Thursday, August 11, 2011

Gros Morne 2

We woke up to more rain and cold weather, but this didn't stop us.  We had booked a 10 am boat tour of Bonne Bay and headed to the harbor.  The two and a half hour tour told us about the multi-varied geology which lead to the park being named a UNESCO site.  We didn't see any whales, but the ship did come with a pirate.






We saw more of the Newfloundland coast and continued to appreciate the role of the sea in the lives of Newfoundlanders.




Joe had mentioned in an earlier entry about Screech, which is the local rum.  The Newfoundlanders have a ceremony to allow visitors to become natives called "Screeching in."  Today we were screeched in.  This involves reciting a variety of statements in the Newfoundland dialect, kissing a cod and then downing a shot of screech.  So we are both now Newfies.  But I guess Joe was one already via his great-grandparents.





After lunch we took a hike to the head of a lake that was once a fiord but now was a fresh water lake due to the geological changes that had closed the mouth of the fiord to the sea.  This lake was an ultra-oliogotrophic lake (a new word for me).  This means it had very little aquatic life, plant or animal.  It is also one of the cleanest lakes in the world.  You could take a boat ride on this lake, but we had exhausted our desires for boat rides at this time and we just hiked the trail back.



Diane

Diane just about covered everything for today. So I will discuss a little about tomorrow. Due to the forecast of more rain and cold weather tomorrow, we have decided to cut our time here by one day. We are going to leave here about 5:30AM tomorrow morning and drive about 5 hours to the port in the southwest of Newfoundland where we will board the ferry about 10:30 for a 6 hour ferry ride back to Sydney, Nova Scotia.

Although the wather has not been what we had wanted, it has really not slowed us down much. I really like this island, and would like to return some day.

Oh, one neat thing today. We got a chance to see our first two moose at a distance of about a quarter of a mile. they are huge animals. This provincial park actually has 5,000 of them in the park (NL has more than 120,000 across the island) Moose are not native to this island, but 4 were brought here in the 1800s to increase the meat supply, and now have grown to the current herd size. they are actually becoming a national problem, as they eat too much trees and foilage. The government now allows 5,000 hunting licenses per year to begin to reduce the size of the herd.

We have enjoyed ourselves in this Canadian province and are looking forward to more to come.

Joe

1 comment:

  1. Sounds like a very interesting day and you are now official Newfies! Safe travels to you today!!

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