Up the Viking Trail to the Northern Tip June 5

One of the silly things still gnawing at me from yesterday, and yes, I see that this is  a persistent theme, was when we were on the moving boat, and I was coming down the stairs from the top deck, and I chose to descend in a  cautious fashion. Slowly, and tightly gripping the hand rails with both hands. This is to ensure that I don't fall down every set of stairs that I go on. An Asian lady interpreted  my temerity as lack of ability and she came up to help, and insisted that I put a hand on her shoulder. Nice of her, for sure but made me feel like I was one step away from the grave. Bad enough that we have our own built in reminders ..... me with my swollen knees, Michael with his sore hip - he thinks that he needs a hip replacement. Perfect. We don't even have a family doctor. BUT at the same time, I know that we're doing pretty well  because we're still moving and traveling. Each time that I see an older than us couple on the trail, it gives me hope that we can do this a little while longer. Maybe, it better not be TOO much longer because I find it difficult to resist buying crafts and souvenirs .

Back on the road, not quite 9 am and now have over 3200 kilometres on the odometer.

A lot of the telephone poles are buried in big boxes and the bottoms bolstered with boulders. I assume that's to keep them from blowing over.

Every morning I check the weather forecast. Complete waste of time. Always wrong. But we've been lucky so far....didn't start raining until the car was packed up and we had started  driving. But only drizzled for a few kilometers. In any case, too cold for bugs yet, so safe to go into the woods.

The landscape changed all day. From

 a stretch of high sand dunes  to snow covered mountains. From beaches smothered with driftwood, to fast moving streams. And more than a few lonely looking light houses .

Yesterday's lobster was advertised as caught in Rocky Harbour. I'm still brooding about what I ate. I'm not an accomplished lobster eater and I think that I ate lobster poop.

Forgot about the lobster when we entered Cow Head 

because we had to stop to let sheep cross the road. First time seeing sheep here. But at first, I think Michael thought that we were coming up to a herd of caribou. Should have named this place Sheep Head. They have a brand new theater here but not yet open for the season.

 A lot of attractions and restaurants  not yet opened or close early at 5. The boat tour people  have been opened for two weeks and are stunned by the number of tourists so early in the season. 

(thar she blows) 

 

A stop to look at a revolving telescope, right off the road.

Took a break from driving to stroll down a trail but weren't able to complete because a chunk of the trail is under water. Birdhouses and signs were a welcome diversion.

And then I saw a moose. But I had a delayed reaction because my brain didn't immediately process that this big tall thing was a living creature (I first had to dismiss that it was a statue) But when it did, finally, I yelled MOOOOOOSE and Michael slammed on the brakes and backed up but by then, the moose had had enough  and decided to leave.

The excitement was palatable. And we could have had  another impressionist painting..

 

Twinkies! Bathroom stops can be lethal.

We stopped in Port aux Choix for lunch

 and sat right next to a family from Vermont, that we had seen at the  Tablelands trail, 146 km away. They're going to be on the ferry within a week, so unlikely to bump into them again. But where else can you drive 90 miles away and run into someone you saw 2 days ago?

We took a minor detour just to check out the ferry crossing location to Labrador that we are NOT going to. Just a very small ferry.

We had left Rocky Harbour at 9 in there morning, and finally limped into St. Anthony around 5. 

More than twice as long as it should have taken because of all the stops we had made. This is one of the bigger towns, population around 2400. The main attraction  is L'anse aux Meadows National Park (the Viking settlement) that we hope to visit tomorrow.

 And believe it or not, on the way back after supper, I spotted 2 more moose. The bigger  guy got away but we locked  eyes with another one.