Sunday, June 13, 2010

The Tablelands...a UNESCO World Heritage Site

We're sort of homeward bound now...at least we're working our way towards the ferry. We decided to go as far as Shoal Cove today and then maybe Corner Brook the next day. I'd like to do one of the walking trails in the Tablelands.

Ooohhh! Another moose...there were actually three of them together here.

Lots of little boats near the shore catching lobster...

We made our way back to Ben's Studio in Port aux Choix and this time he was in. We spent a wonderful hour as he told us story upon story of the ideas behind his pieces. We finally settled on Lukey's Boat, which we had seen at the Anchor restaurant. We went back to the restaurant, had lunch and told the waitress we were taking Lukey's Boat. She said "Oh sure...just take it off the wall." We love Newfoundlanders. We could have been putting it in the car and taking off.
We went back to the studio and paid Ben. I said "I only know Lukey's Boat because of Great Big Sea." He said he got the idea for this piece when he was watching Great Big Sea's video of Lukey's Boat. But his twist on it is that it is for sale because of the failure of the cod fishing industry. You could spend hours with him...

And then we headed off again...the road is winding around the hills. Such beautiful scenery...

The clouds settling over the hills...

Getting close to our destination...

Killdevil...gotta love it!

The clouds were really rolling in now. We had every kind of weather on the drive...sun, rain, fog, and one area where steam was rising from the peat bogs and covering the road. Weird!

OK...not quite as much fun now. Keeping our eyes out for moose...we'll be glad to get to our destination...

And here we are at the Red Mantle Lodge...a beautiful setting...

The view of Woody Point from the restaurant and from our room. The restaurant was very good. As we were sitting there admiring the view, we decided to heck with Corner Brook, let's stay here for two nights!

We headed off the next morning towards Trout Brook and the Discovery Centre, which is the Parks Canada tourist information place. You can see it sitting on the hill looking over the harbour.

The beautiful view of the Tablelands from a lookout point near the Centre...

It doesn't get any prettier than this! Once again we say....Canada is a beautiful country!

We did a quick tour of Woody Point before heading to the Discovery Centre. Woody Point has a population of 400. Here is Pete's One Stop...

The Tablelands from Woody Point...

Main Street in Woody Point...roof repairs going on...

This trawler was hauling up a boat, which is probably used for spreading nets...

This Catholic Church was moved from one end of town to the other. They cut it into three pieces and moved it on the ice in the winter and then reassembled it. Wow!

Here we are arriving at the Discovery Centre. This was a beautiful facility!

They had these unique displays to represent all the people who contribute or contributed to the area. This is Captain Cook with one sailer rowing and one sleeping!

Biologist looking for wildlife while the bear is hiding...

A meteorologist (maybe?) leaning into a big wind!

A marine biologist comes face to face with a cute fish!

A caribou silhouetted against the beautiful backdrop of Gros Morne national park...

The Bowl...it looks like someone punched a fist in bread dough...

Avalanches frequently occur in the Bowl...

You stick the camera on a garbage can, click the self-timer and run like crazy to get into the picture!

The Tablelands look more like Arizona than the forested hills of Newfoundland. They were formed from the earth's mantle and were forced up from the depths during a plate collision several hundred million years ago. The geology of the park illustrates plate tectonics, one of the most important ideas in modern science. For this reason, and for the beautiful scenery of the park, it has been named a world heritage site.

There is a relatively easy 4 km return trail which we decided to take...

One of the many streams coming down from the hills...

It's amazing how barren it is on this side of the road, and on the other side of the road are lush green forested hills.

Getting closer to the valley at the end of the trail...

Look at how clear and pure the water is...we didn't see one speck of garbage during the whole walk.

The valley...

Look at the beautiful clouds...

Lots of little bridges over all the brooks and streams...

The peaks at the top are surprisingly jagged considering how flat it looks...

Two people sitting in chairs...one is painting, the other is reading...

After that walk, we headed to Trout River for lunch...

The community of Trout River...

This boardwalk runs through the town, but we figured we had put in our walk for the day, so we headed into the restaurant...

I am making it my mission to find the best seafood chowder. So far the Anchor restaurant in Port aux Choix is winning. The Seaside Restaurant gets excellent reviews and it was good, but it doesn't match the Anchor!

This is part of Main Street in Trout River, population about 600...

We headed back to Woody Point to check out the Hunky Dory craft shop. The owner of the lodge we're staying at suggested we drop in to see different local artists...

When we walked in, the owner, Charlie, was playing his accordian. Free entertainment! We spent about an hour talking to him about the local artists, the community then and now, and then bought a few items to take home as souvenirs. Again...one of the highlights is talking to the locals! They have such wonderful stories...

And with that wonderful day, we headed back to the lodge for a rest and another great meal at the restaurant. Tomorrow it's back to Port aux Basques to take the ferry the next day...

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Hey guys! This is Alan from Z-LIFE Magazine and we have a feature on Newfoundland coming up and we would love to use your pictures on the magazine. We would be happy to give you both a photo credit and to send you a copy of the magazine so you can see your pictures! Please contact me as soon as possible at alan.moreno@zumba.com or 305.968.5169. Thanks a lot for your attention.