Priorities

Summer returned to us the next morning, with a bright sunny, and warmer, day. It was also time to assess how much of Newfoundland we can really see in the time given, with our return ferry in less than 2 weeks on August 1. The two big southern areas intrigue us, with the Burin Peninsula, and it's ferry to St.Pierre (France!), as well as the isolated and unique Connaigre Peninsula. Both Peninsulas, however, would mean a lot of backtracking (hundreds of kilometres), and we are already only getting a "taste" of the parts of Newfoundland we are visiting, with this kind of touch-and-go travelling. Two places we definitely want to see are Gros Morne, on the west coast, and 500 kilometres north of that, the Viking area of L'Anse aux Meadows. Gros Morne will warrant a few days of visiting, just to see any of it, and then two days of travelling each way to the north end of the Island mean we will be pushed for time to catch the ferry. So the decision is to head West, and leave the South and most of the rest of the Central portion of this big Island. The sun beckoned us to tour the Twillingate area once more, in warmer, sunnier conditions - so we spent several hours of the morning meandering around this area, to see the lighthouse at the end of the point, and back along the Icebergs, which were glinting blue-white in the sunshine. Then it was time to push South and West, passing through Lewisporte, where we had a quick lunch at a roadside stop overlooking the harbour, and then passing through Bishop's Falls, Grand Falls-Windsor, and Badger (I was tempted to stop here to look for "Miss Badger"), but our priorities demanded pushing on. All along this route in the Central area of Newfoundland, we were crossing rivers, and multitudes of fly fishermen were casting their lines into the water. If this keeps up, the moratorium on cod fishing will need to be followed by one on trout and salmon! By 1500 we were approaching Springdale, which has a lovely campground on the Indian River. We pulled in, and found a spot to put up the tent. While waiting to register, we had a lovely chat with a couple from New Brunswick, who'd just come from the Western part of the province, and had spent several weeks there, with nothing but rave reviews for Gros Morne and the northern parts. So our decision at least got some confirming data!
We took a short hike along the river, and watched the fly fishermen working the pools and rapids, but didn't see any fish being caught - maybe they are safe after all.




Fly Fishing the Indian River








Tuesday morning dawned bright and summery again, and we pointed our boxy little vehicle West, and drove. A short stop in Deer Lake topped up our grocery larder, and by shortly after noon we were entering Gros Morne National Park. We drove into the southern part for our first day in the park, staying in a private campground in Lomond (mostly because of the tree protection it offered, with possible rain in the forecast for the evening). With a quick lunch in our tummies, we were ready to explore a bit, and headed West into the park, admiring the views of Bonne Bay, and then the Tableland. The Tableland is a geologic area somewhat unique, having been pushed up as a flat, table-like rock area some 200 million years ago when the continents of Africa and America collided.



The Tablelands









We explored the Park's Discovery/Welcome Centre, which had some interesting displays and a wonderful film about Gros Morne. Then we continued to the end of the road, stopping to walk the streets and boardwalk of the village of Trout River. The bay itself is quite open to the sea, but they have a very protected harbour behind a spit of land, and fishing is still a mainstay industry here. We decided to splurge on a case of beer, and went into the general store to get it. In walking through the door, we passed a time portal transporting us back some 80 years. It was a general store in every sense, with hardware items, groceries, fishing gear, and almost everything else. The people at the counter were ordering things which the clerk tallied in an account book, and always remembered to pass out some jawbreakers to the children. Speaking of jawbreakers......the entire counter behind the clerk was filled with drawers of various kinds of penny candy (ju-jubes, jawbreakers, gums, etc...with numbered drawers), and the locals would come in and order a few cents worth of #18, and a handful of #16, all handed over to the kids in a small paper bag. The beer, by the way, was one we'd tried, and liked, in St. Johns - Quidi Vidi Honey Brown Ale - and if it's not available at home in BC, it should be....quite good, and home brewed in Canada.
We then followed the road from the village, along the river (the Trout River) to a small lake (called Trout Pond), where we hiked in on a trail along the lake, taking occasional swipes of wild strawberries as we walked the pathway and viewed the scenery. We made it back to the car by 1800, and back to our campsite for a relaxing dinner. This is also a Tuesday - hence a Day of Reckoning.
The totals for week 9: Distance driven: 1868.2 Km Gas: $ 201.01 Food: $ 257.14 Accommodation: $137.95 Other: $46.01 Total Week 9: $642.11 Under-budget by almost $58.00 (which will help make up for some of the last few weeks.