Rex and Nancy's Travels - "ALL WHO WANDER ARE NOT LOST" - JRR Tolkein

Wednesday was overcast and rainy, so we decided to drive to Cape Norman which is the most northern mainland point of Newfoundland - Quirpon Island just north of L’Anse aux Meadows is the most northern point overall.   The coastline here was stunning. Nancy and Susanne braving the wind for views over the cliffs to see the wave crashing on rocks.      We walked around the Cape Norman Lightstation. More of the beautiful coastline by the lightstation.           Lots of unusual rock formations here. We found this beside the road outside of Cooks Harbour – shows the Newfoundlanders great sense of humor.   Everyone we have met here or even just passed by on the street has been very friendly. After braving the wind and rain all morning we decided to stop at the RagnaRock Northern Brewing Company in St. Anthony for some lunch and drinks. This duo provided some great Newfoundland music while we had some brews and snacks to eat.   The accordion player never looked down at the accordion the entire

Tuesday, we drove to St. Anthony where we stopped at Fox Point Lighthouse.   In 1912 a lighthouse was built on Fox Point (or Fishing Point). The view from here was beautiful.   We hiked a series of trails along Fishing Point and were rewarded with more great coastline views. Beautiful seaside cliffs. We have seen wild iris on almost every hike we have taken so far. We came upon a small cemetery where we had a great view of St. Anthony Harbor. After a picnic lunch, we drove south of St. Anthony to the small fishing town of Goose Cove, which is on Hare Bay.   All along the roads in the Great Northern Peninsula, we have seen small fenced gardens.   We were told this is the way things are done here.   Fences are all you need to keep the potatoes safe.   The wildlife are the only thieves to worry about here.    We had another good day and enjoyed hiking along the coast.

Monday morning, we woke to sunshine and went to the L’Anse aux Meadows National Historic Site.   This is an UNESCO World Heritage Site and is the only authenticated Viking site in North America and the earliest evidence of Europeans in North America.   We first stopped at the Visitor Center where we could trace the Norse journey across the North Atlantic with maps. We then joined a Ranger led tour of the archaeological site.   Under the leadership of Leif Eriksson, a group of 60-90 people set up a sturdy encampment of turf-walled buildings that served as an over-wintering base for exploring to the south via the Gulf of St. Lawrence. For the next decade or two, successive expeditions travelled to this region they called Vinland.  They were mainly in search of hardwood lumber to take back to Greenland.  Eventually, the cost of operating the Vinland enterprise was just not sustainable and the base at L’Anse aux Meadows was abandoned and the buildings burnt.  This is the mound where a long

We left Gros Morne National Park on Sunday morning and drove north along the west coast of the Great Northern Peninsula.   The coast is beautiful and we had some great views along the way.   We stopped at Port au Choix National Historic Site.   For the past 5,500 years this has been a crossroads for various indigenous and European cultures.   We stopped at the Visitor Center where we decided to hike on the Phillips Garden Trail.   Just outside the Visitor Center we saw this caribou in the distance.   This was the first wild caribou we have ever seen so we were really excited. The Phillips Garden Trail was beautiful and took us to the site of two large settlements, one dating between 500 and 100 BC and the other between AD 100 and 600.   In both cases the well-preserved remains of tools, weapons and discarded food bones have given archaeologists a new appreciation of the material and intellectual cultures of these people. There were not any visible signs of the settlements, but the scen

  We were happy to see sunshine on Saturday morning as we had booked a cruise on Western Brook Pond – small lakes are often called ponds here.   We first had a 3 km (one way) walk down to the dock where we boarded The Westbrook II – the boat on the left. We headed toward the spectacular glacier carved cliffs of the Long Range Mountains.   These are called fjords but that are not really as this is a freshwater lake.   The lake was at one time connected to the sea as they have found fossils of sea animals, including whales here. The scenery along the pond was beautiful with many waterfalls. The Long Range Mountains at the end of the pond were beautiful.  Our boat dropped off eight back country hikers who were going into this beautiful wilderness.  There are no trails here and they will have to navigate by compass to get through the mountains – very hardy and courageous hikers! It started clouding over as we made our way out of the fjords and back to the dock.   We were glad we took the m

Friday, we drove to the south end of Gros Morne National Park to the Tablelands.   The rocks of Gros Morne National Park contain some of the world’s best records of plate tectonics.   When two continents collided 460 million years ago, the Tablelands and associated seafloor rocks were pushed onto continental crust as the Appalachian Mountains started to form. The landscape was barren compared to the rest of Gros Morne National Park, but we did find this beautiful waterfall. Farther into the Tablelands, we stopped and hiked on the Green Gardens Trail.  The 9.5 km trail takes you to the coastline of green meadows, cliffs and sea stacks.  We first crossed barrens and then descended into a forest. The trees were not very tall at the beginning of the forest but did get taller as we descended towards the coast. The views were beautiful.   We reluctantly decided that we would not be able to hike all the way to the coast as the weather was getting more threatening and we were all getting tired