Wednesday August 26, 1998 - Newfoundland

Margaree River - rainy and windy.

I woke up early and after breakfast I drove back toward Western Brook Pond to get a photo, then on toward the ferry back to Cape Breton. I stopped at Rocky Harbour and the little town on the peninsula to see if I could get photos of the Tablelands.

It was cloudy and I drove south it got windy and rainy. I stopped in Corner Brook for cash and at a campground whose name I forget just to see what it was like. It's the campground where the highway turns east toward St. John's. There's a mountain there you can climb and a"pond". Large campground and very nice with lots of private sites many of which are right by the pond.

The weather got worse. Just before Port aux Basques I turned off for Cape Ray and parked in a little picnic area by a beach. It was quite windy but not raining when I stopped. However it soon started to rain while I was making supper. Everything got wet. I couldn't put up my tarp because of the wind. I made rice and vegetables and as soon as I could I got back in the truck to the ferry. I ate my dinner in the truck waiting for the ferry.

I boarded the ferry and left Port aux Basques at 5.00pm. The ferry had a lounge with a band playing and a TV with a couple of crappy movies. I read for a long time (Fall On Your Knees by Ann-Marie MacDonald), then wandered around the ferry for a while. I was very tired. Finally I snuck down to the car deck and climbed into the back of my truck to get an hour of sleep before we arrived in NOrth Sydney. The door on the ferry jammed in North Sydney so it was a good 15 minutes before they could let anyone off. I got gas for the truck and just started driving toward Margaree Harbour. I had no idea where I would stop to sleep, but halfway up the Margaree Valley there was a very nice provincial picnic park on the river, so I stopped there. Got to bed at 1.30am.

Friday August 21, 1998 - Newfoundland

Green Point - sunny and warm.

The Trout River campground was OK but I didn't like it so much.

Tablelands seen from a distance

I decided to go on the 10.00am Tablelands guided walk. I was a bit late getting there but it was very interesting. The Tablelands are flat-topped mountains of yellow rock and hardly any vegetation. Across the road are mountains of grey rock and lots of vegetation; it's quite startling.

Our guide, Fred, told us that the yellow rock is actually rust, the rocks are peridotite and something else derived from the Earth's mantle. They were thrust up by tectonic forces when the North American and European plates first collided to form the Appalachian Mountains. There are remains of the mantle all along the Appalachians, but only here are they so extensive and undisturbed by human habitation.

Fred pointed out interesting plants such as dwarf "bonsai" birch trees, insectivorous pitcher plants, butterwort, a rare plant that makes its own compost, and another plant whose name I forget that accumulates heavey metals in its leaves. He showed us a mysterious colony of leeches in a stream with no known source of blood meals, and an old growth stand of larches and juniper over 300 years old and a half meter tall at best.

Fred pointed out one tiny tree and said, "This is larch, or tamarack or hackmatack, which we in Newfoundland call juniper," and then another tree and said, "And this is juniper, which we in Newfoundland call juniper." He showed us calcium springs and a place by a waterfall where new rock is being formed: travertine. Only 5 minutes old.

5 minute old travertine

Yohan kept up with the walk pretty well but at one point he slipped on a muddy path into a hole and didn't want to go any further.

I got back to my campsite just after noon and packed up to continue northward, to try my luck in another campground in the park. The scenery was beautiful and the weather great.

I eventually arrived at the Green Point campground right on the ocean shore facing westward. I found a really nice campsite in the "tuckamore" with a path down to the beach. I talked to a man at the next site and another couple, all from Ontario. This campground is uncrowded and quiet.

Yohan and I walked a trail through meadows and tuckamore along the beach. We came to a stream which Yohan would not cross, he waited for me there while I continued on a ways.

Yohan wouldn't cross the water

Later when I put him to bed I saw that his paws were red and raw. I collected driftwood from the beach for a cook fire and later after dark took a rug out onto a nearby meadow to lie down and watch the stars coming out. The sound of the breakers on the beach is soothing. It's a rocky beach with lots of driftwood and old lobster traps.

Thursday August 20, 1998 - Newfoundland

Trout River Pond

Trout River - clear and sunny, then clouding over and rainy

I got up early, around 5.20am Nova Scotia time (5.50am Newfoundland time) to get ready to debark. I spent a few minutes in the onboard museum reading excerpts from a diary of a family in which several generations worked on the ferry and kept notes. Once off the ferry I made breakfast for Yohan and me at the Visitors' Centre just outside Port aux Basques. There are no trees for miles, I suspect long since cut down for firewood.

I drove up the west coast and turned off on the road to Shallop Cove to follow the shore to Stephenville and then out on the Port au Port Peninsula. I took the backroad around Port au Port Bay to Lourdes and then turned around and went back. It is a very poor road, hilly, windy and not a lot to see. The weather was alternately rainy and sunny.

Getting back on the main road I drove into Corner Brook to get some cash and gas. It is the biggest town on this coast, a regular city centre. After leaving Corner Brook I continued on to Red Deer and then turned off on the road to Gros Morne (rt. 430). I reached Gros Morne around 3.30 or 4.00 pm.

On the advice of the Visitor Centre I decided to stay at the Trout River Pond campground. It took an hour to get there and it was rainy most of the time. The campground is set on a hill above the Pond, looking down the Trout River valley behind the Tablelands. Yohan and I walked down to the Pond, saw moose and bear tracks and a bog moose poop. "Ponds" here are lakes anywhere else. The Trout River Pond is actually two ponds, the campground being on the lower one. It is quite a spectacular view down the valley.

I went to bed early because of the rain.