Day 36 and 37 – Hiking and other activities at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Day 36 and 37 – Hiking and other activities at Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

Every day we check the weather forecast. We don’t know why as it never is correct here anyway, and we were supposed to have a sunny day so it was planned to be a hiking day.
First we took the Baker’s Brook Falls trail: a 10 km return hike again along bogs and forest. The view of the falls was certainly worth the hike. The pictures will give you a better view of it.

Then it was back to our car for some lunch, and as our parking lot was also the starting point of Berry Hill trail we did this as well. It is a short hike but very steep, with man-made steps near the top of it. Here we got a beautiful view of the area as can be seen in Leo’s pictures.

After we were done our hikes we went to check out the distance I had walked along the highway but got side tracked at a very small fisherman’s village of Baker’s Brook. Here Leo chatted with a local fisherman, Ernest, and he told us a bit of what he and his wife do for living, off-shore fishing in just a small fishing boat. They are up in the dark at 3:00 in the morning each day, head out 10 miles from shore and fish for cod in the morning when the waves are less pronounced. They return with their catch by 9:00 a.m. His wife goes along and fishes with him each day. He suggested we come back the next morning when they returned from their fishing trip so we could meet her as well as she was in town at the moment.

Day 37 – Berry Brook Cove and Trout River
We got up a bit late but we were still ready to go at 9 to see Ernest and his wife Lynn coming back from their fishing trip. They then had to clean the fish and get it ready to take to the local fish plant where the fish are processed for market.
Once they were done cleaning the fish Ernest and Leo went to the fish plant and Lynn showed me around “the house”. She got some fish ready for their supper (10 o’clock in the morning!) and also some cod tongues, a delicacy here in Newfoundland. We cooked the fish and tongues, got some lettuce from the garden and then she went to set the table for 4! She never asked if we wanted to stay; it was just expected of us that we would stay and have ‘dinner’ with them. As the boys took way too long to come back (those men) and Lynn did not want to eat her fish cold we both started to eat. I really liked the cod tongues but Leo thought it was a bit fatty. In this way we were again received with the most famous hospitality of the Newfoundland people. We chatted a bit longer and then said our goodbyes to Ernest and Lynn after exchanging addresses and such.
Then it was back to our trailer to decide where our afternoon trip would take us. We chose to go to Woody Point and Trout River, which are villages on the other side of the Bonne Bay fjord from Rocky Harbour so it was again a bit of a drive, but a scenic one. The weather remained cloudy so it was not much of a day for hiking or biking. We checked out Trout River and on the way back the Discovery Centre at Woody Point. This is a very nice place to visit as well and to learn about the geology of the park as well as some of its history.

I am sure that with Leo’s pictures you will get a better idea of what we have experienced these last few days. The pictures for days 36 and 37 can be found here.

Day 34 & 35 – Driving from Codroy Valley to Gros Morne National Park and our visit to the park in Newfoundland

Day 34 & 35 – Driving from Codroy Valley to Gros Morne National Park and our visit to the park in Newfoundland

Day 34 was a travelling day from Codroy Valley to Rocky Harbour as the weather forecast for that area was sunshine for the next few days and the rest of Newfoundland predicted rain. Of course you can only trust the weatherman for 50% even here in Newfoundland. We did have reasonable weather for our drive but certainly not the sunshine forecasted, and the sun shone only a bit in our days here. They could sure use some more talented meteorologists here, Erik!

We started late and it was a long but nice drive to our destination point. The TransCanada Highway is a smooth paved highway: one of the best ones we have travelled so far. We went to gas up at a Canadian Tire gas station in Corner Brook but I think every one in Corner Brook was running out of gas as it was chaos at this station. One customer quipped that you would have thought the gas was free it was so busy, but we did get gas again to move on.

The campground in Rocky Harbour is really nice and clean but internet was not the best. Just as we got going it would shut down and as we are not at our trailer much during the day we did not get much done on our blog these last few days.

Day 35 – Our first full day here and we decided to walk the Coastal trail which consists of a 3 km hike with the coast on one side and a bog on the other side. Newfoundland has lots and lots of bogs. The path was so narrow and uneven that I decided not to walk back on the same path but just walk towards our campsite along the highway. Leo walked back and picked me up 6 km later. Later in the day we walked around a pond, Berry Head Pond, which was a nice walk as well and mostly boardwalk because of the boggy terrain. These walks would even be nicer in June or July when the flowers are in full bloom.

That is was about it for day 34 and 35, pictures of these days can be found here.