Day 46, Wednesday Aug. 7 - Tour of a Mine

Day 46, Wednesday August 7^th Tour of a Mine

The day starts out with blue skies but this could change as we have come to realize.  We have a nice breakfast as the others in the B and B start their day.  We don’t see Kevin as he has already headed off to work.

View of the Lakeview Inn

The agenda for the day is a light one, Dawson is going to head out to the mine for a tour and Julie and Roma will have a day hanging out in Millertown.  Our B and B; the Lakeview Inn, has a beautiful veranda overlooking Red Indian Lake, so we start our day having coffee looking out at the lake.  

View from the Lakeview Inn

The mine is about a 30 minute drive from Millertown and the tour is set to start at 12 so Dawson has time for a run.  Dawson runs around Millertown twice for a total of 6 kilometers. 

At 11:15 Dawson heads out to the mine, he has a surface indoctrination and U/G indoctrination scheduled for 12 and 12:45.  The mine is fairly new having been opened in 2006, and is mining a copper, zinc deposit.  Dawson arrives at 11:45 having had a very uneventful drive; the road is quite good as the mine is shipping concentrate out on it.  The surface indoc. is well done and Dawson is over at the mine office by 12:30.  Dawson meets up with Kevin and he introduces me to Trevor Windsor, who will give the u/g indoc.  Turns out Dawson will also tour with Trevor, as Kevin has a planning meeting he has to attend.   The mine is in excellent shape which is apparent from the condition of the ramp as we head down.  The mining industry proves once again that it is a small world as it turns out Trevor is cousins with a mechanic Dawson had worked with before.  Once the tour is over Dawson heads over to see Lewis Patey who is the Maintenance Super here at Duck Pond who he had worked with in Sudbury.  Once Kevin’s  work day is done we head over to take a look at the two small pits Teck is mining.   All and all a good day at the mine.



Julie reading placque while fending off the black flies

We get back to Millertown around 6 to find out what Roma and Julie got up to.  Both spent the day relaxing, starting out on the Lakeview’s veranda but got chased in by black flies.   They headed over to Kevin’s to see about de-lobstering the house and watched some of the Roger’s Cup.  Roma then read for the afternoon and Julie did some blogging.

The four of us have dinner at the B and B and then head out to look at another Millertown tourist attraction, the beach at Indian Point. 

Kevin at Indian Point

Indian Point was a common wintering location of the Beothuk Indian tribe.  It was the location of one of the many confrontation between the early settlers and the Indians.  Before heading over to the point we call Ross as he has just returned to Canada from his European running tour.  He had completed in the World’s University Games in Russia, and then competed in 4 other races in Finland, Sweden, and Belgium.  His results are good and we are very proud of Ross.  He then took in a week of vacation along the coast of Croatia.  Bravo Ross!

Roma emerging from a birchbark teepee

The visit to Indian point is good although somewhat hampered by the blackflies.  We are back at the Lakeview Inn around 9 and play some bridge for an hour or so.  Roma is much better at it than us, but we are improving.   

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 45, Tuesday Aug. 6th, Moving on

Day 45 , Tuesday August 6^th

Today is moving day.  After 4 days at Gros Morne, we are heading to Millertown to check out where Kevin lives.  It was cloudy and grey as we checked out after leisurely coffee and breakfast.  We stopped and bought some lobster to cook up at Kevin’s as well as some scallops and cod tongues, which aren’t really tongues but are a neck muscle in the cod.  We head off by 11 and decide to hike into a waterfall closer to the park gates.  It is only about a 10 minute hike in so not much pain for a view.  As we are hiking in with the rain just pouring off of us, people are coming out just drenched.  When they started the hike in there was no rain.  Lucky for us we were prepared.

View which was well worth the 10 min hike

Dawson at South Brook waterfall

The waterfall is lovely and there is lots and lots of water flowing.  A few quick pics and we are back in the van.  We drive a few miles and see a cow moose off to the side of the road.  Another 30 minutes and we are back in Deer Lake where we will stop for groceries.  This is the only town in our 3 hour car ride to Kevin’s to get groceries.  Kevin has sent us a list for his house as the store was closed both Friday when he tried to get groceries and again on Sunday when he had taken us back for our rental car.  Funny how originally I had sent him a list which he did not fulfill and now he is sending us one.  $200.00 later and after a slow lunch at an Irvings restaurant, and we are back on the road.

