Yesterday, after one last walk on the coast, we said goodbye to L’anse au Clair and Labrador.
This time we were loaded on the ferry all the way to the front, where the deck slopes down to the ramp. I was glad to see they put a chock under our tire.
The truck was out in the open, but at least it, and Matey inside it, were somewhat sheltered from the wind. It was a cold day.
Here we are at the island side, just before we went down from the viewing deck to get back in the truck. Notice the arc of the lifted bow section.
We’re back at Gros Morne National Park at the very nice KOA. This afternoon Matey and I sat out in the screen tent with a view of the large, lonely mountain, Gros Morne.
Compared to Labrador, we are almost crowded here. Labrador has two and a half times the land and one eighteenth the people. The whole province of Newfoundland and Labrador has fewer people than the Buffalo metropolitan area. Labrador has less than 30,000.
Bud is sure in Labrador there is a greater biomass of bugs than people. I still need the screen tent to sit out here, but I don’t need to wear a bug jacket to set it up.
It was a lovely, sunny day today so we went out touring. This is the entrance to the harbor at Rocky Harbour with the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse in the distance.
I took that picture from the parking lot of Harbour Seafoods, which sells wholesale and retail. On our drive south from the ferry landing we’d noticed that there were lots of lobster traps stacked on the shore. Bud thought the season had ended so wanted to get some lobster for us before they were gone. The season ends Tuesday, so there was still lobster to be had. Later Bud ordered some cooked and cracked which we had for our supper.
We then drove up and over a steep little hill to look at the entrance to Bonne Bay, the main fiord in the park
Looking back from the crest of the hill you get a nice view of the seaward side of Rocky Harbour.
We drove around through the main part of town to…
the Lobster Cove Head lighthouse. The park guide told us the flag was being flown at half mast to honor an unknown Newfoundland soldier killed in a battle overseas in WWI whose body had just been recovered and was being repatriated on Canada Day, July 1st.
We got a nice view across the entrances to both the harbor and the bay.
The best place to see whales in this area is in Bonne Bay. These would be Minke whales, as the humpbacks don’t come here anymore. The capelin that they love have been fished out of these waters. After lunch we drove to Norris Point, a little town that sits on a point extending into Bonne Bay.
We walked up this lane to reach the shore trail on Burnt Hill.
We had great views of town…
and the bay, but no whales.
It was another nicely done trail. This wooden part was on a hill, so roof shingles were nailed down the center for traction.
I guess the chain here is to let you know where the trail goes, as it’s on the wrong side to keep you from slipping down into the bay.
Besides losing the majority of the bugs, another advantage of getting back to this campground on the island is that I was able to have a Starlink kit delivered. Starlink is a satellite internet service that works virtually anywhere. We found our portable dish TV antenna is too small to be effective this far north. And our Verizon home internet only works in the U.S. It’s not supposed to be a mobile device at all. After the usual frustrations setting up any new technology I was able to get an account, get things going and get Bud’s YouTube TV linked to it. Doing this blog is now much easier, this is the fastest internet service I’ve had in the two and a half years we’ve been on the road.
So although Labrador was an experience I wouldn’t want to miss, all in all we’re happy to be back on The Rock, even if it does rain for the next two days.
On the Roam Again 