June 11, 2009
We’ve moved up the road about 85 miles to Kippens, where we will explore Port Au Port Peninsula for 2 days. Right out of the campground we found an Alpaca farm with lovely yarn and hand made crafts. The gal in the store said her husband is a fisherman and all of his catch goes to Boston. The lobster fisherman are having a rough year because of the recession, only getting 2.50 per pound and on top of that the catch is down, hardly making it worth going out. Their season is over next week and some of them are pulling their traps in now.
It’s a rainy day and there is a Walmart in Stephensville where we stocked up on groceries. I’ve heard comments about Walmart being here and all their money going to the states, however there aren’t many stores to shop in and I’m sure some are very happy to have it here.
June 13
We’re on the move again, this time to Rocky Harbour in Gros Morne National Park.
We got a better deal if we stayed for the week so this will be our home until Sat the 20th.
Sadly, Diane and Bob will be leaving us after 3 days here as their time is limited and in order to see as much as possible they are heading east and not going to Labradore or St Anthonys to see the icebergs. Hopefully they will see some at Twillingate.
The lobster pound in town supplied us with fresh meat and we cooked out almost every night. The price of lobster here is 4.99 per pound, I tried the cod. They insisted we buy some pork fat and Nufie flour to fry the cod in. It was good.
We toured Corner Brook area with Diane and Bob. It is a fair size city with some industry. There is a huge paper mill there I hope we can tour on the way back through. We took scenic route 450 out along Humber Arm stopping at Blow Me Down Provincial Park for some more spectacular scenery. I’m glad we didn’t try to camp here as the sites are too tight for us. Everywhere we go we are enjoying these small fish camps with there brightly colored buildings and crab and lobster pots setting outside.
The next day, another road trip to Trout River where we saw hand knitted mittens and socks hanging on lines for sale. I might have bought some socks but they are far too heavy for Florida!
We stopped at Bakers Beach and prospected for colorful stones. Norm has a vase filled with shells from Baja California on his desk and plans to put one with Newfoundland rocks beside it. There is also a fishing camp there and we stopped to ask a fellow working on his rope if they ever sold their catch there. He said no, they had brought all the traps in yesterday and are done for the season. He ask us to stay and chat awhile as he had nothing more pressing to do. He invited us into is shed and showed us a claw from a 16 lb lobster; and took us to another shed where he had half the bones of a Minkie Whale on display, another fisherman had the other half. He then invited us into his summer home, he also has a home n Rocky Harbour, to see pictures of other big lobsters and a caribou herd in Labrador. We ask if he had ever been to Pennsylvania and he said he hasn’t been very far from home. We really enjoyed our visit with this genuine friendly native Newfoundlander.
Tomorrow we move North, I just heard from Bob and Diane and they have seen house size icebergs and one moose. We saw our first moose yesterday when we drove north to Cow Head. It was just munching on trees by the side of the road, when we moved a little closer it slowly moved into the thick woods. We also took a hike to an old light house there. We walked through the woods to the top of a mountain and deep in the woods there was a small garden. The view at the top was worth the walk!
Take care
Check out the pics
Lois