Nothing much between Deer Lake and Millertown except trees, lakes, and road.  We do see one more moose on our way into Millertown after turning off the highway at “Badger”.  We are playing auto bingo with very little luck finding traffic lights and parking garages, deer and railroad crossing signs, but lots of trees.

Kevin greeted us and gave us a tour of the firehall and town hall as he is a member of the volunteer fire department.



Kevin at Millertown firehall



 

The town hall had a small museum which was interesting.  They have done a great job capturing the essence of their existence.  Millertown was a purpose built town to produce lumber for export.

 

The star of the museum is a full snooker table built in Scotland and transported to Millertown when it was built in 1900.

Dawson in Millertwon Museum

 

Kevin at takes a shot on the $300,000 pool table

The old sawmill engine

From the museum we head down to other of Millertown's attraction, the engine fly wheel from the original sawmill which was the reason the town was built . The fly wheel is now partially in the waters of Indian Lake as the level of the lake has been raised to store water for the hydro station at Grand Falls.

Roma, Kevin and Julie on the shores of Red Indian Lake

Time to check into our bed and breakfast which was more like a bed and dinner as there is nowhere else to eat.  We had brought our lobster so did not partake in the B&B dinner. 

As seen from the photos, lobster was fabulous.  Kevin has a great house with all the fixings so we had a wonderful feast at his place.  After dinner a couple hands of bridge and then off to the B&B for a hot tub, a treat as the boat we are living on does not have many luxury facilities.  We call ice cubes luxury these days.  Off to bed by 11:00 anticipating a restful day tomorrow.

Dawson with the 1st of 5 lobsters

 

Kevin with asparagus

 

and it was an excellent feed

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

 

Day 44 Monday, August 5^th

Roma at Lobster Cove Lighthouse

Well Kevin has left so now we are three. We head off to Lobster Cove lighthouse for a tour.  This is a Parks Canada exhibit and a beautiful spot.    We have bought a seasons pass for Gros Morne so want to take in all the exhibits.  Julie hikes down to the beach by herself and wonders if she will make it back up.  The tide is coming in and the first set of stairs back up is closed off.  The shore is very cluttered with large rocks and the sandals are not the best walking option.  Finally a set of stairs up, although a bit rickety looking and a bit of a boggy path and she is re-united with Dawson and Roma.

Next is a drive out to Woody Point.  We can see the point but have to drive all around the East Arm of the bay so it is almost an hour drive.  The discovery centre (also part of Parks Canada) is our next stop.

 

Newfoundland pony in Woody Point

 

View from lunch stop

 Lots of great exhibits on the geology, and animal history.  We watch a movie about the park and then are off to lunch at Woody Point.  We are looking for a spot overlooking the bay of course even though it is a bit cool.  We find one with a friendly injured gull and order our food.  Typical of Newfoundland, no one seems in a hurry so it is a lengthy lunch.  Not to worry as we have time.  We watch some fish being filleted, some boats fishing, and gulls flitting about

.

After lunch we decide we have time to get to Trout River for a looksee.  This is a typical fishing port.  Very protected as the boats can get up the river for shelter.  We go to the local museum, then wander the streets and docks.  Roma gets her foot caught in a net and gets tossed to the ground hard.  Luckily just bruising and some road rash on her hand.  Could have been much worse. 

Roma on boardwalk at Trout River prior to her trip

View of the location of the Trip note the nets along harbor wall

Scared all of us for sure.  We decide we have had enough of Trout River and besides, we have tickets to the show “Anchor’s Away” in Rocky Harbour and have been told to arrive early if we want to sit together. 

Turns out we go straight to the show and get one of the last tables.  We order some bad for you pub food and some beers to pass the time until the show starts.  All the seats have good views of the show which is a combination of music and stories. The show is 3 hours long so exceeds our bedtime.  We leave about 15 minutes before it is done.  We have had a long day.  Roma is stiff and sore from her “trip”.

Cheers Julie and Dawson

 

Day 43, Sunday August 4^th

Day 43 starts off with a mixture of sun and cloud.  We plan on heading south to Norris Point, a drive of about 8 kms, to do a tour of the aquarium, and then do a hike to take in more of Gros Morne’s beautiful scenery.

