Rocky Harbor, NL

We traveled north on the Viking Trail (Rt. 430) up the western coast of Newfoundland from Corner Brook to Gros Morne (translated “big rounded mountain”) National Park. It was declared a United Nations World Heritage Site in 1987. Small villages and many attractions are included within the boundaries of the park. We are camped in Rocky Harbor on the Western side of the Island near the park entrance. Our first touring day was chilly, damp, and cloudy, but we were undaunted in our quest to study the local area. With good friends, Chuck and Joyce, from our Virginia days, we traveled to Woody Point and Trout River, where we had lunch at a little fishing village out on a point. The chilly looking waves were about six feet high, our hats blew off, and there were few boats on the water. We saw a scenic sheep barn with the animals sheltered nearby as well as other points of interest. We visited a couple of quaint craft shops, which Chuck loves to do, being the master artist that he is. At one point Jerry invaded an old hillside cemetery that has apparently not been attended to for years. Many headstones had fallen like the bodies below that they commemorate. The precipitous climb to the top of the ridge where a photo could be taken of an historic church in the background was a challenge, but the dedicated photographer persisted until he reached the crest. The tall orchard grass was wet and slippery. Descending the slope was even a greater challenge, but Jerry maintained his footing and protected his camera with considerable effort.

The next day we drove 17 miles north to catch a boat tour of Western Brook Pond, an elongated, beautiful, blue body of water that runs between craggy, steep mountains. To get to the dock we had to walk 1.8 miles over a hilly gravel path with intervening spans of boardwalk which crossed over scenic watery bogs. It was a lovely, sunny, morning walk, and we were accompanied by our good friend, Elaine, from Virginia. Approximately 55 of us Airstreamers crowded on a small boat with a few other passengers. The two and a half-hour, weather-perfect cruise provided a spectacular view of the mountains surrounding the pond. The trip was made even more memorable by a few scenic waterfalls. We learned that the pond contains some of the purest water in the world. It is fed by mountain streams which have no nutrients; thus the plants eat the animals because there is little or no algae or other vegetation in the water. As well there are no homes surrounding the pond, and boating is prohibited except for the two cruise boats. At the end of the tour, it was the hike back to the parking lot. At a leisurely pace we enjoyed the many unusual plants and flowers, as well as a female moose grazing near one of the boardwalks. Gloria held up well, but 3.6 miles is much longer now that her stamina has been diminished by Parkinson’s. On our drive back to the campground, we stopped twice. One stop was to see a few whales spouting at a distance in the Gulf of St. Lawrence. We also saw a set of young moose alongside the highway. Their mother was nearby, but she remained secluded in the woods. We do not take chances with the wildlife as more deaths are caused by the deer family than by bears.

After a welcome afternoon nap we attended a dinner performance by a well-known band named Anchors Aweigh at a local hotel. They played guitars, accordions, drums and a keyboard and sang a broad array of Newfoundland and Irish ballads. They also had many jokes and humorous stories about Newfoundlanders to keep the audience laughing.

On our final day, we drove a short distance to Norris Point. Gloria was still recuperating from her long hike to Western Pond the day before, so we shot some photos, visited a couple of gift shops, and had lunch. We also drove a couple of miles north to Lobster Point to see a lovely lighthouse erected in the 1800s. Prior to that time ships were warned only by a lantern in the window of a home on the hillside. People of the town donated oil each week to keep the lantern burning. Now it is electrically lit and attended by the Coast Guard. That evening we went back to the harbor to catch a lovely sunset. The lighthouse illumination could be seen from our vantage point across the water.