Day 6 - Boating in Bonne Bay, Lunch at Trout River, the afternoon at Gros Morne National Park

Since I gave a pretty detailed story about this particular day earlier in the blog, this post will consist mainly of photos.  If you consider that a photo is worth 1000 words, then this post will be a long one, lol!

Our boat ride from Bonne Bay to Woody Point.  That's my new friend Cindy at the right, camera going 100 miles an hour!  This was a fabulous day, with great weather accompanying us.

Loving the clouds over the gorgeous rockface.  It's really a sight to see.

Such beauty.  There are no words sometimes!  You just go by in awe.

Every fishing village needs at least one red building, don't you think?

And you cannot forget the beloved lighthouses!

The next two are some arty shots that I really love to look for and photograph.

This is at The Tablelands in Gros Morne National Park.  The neatest rock formations are here.  See how the road leads up?  Lots of major hills in this area.  Extremely majestic.

Small town Newfoundland with the prettiest house colours anywhere on earth!

Some very cool art work on display at the interpretive centre.  Absolutely loved these creations.

Here is a great way to store your unused yarn!  Turn it into a fabulous work of art!!

If you have spare mittens, here is a great idea of what to do with them!

Another fab piece of art...so creative and colourful.  

Day 5 - Leaving Labrador and back down the rugged coastline

We had another early morning...5:30 a.m. breakfast and on the road by 6:30 a.m. to get to the ferry to take us back to the island.  Lots of rain today. Unfortunately we could not go out on the outside deck and it was just horrible weather.  Even though the ferry is huge, we could feel it when it hit waves on the water.  We had to grab something to hold onto when walking around.  A few of us were twacking in the gift shop and almost fell right over!

The fishermen don't let a little rain stop them.  I took some artistic liberties here as my photo was not that great.  Tried to make it a bit more interesting by adding in a fun filter to make it "pastel".  Works for me!

These next two photos found me having some fun with focus.  Here I had the focus on the window and rain and not worrying too much about the background.

Here I switched the focus more to the background.  I like experimenting with the different effects.

We had to stop for fuel so we ended up in the gas bar/grocery store.  Jam Jams are very popular here.  They have to be made by Purity, if you want the real thing.  No, I didn't try them. Our tour director knew all the right places to buy them; she felt the gas station price was way too high.  One of our fellow travellers did buy Linda a package of Jam Jams, despite the price.

Another Purity treat, Tea-Vees.  Oh joy, sugar and white flour!

Across the street from the gas station...they love flying their provincial flag. You see them everywhere!

Next stop was Broom Point, a former fishing village.  The scenery was breathtaking!  Such beautiful rugged shores.  We learned a lot about three families (brothers/wives/children) and how they lived here for six months of the year, catching/canning cod.  The red building below housed the traps, boats and fishing nets.  It was a hard life.

Just enjoying the scenery.

Traps.

The family would fish in this cove.  It was quite the feat to get the boat in and out every day...it's not like they had a dock!

I could just sit here all day and enjoy the view.

Evening stop was in Rocky Harbour.  This was shot from our room.

Tonight six new travellers joined us at the dinner.  Two of the newbies sat with Hannes and me, they were a mother and daughter.  We had a traditional Newfoundland dinner, called Jiggs, a one pot meal.  Salted meat, drained and resalted for a couple of days, then boiled for three hours, add in root vegetables (carrots, potatoes, green peas, however no cabbage for us...could you imagine 38 people on the bus the next day after having cabbage the night before?)  lol Also in the mix was a yellow split pea pudding bag, mushed up peas with butter.  I really liked them! (They are between the potatoes and peas).

Here is a photo of the Jiggs.  I love the old fashioned plate too!

Started the meal with vegetable soup, then the Jiggs, then more desserts...first was a Partridgeberry Tart (of course), a piece of New York Slice, then they came around with Blueberry Cheesecake.  We walked back to the hotel...had to wear off something!  The walk was only about 3 minutes, not nearly long enough!!!

Day 4 - Labrador

Day 4 found us with an early rising...5:30 a.m. for breakfast and a 6:30 a.m. departure for the ferry harbour across the Straits of Belle Isle to the shores of Labrador.  We had to get there by 7 a.m. to secure passage.  Lots of rain/fog on this day. Lots of people on board.  You can buy breakfast, sit and relax or walk around.  We mainly stayed inside as it was raining.  Some of the more adventurous went outside...the Aussies saw whales off in the distance. 

Destination:  Red Bay to visit the recently discovered whaling station founded by the Basques in the early 1500's.  The interpretive centre was great...Chris was our "host" (he was a school friend of Linda's) and we all enjoyed his great sense of humour.  We learned about the modern techniques used by the whalers and the hardships they endured, which were many.  You wonder how they survived living in such harsh conditions.  