Kevin and a crab at the aquarium

We head out on our first quest around 10, stop at a nice lookout and visit a small museum showing an early home from the turn of 19^th century.  From here we head to Norris Point to visit the Gros Morne aquarium, the aquarium is a joint venture between Parks Canada and Memorial University of St. John’s.  The aquarium is focused on research on supporting the local fishing industry.  The tour was excellent.  The main attraction at the aquarium was the two blue lobsters.  A normal lobster has 3 colour pigments, red, yellow and blue.  In the case of the blue lobster they only have the blue pigment.  Catching one is a million to one chance.  Our guide told us that due to the publicity of getting their latest blue lobster the facility was inundated with calls from fishermen asking if they wanted special lobsters they had caught.   

Roma on the docks at Norris Point

From the aquarium we walked across the road to a restaurant overlooking Bonne Bay for lunch.  We enjoy another excellent meal overlooking the water.  After lunch we returned Roma to our accommodation in Rocky Harbour and the 3 of us headed out to the south end of the park for a hike.  There are a number of hikes throughout Gros Morne, the one that we have chosen to do is called the Green Garden hike and features a hike across the Alpine vegetation down to the coast.   The hike will take about 4 hours, but will take about an hour to get there.  En route to the trailhead we spot a seal sunning on a rock. We believe it is a grey seal.  The interesting item was that it was just after Dawson mentioned that we had not see a seal yet and within a minute we are provided with one.

Seal

Beautiful waterfall at the beach

The hike proves to be well worth the drive and the hike.  We spend about 1 hour walking through alpine vegetation, walking on top of rock directly from the earth’s mantle.  We then start to head down to the coast through thick spruce and fir bush.  This type of bush is called “Tuckamore” here in Newfoundland.  We are well paid for our efforts with a gorge view down the coast of sea stacks and rugged coast line.  We get down to the shore and walk about 600m to look at a small waterfall just off the beach.  We spend some time taking photos.

Dawson and Kevin Green Garden hike

Julie and Dawson (note spires in background)

Julie and Dawson on Muskoka chairs green garden hike

It is now time to start thinking about heading back, we make our way back up to top of the shore line but before we start we enjoy the use of the Muskoka  chairs which Parks Canada have placed there.  We have come to find that this is a common sight here in Gros Morne, and they are an excellent idea.  We are all of the opinion that one of our photos with the chair should be used for promoting the park.  We complete the hike in just over 3 hours.  From here we are off to Deer Lake with Kevin where we will pick up a rental car and Kevin will head back to Millertown as some people still have to work.

Kevin and Julie green garden hike

We pick up the rental car which is actually a van due to the high demand for rental vehicles and a disruption to the ferry service due to the grounding of one of the ferries a couple of days earlier.  The trip back to Rocky Harbour is a much better one than on Friday night.  For one thing it is not raining and 2^nd the sun is shining.  Just south of the park we see a silver fox crossing the road, our animal sightings have started off very well on this trip.



Lobster cove lighthouse sunset

We arrive back in Rocky in time for dinner and learn that Roma has had a good afternoon having a look around the south part of the harbour.  We head out for dinner at the local restaurant, Earl’s.  It is nice restaurant that has received good reviews in trip advisor.  Roma has the Moose dinner, Julie the Moose soup and Dawson an order of Cod cakes.  All good although Roma states this will be her last Moose meal she will be moving back to seafood.  Just prior to the meal being served the sun set starts so Julie heads out and gets some great sunset shots.

We head back to the suite and head off to bed as tomorrow is another big day.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Day 42, Saturday August 3rd, Gros Morne day 1

Day 42, Saturday August 3^rd Rocky Harbour

We try to get an early start on our 1^st morning in Newfoundland, but do not get going till mid morning due to our late arrival the night before.   The accommodations we have are quite nice and are the 2^nd story of a new purpose built guest house.  The view is as good as you would expect, overlooking Rocky Harbour with the Lobster Cove light house across the bay.  The accommodations are a two bedroom so it requires that Kevin sleep on the coach, not a big inconvenience for Julie, Roma or I.

