We left Grand Falls through a wild forested area with lots of lakes (here they are called lakes). When we stopped for lunch near Sandy Lake we were told that there were some large
ice bergs in White Bay near Hampdon. So we decided to take a short trip North to see them, but unfortunately they had been blown out of the harbour by the time we got there. We were told that you don't normally see ice bergs this early in the year, but a piece the size of Prince Edward Island had calved off Greenland and these bergs are pieces of that. A lucky and exciting sight for us, but not so good for the environment! Then we doubled back to Hwy 1 again, and off to Gros Morne National Park on the East coast. We stayed in some cabins right on the water at Rocky Harbour, and did some exploring of some of the places the local people suggested. Two of them were Norris Point and Neddy Harbour, which are beautiful tiny harbours on a fiord with towering cliffs around them. 
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Neddy Harbour |
Saturday we decided that, since we wouldn't be back here for a while we needed to take a couple of extra days to explore the Northern Penninsula of Newfoundland. It's like a finger pointing North toward Labrador with only one highway. The part out of Gros Morne runs along the water and through a lot of little fishing villages. The land is less forested, very marshy, and mostly fairly flat and rocky, but green with grasses and yellow with golden rod.
The people have their gardens along the highway where the road building has scraped away the rocks and there is a bit of top soil. We think they were growing potatoes and rhubarb, as they were miles from any houses, so couldn't be tended very often. Other things we saw at the side of the highway were stacks and stacks of fire wood and lobster traps. No one touches things that belong to someone else. If you cut the wood it belongs to you, and that must be the main heating sourse, as there was so much of it. 
We got to L'Anse aux Meadows late afternoon and found a very nice B&B, with enough time left to go to the site of the only known Viking settlement in North America. A replica village has been built, complete with inhabitants to answer questions and demonstrate how the people lived there in 1000 AD. And----- that is the only place we saw a moose!!!! After all the warnings and signs and assurances that we would see many moose, he was our only sighting. That evening in the restaurant one of the 'Vikings' from the village was the entertainer. He sang a lot of the same songs we'd heard in Rocky harbour, but not so loud so we could hear the words. 
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| Cornerbrook |
On Sunday, after a cooked to order breakfast at the B&B we started back along the highway to Gros Morne Park. Along the way we were very lucky to see a couple of caribou, which is also unusual to see this time of year. Even though we were repeating the route we took to get here it is so beautiful it was a wonderful day. Back trough Gros Morne again and on to Cornerbrook for the night.
Monday we ambled down to Port aux Basques to catch the shorter ferry to the mainland (only 5 hours), and spent the night in Sydney. The singer on the ferry was so good we bought some of his CDs.