Day 28 Aug 31 2014 Rocky Harbour NFLD (Gros Morne)

Day 28    Aug 31 2014    Rocky Harbour NFLD (Gros Morne)

We are not in a rush to get going today as it is raining fairly hard.  The forecast is for a substantial amount of rain for the rest of the day.  When we finally left the camper we went to the Bonne Bay Marine Station.  They had a touch pool that Isabel loved.  David was impressed by the fact that the people talked about the fish there as food and “not like in Toronto where the Lions eat grass”.  The second stop of the day was the Gros Morne Wildlife Museum.  The museum consists of mounts of local animals in their habitat.  The displays were very well done.  

Day 27 Aug 30 2014 Rocky Harbour NFLD (Gros Morne)

Day 27     Aug 30 2014    Rocky Harbour NFLD   (Gros Morne)

We stopped at the Arches on the way to Gros Morne so we could see the Arches at a higher tide.  I was extremely windy and the waves were impressive.  We walked into two different falls in Gros Morne.  The first was a 10 km round trip into Bakers Brook Falls.  On the way we walked past a Moose Exclusion area which is an area that was fenced off in 2009.  The area shows the difference in forest regeneration that the browsing of the moose causes.  There is a stark difference between the exclusion area and feeding area of the moose.  NFLD is supposed to have 120 000 moose and Gros Morne is supposed to have 5000 moose in the park boundary.  The second falls we walked into were the South Brook Falls.  To get a good look at the falls we had to pass the safety fencing and Evy was starting to get a little worried where I was letting her kids go.  

Day 26 Aug 29 2014 Portland Creek Pond

Day 26   Aug 29 2014    Portland Creek Pond

The temperature outside when we woke up at 8:55 AM was a balmy 7 deg c.  The electric heater was running on high all night keeping the camper at a very comfortable temperature.   Our first stop of the day was at the Dr. Grenfell Museum in St. Anthony.  He was an amazing man that brought health care and orphanages to northern NFLD in the late 1800 and early 1900.  After we went to Fishing Point Head where Evy saw a whale and we climbed the 476 stairs of the Dare Devil Trail.  Once I made it to the top and my heart slowed to a safe pace the view was amazing.   We finished the day with a 300 km drive from St. Anthony to Mountain Water Resort camp ground.

Day 25 Aug 28 2014 L’anse aux Medows NFLD

Day 25    Aug 28 2014    L’anse aux Medows  NFLD

We made it to the Norse site at L’anse aux Medows today.  I learned how the Vikings made bog iron.   The recreated Viking building was interesting and substantially warmer than I thought it would be inside.  The outside temperature was 10 deg c with quite a bit of wind. There was a very small fire going making it  quite warm inside with surprisingly little smoke.  The little village of L’anse aux Medows is very pretty but very isolated.  We forgot to store our drinking water container after lunch.  When we opened the camper to set up we encountered a broken jug and lots of wet things in the camper. 

Day 24 Aug 27 2014 Portland Creek Pond

Day 24     Aug 27 2014    Portland Creek Pond

The kids started their day by doing some homework.  The rest of the day entailed driving from the Codroy camp ground to a camp ground at Portland Creek Pond.  It was 400  km drive with some of the biggest hills we have encountered on our drive so far.  We stopped at the Arches Provincial Park just before we got to the camp site.  While looking at the rock formation I got soaked by a large wave when I was not paying attention.

Day 23 Aug 26 2014 Codroy Nfld.

Day 23             Aug 26 2014    Codroy Nfld.

We ended up staying at the Codroy camp ground a second night.  The day included a trip to the Cape Anguille light house and the Rose Blanche light house.  On the way to the Rose Blanche light house we stopped at Barachios Falls.  There were lots of blue berries at the falls so Isabel and I had a good feed.   Isabel, David and I climbed about 1/3 of the way up the falls.  The kids wanted to keep going but I figured it was getting to steep for the mountain climbing flip flops that they were wearing.  There is a fish packing plant about 5 km from the camp ground where we bought some fresh fish for lunch, it was excellent.  

Day 22 Aug 25 2014 Codroy Nfld.

Day 22             Aug 25 2014    Codroy Nfld.

We took the ferry from North Sydney NS to Channel Port Aux Basque today.  It was a nice calm ride and we saw a big pod of whales.  There were also lots of jelly fish in the water.  When we got to Nfld we drove about 30 km to the Grand Codroy Camp ground in Codroy.  It is a really nice camp ground overlooking a river.  It is also the cheapest camp ground of the trip at $30 per night taxes and firewood included.  Coincidently the free firewood also provided the first camp fire of the trip resulting in us eating a lot of smores.  We were only going to stay one night but will probably stay two.