Roma, Julie and Kevin on the way in to Western Brook Pond

By 10:30 we are making our way out to Kevin’s truck for our 1^st day of touring Gros Morne.  We have two main activities scheduled for the day.  The 1^st one is a boat tour of a fresh water fjord and the 2^nd a dinner theatre.  We head north from Rocky Harbour up to Western Brook Pond which is the location of the boat tour.  It is a 3 km hike into the Pond, the day is overcast but the rain is holding off so we think we are good, unfortunately upon our arrival at the Pond we find out that the boat trips have been cancelled due to the visibility or I should say lack of visibility. 

Kevin at Western Brook Pond

Julie and Roma on the way out

We are somewhat disappointed as this excursion was recommended to us by Alan and Karen who did it last year and loved it.  We decide to have lunch, look around and then head back to the truck.  As we are having lunch the last tour of the day comes in and gets a refund for the tour.  They could not see anything.  With the sun shining the views are stunning but we will have to wait for another time.

Remains of the SS Ethie

Our next scheduled event is a dinner theatre at the north end of the park in the village of Cow Head about a 1 hour drive north of where we are.  Our plan now is to make our way up to Cow Head stopping along the way at the various park sites along the way.  Our 1^st stop is at the wreck of the SS Ethie, one of the steam ships which provided service along the Western Coast of Newfoundland prior to roads.  There is not much left of the wreck as it happened in 1911. 

Song sheet of the Wreck of the Steamship Ethie

Our stop here is quite fitting as the play we are going to see in Cow Head is based on this event.  No one died in the wreck with everyone being safely taken ashore by rope, after the boat was run aground with help of the local fishers.  The rescue features the fact that a baby was sent ashore in a mail bag.

Bill describing a Cod Trap

From here we move further up the coast with our next stop being Broom Point which features a hike out to the coast and an interpretive centre setup in a summer fishing camp.  The coast of Newfoundland is dotted with these camps.  They are used by the local fishers from April till September, originally focused on Cod and salmon fishing the catch has moved over to shell fish – lobster and Crab.  The site has a fish shed and small home on it.  We catch a presentation by one of Parks Canada employees who describes the fishery and the life style.  The home is about 600 sq ft and was the summer home for 10 people (3 families).

Dawson and Kevin hike at Broome Point

Our next stop is Cow Head, and we have time for a good look around.  Cow Head has a nice beach and small community c/w harbour.

Cow Head harbour

  We take in the dinner theatre at the local hotel and thoroughly enjoy it.  The play is excellent and food good.  By 8:00 we are out of the play and stop at the local grocery store to pick up some items for breakfast.  It is here in Cow Head that we start our search for yogurt as we have become accustom to having our cereal with yogurt but no luck we will have to keep looking.  We do meet some of the cast members from the play as they are in buying some beer for the after performance party. 

We start the drive back to Rocky Harbour around dusk which is the time when the moose are on the move.Moose are an introduced species to Newfoundland but have adapted well and now are a concern for drivers especially at dusk and dawn.However our 1^stwildlife encounter is with a caribou not a moose.The Caribou runs right across the road and into the ditch providing us with an excellent view of his arse.  About 2 kms down the road the oncoming car flashes his lights at us, a sign there are moose ahead, and sure enough there is a cow and her calf munching away at the side of the road.We pull over get some pictures and move on.A further 5 kms. down the road another moose crosses the road in front of us. Not bad 3 moose and a caribou sighting all in less than 10 kms.  We make it back to Rocky Harbour without further excitement.

Caribou heading north

Cow Moose

Calf Moose

We will see what tomorrow will bring.

Cheers

Dawson and Julie

Day 41, Friday August 2nd-Off to Newfoundland

Day 41, Friday August 2^nd-Off to Newfoundland

 

Up and at ‘em today as we are flying out of Pearson this evening and still have a bunch of “to do’s” on the list.

Roma and Julie under the canvas about to say good bye

First meeting is with Jari, from JT’s canvas as we are selecting our colour and discussing the “features” of the new canvas for the boat.  It is very exciting as this is our first major change to the boat and will make it more like our home.  The existing canvas is of excellent design but very tired.   Teeth fall out of the zippers every pull and when Julie cleaned the dodger the material just eroded away.  Complements to the original design and Glenn and Solange as Jari said it was well taken care of and liked the design of it.  We are making a few minor changes but ultimately it will be very similar.  We decide on blue to accent the beige hull and navy bootstripe.  Hopefully we do not regret ignoring Beth’s good advice about selecting a light colour to reflect the heat.  Julie opted for the dark colour to hide the dirt instead.  We tell Jari the boat will be available to him by 1:00 so we have to get the rest of our errands done quick so we can be offloaded by 1:00. 

