May 31, 2006

May 31, 2006

Rocky Harbour to Trout River & return, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland

YEAR 2 DAY 348

 

Today was sunny and mild. First really nice day we've had since arriving in Newfoundland 10 days ago.

This morning we went to the restaurant adjacent to the campground to try a Newfoundland specialty for breakfast. We had toutons ( rhymes with "COW tins" ). They are sort of like very thick pancakes, made with bread dough. When they bake bread, they always keep some risen bread dough to use to make toutons. They flatten out a piece of bread dough until it's like a patty, then fry it like a pancake. It's served with molasses. Or, for mainlanders like us, with syrup. Molasses must be an acquired taste. I asked our waitress what is the use of seal oil ? She said it has 2 uses. It's used as a substitute for kerosene, for heating and lighting, as I guessed. And it's also used to "grease" the wooden planks that boats are hauled up on for the winter.

After breakfast we headed off for a day of exploring Gros Morne National Park. We drove back southeast on Hwy. 430 to Wiltondale, then turned northwest on Hwy. 431. We stopped at the Interpretive Centre 2/3 of the way up Hwy. 431. It wasn't particularly interesting. It looked like an expensive make work project for Parks Canada university student summer employees. We tried something new with Bo that seemed to work out well. We didn't want to leave Bo in the truck, in the sun. Lanoire's interior gets very hot, very fast. Sometimes we leave him in the truck with the engine running, and the air conditioner on, but there is some risk with that. Today I parked at the far end of the parking lot, in the last parking stall, with grass behind and beside the truck. I tethered him to the trailer hitch under the rear bumper with a tie out chain, and we left him tied there to the back of the truck while we inside the Interpretive Centre. We only stayed inside for 10 minutes, to see how he would react to being left tied to the back of the truck. When we came out, he was lying quietly in the shade under the rear of the truck. Good dog, Bo. Maybe that will be a viable option for leaving him for short periods of time.

We continued up Hwy. 431, stopping at the area known as Tablelands. It's an area of mountainous tundra, with some glaciers high up in the mountains, and glacial streams running down. From Tablelands we drove to the end of Hwy.431, just beyond the village of Trout River. The road ends at Trout River Pond ( Newfie for "Lake" ) where the Trout River begins it's short journey to the Gulf Of St. Lawrence. We took some photos, then drove back through the village looking for a restaurant to have a late lunch. Nothing in Trout River appealed to us, so we drove back to the village of Woody Point on Bonne Bay. There we had a very late lunch in a café, after driving through the little village, sightseeing and taking photos. We started our lunch out on the patio overlooking the bay, with Bo beside us, but the wind off the bay was cold, so we put him back in the truck, and went inside to have our lunch. I regret buying Joanne a walking stick yesterday. The café was selling locally made walking sticks that were nicer than the one I bought yesterday, for the same price. Darn ! Story of my life !

After lunch we drove to Norris Point, then took an alternate route back to Rocky Point. We stopped in the village of Rocky Point, before going back to the campground. Joanne wanted to shop at a store she saw an advertisement for. It was an interesting general store selling, amongst other things, locally hand made wool sweaters, socks, and mitts, and locally home made wild berry jellies. I was going to buy some partridgeberry jelly, but didn't. We will be travelling north from here, and have seen advertisements for 2 specialty stores along our route north that will likely be better choices for purchasing locally made wild berry jams and jellies. We walked across the street to a local bakery and bought some fresh Newfoundland style bread, and some partridgeberry crumble dessert. MMMMM ! ! ! Newfoundland has a strange way of baking bread. They put 3 pieces of dough into a bread pan, so each loaf of bread is like 3 little loaves stuck together.

We returned to the trailer late in the afternoon. Bo was exhausted from his day of exploring. He's always so eager to get in the truck and go "drivey", and equally eager to get out of the truck to go hiking and exploring. He's so enthusiastic about life's adventures, that he's always worn out at the end of the day. Joanne changed the supper she had planned to make, to take advantage of the fresh bread we had just bought. I downloaded and processed today's photos, did today's accounting, then worked on this journal entry.

After supper I went out to the truck to do some reading of the owner's manual. Now that we've had the truck for a month, I can read the owner's manual and make some sense of the truck's "bells and whistles". At 9:00 P.M., as the sun was setting we went "moose hunting". We drove slowly south on Hwy. 430 looking for moose. This area of Gros Morne National Park has a healthy moose population, and they can often be seen feeding alongside the road late in the evening.

Bo saw a moose ! BO SAW A MOOSE ! ! ! WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF WOOF ! ! ! BO SAW A MOOSE ! ! !

We drove south for about 15 minutes when we spotted a male moose eating leaves off a tree on the side of the road. After viewing him for a minute or two, we turned around to head back to the campground. On the way back, we spotted another one, a female. She was much more "shy", and headed off into the bush when we stopped to watch her.

I'm going to the laundry room in a few minutes to get online, send and retrieve e-mail, update my blog, and most importantly, retrieve month end investment data updates.

DSK