Day 3 Last Day at Rocky Harbor June 4

June 04, 2022

Only one item on the itinerary today- our ride on a 50 ft catamaran on Western Brook Pond in the afternoon. Weather still hasn't changed and I'm wearing 4 layers. But our tickets were for the afternoon, so we had time for an excursion to another nearby town, Norris Point.

And we also had time to visit another gift store, where the upstairs showcased the rooms of a home that had some pretty antiques.

And then we headed to the park where we would board the boat. We had been warned to arrive early, because there would be an approx 3km walk to the dock. Now, I knew the name of the trail, but I was looking for a sign from the company that does the tour, and there wasn't one, so we drove right by . Stopped at another point of interest, a particularly fast moving salmon stream (see video on email) where my cell phone service kicked in again (very intermittent phone service here), and I was able to call to verify, that yep, we had driven past where we had to go.

Only by a couple of minutes, but still annoying that they had not posted a sign.

But they did have a sign saying that you had to put your ticket to the park, on your windshield, except that you don't get the ticket until you've walked to the ticket office at the dock, 3 km away. So that left a few people puzzled and unsure as to whether their cars would be towed away. But we were brave, and we headed down the nice easy trail to the dock.

The landscape is so different here. The trees are gnarled, withered and bent (kind of the way I'm feeling these days).

Inevitably, in any of these parks, people stop you to help them take pictures of themselves . We fell into an easy conversation with one couple from Toronto, that were originally from Japan. I have to include their picture because they made me laugh when, totally unprompted, he told me that people always think that he's much younger than he actually is (says that he has never dyed his full head of hair). And he's almost 75.

We boarded the boat, blue skies behind us

but the clouds still nestled over the mountains. I was on my feet for the entire 2 hours, outside, taking pictures, until there were only a few of us left outside, because particularly on the way back, it was difficult to avoid the wind.

One of the the tidbits of info that I found interesting was, to get the boats to the pond, the boats first needed to be cut in 4 pieces and then they were brought over by helicopter and assembled at a boathouse on site. There was a constant torrent of information but I found it more interesting talking to the other passengers. There was a bus group of 20 people from the Ottawa area, which included a couple from Kemptville. We had passed many weekends there camping at their pretty provincial park . I'm glad my camping days are over or at least, I think that they're over. This constant packing and moving kind of feels like camping. And there was a young couple from the Yukon and he has the best job description I ever heard of, and that was as a Bear Chaser. Apparently, he works for the mines and he's had to protect the mines from the Bears. Beats anything I've ever done

In any case, I thoroughly loved being on the fjiord.

I now recognize a "hanging valley" as per next pic.

And then we arrived at the end of the landlocked fjiord and turned back.

We practically jaunted the 3 km back to the car once we had docked.

When we got back to the parking lot, I saw a car that we had seen the previous day, at our Tablelands hike. I remember because I the color was distinctive.

This time, I checked the license plate

and it was from the Yukon. Wouldn't that have been a coincidence if it belonged to the young couple I'd been talking to!

But it wasn't, because I later saw it for the third time, at the restaurant where we would have dinner (me, lobster dinner and Partridgeberry pie!)

and we finished the same time as the car owner., an older couple, that were staying at a trailer park in Norris Point. They had pulled the car to Nfld with their trailer. Now, THAT'S a coincidence seeing them in 3 different places.

From the pond to the hotel, still a pleasant drive with time for one more gift store. Thank goodness I have no room for anything in the condo .