Here are some photos around Red Bay:

I don't mind the fog as it makes for some great photos.

This was such a cool vehicle with all its license plates from all over the world. These are only just a few of the plates.

Love these!

One of my fav fog photos.

The red chairs made this photo pop, in my opinion!

Next stop was the tallest lighthouse in the province of L'Anse Amour.  Even though it was still foggy, I loved the view.

Here is the "light" in the lighthouse.

 A view of the tallest lighthouse.

All in all, another great day in Newfoundland!  

Day 3 - Sandy Cove, L'Anse aux Meadows, St. Anthony

Good day from Newfoundland!

Day 3's journey found us on the road to see sealskin products and how they are made.  First stop Sandy Cove...  We arrived at this small place along the highway.  It was very interesting.  A video was presented to the group about how the sealskin boots and other products are made.  Making boots is truly a dying art.  Older ladies make the boots by hand with the most intricate sewing I have ever seen.  Don't think I would have that kind of patience! Although I took the following photo later in the day, it shows how the seal pelts are dried.  It takes a couple of weeks.  Longer if it rains as they have to be brought inside. This pic was taken at someone's home along the shoreline. Nobody was home...the bus pulled up and we all jumped out to shoot the scene!

Here is some other scenery around Sandy Cove.  Way off in the background is the coast of Labrador which can be seen on clear days.

Next stop was the UNESCO World Heritage Site at L'Anse aux Meadows.  This was home to Lief the Lucky and the Viking people who settled this area as early as 1000 A.D.

This is a view of the Interpretive Centre.  We were shown a video about the Vikings when they came to this part of the island.

A fence surrounding the Viking camp.

Part of the decor on the Viking homes.

After lunch at the Norseman Restaurant, we had time to roam around the area and take more photos.  This was a beautiful rock with amazing lichen (I posted something earlier in the blog on this).

Obviously fishing is a big industry here.  Here are some fishing-related photos.

Fishing rope makes for some great photos.

A view of this beautiful fishing village.

Next stop on the tour was a drive up the coastline to St. Anthony where we visited the Grenfell Centre and the home of Dr. Sir Wilfred Grenfell, the famous medical missionary.  It was very inspiring to hear everything that Dr. Grenfell did for the people of Labrador and St. Anthony.

Here is a statue of Dr. Grenfell in front of the Grenfell Centre, a museum of the most interesting items.  And of course there was a gift shop!  

This next photo was taken at Dr. Grenfell's home.

And, because we we all so good and well behaved, Wayne, our bus driver, said we could go to Timmy's to get a treat!  Yay!!  I had an ice cap!!

Day 2 - Driving down the Viking Trail and then off to the National Historic Park at Port au Choix

We continued our bus journey down the Viking Trail to the beautiful Gros Morne National Park, which is a World Heritage site.  Next stop was the National Historic Park at Port au Choix.  Here we were provided a video and information on the history and lifestyle of the Maritime Archaic people who lived here over 3000 years ago.


And of course we had another twacking opportunity here at the gift shop.  One thing we noticed that as we travelled all over the province, is that prices in the shops are very reasonable and they are not out to rip you off.  The store here was a not-for-profit with proceeds going back into the park, I believe.  Or was it something else?  Not sure at this point.

As you can see, the landscape is flat and on a bed of rock.  Every time we stopped at a spot, I was amazed and surprised at the difference in the landscape.  And no matter if it's flat or huge cliffs, it's all breathtaking. 

Below are a few people from the tour. Let's see if I can get all the names...from top to bottom...Bud and Ron (from Missouri), Katherine, Nancy, Paul, Bea and Ross (all from Ontario).  Bud is visiting Newfoundland for the first time in 60 years.  He was in the U.S. Air Force as a 21 year old and posted to St. John's.  He has always wanted to come back.  Bud brought a couple of photo albums with him of photos he took way back in 1953/54. They were really neat to see.

Our next stop was a special treat...we stopped at a boat harbour...I love boats and the fishing boats are no exception.  I especially love seeing the names of the boats.  Some people are so creative!  Here is "Salt Water Foam".

This is how I pictured Newfoundland.  Houses on the top of hills, near the waterfront.  

These boats have quite the set up.  Lots of equipment.  I would imagine that it costs a lot to get going in this business.

Small fishing village.  

Beautiful clear, clean water.

Boats and traps.

This boat was named "Double Trouble"!

Back to our hotel the Plum Point Motel for 2 nights.  We had the welcome dinner tonight and continued to meet our fellow travellers.

Behind the motel was a great boardwalk/walking path along the water.  Here are some pics:

And with this, I bid you all a good night!