Journal Day 11

This was a great day! The weather cooperated so we were up early and booked a seat on the boat tour of the Western Brook Pond through the natural water fjords... this is one of the most spectacular scenes in Gros Morne National Park. This park is a UNESCO World Heritage Park because of the many unique geological structures found here from the glacier activity. The tour of the "pond" (which is the Newfoundland term for any body of fresh water) lasted 2 hours... but required a 3 km hike through the park to get back to the boat launch. There were very high winds during the tour, once leaning the tour boat almost on its side, and sliding one passenger and camera equipment onto the floor... I stayed on the top deck to take pictures and held on for dear life.. came back soaked, but filled with excitement and spectacular views of the fjord... We relaxed, enjoyed some snacks, and took our time on the hike back to the parking lot..

After the boat trip, since the Aliner was all packed up and it was a great sunny day, we decided to head north to the upper end of the Peninsula and the end of the Viking Trail (route 430).... we stopped at St. Barbe to pick up information about a ferry trip across to Labrador on our return trip... The trip up was a beautiful ocean coastline drive... the road was a bit rougher, but as good as most secondary roads in the states... the wind whipped us around on the road, but by 6:30 we arrived at the Triple Falls Campground outside of St Anthony and are now positioned for a visit to the L'Anse aux Meadows tomorrow... that is the historic site where evidence of very early Viking settlements was found.... 400 years before Columbus landed.... it has been reconstructed and artifacts are available for viewing....

Early today we noticed the "check engine" light on the Jeep came on again... this time, with no Chrysler dealer nearby, we decided to take the Quebec mechanics advice and just ignore it.... I may try to get it checked again when we get across to St. John's.

We have not had much time to do these updates so are slipping behind... trying to get one in quickly here since we have permission to upload in the manager's office in one half hour...