Jari stripping the old canvas



First stop is the thrift shop in hunt for auto netting to use for storage on the boat.  No luck!  Then off to Mark’s work warehouse for jeans for Dawson and Walmart for odds and ends.  Back to the boat for lunch then we are on the road.

We are about 30 minutes into our drive to Pearson when Dawson cannot remember if he flipped the breaker on the fridge and Julie has left the freezer and fridge open to defrost so we have to turn around and go back.  Bummer, but good we did as the breaker had not been flipped and the fridge was running.  That would have been a thousand dollar regret and possibly worse.....

View from accomodations in Rocky Harbour

Finally we get to Pearson, early of course and head to the lounge after getting through security. Dawson is able to get all of us in as he is “elite”.  We enjoy free drinks and food and some comfort for about 6 hours, as our flight is delayed an hour and a half.  It will now be 2:00am before we land.  Poor Kevin had a long wait for us.  Fortunately for us, the flight was oversold and they had to bump customers up to business class and “Mr. Elite” and his party got chosen to move.  We enjoyed much better service and leg room for our 3 hour flight.

Accomodations in Rocky Harbour (not the cemetary)

The flight lands in the rain and we dash across the tarmac getting wet.  Kevin is waiting for us.  He has been napping for about 4 hours in his truck.  Unfortunately he missed the grocery store open hours so we will be eating at more restaurants than planned.  The grocery situation is challenging in Newfoundland so no use getting our patties in a knot.  We will make due and eat lots of seafood.

We enjoy the luxury of Kevin’s large truck (Avalanche) and he gets to drive us to Gros Morne National Park in the pouring rain.  A bit of a nerve wracking drive due to lateness, rain, moose, curvy, hilly roads, but after an hour we arrive at our accommodations safely.  Deer Lake airport is very convenient to the park gates which are only about 30kms away.

Off to bed by 4 a.m. local time (2:30 a.m. Ontario time)

Cheers

Julie and Dawson

Day 40, August 1, Midland

Day 40 August 1 Midland

Seaweed on anchor

We up anchor after a long blowy night.  Julie did not sleep very well.  Up and down trying to make the boat quiet and worrying we would drag anchor.  We pull the anchor up and it is just full of weeds.  Dawson spends 20 minutes picking plant life off the anchor chain as it is coming up.  Finally we are away and it is about an hour trip into port.  Julie starts getting anxious about parking the beast.  First we will get a pump out and then move to the slip we have been assigned while our canvas is being made.

We do a couple of circles as there is no one to help with the lines and the wind has come up.  It is tight quarters to get into the pump out area but we make it with ease.  It pays to think ahead about the wind, position of fenders, having all the lines ready and saying a prayer.

We decide to go back out and re-enter the harbour in order to pull into JT’s slip and all goes well and soon we are safely tied to the slip that will be Jazzebelle’s home for 2 weeks while we head to Newfoundland.  It has been over a month since we have been to a town.  There are errands to do now that we have access to a Wal Mart and a West Marine.  We anxiously await Roma’s arrival with wheels.  Julie heads out to do laundry and Dawson heads out for a haircut.  There are only 2 washing machines and they are both being used.  Drats!  Laundry ends up taking about 4 hours by the time the washers and dryers are freed up and our stuff is clean and dry.  What a waste of a beautiful day.

Casey and Roma and dessert being introduced!

Roma arrives and Dawson heads out on errands, while Roma and Julie prepare supper, which consists of hodge/podge/empty the fridge out.  We have a dinner party forming as Roma and Casey (Kevin’s friend) will help make the evening special.  Chicken satays, and curried shrimp along with stir fry veggies and the meal is complete (well almost complete, as Casey surprises us with chocolate covered strawberries and mini cheesecakes).  A great feast considering it was an empty the fridge dinner.

We have a lovely visit and the evening is fabulous for a walk up to the house Casey is staying at for the summer.  Thanks Casey for joining us.  See you again hopefully in twelve days.

Cheers 

Julie and Dawson

Casey, Roma, Julie and Dawson