another fine example of a warm and sunny summer day. Driving southbound toward Gros Morne, we called the KOA campgrounds and got a reservation for two nights (Gros Morne is particularly popular, and being a weekend, we decided we'd best be safe and book - it turned out to be a good decision, as everyplace we passed had "No Vacancy" signs posted....B&B's, cottages, campgrounds, everything.
We stopped at Western Brook and took a 3 Km. hike in to the Pond (What we'd call a lake in BC is a pond in Newfoundland), and decided to blow our daily budget on a boat trip up the pond and into a fjord-like (it's fresh water, so isn't really a fjord, but was dug out of the mountains by glaciers) area surrounded by high cliffs and waterfalls.


Western Brook Gorge










It reminded us of Princess Louisa Inlet, back in BC. Although the views are quite good, I still think Princess Louisa is more spectacular (higher, deeper, more waterfalls) - but we still enjoyed it.


The Tin Man appears in the Rock










This weekend marks our halfway point in the trip, timewise, and most likely distance-wise as well (over 15,000 Km to date). So the boat trip was part of our halfway celebration, and we had saved quite a bit on our budget the previous 3 days. After checking in and setting up camp, we continued our celebration by driving to Rocky Harbour and having real restaurant-cooked meals (Moose Burgers, with Bake-Apple Pie & homemade ice cream for dessert). The official halfway mark is Sunday noon, if we get home on Oct. 1. By Saturday evening, it had completely clouded over, and started to rain - so after our restaurant meal we headed back to camp and had an early evening in our tent, thankful for the new, big tarp (Linda's birthday gift earlier in the month).
Sunday morning it was still raining and cloudy. We had planned to hike up Gros Morne, which is a difficult 8 hour hike in steep terrain.....but we had to respect the weather, and cancel the hike. Instead, it was time to do a load of laundry and get caught up on the blog and emails. By noon, the rain had stopped, but it was still cool and overcast - still time enough for a shorter hike, and then hit up the festivities at the lighthouse in town (music, dancing, food, etc.).