Newfoundland - Gros Morne

On Sunday, August 14th, we left Nova Scotia for Newfoundland on the ferry going from North Sydney. Our departure was for 9:00 A.M., but due to a mechanical problem on one of the ferries, we didn't make it out until almost 3:00 that afternoon. There were a lot of unhappy people, but we toured the docks, downtown, had some coffee, and relaxed in the trailer until we boarded. We had a smooth ride over but it was dusk when we arrived around 9:00 and then we drove 35 miles to our campsite where we set up in the dark for the first time. Our first impressions of this place are wonderful!!!

This is the ferry coming into N. Sydney, 6 hours late but we made it over. Evidently, mechanical problems happen frequently.

At 9:00, we finally arrive at Port aux Basque, Newfoundland. I wish I'd had my tripod available for some of the other sunset colors that came after this (of course, we were ready to get down the road anyway).

This is from a short coastal trail along the Gulf of St. Lawrence. As you can see, the cliffs come straight down into the ocean. We plan to do a trail over by these cliffs later in the week.

This is from the Berry Hill Pond Trail, an easy 3 mile hike around the lake with great views of the mountains around. Have not seen any moose but lots of moose tracks! Cindy wants her moose!

From Lobster Cove Trail, the lighthouse on the point overlooking the Gulf by Rocky Harbour. Right after this, we lost our good weather and had a rain out day on Thursday, Aug. 18th.

No, I didn't mix my Hawaii pictures in here. This is from the Green Garden Trail on Friday, a rather tough 5-6 mile hike that starts from the edge of the Tablelands (see picture below). This is Newfoundland at it's finest!

The Tablelands, ancient rock pushed up that is rich in nickel, iron, chromium, and magnesium (all are toxic to plants). It's like a desert region in the middle of a forest. This is from the trailhead that took us 3 miles to the coast for the above pic.

The happy couple, after this we went down to the "beach" .. rocks. We didn't look so happy after we climbed back out of this placeback to the trailhead. It was a real "puffer". We just had to keep in mind the views we had seen!

From down at the beach on the Green Garden trail. There were also small waterfalls, all kind of "stuff" on the beach, but very few shells. But lots of rock!

View of Bonne Bay. Several little fishing villages along the way, all with quaint homes (and usually very small). Everything is neat and organized, but not much to do but fish and tourist industry stuff.

They say there are 100,000 moose on the island of Newfoundland (but it's a big island). We haven't seen many but we did get pics on two separate occasions. The one on the left on our way to the Talbelands and Green Garden Trail, the one on the right from the day we did Western Pond (see highlight pictures below). See, I kept telling Cindy that telephoto lens would pay off!

This is the "highlight place" for Newfoundland..... Western Brook Pond. You hike in about a mile to a boat dock and then they take you on the water about 8 miles to the end of the fjord. It's really not a fjord, because it is now cut off from the sea, but it is beautiful and we had a perfect day to enjoy this wonderful place! The pictures arond this are all from the boat ride, the first one will definitely make the screen saver list for the computer!